The general plan provided for an attack by the whole Fourth French Army between the Argonne and the Suippes River.
On October 1, 1918, the brigade with the rest of the Second Division marched to the front line near Somme-Py on the night of October 1-2, 1918, and relieved elements of a French division. The brigade headquarters was located in the trenches about 2½ kilometers south of Somme-Py. The relief was effected before daylight without incident.
The Battle of Blanc Mont Ridge was fought and won by the Second Division, as a unit of the Fourth French Army, between October 3 and 9, 1918, over the desolated white chalky ground of the Champagne, which was scarred and shell pocked by years of artillery fire, marked with huge mine craters, gridironed with an intricate maze of deep trenches and concrete fortifications, and covered with tangled masses of wire.
The overwhelming success and the far-reaching effect of the Second Division’s part in these operations, the cleaning up of the Essen Hook, the capture of Blanc Mont Ridge, and the capture of St. Etienne, are well described in general terms in the following excerpts from official publications.
That the plan was as brilliantly executed as it was daringly conceived is shown by this extract from an order of the Second Division, dated November 11, 1918, reading in part as follows:
In the Champagne district, October 2 to 10, it fought beside the Fourth French Army. On October 3 it seized Blanc Mont Ridge, the keystone of the arch of the main German position, advanced beyond the ridge and, although both flanks were unsupported, it held all its gains with the utmost tenacity, inflicting tremendous losses on the enemy. This victory freed Rheims and forced the entire German Army between that city and the Argonne Forest to retreat to the Aisne, a distance of 30 kilometers.
The amazing success of the attack and the vital effect of the capture of Blanc Mont Ridge and St. Etienne is described in the words of Gen. Gouraud himself in a letter to Marshal Foch, reading in part as follows:
Because of the brilliant part played by this “Grand Unit” in the offensive of the Fourth Army during the autumn of 1918, I propose the Second American Division for a citation in “The Order of the Army” upon the following specific grounds:
The Second Infantry Division, United States, brilliantly commanded by Gen. Lejeune * * * played a glorious part in the operations of the Fourth Army in the Champagne in October, 1918. On the 3d of October this division drove forward and seized in a single assault the strongly entrenched German positions between Blanc Mont and Medeah Ferme, and again pressing forward to the outskirts of Saint-Etienne à Arnes it made in the course of the day an advance of about 6 kilometers.
It captured several thousand prisoners, many cannon and machine guns, and a large quantity of other military matériel. This attack, combined with that of the French divisions on its left and right, resulted in the evacuation by the enemy of his positions on both sides of the river Suippe and his withdrawal from the Massif de Notre-Dame-des-Champs.