90TH DIVISION ENTERS LINE OCTOBER 21-22
THE policy of the 1st Army during this offensive was to use every division to its maximum capacity.
The number of combatant divisions was limited, and the United States army had been given a task, the
achieving of which virtually meant the defeat of the German armies on the Western front. All the Allies
were putting in every ounce of energy at this time in the hope of ending the war before winter. Hence it
was necessary that the division, which is the principal unit of combat, should so conserve its force as to
be able to carry on a long sustained operation under trying circumstances. With this in view, the policy
was followed of designating one brigade as an attacking brigade and the other brigade as the reserve
brigade. The attacking brigade was thus replaced by the reserve one when heavy casualties and utter
exhaustion made it absolutely necessary that the former be withdrawn for rest and replacements.
So when the 90th Division went into the line of the Meuse-Argonne front, the night of October
21-22, the 179th Brigade relieved the 10th Brigade of the 5th Division (the 357th took over from the 6th
Infantry, and the 358th from the 11th Infantry) , and the 180th Brigade moved up from Jouy and
Rampont to the Bois de Cuisy. The 155th Field Artillery Brigade (80th Division), which was already in
the sector, was attached to the Division.
The artillery fire was very severe the night of the relief, and not all of the machine guns had been
cleared out of Clairs Ch
ne woods. Lieutenant Thomas R. Ridley, Company L, 358th Infantry, was
killed the morning of October 22 by high explosive in the Bois des Rappes.
Where the 5th Division had left off the 90th Division took up the task of developing the Freya
Stellung and establishing a good jump-off position for the next general attack, which came on November
1.
The front line, as taken over on October 21, ran as follows: The 357th Infantry connected with
the 89th Division on the northern outskirts of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, and held a line extending
over the ridge northwest of the town to the Bois de la Pultiere, whence the 358th Infantry extended the
line around the western and northern edges of the Bois des Rappes to the northeastern corner of the
woods, there making connection with the 3d Division. The 89th Division remained on our left until the
armistice. The 3d Division was relieved on the night of October 26-27 by the 5th Division, which
retained thereafter the position on our right.
Thus it will be seen that the Germans held a pocket between the Bois des Rappes and Bois de
Bantheville, in which were included the towns of Bantheville and Bourrut. The first mission of the 90th
Division was to straighten out the line by cutting off this pocket.
About nine o’clock on the night of October 22, a long message in code was received at P. C.
O’Neil – a deep German dugout at Madeleine Farm – which message, when translated into every-day
language, was an order to advance the line on the following day to include the towns of Bantheville and
Bourrut and also the ridge to the northwest of Bourrut, known as Hill 270.
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