The Great War Comes to Wisconsin

Germany’s last great offensive on the western front ended unsuccessfully in mid-July, and the Allies began a series of offensives that would finally push the German army out of France, breach the backbone of the German defense known as the Hindenburg Line, and eventually end the war. The 32nd Division finished its training tour in Alsace and immediately joined the Allied reserves supporting the Aisne-Marne offensive. On July 30 they rotated into the front line and for the next seven days slugged it out with the Fourth Prussian Guards and the German 200th and 216th Divisions, culminating with the capture of Fismes, a small village on the Vesle River in northeast France.

Frontline duty quickly hardened the men of the 32nd Division to the realities of war. Although German infantrymen could attack at any time, the real nemesis of frontline duty was the ever-present threat of an artillery barrage, which could deliver gas or explosive annihilation. Observers could watch for enemy infiltration and signs of poison gas, but there was no antidote for the terror delivered by artillery. A barrage started at the whim of the enemy. If possible, the soldier headed for a bunker designed to protect defenders, but if on duty in the trench or caught in the open, all the soldier could do was