Welcome back. I am. I'm really glad you were
here with us today because we are stepping into
what is genuinely a defining moment of the 20th
century. Oh, absolutely. It's a huge turning
point. Right. So for today's deep dive, we are
pulling from a really comprehensive Wikipedia
article detailing the Battle of Cantigny. And
our mission today is to explore the very first
major American battle and offensive of World
War One. And it's one that a lot of people overlook,
honestly. Exactly. This isn't just, you know,
a story about moving lines on a map, it's a profound
shift in global history. It just gets overshadowed
by the massive engagements that came after it.
It really is a crucible moment. Because to really
appreciate what happened at Cantini, you have
to understand the sheer weight of the strategic
situation in Europe right then. Right. Let's
set the scene for everyone. So it's May of 1918.
The world has been at war for four agonizing
years. The Western Front is just this landscape
of unimaginable devastation, and the Allies are
facing a literal crisis of survival. The situation
was, I mean, beyond dire. The German military
had launched what was known as the Michael Offensive.
It was this massive, desperate push to just win
the war outright before American industrial might
could fully arrive and tilt the scales. And it
was working. It was terrifyingly successful.
It was literally threatening Paris. Meanwhile,
the French army, which had been bleeding into
the mud since 1914, was stretched to its absolute
breaking point. point. Yeah. They had mutinies
the previous year. Morale was hanging by a single
thread. And into this apocalyptic meat grinder
arrives the United States military. It's kind
of like being the new kid on the block who suddenly
has to prove they can hold their own in this
incredibly high stakes team project. That's a
great way to put it, which presents this really
fascinating dynamic. You have the French and
British who are just battle -hardened, exhausted,
and deeply cynical after years of industrial
slaughter. And then you have the Americans. They
bring immense manpower, fresh legs, but they
have absolutely zero credibility in modern trench
warfare. Not at all. Right. The U .S. First Division,
which was the most experienced of the five American
divisions in France at the time, was just sitting
in reserve. The French high command was looking
at these fresh, untested troops with a very critical
eye. They had to be thinking, can we actually
trust these guys? Exactly. They desperately needed
to know if an American vision could actually
hold the line against a relentless, highly disciplined
German war machine. OK, let's unpack this. It's
the ultimate trial by fire for a rising global
power. And the target chosen for this test was
this location called Cantini. Right. The geography
here is everything. It really dictated how the
whole battle would unfold. So Cantini was a small
village, but crucially, it was situated on high
ground and entirely surrounded by dense woods.
And on the western front, elevated terrain wasn't
just a tactical perk. It was practically a matter
of life and death. Absolutely, because if you
control the high ground, you control the artillery.
Precisely. Cantini served as an ideal observation
post for the German forces. From up there, German
spotters could see deep into the Allied lines,
monitor troop movements, and just direct their
own artillery fire with terrifying lethal accuracy.
It was a huge thorn in the Allied side. It was.
The German 18th Army had pushed this small salient,
basically a bulge, into the Allied territory,
specifically to secure that vantage point. So
the American objective was to attack this fortified
position, flatten the salient, and blind the
German artillery spotters. But assaulting a fortified
elevated observation post is a monumental task
for any military, let alone one that is quite
literally just entering the theater of war. It's
a huge ask. It really is. The assault force designated
for this operation was the 28th Infantry Regiment,
commanded by Colonel Hanson Edward Ailey. They
were supported by two companies of the 18th Infantry
Regiment, a company of engineers and machine
gunners. So we're talking about roughly 3 ,500
men total. Yeah, about 3 ,564 men, to be exact.
But here is the stark reality that often gets
left out of the triumphant national narratives.
These American troops arrived radically under
-equipped for the realities of modern industrialized
warfare. It's one of the most sobering aspects
of the American entry into the First World War.
The United States had the manpower. but they
simply did not possess the heavy weaponry, the
specialized gear, or the mechanized armor required
to pull off a frontal assault on a fortified
hill in 1918. They were practically walking in
with just rifles and grit. What's fascinating
here is the massive logistical support provided
by the French to compensate for those American
shortfalls. The French military had to step in
and essentially bankroll the American offensive
with their own technology and firepower. And
the sheer scale of that French logistical umbrella
is staggering. It really is. I want you to imagine
the sheer scale of this multinational coordination.
Because the Americans lacked the heavy gear,
the French provided comprehensive air cover to
keep German planes from strafing the advancing
infantry. They hauled in 368 heavy artillery
pieces to soften the German defenses. They supplied
trench mortars to lob explosives over the German
parapets and they brought in flamethrowers. Flamethrowers,
which in the horrific close quarters reality
of trench warfare were a terrifying tactical
necessity. They were. They used them to clear
out those deep reinforced dugouts where artillery
shells just couldn't reach to ensure that bypassed
German troops couldn't emerge and shoot the advancing
Americans. the back. Right. And beyond the artillery
and the flamethrowers, the French provided what
was arguably the most crucial asset for an offensive
in 1918, which was armor. Yes, the tanks. They
deployed French Schneider tanks from their 5th
Tank Battalion, and these early tanks were entirely
focused on a single vital mission, rolling ahead
of the infantry to crush the entrenched German
machine gun nests that would otherwise chew an
unprotected assault force to pieces. Imagine
being an American infantryman, advancing under
that protective umbrella of French steel and
fire. Try to picture the visual of that coordination.
You have thousands of American infantrymen standing
shoulder to shoulder in their jump off trenches,
preparing to charge into the teeth of the German
defenses. Hurts pounding, I'm sure. Definitely.
But their entire protective canopy, the steel
raining down in front of them, the armor grinding
through the mud beside them, the aircraft circling
overhead is entirely French. It is an incredible
display of an alliance functioning at the absolute
edge of human endurance. And that coordination
required a level of timing and discipline that
is just really difficult to comprehend today.
Which brings us to the morning of the assault.
May 28, 1918. Exactly. At precisely 06 .45 in
the morning, after an hour -long preparatory
artillery bombardment designed to suppress the
German guns, H -Hour arrives. The American troops
climb out of their trenches, but this wasn't
a chaotic blind charge across no man's land like
you see in the movies. No, not at all. The success
of the entire operation hinged on a tactic known
as a rolling barrage. The 368 French heavy guns
behind the lines were calibrated to drop a continuous
curtain of high explosives just ahead of the
advancing American troops. It's basically a moving
wall of fire. Exactly. But to keep the infantry
moving while keeping them protected, that wall
of fire had to creep forward. The math from the
source is incredible. It was calculated to advance
exactly 100 meters every two minutes. The psychological
discipline required to execute this is immense.
These American doughboys had to walk at a highly
specific, deliberate pace right behind a literal
moving wall of explosions. And by the way, that
iconic nickname, Doughboys, likely had roots
in earlier conflicts, referencing the adobe dust
on their uniforms in the Southwest, or the doughy
rations they carried. Right, it's a classic term.
But the margin for error walking behind that
barrage was effectively zero. The noise would
have been physically concussive, the smoke blinding.
If an American soldier walked too fast, his own
adrenaline would carry him right into the blast
radius of friendly French artillery shells. And
if the line moved too slowly, the creeping barrage
would move too far ahead. Right. The smoke would
clear, giving the surviving German defenders
precious seconds to climb out of their deep bunkers,
man their heavy machine guns and just mow the
Americans down before they could cross the remaining.
It was a deadly, deafening, perfectly timed dance.
And this is exactly where the integration of
those French Schneider tanks proved decisive.
Oh, absolutely. As that creeping wall of explosions
rolled forward, the tanks emerged through the
smoke alongside the infantry, specifically targeting
and neutralizing the hardened German machine
gun pillboxes that had survived the artillery
prep. Here's where it gets really interesting.
Thanks to this immense preparation and the French
tanks taking out the machine guns, the 28th Infantry
Regiment captured the village of Cantigny in
exactly 30 minutes. Half an hour. Half an hour.
In a war defined by agonizing stalemates, where
armies routinely fought and died for months just
to move the line a few muddy yards, they swarmed
the high ground, cleared the cellars and pushed
a half kilometer beyond their objective. The
psychological impact of that 30 minute assault
rippled across the entire Western Front. It must
have been a shock to the system for everyone.
Completely. It wasn't just about taking a small
salient. It was about executing a flawlessly
timed modern military operation on the world
stage. They synchronized infantry, armor, heavy
artillery and air support without breaking formation.
The adrenaline of that rapid success must have
been incredible. But as anyone who studies military
history knows, the initial assault is often the
straightforward part. Always. The dust settles,
the momentum stops, and you suddenly realize
you are now sitting in a shattered village occupying
a salient that is exposed to the enemy on three
sides. Taking ground is one thing, but holding
it against a furious, highly capable enemy who
desperately needs that observation post back
is a completely different kind of nightmare.
Yeah, the German forces were not simply going
to concede the high ground and walk away. Almost
immediately, the dynamic of the battle shifted.
The Americans went from being the attackers orchestrating
the violence to the defenders enduring it. The
Germans subjected them to a relentless artillery
bombardment for the rest of the day. The timeline
of the German pushback is agonizing. A small
probing attack against the extreme right of the
American lines hits at Euro 8 .30 in the morning
and is repulsed. Just testing the waters. Exactly.
Then the first large -scale, highly coordinated
German counter -attack slams into the American
lines at 17 .10. Late afternoon. That was the
moment the French command had been waiting to
see. Would the untested Americans break and run
under the pressure of veteran German shock troops?
The strain on the American line was immense.
And right here, the text highlights a memorable
historical cameo. To plug a critical weak spot
in the line, the command sent in a company from
the 26th Infantry measurement, commanded by Major
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. Son of the former president.
Yes. Putting his life on the line alongside his
men to hold a pulmarized piece of French countryside.
It's amazing. With Roosevelt's reinforcements,
they managed to crush that twilight assault.
But the Germans hit them again at 18 .40, sweeping
out of the darkness. And again, crushed by combined
artillery and infantry fire. The line did not
break. But we have to note the human cost over
that multi -day defense. Holding a fixed position
under continuous artillery bombardment is catastrophic.
The numbers are just brutal. And when we look
at the historical records surrounding the casualties,
we really encounter the fog of war. There's an
interesting discrepancy in the historical records.
Yeah, the source info box cites 318 killed and
1 ,400 wounded. Right, but then the text itself
mentions 1 ,603 total casualties with 199 killed
in action. That discrepancy isn't a failure of
history. It's a reflection of the chaotic nature
of historical battlefield records. It's impossible
to track accurately when men are being buried
and unburied by shells over 72 hours. Exactly.
But regardless of the specific tally, suffering
upward of 1 ,600 casualties in an assault force
of 3 ,500 means a nutrition rate approaching
50%. A staggering level of sacrifice. And I want
to bring those massive numbers down to a single,
poignant human life. The text mentions Matthew
B. Wan. He was a Pima Native American who was
killed in the battle. A tragic loss. He became
the first known Arizonan to die in combat in
WWI. Every single digit in those casualty reports
represents a person like Mathier who left behind
his family and community to fight on a hill in
France. If we connect this to the bigger picture,
the aftermath is fascinating. Though it was a
relatively small geographical gain and kind of
overshadowed by the larger Ain offensive happening
around the same time, Cantini was the exact triumph
the Allies needed. It proved they could do it.
It proved to the French that the Americans could
hold the line. And that paved the way for famous,
massive battles like Chateaubriand Below Wood
just weeks later. So what does this all mean?
How does a 30 -minute victory echo through the
next century? Well, the way Cantini has been
memorialized is really telling. The monuments
started going up almost immediately. In 1919,
just a year later, the First Division erected
a monument featuring a concrete shaft and a carved
stone eagle. A very raw, immediate tribute to
their fallen friends. And then in 1937, the American
Battle Monuments Commission dedicated a formal
monument with inscriptions in both English and
French. Cementing the narrative of the Alliance.
And it doesn't stop there. In 2008, for the 90th
anniversary, they dedicated the Lion of Cantigny
statue by Steven Spears depicting a doughboy
advancing. Placed there by the Association of
the 28th Infantry Regiment. Right, the Black
Lions. And they actually got that nickname from
the Black Lions on the traditional heraldic arms
of Picardy, the French region where Cantigny
is located. They fought so hard they absorbed
the local symbol into their own identity. But
here's a surprising geographic trivia piece.
The most surprising physical legacy of this battle
isn't in France at all. No, it's in the American
Midwest. Colonel Robert R. McCormick, who commanded
artillery at the battle, was so profoundly moved
by the experience that when he returned home,
he renamed his massive 500 -acre estate outside
Chicago to Cantini. That's incredible. It now
houses a First Division war memorial. It perfectly
encapsulates the journey from a heavily fortified
French hill to a sprawling estate in Chicago.
The enduring ripple effect of history. Well,
thank you so much for joining us on this deep
dive. We've covered the brutal pressure of 1918,
the flawless 30 minute assault utilizing French
tech, the agonizing defense and the legacy left
behind. It's vital history to keep alive. And
this raises an important question we'll leave
you with. Let's hear it. Given that America's
very first major victory in World War One relied
almost entirely on borrowing heavy artillery,
flamethrowers, and tanks from the French, how
did the shock of arriving at a global war so
radically under -equipped forever alter how the
United States would approach industrializing
its own military technology in the decades that
followed? That is a phenomenal question for you
to ponder. Keep turning that over in your mind.
Keep asking questions. And above all, stay curious.
We'll catch you on the next deep dive.