Lost Battalion - Argonne. This is a steep valley to the west of Apremont where between Oct 2-7th 1918 soldiers of the US 77th Div were cut off from their comrades. Caught in a narrow valley they were totally surrounded but finally managed to fight their way out. The Argonne Massif is a narrow 12km wide band of hills rising steeply to the west of the Meuse valley. For four years of bitter fighting the front line ran east-west across these hills until the American offensive here in the autumn of 1918 which was a major test for the American army for many of whose troops this was their first real experience of battle.