World War I is infamous for the excessive number of deaths that occurred during its four-year period. The battle with the most recorded deaths during the Great War is known as the Meuse- Argonne Offensive, which is briefly mentioned in Ernest Hemingway’s short story Soldier’s Home. The Argonne Forest is an area of land that is situated in France, about 150 miles away from France (The American Battle Monuments Commission). According to a New York Times columnist Richard Rubin, who visited the forest for research purposes, the land is composed of rocky ridges, steep hills, and narrow valleys, making it highly valuable to the French Army for battle tactics. But, in early August of 1914 the German Army invaded the land and seized it from the
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They faced poor living conditions and according to Jennifer D. Keene, writer of Americans as Warriors: Doughboys in Battle During the First World War, they often had to share living quarters with rats, human waste, and decomposing bodies (15). Keene states that “…one lieutenant recalled taking the time to bury an assortment of hands, arms, and legs to clear his trench” (15) in order to continue keeping a watchful eye on the Germans. Living in the trenches was often more dangerous than the battle occurring outside the walls. One particular soldier recalled seeing “mercy killings,” the “murder of prisoners of war,” and “men rob[bing] corpses of money and valuables… and cut[ting] off the fingers of corpses to get rings” (Keene 16). Life in the trenches seemed to be the epitome of survival of the …show more content…
Today, the Meuse- Argonne Offensive is known as one of the deadliest battles and the “largest frontline commitment in American history”(Weaver, Bergen). It is estimated that a total of 27 thousand Americans died within the four months of battle. But, that is only a small fraction of the total number of deaths in the four years of conflict between the French and German Armies over the land, which is estimated to be a total of 100 thousand
They faced poor living conditions and according to Jennifer D. Keene, writer of Americans as Warriors: Doughboys in Battle During the First World War, they often had to share living quarters with rats, human waste, and decomposing bodies (15). Keene states that “…one lieutenant recalled taking the time to bury an assortment of hands, arms, and legs to clear his trench” (15) in order to continue keeping a watchful eye on the Germans. Living in the trenches was often more dangerous than the battle occurring outside the walls. One particular soldier recalled seeing “mercy killings,” the “murder of prisoners of war,” and “men rob[bing] corpses of money and valuables… and cut[ting] off the fingers of corpses to get rings” (Keene 16). Life in the trenches seemed to be the epitome of survival of the …show more content…
Today, the Meuse- Argonne Offensive is known as one of the deadliest battles and the “largest frontline commitment in American history”(Weaver, Bergen). It is estimated that a total of 27 thousand Americans died within the four months of battle. But, that is only a small fraction of the total number of deaths in the four years of conflict between the French and German Armies over the land, which is estimated to be a total of 100 thousand