The World War's Example of The Lost Battalion in The Argonne Forest

The Lost Battalion was a unit in World War one that was part of an assault on German line in the Argonne forest, a location that would be a troublesome fighting area in World War two. The battalion is ordered to take up the center while two other divisions are on the right and left flanks. Thought the center is the other part of the offense that is able to achieve it's objective, which is to hold a mill in the forest. The flanks are unable to break through the lines leaving the center to fend for itself. The battalion was already low on supplies before the operation but is sent in anyways. The battalion in the movie is lied to by General Alexander saying that the other divisions have made it to their objectives and that the center must be held at all costs.The battalion's commanding officer Major Charles Whittlesey follows this order and digs in to hold his position. Taking heavy casualties, the men still hold the position, With their communication line cut the battalion must use carrier pigeons to communicate with headquarters. Whittlesey calls in an artillery barrage on the enemy line but barrage is off target and hits their position instead. Taking friendly fire Whittlesey sends his last carrier pigeon Cher Ami to send this message: "We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heaven's sake, stop it."(Whittlesey) With this final message the battalion was on its own until the relief force found its way to them. After five days of fighting only 191 men were able to walk back to the American lines out of the original 670.(Historyonfilm)

The movie does a great job of staying close to real life but has some minor issues, the biggest one having to do with just plain script writing. The are parts during battles where the men literally stand up just to be filled with bullets.This may have been done for movie effects since the movie did not have the greatest amount of funding. But still leaving cover just to stand up and take a bullet is not very realistic. Another mistake is in the plot of the movie its self, the movie makes it seem as though the lost battalion won the war or played a major role in the ending of the war. Unfortunately this is not all true the men did do an important job of holding the line. But with the Germans already falling back and Germany having a hard time financing the war, the defeat of Germany was already within reach. Though it is nice to say that the battalion won the war it's just not the most realistic thing to say when there's 5 more weeks and 20,000 troops fighting along with that battalion.