In film The Lost Battalion Major Charles White Wittlesey and his military personnels lead an onslaught into the Argonne Forest where they encountered independently bloody conflicts with the Germans. who outnumbered them and wholly surrounded them. He started off with 500 work forces at the beginning of the run and by the terminal under 200 work forces were left. This film shows the obstructions that stood in their manner in order to stand their land against German forces. These obstructions included deficiency of experience. nutrient and ammo supply. and communicating. These battles were responsible for the high figure of casualties that occurred during this five twenty-four hours blood bath.

Experience was a job for Major Wittlesey. At the beginning of the film he learns that he is traveling to necessitate every adult male he can acquire to force through these German forces. He additions a great figure of inexperient dough male childs fresh out of basic preparation that have ne’er seen conflict before. Having inexperienced soldier slowed down the battalion and do more deceases than necessary. For illustration. in the film Major Wittlesey had to assist a soldier during mid conflict reload his gun. which could of cost him his ain life. Besides. another scene showed a funny dough male child peering over a trench and about acquiring himself killed. These inexperient doughboys proved that they are non merely a danger to themselves on the battleground. but they are besides a danger to others.

Another battle Major Wittlesey and his work forces had to get the better of was their deficiency of nutrient and ammo. Him and his work forces were anticipating to be reinforced with more work forces and supplies after trailing the Germans into the Argonne forest. This nevertheless. was non the instance and after a twenty-four hours or two their supplies began to run out. In order to last they had to ration their nutrient supply and battle with a German sniper to obtain H2O from a close by watercourse. To obtain more ammo and nutrient soldiers had to seek the decomposition cadavers of their fallen companions.

The 3rd and most of import obstruction that Major Whittlesey and his doughboys faced was the deficiency of communicating to and from their base. Previously before come ining the forest him and his work forces were informed that Gallic and American wings were traveling frontward on each side of their battalion and they were to expect farther instructions.

In the procedure of forcing the Germans back into the wood. their communicating lines were cut and they were non informed that they had no support from the Gallic and American battalions. Having their lines cut meant that they had to trust on other agencies of communicating with their base. They attempted to utilize bearer pigeons to acquire the messages back to base. but Germans had shortly caught on and hit down any pigeons in sight. This deficiency of communicating resulted in the ground forces killing 60 work forces on their ain side with heavy weapon fire.

After five long yearss of conflict Major Whittlesey’s work forces had lost over half of the battalion in a series of conflicts with the Germans. They lost a figure of work forces. but their deceases were non for nil. While the remained a changeless nuisance for the Germans. the American military were able to set more work forces into action and force the Germans wholly out of the Argonne wood. Within five more hebdomads the Great War had ended. These work forces had overcome the challenges of rawness. famishment. and severed communications. Although these challenges cripple the ground forces and gave them a strong disadvantage it still wasn’t adequate to halt them from keeping back the Germans.