Do You have a Famous Relative or Family Member? Because I Do

Phoenix98

So as the questions states do you have a relative or ancestor that's well known or was part of a famous group, organization etc?



I just recently found out that a family member on my fathers side of the family fought in WW1 and was part of the famed rainbow division a famous American military division that fought in WW1 and on top of that he was part of the legendary Lost Battalion.



And for those of you who don't know what the Lost Battalion is, the Lost Battalion was an American unit that fought in WW1.They were charged with taking the Argonne Forrest, the division quickly advanced into the Argonne from their trenches, under the belief that French forces were supporting the left flank and two American units including the 92nd Division were supporting the right flank. Unknown to them though, the French advance had been stalled by the Germans. Without this knowledge and the fact that the commanders lied to them, the Americans charged forward unrelenting under heavy German fire and had moved beyond the rest of the Allied line and found themselves completely cut off and surrounded by German forces on all sides.



Now the Germans thought they could take them out but after a while they started to get frustrated because no matter what they did or what they threw at them, the American unit would not budge, they had dug in and stayed no matter what. Now the Germans had taken a prisoner or two and when they asked them why they would not surrender this was the prisoners response.





That's actually true to the Lost Battalion was a New York based unit with quite a few of the above mentioned individuals, most of the men had grown up on the streets of New York City fighting from a young age for food. These attributes acquired on the streets are seen by many historians as one of the reasons that this group survived in the Argonne.The Germans even gave them one last chance to surrender but instead they threw the white flag back at them lol.



But to get back to it, the Lost Battalion for a week straight fought off continuous almost none stop German counter-attack for 7 days straight with almost no food and almost no ammo, by the end most guys still alive, had 1 maybe 2 rounds of ammo, some had none at all. And to make matters worse once a plane finally flew overhead about half way through the week and got their position and confirmed that they weren't dead, the allies back at their command base tried to help by firing off artillery strikes. But ended up shelling their own position and killing or wounding quite a few of their own people and this was going on while they were being attacked by the Germans it took half a day or more before they were finally able to get this message through the enemy lines and to their base using pigeons telling them to stop.



WE ARE ALONG THE ROAD PARALELL 276.4. OUR ARTILLERY IS DROPPING A BARRAGE DIRECTLY ON US. FOR HEAVENS SAKE STOP IT.



Well by the end of the week after continuous German-counterattack the Germans decided they had finally had enough so they sent the very best they had, which was the Sturmtruppen which loosely translates into storm-man but was often translated and said as Stormtrooper they were specialized/elite shock/assault troopers during WW1 they were equipped with bolt action rifles, grenades, pistols and their most fearsome tool flame throwers.



In a final effort to push the Americans out they sent in the Stormtroopers, tired low on ammo and with most of their men wounded or killed, the Lost Battalion exhausted what ammo they had, and charged at them to close the distance and engaged the Stormtroopers in with bayonets, their rifle butts and hand to hand combat and actually drove the Stormtroopers off and routed them back to their own lines and forced them to retreat, not long after that reinforcements were sent to them and they were relieved of their post to take care of their wounded and get some food and rest.



Out of the original roughly 554 men of the Lost Battalion, isolated by German forces in the Argonne Forest. Roughly 197 were killed in action and approximately 150 missing or taken prisoner before 194 remaining men were rescued, they were led by Major Charles White Whittlesey.



And that was the unit by family member was a member of the famed Rainbow Division and the legendary Lost Battalion.



There's also a song about it if anyone wants to listen it's called The Lost Battalion by SABATON





Here are some pictures of the Lost Battalion


Do You have a Famous Relative or Family Member? Because I Do


Do You have a Famous Relative or Family Member? Because I Do


Do You have a Famous Relative or Family Member? Because I Do

So tell me your stories, I'd love to hear your guy's if you have any.



Also next I will be doing my Extraordinary Men Part 2 mytake about each nations greatest soldiers and their feats ( well the ones I can find anyway ) so if you have any suggestions that I haven't used in Part 1 go ahead and mention them and your opinion and I'll check em out for part 2!

Do You have a Famous Relative or Family Member? Because I Do
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