The Battle of Cantigny was fought on May 28th, 1918. What happened was the 28th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division captured the town of Cantigny from the German 18th Army. The comander of our Regiment was General Robert Lee Bullard and the commander of the German Army was Von Hutier. Our army consisted of 3, 564 troops. The only reason the German captured Cantigny was because it was on a hill overlooking everything and was surrounded by woods so that would be the perfect place for their artillery.
The day we captured Cantigny also happened to be the second day of the "Great German Offensive" and was also the first American Offensive of WW1.
The French aided us in the capture, they provided a LOT of extra machinary and weapons as well as extra troops, but then again the French didnt like the Germans because of all the attacks they made on them, so its kinda expected that France would help us.
Some of the weapons used were: flamethrowers, trench mortars, tanks, aircover was used, the French gave us most of these things including 368 heavy guns. The tanks were used to get rid of the German machine gun posts (smart idea, i like the way these people think).
The American Army was able to take over the village easily...in short it took 45 minutes to get the village. The village of Cantigny was held against the Germans and their many counterattacks for three days, by the 3rd day, the 26th Regiment came in to back up the 28th and with the back up we had gained control over the village of Cantigny. By gaining control over Cantigny we, the Americans, gained a mile to their front.
During the battle the Native American War Hero, Matthew B. Juan was killed and lost 1,067 people and captured 100 German prisoners.
The success at Cantigny was followed by attacks at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood.
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