The Stars & Stripes Newspaper printed one of the first articles written of the aftermath of the Lost Battalion. The newspaper dated October 11th, 1918 tells of the early reports of the men of the 308th Infantry trapped behind German lines from October 2nd through the 8th of 1918.

My grandfather, Pvt. Frank G.S. Erickson was a runner / rifleman in the 308th Infantry (Company H) and was a surviving member of the 'Lost Battalion.' In the photograph below Frank received an inscribed bullet from his commanding officer, Captain William J. Cullen. It was a gift, a token of respect for Frank's actions as Cullen's runner during the early October 1918 period of the 308th time in the Argonne Forest.

The Lost Battalion is the name given to the nine companies of the 77th Division, when five hundred and fifty four men, isolated by German forces from October 2nd through the 8th, 1918 after an Allied attack in the Argonne Forest during the Meuse Argonne Offensive.

One hundred and ninety seven men were killed in action and approximately one hundred and fifty went missing or were taken prisoner before the one hundred and ninety four remaining men escaped. They emerged through The Pocket of the Argonne into what could be called safety and as Frank mentioned, he was never as so happy.

Led by Major Charles White Whittlesey on the 2nd of October, the division quickly advanced into the Argonne, 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 Whittlesey's unit, the French advance had been stalled. Not aware of this the Americans had moved beyond the rest of the Allied line and found themselves completely cut off and surrounded by German forces.

For the next six days, suffering heavy losses, the men of the division were forced to fight off several attacks by the Germans. The battalion suffered many hardships. Food was scarce and water was available only by crawling, under fire, to a nearby stream. Ammunition ran low. Communications were also a problem, and at times they would be bombarded by shells from their own artillery.

Frank and the other runners of the command were dispatched by Whittlesey for various reasons, many became lost or ran into German patrols. Frank succeeded in carrying many of the messages where ordered. As time went by quickly carrier pigeons became the only method of communicating with headquarters.

In the infamous incident on the 4th of October, inaccurate coordinates were delivered by one of the pigeons and the unit was subjected to 'friendly fire' bombardment. The unit was saved by another pigeon, Cher Ami, delivering the following message:

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

Despite this terror from their own artillery, they held their ground and caused enough of a distraction for other Allied units to break through the German lines, which forced the Germans to retreat.

The bullet was given to my father, Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson by Frank when he shipped off to England in late 1943. He was serving in the Air Corps as a pilot of a B-17. Flying out of Horham Airfield he completed thirty five missions over occupied Europe in 1944. Ernest carried the bullet throughout the war and brought it home in 1945 and returned it to Frank as a gesture for the gift, as it proved to be his good-luck charm. Over the years whenever I visited Bismarck, my grandfather would often show me the bullet and tell me the stories connected with it.

My father inherited Frank's archives in 1995 and the bullet came with the rest. It's journey continued and in 2013 my father gave the bullet to me. The illusion in the photograph below is there are two bullets, a bit of artistic license. I needed to be able to show the full inscription which wraps around the barrel of the bullet.

The last image below is a postcard dated March 1st 1919 written in Cheville, France to Frank by Captain Cullen. It is a beautifully written note to Frank in appreciation of his service in October of 1918 during the 'The Meuse-Argonne Offensive.' Frank joined the American Expeditionary Force in 1917 and entered training first at Camp Lewis near Tacoma, Washington and completed his training at Camp Upton in Long Island, NY joining the 308th Infantry. He shipped out of Brooklyn Harbor on August 8th 1918 and ported in Liverpool, England. He would soon find himself on the battlefield of France.