In William Triplet’s Footsteps During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive

The indelible shadow of the First World War still blankets the world we live in today. Although not reflected upon in study or teaching as much as other conflicts, there is no doubt it established a violent introduction to the century that followed. The tangible residue of that time has mostly dissipated as has those who lived through those climatic events have departed this mortal world. However, the men who entered into that crucible have left us the enduring need to give their sacrifice meaning.

It is with this core belief that many of us still visit the fields and forests where the battles seared the annals of history. With dear comrades, it is a privilege to share an annual pilgrimage to pay homage. This year I was blessed to share the travels with Mike Cunha and others as we visited the Meuse-Argonne. Several memoirs whose vivid first person accounts of the survivor’s tortuous experiences were selected to guide our journey. These accounts provided enough detail that we were ultimately able to template their footsteps across the same terrain recounted by their own words. One such day was spent with Sergeant William S. Triplet, a platoon sergeant in Company D, First Battalion, 140th Infantry Regiment, 35th Division.

Sgt. Triplet’s War Accoun (left)t Is Still Available. On the Right Is the Postwar Sgt. Triplet When He Was a West Point Cadet.

As a 17-year-old high school junior, Triplet enlisted into the Kansas/Missouri National Guard with a tinge of patriotism and the false aspirations of a high school diploma. The Missouri Guard was quickly mobilized into federal service as the 35th Division where its combat record in the Great War would meet with much scrutiny. Triplet’s physical size and self-discipline earned him an NCO rank that eventually seems to have placed him as an acting platoon commander during the 35th Divisions’ trials of the Meuse-Argonne. The historical record is honored to have had Triplet’s memoir assembled into the book A Youth in the Meuse-Argonne: A Memoir 1917-18 as edited by Robert Ferrell and printed by the University of Missouri Press in 2019. It is notable that his memoir offers enough detail to literally trace his footsteps by the narrative of his experience and emotions as he advanced and fought for the five fateful days that saw the 35th Division dissolve.

His battle started with the division’s opening attack to gain its initial decisive point upon Vauquois Hill. William’s vivid memory recounts his becoming lost while leading his platoon over the summit with an ethereal recollection of seeing a color guard actually carrying flags into the assault as if it were a battle from a prior century. Thereafter he notes becoming disoriented by the conditions of the terrain and weather while German prisoners move to the rear past him. Vauquois Hill remains the most poignant testament to the industrial proportions of destruction the war witnessed. To place Triplet here is profound while understanding further that he simply walks over the hill’s crest through sporadic rifle fire. His recalling those events does little to appreciate how the war evolved into that mist saturated moment. For four years the French and Germans had trenched, tunneled and mined the hill into what today is a monument to man’s cruelty. The remains of the butte physically place an emotional weight upon the onlooker that is impossible to describe. The cratered surface and its depths hide an agony that still overwhelms the senses.

⇒  Read the entire article on the Roads to the Great War website here:

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