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.
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.
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 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.
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
“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.
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.”