Cold, Wet and DarkThe men of the 79th spent the night of September 26-27 huddled in the positions they had taken the previous day. Lacking fresh supplies due to the major traffic jams on the roads, the men were cold and hungry. A combination of sporadic German machine gun and artillery fire and steady rain had meant a sleepless night for most, but despite the misery, several productive changes had taken place.[1]
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79th Division is the right-middle section (Courtesy of Gene Fax)
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79th's New Order of Battle (Courtesy of Gene Fax)
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Firstly, Kuhn had reorganized his brigades. Instead of having the 157th advance in front with the 158th in support, Kuhn created the provisional 157th brigade, which included the 313th and 316th regiments and covered the division’s western half, and the provisional 158th brigade, which included the 314th and 315th regiments and covered the division’s east half.[2] This would allow the lead regiments to effectively coordinate with the reserve regiment advancing behind them, which would hopefully alleviate much of the confusion from the previous day.
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The morning of September 27th also saw a shake-up in the 79th’s command structure. General Noble, who had been given command of the provisional 158th brigade, had failed to advance at 5:00am as ordered and was relieved of command by General Kuhn in a somewhat ironic and spectacular fashion. Having just exited his PC and commented to one of his captains on what a nice morning it was, Noble was almost immediately confronted by General Kuhn himself who came “striding, down the trench apparently trailing Noble.” Ignoring Noble’s friendly greeting, Kuhn “jumped to the top of the trench… and said sternly: ‘General Noble, by virtue of the office I hold, I hereby relieve you of command’.”[3] Noble would be replaced by Colonel Oury of the 314th regiment, who was a far more competent field commander.[4]
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General Noble (Courtesy of Gene Fax)[link]
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