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Harold Goettler

Erwin Bleckley

U.S. Army

Medal of Honor

Argonne, France

October 5, 1918

The plight of the Lost Battalion is one of the most famous incidents of America’s involvement in World War I. For six harrowing days in early October 1918 seven companies from the 307th and 308th Infantry regiments and two companies from the 306th Machine Gun Battalion were cut off and surrounded by the Germans deep in the Argonne Forest of France. Despite being outnumbered nearly 10- to-1, the roughly 550 Americans under Major Charles White Whittlesey hung on grimly and refused to surrender. By the time they were relieved, only 194 walked out. The rest had been wounded, killed, captured or gone missing. Whittlesey, two of his officers and two of his enlisted soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their valorous actions during the battle, and 28 of his troops received the Distinguished Service Cross. Almost completely forgotten today, however, are two American aviators who died while trying to locate and support the Lost Battalion from the air. Each received a posthumous Medal of Honor.

First Lieutenant Harold Ernest Goettler was a pilot in the 50th Aero Squadron. Second Lieutenant Erwin Russell Bleckley was his aerial artillery observer, attached to the Army Air Service from the 130th Field Artillery. On October 5, three days after the Germans had cut off Whittlesey’s force, Maj. Gen. Robert Alexander, commander of the 77th Division, requested that the 50th Aero Squadron locate the unit and resupply it by air with medical supplies, rations, water and ammunition. The squadron’s de Havilland DH-4s flew four sorties that day, all unsuccessful due to bad weather. Everyone knew the general location of the Lost Battalion, but the trick was to pinpoint its exact position, somewhere in a large, heavily wooded valley and surrounded by Germans.

In what today’s U.S. Air Force recognizes as the first combat airlift in its history, the 50th flew 13 sorties the following day, losing three aircraft in the process. Early that afternoon Goettler and Bleckley took off. They made the flight over their assigned sector of the valley at an altitude of 300 feet, but the dense undergrowth made it impossible to see anything on the ground. The pilot and observer both noticed, however, they had taken heavy ground fire from the surrounding hills, but not much from the valley floor itself. They returned to base with their DH-4 full of bullet holes and showing signs of engine trouble. Goettler and Bleckley borrowed another aircraft and planned their second mission of the day.

Late that afternoon they took off, ignoring warnings from their squadron commander that a second sortie would be far more risky. Their intent was to fly the length of the valley at treetop level, purposely drawing fire from the ground. By observing and carefully recording where the fire came from— and where it didn’t come from—they intended to pinpoint the Lost Battalion by process of elimination.

Their first pass down the valley caught the Germans by surprise; the ground fire was intense but generally ineffective. After making that pass, Goettler and Bleckley were pretty sure they had Whittlesey’s position, but they decided to make one more run to confirm it. The precise coordinates were critical so the Allies could provide supporting artillery fire without hitting the Americans. This time, however, the Germans were waiting for the fliers. As the DH-4 came within range, they opened up, with German machine gunners on the highest ridges actually shooting down at the aircraft. The intense fire riddled the biplane with at least 40 bullet holes, shattering Goettler’s windshield and instrument panel.

Though mortally wounded by a round to the head, Goettler managed to pull up the DH-4’s nose and point it west. As it crashed just inside Allied lines, Bleckley was thrown clear. By the time a French patrol reached the wreck, Goettler was dead, Bleckley unconscious and barely alive. He died from his internal injuries before they could get him to an aid station, but his map notations from the mission provided the Allies with the critical information to relieve the Lost Battalion.

Goettler and Bleckley initially received posthumous Distinguished Service Crosses, but an Army review board upgraded their decorations to Medals of Honor in 1922. Goettler’s remains were returned to the United States and buried at Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery. Bleckley was buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery near the village of Romagne-sous-Montfaucon, France, the final resting place of eight other Medal of Honor recipients.

 

Originally published in the September 2012 issue of Military History. To subscribe, click here.