Always Move Forward! The 80th Division in World War I: Volume I Mobilization and Training at Camp Lee

America's 80th "Blue Ridge" Division was constituted on August 5, 1917, as part of the National Army (today's Army Reserve), with headquarters at Camp Lee, Virginia. The division itself consisted primarily of drafted men or "Selectees" from Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Its commander, Maj. Gen. Adelbert Cronkhite, an old coastal artilleryman who was said to be "sturdy, thick-set, and cut out of sandstone," adopted the now-famous moniker "Blue Ridge Division" for the 80th Division, as the wondrous Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachian chain connected all three states and its peoples. When thrown into combat during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of Sept. 26-Nov. 11, 1918, "America's Greatest Battle," the Blue Ridge Division was the only division in the A.E.F. to participate in all three phases of the Meuse-Argonne." In fact, the place where it breached the vaunted Hindenburg Line, there now sits America's largest military cemetery in France-a stoic reminder of the 80th Division's and the rest of the A.E.F.'s desperate and heroic actions. Because of this operation and the operations of the other Allied armies, the Associated Powers (the Allies plus the United States) were finally able to smash the near-impregnable German defenses and push to the outskirts of Sedan, the keystone of the German defenses, ultimately winning the war. All told, the 80th "Blue Ridge" Division advanced some twenty miles across the most-heavily defended place on the earth at the time, suffered over 6,000 casualties-over half of its infantry strength-and killed or captured thousands of German soldiers in order to achieve ultimate victory. Their actions so inspired their commander, General "Old Cronk" Cronkhite, to proudly proclaim: "The 80th Division Always Moves Forward!" One of the missions of the 80th Division Association is to try to help Blue Ridge Division soldiers, family members, and interested parties better understand "what it was like" for its soldiers in the service of America's Blue Ridge Division.This series is an effort to fill that need.As such, this is an exhaustive study of America's Blue Ridge Division during the Great War for Civilization that includes personal reminiscences, official records, unit histories, scores of period manuals and topical books, as well as hundreds of photographs and maps to help the reader better understand the text. In Vol. I, this volume, read about how the war started in 1914 and was generally fought in Europe from 1914-1917, how the division was assembled at Camp Lee during the summer of 1917, what training was like, and some of the discussions that transpired over fighting doctrine, namely "Open Warfare" tactics versus "Trench Warfare" tactics. In Vol. II, Friedensturm to St. Mihiel, read about the last major German offensives of the war, how the division was shipped to France, what it was like serving with the British in Artois and Picardy, France, and what the division did during America's first real offensive of the war: the St. Mihiel Offensive. In Vol. III, Meuse-Argonne I, read what combat operations were was like for the division during the early phases war-ending Meuse-Argonne Offensive, "America's Greatest Battle," and in Vol. IV, Meuse-Argonne II and Home, what it was like in the latter phases of the America's Greatest Battle, after the Armistice, and when they went home in 1919.Besides explaining the division's general story, I have included what the training and operations were like for most branches of the division-especially brigade and below. There is a lot to be learned by their training and tactics and modern readers will in fact recognize that much hasn't changed.