Cantigny
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
BATTLE OF. This action was notable, not because of the number of troops engaged, but because it marked the beginning of offensive operations in Europe by the United States army. It took place on May 28, 1918, at Cantigny, a small town N. W. of Montdidier, France, which at the time was at the apex of the German thrust aimed at Amiens. It had a strong position on a hill that commanded a valley running into the American lines and gave the enemy valuable opportunities for observation. It had a series of cellars that were linked up with a long tunnel that gave excellent shelter for troops and artillery. The most careful preparations had been made for its reduction. Most of the engines of modern warfare, tanks, gas, flame throwers, smoke screens, machine guns, and artillery, were used by the Americans who went over the top at seven o'clock in the morning. They swept forward in three waves, with separate detachments to whom the task of "mopping up" the cellars of Cantigny had been assigned. In thirty-five minutes they had stormed the village, capturing 200 prisoners and inflicting heavy vy losses in killed and on the enemy. The Americans wounded also captured the defenses to the north and south of the town, making an advance of a mile on a two-mile front. Then they consolidated their newly won positions and defended them successfully against the fierce counter-attacks comparatively that followed. On a small scale, it was one of the most deftly executed and finished actions of the war. The American casualties were very small.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The events Collier's described in 1921 are still recounted much the same way: on 28 May 1918 the US 1st Division took Cantigny, north-west of Montdidier, in America's first divisional offensive of the war. What later historians revised is the closing line that "the American casualties were very small" — holding the ruined village through days of German counter-attacks and shellfire cost the division well over a thousand casualties, and the 28th Infantry, which made the assault, was gutted. Cantigny itself was rebuilt after the war and is again a village of a few hundred people; the name is now better known in Illinois, where Robert R. McCormick, who served there as an artillery officer, named his estate Cantigny — today a park housing the First Division Museum.
Written for this edition, 2026.