Blood in the Argonne

The "Lost Battalion" of World War I

Alan D. Gaff

Narrated by Kirk O. Winkler

Available from Audible

Book published by University of Oklahoma Press

In this unique history of the “Lost Battalion” of World War I, Alan D. Gaff tells for the first time the story of the 77th Division from the perspective of the soldiers in the ranks.

On October 2, 1918, Maj. Charles W. Whittlesey led the 77th Division in a successful attack on German defenses in the Argonne Forest of northeastern France. His unit, comprised of men of a wide mix of ethnic backgrounds from New York City and the western states, was not a battalion nor was it ever “lost,” but once a newspaper editor applied the term “lost battalion” to the episode, it stuck.

Gaff draws from new, unimpeachable sources—such as sworn testimony by soldiers who survived the ordeal—to correct the myths and legends and to reveal what really happened in the Argonne Forest during early October 1918.

Alan D. Gaff is Associate Professor of History at Stillman College and author (with Ray B. Browne) of Voices of Civil War America: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life.

REVIEWS:

“Alan Gaff's vivid writing and superb scholarship form the foundation for an excellent narrative of the battle waged by the 'Lost Battalion' in the Argonne, and his book is a fitting tribute to the Americans who fought, bled, and died there.”

—Robert B. Bruce, author of A Fraternity of Arms: America and France in the Great War