Courtesy Photo | Lt. Col. Samuel Mackall (at table on left) holds a conference with his staff.... read more read more
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by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian
On the morning of July 18, 1918, Maj. Gen. Clarence Edwards’ 26th Division attacked northeast from positions west of Château Thierry as part of a wider allied offensive against the Germans along the Marne River. Although time for planning was limited, Lt. Col. Samuel T. Mackall’s preparations gave his division the situational awareness it needed for its initial surge forward.
In July 1918, the 37-year-old Mackall had served in the Army for seventeen years. After graduation from St. John’s College in Maryland, he had joined the Army in 1901. Before World War I, Mackall had served widely in the Philippines, Cuba, and the United States, first with the 11th Infantry and later with the 18th Infantry. As a young officer in the Philippines with the 11th Infantry, he had saved two of his soldiers from drowning in a river in 1902. By late 1917, Major Mackall was stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, awaiting orders to France. When he arrived in France in early 1918, he served with Col. Dennis Nolan’s G-2 staff at the American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters. Later in the spring, he was assigned to the 26th Division, a National Guard division from New England, as its G-2.
Since arriving in France in October 1917, the division had been training in quiet sectors of the Allied line. When Mackall arrived, it had been occupying trenches in the Toul sector. There, both the division and its G-2 exercised laying out observation posts and dispatching patrols to develop the enemy situation. Mackall and his intelligence section learned to coordinate with both his American corps G-2 and his French allies. Almost more important for a World War I intelligence chief, he mastered working with his frontline regimental and battalion S-2s.
At the end of June, the 26th Division left the Toul sector and headed northwest towards Château Thierry on the Marne. During the night of July 3-4, Edwards’ soldiers moved into support positions near the Belleau Wood battlefield. They were relieving the exhausted 2d Division. With the persistent indications of another German attack, the two divisions jointly occupied the sector for six days. That gave Mackall an opportunity to confer with his 2d Division counterpart.
On July 10, Mackall begin issuing his own Summary of Intelligence. Combining information gained from the 2d Division with his own six days of patrolling and observations, he was able to give the disposition of the elements of three German divisions across No-man’s Land. Although the Germans were in need of rest, they were all battle-worthy and capable of effective defense. Although higher headquarters issued warnings of an imminent enemy attack, Mackall’s patrols and observation posts only detected the Germans continuing to improve their defensive positions. Enemy artillery did fire explosive and gas rounds on targets of opportunity.
After two weeks in the sector, General Edwards received orders to attack on July 18. Unfortunately, he and his planners had only six hours to make plans, prepare its orders, and move into positions. Mackall, however, was prepared. Over the past eight days, he had been able to lay out an accurate enemy disposition. Patrolling at the regimental and battalion level had developed routes and specific enemy locations.
When the 26th Division attacked on the morning of July 18, they quickly overran the German’s first line and by the end of the day, they captured the towns of Torcy, Givry, and Belleau. Its advance was, in fact, slowed more by a sluggish French advance on its flank more than the German defenses that Mackall had laid out.
When the war ended, Colonel Mackall was serving as the Sixth Corps G-2. In the inter-war period, he continued his Army career as an infantry officer. At one point, he served alongside Lt. Col. George Patton in Hawaii in the mid-1920s. From 1934-1936, Mackall commanded the 31st Infantry in the Philippines. In 1937, while serving with the Army’s Military Intelligence Division, he died suddenly at the age of fifty-six.
| Date Taken: | 07.18.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2022 10:51 |
| Story ID: | 425196 |
| Location: | FORT HUACHUCA, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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