Lt. Robert Gamble
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The American plan called for four hours of general bombardment, and then a targeted barrage to roll over the German positions. Behind it infantry battalions would charge, leapfrogging one another.

Beginning at 1:00a.m. in the chill wet blackness of the night of September 12, the Division History reports, "there roared the greatest artillery fire that American arms had ever known." During the bombardment the artillery shot more than one million shells. The 155's, 220's and 8-inch guns "rained steel upon every known point of the enemy's lines. Trenches of the Boche position in Bois des Saulx, des Grandes Portions and St. Claude were deluged . . . The roar of the cannon was deafening and bursts of flame lit up the sodden sky. At first the Hun artillery attempted to reply, but by 1:55a.m. their last gun was silent."

From 1:00a.m. to 5:00a.m. the doughboys listened to the pounding of their own big guns as they crouched miserably in driving rain, muck and mire. The rain soaked everyone to the skin. At the last minute before the charge, some dug into their packs for a change of clean socks and underwear.

Just after 5:00a.m. yellow flares arched into the night along the entire 40-mile front. The attack order. "Four thin waves of mud-stained men, helmeted and under full pack, bayoneted rifle in hand, swept through the lanes in their own barbed wire. It was not quite dawn."

Gamble's 11th Infantry lead the charge. They "advanced so rapidly that they pressed the barrage. Twice they overtook it and shells fell among them." By 5:45a.m. the troops had overrun the German trenches. They also left far behind the tanks and artillery intended to support them, which foundered uselessly in soft mud and shell-holes. The men had to crawl under Boche barbed wire, pulling up the stakes holding tangles of wire rusted in four years of occupation, while hidden machine guns raked them.

Beyond the wire the 11th Infantry line began charging tree to tree through the Bois de Rappes and Bois St. Claude. They were supposed to attack due north but were often confused because their compasses failed to register. There was too much metal from shrapnel and bullets in the trees. It was now about 6:00a.m. and the half light of dawn was glowing under the gray rain clouds.

"I saw numerous evidences of Yankee pluck and valor," an 11th Infantry officer recalled in a letter. "One in particular which I will never forget--Lieutenant Robert Gamble of our Company A (who lives on the Main Line). Well, he died with his boots on, clutching his automatic revolver as he fell dead. He took a machine gun nest--and just beyond him were two of the crew of the machine gun that got him across the chest."

Another officer reported: "Bob had charged with his platoon, not following but leading them--just the kind of action everyone admires in an officer. I saw it myself and heard his men speak of it afterwards. It was in an attack on a Boche machine-gun nest that he fell, fighting for his God and country, a true soldier to the last. He was the most popular officer in his regiment. He was buried in the Soldier's Cemetery, near Bois St. Claude, a short distance southeast of the village of Vieville-en-Haye."

James Hallas's Squandered Victory reports that Lt. Gamble actually took out two nests rather than one: "Over on the right, at [Bois St. Claude], 25 year old Lieutenant Robert H. Gamble, whose great-grandfather had fought with Mad Anthony Wayne at Stony Point, charged a machine-gun nest. Armed only with his pistol, the Pennsylvanian knocked out one machine-gun and killed two of the crew on another before it stitched him across the chest. He died instantly."

Possibly the most poignant account though, was by Kenton W. Sieman, Captain of the 11th Infantry and Gamble's Commanding Officer. His note filed with the Graves Registration Service indicates that one Corporal Harry Gillman, Company A, 11th Infantry "spoke to Lieut. Gamble ten minutes before he was killed Sept. 12, 1918 by machine gun fire in the St. Mihiel drive:"

Lieut. Gamble talked as though he would be killed that day and gave instructions for his personal effects to be taken off his body and given to the first Red Cross man he saw, should he happen to be killed, but I do not know whether this was done or not as I was some little distance from him at the time he was hit. Lt. Gamble died instantly and [was] buried near the first woods we passed through that morning.

The St. Mihiel attack ended in triumph, a decisive victory in the first all-American action in the War. Major General McMahon congratulated 5th Division "on its splendid achievement today." General Pershing in turn wrote General McMahon that such "courageous dash and spirit has thrilled our countrymen and evoked the enthusiasm of our allies." President Woodrow Wilson cabled General Pershing, "warmest congratulations on the brilliant achievements of the army under your command." Marshal Foch sent President Wilson a telegram offering "warmest compliments."

Three weeks later, Dr. and Mrs. Robert G. Gamble received the notification of their son's death. Mrs. Gamble is reported to have said: "Everybody talks about war brides, and how they suffer. Well they're young and they can find another husband. I will never have another son."

The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin for Friday October 4, 1918 added Lt. Robert Gamble to their Roll of Honor. Col. John B. Bennet, commander of Gamble's regiment, wrote in his after-action report that Lt. Gamble "was a brave, courageous and efficient officer. He was an honor to his regiment [which] may be of some comfort to Lt. Gamble's parents, who may well be proud of a son who gave his life on the field of battle, in the greatest struggle of history and the first operation of the American Army that was soon to free the world from the German menace." Gamble was not, however, awarded any decorations.

After the armistice was signed November 11, 1918 a cousin of Gamble's, Marine Captain Alexander Randall, wrote from France to Gamble's parents that he had located their son's grave. The letter dated December 1, 1918 says his remains rested among "a small group of graves situated just within the edge of the woods facing towards Vieville-en-Haye, with on his left the grave of a Private Egan, Co. 309 Machine Gun Battalion, and on his right Private Lee Schweitzer, Hdgr. Co. 311 Inf." Further into the woods was an unmarked grave and beyond that a "large mound containing the bodies of nine men of the 11 Inf.;" at the foot of Gamble's grave there was "a similar large grave containing the bodies of seven men of the 311 Inf."

Lt. Gamble's grave was "carefully and clearly marked with a wooden cross on which was the name 'Lt. Gamble' plainly marked in lead pencil." Capt. Alexander placed a double row of rocks around the perimeter, and "took a piece of brass--a piece of a shell of a 75--and stenciled with a nail's point 'Lt. Gamble' and fixed that securely upon his cross." He also hung there "a small silken American flag---the emblem his Great Grandsire had so nobly helped to create and fought for, and to whose glory he so bravely died." Captain Alexander's letter concludes:

I believe that his location is such that it will remain hallowed ground and un-touched by careless hands for years to come, being just a little distance within the edge of an old and permanent woodland, and he could hardly have wished for a more beautiful spot in its quiet native naturalness, marred only by the war touch of the Germans, who he himself fought and conquered and lies today where for four years the aggressor and invader held his stolen ground and sway, until Robert's attack taught him the power of right over wrong, justice over brutality, liberty over servitude, and tonight I can only picture Colonel Robert welcoming his offspring, as soldier meets soldier, in their heavenly home.

During the hiatus between the First and Second World Wars, Lt. Gamble's body was exhumed and reburied twice. According to records of the Grave Registration Service, Gamble's body initially was laid to rest on September 14, 1918 at Vieville-en-Haye. But then on May 17, 1919 the corpse "buried in blanket; badly decomposed" was moved and reburied at the St. Mihiel American Cemetery, Thiaucourt, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France, grave 186, plot 4, section 5. Subsequently on July 25, 1922 Gamble's body was again disinterred. The report notes "features unrecognizable, wooden box and uniform." The body was moved to grave 32, row 8, block C of the same cemetery, where to this day it rests.

Another note in the Graves Registration Service file indicates "t]he remains of 1st Lt. William B. Dixon, Hq. Co., 151st F.A., Cemetery #1233, to be buried beside [Gamble's] remains when concentration takes place in Thiaucourt, per Memo from Col. Rathers dated June 15th, 1922." There is no explanation for why Gamble and Dixon were buried together.

After traveling to France to visit the grave, in 1920 Lt. Gamble's mother wrote the War Department and asked that his marker be changed. An overworked Chaplain supervising burials during the fighting had noted an incorrect middle initial.