Meuse-Argonne Offensive

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the single largest offensive in American history involving 1.2 million American troops.  A part of the larger Allied Hundred Days Offensive which ended the war, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive was directed toward Sedan, France, a town that was captured by the Germans in 1914 and had been a crucial rail and supply hub for the Germans ever since. By the end of October the Americans had cleared the Argonne Forest, a major objective and German defensive position, and had broken through the Hindenburg Line. In early November the Americans and their allies advanced on the crumbling German Army and on November 11, 1918 the Armistice was signed.

Below are the stories of three "VPI men" who were there.

Meuse-Argonne Offensive.jpg

Map of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive produced by the American Battle Monuments Commission. Each colored section represents a different American division in the offensive. Of the three men below, John Faulconer and James Wayne France Served in the 80th Division, while Earle Gregory served with the 29th Division.

John Waller Faulconer Jr. senior portrait from the 1912 VPI Bugle.jpg

Captain John Waller Faulconer

United States Army

VPI Class of 1912

11 September 1892-18 September 1972

315th Field Artillery Regiment, 80th Division 

 

John Waller Faulconer, Jr.

“At a given time to the second, we poured a terrific rain of our heavy high explosive shells...into a wood filled with enemy machine guns, killed or ran out the entire crew...Ah! It was a magnificent affair”

-Captain John Faulconer describing combat in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

John Waller Faulconer, from Tappahannock, Virginia,  graduated as part of the Virginia Polytechnic Class of 1912. Nicknamed “Poky”, he studied Civil Engineering, where he excelled academically. A Company Commander in Company D of the Corps of Cadets, Faulconer also worked as Business Manager of the Bugle, the VPI yearbook.

Excerpt - Letter from John Waller Faulconer published in The Virginia Tech 28 November 1918.jpg

John Waller Faulconer, Letter in The Virginia Tech, September 15, 1918

Just months after the war began, Faulconer joined the United States Army on June 5, 1917 as a Second Lieutenant. Faulconer was assigned as a battery commander with the 315th Field Artillery Regiment, 80th Division. With the 315th, Faulconer participated in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.  

On the evening of September 9, 1918, Faulconer and his unit arrived on the battlefield and began preparations for the upcoming Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Under the cover of night and poor weather, the 315th built their gun positions. He described the work as harder than any he ever done before. But he wrote that the hard work was also reassuring because it meant that him and his unit would have some protection from returning German artillery fire. When the Meuse-Argonne Offensive began, Faulconer and his unit poured an incredible amount of artillery fire into German lines in preparation for the infantry advance. During the six hours of shelling before the infantry advance, American artillery units expended more ammunition than was spent by both sides during the entirety of the American Civil War.

He was Honorably Discharged with the rank of Captain at the end of the war.

Earle Davis Gregory senior portrait from the 1923 VPI Bugle.jpg

Sergeant Earle Davis Gregory

United States Army

VPI Class of 1923

October 18, 1897 - January 6, 1972

Headquarters Company, 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Division

Earle D. Gregory

“I will get them”

-Sergeant Earle D. Gregory, October 8, 1918, Meuse-Argonne Offensive

Earle D. Gregory, from Chase City, Virginia, was a member of the United States Army before the start of World War I. Before the war, Sergeant Gregory served in Mexico during the Mexican Expedition against the Mexican revolutionary forces of Francisco "Pancho" Villa. It was in Mexico that Gregory rose to the position of 1st Sergeant of his company before his 20th birthday.

The remarkable leadership demonstrated by Gregory in Mexico continued into World War I, where he was the Platoon Sergeant of a trench mortar platoon during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in October 1918. In fighting near the Bois-de-Consenvoye, Gregory’s unit was pinned down by German machine gun fire. Shouting, “I will get them!” Gregory, grabbing a rifle and using trench mortars as grenades, charged the enemy positions, capturing 23 German soldiers, a machine gun, and a howitzer. For his actions, Sergeant Gregory received the Medal of Honor, becoming the first native-born Virginian to receive this honor.

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Excerpt from Earle Gregory’s Virginia World War I History Commission Questionnaire

 

Three days after the action which earned him the Medal of Honor, Gregory was wounded in the leg while attempting to seize another German trench. After this he spent six months in the hospital recovering, partly in France and partly in Camp Lee, Virginia. On April 25, 1919, Gregory was honorably discharged from the Army. Four days later, he received his Medal of Honor during a ceremony at Camp Lee.

In his honor, in May 1963, the Pershing Rifles of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets was renamed the Gregory Guard.

 

James Wayne France senior portrait from the 1915 Bugle.jpg

1st Lieutenant James Wayne France

United States Army

VPI Class of 1915

May 7, 1890 - October 11, 1918

Company I, 380th Infantry, 80th Infantry Division

James Wayne France

“All this makes us very proud of our boy, it is what we expected of him, but oh! Nothing, nothing can compensate us for his loss”

-Daisy Wayne France, on the death of her son 1st Lieutenant James France

James Wayne France, who graduated from VPI in 1915 with a degree in agriculture, volunteered for the Army on August 26, 1917. After enlisting France was assigned to Company I of the 380th Infantry, 80th Division at Fort Meyer, Virginia. The 80th Infantry Division was nicknamed the “Blue Ridge” division because it primarily consisted of volunteers and draftees from the Blue Ridge Mountain region of Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. France, and the rest of the division, trained at Fort Meyer until November 26, 1918 when they were transferred to Camp Lee, Virginia. The division spent the rest of the winter and early spring stationed at Camp Lee until they departed for France on May 26, 1918.

Excerpt- Letter from the mother of James Wayne France, 12 Decemer 1918, published in The Virginia Tech.jpg

James France’s comrades reporting to his mother, Daisy France, on how her son died, letter from The Virginia Tech, December 12, 1918

Before going into combat, France and his division began training alongside British soldiers before they were sent to the front on August 18, 1918. On September 12, France and his division saw their first combat during the Battle of St. Mihiel. France survived this battle unscathed, and would again go into combat on September 26th in the climatic stroke of the war, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. On October 11, France was leading his company in action against German trenches and other fortifications when he was struck by an artillery shell and instantly killed. In correspondence between his fellow soldiers and his mother, his comrades reported that France was regaled as a hardworking, model officer whose “men would have followed him anywhere.”