On Oct 2, 1918, Major Charles White Whittlesey (left) and his battalion of 554 men from the 77th Division pushed forward through the Argonne Forest but were quickly cut off from supply lines and reinforcements, and found themselves surrounded and at the mercy of the Germans.
They had no food or water, and since they had no means of receiving supplies, ammunition was precious. Carrier pigeons became the only way of communicating. Snipers and German attacks came consistently for a period of four days, but Whittlesey and his men held off wave after wave of the enemy attacks in hand to hand combat, flamethrowers and friendly fire from their own artillery.
The Germans eventually sent in a blindfolded American prisoner with a message imploring Whittlesey to surrender, to which he ignored due to surrendering being out of the question.
On the fourth day, reinforcements relieved the "lost battalion" and out of the original 554, only 194 walked out. The photo captures Whittlesey and his relieving officer on the 4th day.
He received the Medal of Honor for his leadership in the forest and served as a pallbearer for the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery.
In 1921, despite surviving the war, he went missing shortly after boarding a ship from New York to Havana. It’s presumed he committed suicide by jumping overboard, as he’d written several letters to his family members and prepared a will, which he left in his room aboard the ship. He was 37 years old. #leadership #balls #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #ww1 #getsome #lostbattalion