English: Light Railway and Hillside Dugouts Near La Harazee, Argonne Forest

18681
LIGHT RAILWAY AND HILLSIDE DUG-OUTS NEAR LA HARAZEE, ARGONNE FOREST
Though nothing more than a tiny hamlet in the western edge of the Argonne Forest, the name of La Harazee will always have a place in American History because it marked the extreme left flank of the 1st American Army at the beginning of the battle of the Meuse-Argonne. Here it was that the 308th Infantry, of the 77th Division, attacked the terrible maze of German trenches lying north of the village in the precipitous ravines and dense woodlands of the Forest. To this regiment belonged the noted "Lost Battalion", under Lieut. Col. Chas. W. Whittlesey and Capt. Geo. G. McMurtry which on October 2 got ahead of the main American battle line and was surrounded by the enemy in a deep ravine. The small Ameri-can force defended itself successfully and was rescued after having been besieged for six days. The dugouts in the hillside and the light railway on which horses drew little cars loaded with supplies were the work of the French, who had been fighting around La Harazee for four years before the Americans came into the sector. In the spring and summer of 1915 desperate fighting occurred north and east of La Harazee. The contending forces sought possession of the deep cut valley of the little Biesme River and the ravine of La Chalade extending eastward from it across the Argonne Plateau. The French retained possession of the valley and the ravine, but they suffered great losses in unsuccessful efforts to improve their positions northward. It was not until the fall of 1918, when the Americans broke through the Forest, that the enemy was finally pried loose from his strongholds in this region.

• Creator: Keystone View Company (contributor);
• Date: ca. 1920;
• Material: 1 photograph : gelatin silver print;mount 9 x 18 cm (stereograph format)