Americans in Battle of Amiens?

[Daveleic]

A report in the “Independent” on today’s centenary commemoration at Amiens Cathedral of the Battle of Amiens refers to Australian, Canadian, French, American and British forces being involved, but I have been unable to find which US forces took part, and would be grateful for information.

 

 

Edited 8 August , 2018 by Daveleic
Typo

[DavidOwen]

I can't see anything to support that.

 

Goes to show how wrong I can be!

Edited 8 August , 2018 by DavidOwen
admission of error

[Gareth Davies]

131st Regt from 33rd US Div.

 

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battles/battles-of-the-western-front-in-france-and-flanders/the-battle-of-amiens/

[clive_hughes]

Dave,

Someone else will be along with better information before long.  Meantime there is a plaque in the cathedral commemorating American troops, and I'd post an image that I took  of it except I'm away from home at the moment.  

 

I had the impression that it was remembering the US Engineers who defended Amiens earlier in 1918 however?

 

Clive

[Skipman]

Gareth is correct. The Official History has quite a lot of information on American involvement.

 

American 33rd Division (less 131st Regiment which was attached to the 47th Division) The 131st Regiment (or some of it?) seems to have been attached to the 58th Division on the 9th August.

 

Mike

[Hyacinth1326]

I believe the American 131st Regiment (23rd National Guard Division, Illinois) attacked Gressaire Wood alongside 58th Division on the 9th of August, hence the generous coverage afforded to their action in the Amiens Cathedral commemoration today. More details can be found in the 'Advance to Victory' volume in the Battleground Europe series I think.  In the storming of Gressaire Wood the Americans lost 45 dead and 255 wounded.

Edited 9 August , 2018 by Hyacinth1326

[Daveleic]

Thanks for this information.

[nigelcave]

And of course American divisions continued to play an important role in the battles on the 'Somme' front of the Advance to Victory as the days and weeks passed.

[Livewireshock]

The 131st Regiment served with the 41st Battalion AIF at the previous Battle of Hamel. So when the Australians were resting in their trenches after their assault on August 8th on the southern side of the Somme River, they could see their American friends, on August 9th, struggling to achieve their objectives on Chipilly Ridge across the river. This was mostly through inexperience and the lack of American officers. It is recorded in the 41st Bn AIF War Diary that some Diggers started turning captured German field guns around, from the previous day and with the aid of an artillery officer, they started firing on German rear areas to assist the Colonel Sanborn and his men.

[hazelclark]

An extremely good book on Amiens, is “The Day We Won the War”, by Charles Messenger.  I knew virtually nothing about it until I read the book. It is some time since I read it but it is quite comprehensive.

Hazel C.