the commander all forces in france, general john j black jack pershing personally went observeon d pluswo to for himself what that was going incidentallyich prompted mps in the 28 division sector to shut down nearly all road traffic for nearly three hours and along the division's lack of artillery support. with the imposing figure of general purging in the presence of the mere mortals of the division staff, the 35th thesion commander detailed terrible flanking fire from the argonne forest and explained he was unable to respond because of the standing order which forbid divisions firing on point outside their own sector. urging responded "but surely you don't obey that order. [laughter] the division possum brain-dead adherents to a directive was relevant to what happened on the battlefield shocked pershing and we will just say changes were immediately instituted. senior't relieving any commanders but he was very pointed that he wanted to be guns and engaged. from that point on, the 35th artillery was allowed to engage in observed fire in the 28 sector, meaning in this context that they c