If you visit the tasting room at Domaine Drouhin, a winery sitting high above the Willamette Valley in the Red Hills of Dundee, you might have noticed a photograph of one of the Drouhin ancestors – Maurice Drouhin. The Drouhin family figures among the early entries to the world of Oregon winemaking concentrating on making pinot noir and chardonnay wines. In that, they complement their French production from the Burgundy and Chablis regions of their home country.
DROOUHIN WINE BEGINS ITS HISTORY
The Drouhin family only got into the wine business in the late 19th century. Joseph Drouhin became a négociant at the young age of 22 in 1880. Négociants buy grapes or juice from growers, going on to produce and bottle their own particular wines. Purchasing a wine house which dated back to 1756 in Beaune, Drouhin began by selecting grapes from the heart of Burgundy. The fourth generation of Drouhins run the company today featuring vineyards all over Burgundy including Chablis, Côte de Nuits, Côte Chalonnaise and Côte de Beaune in addition to Oregon where they own vineyards in both the Red Hills and the Eola Hills. They produce wines from over 90 appellations. But I want to talk about generation two represented by Maurice Drouhin.
MAURICE DROUHIN GOES TO WAR
He would take over the wine business for his father Joseph in 1918 at the end of World War 1. Maurice Drouhin was born in Beaune in 1888.From his days in school, Maurice could speak both German and English which served him well during the war. Maurice Drouhin, a veteran of trench warfare, escaped physical harm during the war but suffered from nightmares for years after.
In 1915, Maurice, now a young French officer on the front, noted a wounded German soldier on the battlefield. The German soldier’s comrades could not retrieve him in the face of the French rifle fire. Maurice ordered a white flag raised among his troops and shouted out to the Germans, “Come get your man. We will hold our fire until you have him.” Rescuing their man, the Germans halted in front of Maurice and saluted before returning to their lines.
A FRENCHMAN EARNS AMERICA’S SECOND HIGHEST DECORATION
The photo of Maurice Drouhin at the Oregon tasting room has a copy of a later commendation he received from the US government. He gained the Distinguished Service Cross, America’s second highest medal for wartime actions. Maurice received the medal on the recommendation of Brigadier General Douglas McArthur.
The citation reads: “The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Captain Maurice Drouhin, Army of France, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving as Senior Liaison Officer, 84th Infantry Brigade (Attached), 42nd Division, A.E.F., during the capture of Hills 2898, 242, and the Cote-de-Chatillon, France, October 14 – 16, 1918.
When communication service had been broken between the brigade commander and the two front-line battalions of his brigade, due to the enemy’s terrific fire which made it impossible to maintain either Signal Corps installations or runner service, Captain Drouhin at the critical moment volunteered to make his way across a gap between the two battalions in order to carry orders to the commanding officers thereof. His services on this occasion cannot be over-estimated and were accomplished voluntarily and only at the most deadly risk to himself.”
MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE EARLY DAYS
McArthur commanded the 84th Brigade during the middle – and most crucial – stage of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The American Expeditionary Force had hammered at the German positions in the Argonne Forest and the countryside to the east since 26 September. The US 35th Division – a National Guard division made up of mostly men from Missouri and Kansas (including Captain Harry Truman) – had destroyed itself in the opening days of the offensive losing 7,074 casualties in four days of combat amounting to nearly 50% in the two infantry brigades of the division.
The US 1st Division took the place in the front when the 35th withdrew on 29 September. During the second phase of the offensive, launched on 4 October, the men of the 1st advanced up the Aire River valley along a narrow 7-kilometer long salient. In doing so, this division lasted six days before it too withdrew after losing 9,387 casualties. The commander of the 1st, Charles P. Summerall, found himself kicked upstairs to take over the Vth Corps. The 42nd Division had come forward with the 1st, making up the reserve of the corps. By now, the Americans were fighting into the heart of the German defenses – the Kriemhilde Stellung.
THE RAINBOW DIVISION GETS THE NOD
The 42nd Division nickname was the “Rainbow Division”. The unit got its name from the 27 National Guard units making up the division from across the nation – 26 different states plus the District of Columbia. McArthur served as chief of staff for the division when the men showed up in France in November 1917. Division commander Major General William A. Mann suffered from poor health leaving Colonel McArthur in de facto command until Major General Charles T. Menhoher – a classmate of Pershing’s – showed up in mid-December to take over. He would lead the division for most of its time at war – Major General Charles D. Rhodes would succeed him in November during the last stages of battle, but after injured in a plane crash, he turned over command to McArthur.
THE BRIGADES AND THE TESTS
Two infantry brigades made up the heart of the division. The 83rd Brigade was commanded by Brigadier General Michael J. Lenihan, a West Pointer of the class of 1887. As the brigades moved up into the fight, they ran headlong into the main German defense systems making little progress. Corps commander Summerall, recently promoted from command of the 1st Division, threatened to relieve both Lenihan and McArthur. The 83rd Brigade under Lenihan had to attack across open fields, in full view of the German defenders. Getting out in front of the 84th, they also received enfilade fire from Germans atop the Côte de Chatillon. One anecdote often quoted has Summerall in a meeting with MacArthur saying, “Give me Chatillon or a list of 5,000 casualties.” MacArthur then responds, “All right general; we will take it or my name will head the list.”
But another quote not as often seen followed a 12 October reconnaissance which McArthur took part in. Caught in a gas barrage, McArthur became violently ill. Even worse, the patrol revealed how strongly the area remained defended. Asked by his division commander, Menoher, whether he could take Chatillon, MacArthur said, “I told him as long as we were speaking in the strictest of confidence that I was not certain.”
THE BATTLE
McArthur’s men were given the job of taking on the Côte de Chatillon directly. They could use forest cover to approach the Germans with. The 84th Brigade had two infantry regiments, the 167th boasted Alabamians who formerly belonged to the 4th Alabama Militia. That unit became part of the National Guard in 1897 and mustered into the Federal army as the 167th on 15 August 1917. The other regiment, the 168th featured a federalized National Guard regiment from Iowa.
The attack began early on the morning of October 14. The 168th took Hill 288 by noon. Attacks against fruitless assaults on the Côte de Chatillon went nowhere, however. now the final key to the area. The next day, the 84th Brigade attacked repeatedly, getting no further than halfway between Hill 288 and the Cote de Chatillon. From up, the Germans also pounded down machine-gun and small-arms fire on Lenihan’s 83rd, preventing them from making progress toward their goals.
On the night of 15 October, MacArthur led a night patrol. They found a relative weak spot in the German lines. The two regiments would hit the hill on 16 October from two opposite directions with each regiment finding spots in the wire defenses they could come in from the west – the 167th – and the east – the 168th. And herein comes Captain Drouhin, the French liaison officer assigned to McArthur.
LIAISON OFFICER ON THE RUN
Liaison officers attached to the various units of the AEF helped to advise American officers in the nature of the brutal landscape of the Western Front. Since the AEF fought alongside the French army, liaison officers were French – in the American units fighting alongside British troops, they were English. Drouhin got along well with McArthur, and they continued as friends for the rest of their lives. Liaison officers also reported weekly to their superiors on the everyday American army, its strengths and weaknesses.
At the Côte de Chatillon, the two regiments fought on opposite sides of the hill. Communication on the battlefield was never a strongpoint for the AEF. Here, Drouhin stepped in to help deliver McArthur’s messages to the regimental commanders at the front. He did so by filling in as a runner himself. Runners normally came from the ranks, low-ranking non-commissioned officers chosen for their stamina and fitness. They were targets for the enemy. One veteran noted “With a runner, it was merely a question of how long he would last before being wounded or killed.”
BATTLE IS WON
The hill fell to the 84th Brigade on 16 October. With the hill’s capture, an important part of the main German defenses in hills above the Aire River lay broken. McArthur was on his way to glory and high command – he also gained a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions commanding his troops at the Côte de Chatillon. His superiors had put him in for the Medal of Honor. While he did not receive that award, McArthur finished the war with seven Silver Stars, two Distinguished Service Crosses, one Distinguished Service Medal, two wounded chevrons, two Croix de Guerre, and gained appointment as a commandeur of the Legion d’honeur.
His counterpart, Lenihan, found himself relieved by Summerall on 17 October. His relief was eventually overridden by commander of the US 1st Army Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, and he finished the war commanding the 153rd Brigade of the 77th Division.
MAURICE DROUHIN RETURNS TO WINE AND OTHER ADVENTURES
Maurice Drouhin returned to Beaune after the war to take over the family wine business. He guided the family into purchasing vineyards to better control the quality of grapes and the resulting wine products. His leadership pushed the family to today’s house which owns 80 hectares (half of which are in Chablis), as well as a presence in Oregon for about 30 years (100ha).
WORLD WAR 2 AND THE GERMANS AGAIN
In World War 2, Murice Drouhin became actively involved again. With the Fall of France in June 1940, Beaune fell into the German occupied zone. During February 1942, Maurice Drouhin was suspected of smuggling fugitives to England. Arrested, he was put on trial, accused of harboring a hatred of the German. Drouhin offered to provide proof to the contrary. He asked his wife to send him a copy of the diary of March 17, 1915, where he was responsible for the removal of the wounded German soldier. In view of the official report certified by a notary in Beaune, Maurice Drouhin benefited from the leniency of the Judge who had him released, which probably saved his life.
That did not mean Drouhin was a supporter of the German regime. He did become a member of the Resistance. The Germans tried to re-arrest him 7 June 1944, but he was able to into hiding to avoid them. The nuns of the Hospices de Beaune were able to hide him away in the wine vaults for six months. In return for saving his life, Maurice donated two hectares of his Priemier cru vinyards to the Hospice. From these vineyards the Cuvée Maurice Drouhin is made every year. nd every year, Maurice’s grandson, Frédéric, buys the bottles of that wine back at the annual Hospices de Beaune action.
