Charles Withe Whittlesey

"These Italians, Irish, Jews, and Poles, they'd never hire me as an attorney; we wouldn't be seen at the same events. But we will never, in our lives, enjoy the company of finer soldiers or better men then we do tonight."

- Charles W. Whittlesey

Lt. Colonel Charles White Whittlesey was an American Medal of Honor recipient who is notable for leading the "Lost Battalion" in the Argonne Forest during World War I.

A month after the United States entered World War I in 1917, Whittlesey took a leave from his partnership and joined the Army. He shipped for France as a captain in the Army's 77th Division, also known as the "Metropolitan Division," because it was made up largely of New York City men, principally from the polyglot Lower East side. Its members spoke 42 different languages or dialects.

By September 1917 Whittlesey was commissioned a major. On the morning of October 2, 1918, the 77th was ordered to move forward against a heavily fortified German line as part of a massive American attack in the Meuse-Argonne region. Whittlesey commanded a mixed battalion of 554 soldiers, who advanced forward through a ravine. Because the units on their flanks failed to make headway, Whittlesey's troops were cut off from their supply lines, pinned down by German fire from the surrounding 200-foot (61 m) high bluffs. The following days were perilous for Whittlesey and his men, as they were without food or water. Some of the men had never thrown a live grenade, but for four days, they resisted snipers and attacks by waves of German troops armed with hand grenades, and in one incident, flame throwers. During this period war correspondents seized on the incident and dubbed the unit the "Lost Battalion."

On October 7, the Germans sent forward a blindfolded American POW carrying a white flag, with a message in English. Whittlesey's alleged reply was "You go to hell!", although he later denied saying it, saying a response wasn't necessary. He ordered white sheets that had been placed as signals for Allied aircraft to drop supplies to be pulled in so they would not be mistaken for surrender signals. That night, a relief force arrived and the Germans retreated. Of the original 554 troops involved in the advance, 107 had been killed, 63 were missing and 190 were wounded. Only 194 were able to walk out of the ravine.

Battle vs. Lawrence of Arabia (by So-Pro Warrior)
No Man's Land...
 * Charles:[[File:Green.png]]x5
 * Lawrence: [[File:Yellow.png]]x5

The sounds of artillery fire continued to ring far off in the distance, the shells soared through the air creating the ever so distinct whoosh sound before then impacting onto the earth and exploding, leaving nothing but a massive crater as dirt and debris was sent flying into the air. In their trenches, the American Doughboys silently awaited the time for them to once again hop out of their trench and make an attempt to capture the German trenches far across from them. The orders came this morning, a thick fog bank was going to be rolling in which would give the Americans along with their allies the Brits and French the chance they need to move towards the enemy positions and catch them off guard, this time hopefully allowing them to take the German trenches and start pushing them back. To give them the element of surprise over the Germans, there was going to be no artillery barrage since that would most likely alert them that an attack was coming. Lieutenant Colonel Charles White Whittlesey walked through the American trench, checking on his men as he headed towards his position, once again the dreading looks on his men's faces could be seen as they all waited for the attack to start. Many of them were just standing/sitting silently, others were praying to God to get them through this battle safely.

Meanwhile in the British Trench not to far away...

Lawrence of Arabia, real name Thomas Edward Lawrence walked through the British Trench, walking behind him were four Bedouin Arabs as they walked through the British Trench, the same faces of dread being on their soldiers as well. A month ago Lawrence was in the Ottoman Empire leading the Bedouin Tribes against the Turks, now here he was in Europe, a place that was sort of alien to him as it was much different from the open deserts of the Ottoman Empire as he was asked to assist the British forces in what could be the turning point in the war the Allies needed to start driving the Germans back and hopefully winning this war. He decided to bring along four of his best soldiers from the tribe he was with before he left. Of course some British soldiers were taken off by their clothing, wondering why they would wear their robes still even when in Europe instead of putting on the usual British combat uniform and gear.

A few hours rolled by, the fog bank finally appeared. From both of their trenches, Whittlesey and Lawrence signaled their men to climb over the top of the trenches as the Americans and British soldiers silently complied and begin quickly and quietly making their way forward across No Man's Land. Along the way passing by the dead bodies of their comrades from their previous failed assaults, remains of destroyed trees, puddles of water, No Man's Land was always the same everytime, the soldiers had pretty much gotten used to the barren wasteland and bodies that inhabitaed it. The Americans and British soldiers continued to silently charge through the fog, which seemed to be getting thicker and thicker the deeper they went until any soldiers that remained at the trenches could not see many of their comrades anymore.

Soon Charles along with four of his men, one of which was carrying the barrel of the Browning M1917 Machine Gun, another carrying the tripod, and another carrying the water cooler emerged from the fog, a trench right in front of them as they quickly made their way into it with Charles and another soldier aiming their Colt M1911/M1917 Enfield down both sides of the trench to shoot any Germans they see, but there wasn't any in sight. Charles looked around, there wasn't a single German soldier in sight, he then also noticed something and turned around, no one else from his Division was coming through the fog.

"Where the hell is everyone?" One of his men questioned.

"Did they all turn back?" Another questioned.

It was impossible, Charles felt that while a few might've lost their courage and used the fog to run back to the trench for safety there was no way almost an entire Division except for four of them to lose their courage and retreat. Something wasn't right, they were in the trench, it looked abandoned, but had they stumbled across an abandoned trench then they still would've heard gunfire by now if the rest of their force reached other areas as well and encountered German resistance. "Alright, set that machine gun up right here. Two of you stay here and man it, the rest of us will head down this way and see what we can find. If any Germans appear you have permission to light them up, but if it's a massive group and you can't hold them off for long you have permission to retreat and regroup with us. Got it?" Charles says to two of his men, the one carrying the barrel and the other the tripod who nod their heads in agreement as them and the one with the water cooler begin setting the machine gun up. Upon completing it, Charles and the two soldiers, the water cooler carrier now having his M1917 Enfield out began to head down the right trench, the machine gun was set up to give the two soldiers a view of the left trench in front of them and a safe distance so that anyone who appeared around the corner of the center trench was in their sight as they waited there for any of their friends or any enemy soldiers to appear.

''"What in the world is going on?" ''Lawrence questioned in his mind.

Unknown to Lawrence he was going through the same experience as the Americans, coming out with only his 4 Bedouin Tribesmen behind him as they went into the abandoned trench before them. Lawrence and his men silently traveled down the trench, keeping their eyes peeled for Germans or any of their British comrades. The two Americans kept their eyes peeled, one on the machine gun while the other kept his rifle at the ready. The two kept quiet, listening for anything that could indicate an enemy or friendly nearby. Just then the two started to hear what sounded like a small group of people talking, the language though wasn't German, it was something else which caught the two off guard wondering what it was. Someone then turns the corner of the trench in front of them garbed in a robe, it wasn't any friendly soldier they knew so they did what they had to as the machine gunner opened fire, killing the Bedouin tribesman.

The tribesman in front of Lawrence was shot dead, Lawrence and the rest of his men stopped in their tracks and planted themselves up against the wall as Lawrence peeked out around the corner. Only to be shot at by the Americans forcing him back into cover as the bullets snapped by and impacted where he peeked out from. Lawrence signaled to his two men to the rear of the group to drop the machine gun and climb over to attack the machine gun team from the top, while signaling to the man behind him to help provide a distraction. The two put the machine gun parts down and brought out their Lee Enfields as they climbed over the top and kept to the ground as they began crawling forward to keep out of sight of the Americans.

The two Americans kept their eyes peeled downrange for the strange soldiers, just then the tribesman jumped out of cover into the pillbox across from them as Lawrence popped out and fired a shot at the Americans, the two ducking as the shot flew over their heads. The machine gunner pulled the trigger as he started unleashing another barrage of bullets downrange, forcing Lawrence back into cover as the Bedouin tribesman crouched down behind his cover and peeked out, firing off a shot which hit right next to the ammo feeder as he directed the gunner to the man as he turned the gun on him and continued firing, forcing the tribesman back into cover. The gunner soon found the Browning run dry on ammo as the two worked quickly to reload the gun, however the two tribesmen were close enough and heard the sound of them reloading and popped up quickly, both firing their Enfields at the same time into the two Americans taking them out.

Lawrence and the tribesman with him stepped out of cover, watching as the other two dropped back down into the trench and cautiously made their way over to the dead Americans to make sure they were dead. After nudging both of their bodies with their feet, the two looked back and gave a nod that they were dead. Just then, from behind them Whittlesey and the other two soldiers arrived and spotted the Bedouin standing over their dead comrades. The two soldiers quickly aimed their Enfield’s and fired, hitting both of the tribesmen and taking them out, seeing this happen Lawrence and the other tribesman who was bringing over the machine gun parts quickly set it up as Charles and his soldiers moved forward towards them firing their shots which hit all around them. Lawrence and the soldier were able to set up the machine gun and quickly opened fire, forcing Charles and another one of his soldiers into cover while the other american soldier was not so lucky and was riddled with bullets. However almost immediately as they started firing it the Vickers jammed up, Lawrence and the other tribesman attempting to unjam it but Charles and the other soldier noticed this and quickly charged forward, Charles firing his pistol and hit the other tribesman, Lawrence abandoned the machine gun and pulled out his pistol firing it and hitting the other american soldier.

Charles crouched down and continued firing his pistol at Lawrence as the shots flew around him, Lawrence quickly retreated deeper into the trench while firing back at Charles, neither of the two managing to hit the other as Charles quickly grabbed the dead soldiers enfield and gave chase after Lawrence. After a while of running, Lawrence unfortunately found himself running into a dead end and quickly turned around to escape but find Charles appear right there in front of him. Both soldiers raised their pistols and attempted to fire, but only got the clicking sound, indicating that both of their guns had run dry on ammo. Tossing them aside, Lawrence unsheathed his Jambiya while Charles brought out the Enfield with a bayonet at the end of it. The two slowly approached each other, their weapons held at the ready as they both waited for the other to throw the first strike. Charles did so, jabbing his rifle forward as Lawrence jumped to his right and quickly rushed forward, slashing across Charles side with his knife as the American major grunted from the pain but quickly turned around to continue the fight. Charles threw another jab at Lawrence again, this time however Lawrence sidestepped it and managed to grab it as he threw it upwards, throwing Charles off balance as Lawrence quickly rushed forward and stabbed the major multiple times with his dagger, the American major eventually collapsing and dying instantly on the ground. Lawrence looked down at the American soldier, it was only once the adrenaline stopped did he realize that he had killed American soldiers, he looked around and quickly ran off to find where the rest of his forces went.

 Winner: Lawrence of Arabia 

Expert's Opinion
In a very close match, Lawrence of Arabia takes this battle due to having the better melee weapon and bolt-action rifle as well as taking very important X-Factors such as Combat Experience and Logistics. While Charles and his Doughboys had it rough, the fact remains that Lawrence and the Tribesmen have been fighting a lot more longer then the Americans have and in a much tougher environment, giving them the edge they needed to beat out Charles and the American soldiers.

To see the original battle, weapons, and votes, click here.