The South Bend WW1 Hero Who Fired First American Shot

Born in Hungary, Alexander Arch became synonymous with the idea of the All-American hero

BY AARON HELMAN // POSTED AUGUST 14, 2025

It was 1917 and the Great War that had raged across Europe seemed destined to pull the Americans into the fight — no matter how much they resisted the call to arms. Pushed to an international breaking point and with the conflict teetering on a stalemate that threatened to freeze the world economy with it, President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for “a war to end all wars” and Congress obliged him.

But that hardly meant that American participation in the battle was imminent.

There would be the matter of raising an army, training its members at hasty bootcamps organized across the United States, and then moving some five million soldiers all the way to the other side of the planet. It would take the bulk of those troops another year before they could be moved into action, but there were a few who could be ready to go sooner.

Veterans of the Spanish-American War were already trained, already experienced, already battle tested. They would be the first to put American bootprints on the ground in Europe.

And among them was Alexander Arch, a Hungarian factory man from South Bend, Indiana.

General John Pershing was a man who was ready to go. He hadn't been able to rest comfortably during the brief peace after his campaign in the Spanish-American War, and the promise of the new conflict — if nothing else — at least gave Pershing something to do. He recalled many of the platoons and soldiers who served with him during the Spanish-American War, and by July, his American Expedition Forces arrived in France to train alongside the European armies, months ahead of the newly conscripted soldiers who would follow behind.

Pershing was not a patient man, and indeed, most generals aren't. By October, he was pushing toward the Western Front, driving artillery units toward the village of Bathelemont in north France. Battery C was the first group to arrive in range and the first to maneuver their guns into position.

Shortly after 6:00 in the morning on October 23, Battery C called to fire, and a French-manufactured 75mm explosive round was sent through the sky toward a German artillery battery. Whether the shot connected with its target didn't matter. The announcement was enough. The Americans were officially in the war.

The man who made the announcement stood at the other end of the gun, one hand still on the lanyard that launched the round into the early morning mist. The brave South Bender and native Hungarian, Sergeant Alexander Arch, had just fired the first American shot of the Great War.

The shot made Arch a national hero and the subject of profile pieces in the Washington Times and the New York Times. At the war's end, Arch received a three-minute standing ovation when he appeared before the House of Representatives. He marched in victory parades across the nation.

During the coming years, Arch would be selected as a mourner during the burial of the Unknown Soldier and would even meet President Harding in D.C. The government would capitalize on Arch's name and face again during the lead-up to World War 2, trotting him out to sell war bonds. Arch made front page news all over again when he reenlisted to help fight the Nazis. Although he was not conscripted and never saw action, Arch's endorsement was service enough.

Alexander Arch even rubbed shoulders with Hollywood starlets and was among the last people to see actress Carol Lombard alive. She died in a tragic plane crash just hours after appearing alongside Arch at a 1941 Indiana war rally.

 

 

Back in South Bend, the mayor designated October 29, 1919 as Alex Arch Day in the city and the county commissioners approved a $2,000 expenditure to help plan the festivities. Even Albert Erskine got in on the welcome wagon, gifting Arch a car and offering him a plum job with Studebaker, which Arch accepted.

Despite his insistence that he had no plans to marry, because “one war was enough,” Arch did eventually settle down with a South Bend girl named Julia, and the pair would raise four children together.

At the same time that Arch was being lauded across South Bend and the nation at large, the final parts of the Historic Edgewater Place neighborhood were being parceled and platted. The old Harper Court was renamed in the hero's honor — Arch Avenue.

Alexander Arch died in 1979 at the age of 85. He is buried in the Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Osceola.

Aaron Helman is an author, historian and adventurer from South Bend. You may have seen him around South Bend drinking coffee. Learn more about his work or check out his books at aaronhelman.com.