Lost Battalion Movie Question: The roll call of troops shows Lieutenant Lee having a problem with the names on the roll, what phenomenon in American history does this refer to?

The American history of immigrants from Europe

Explanation:

The Lost Batallion is a group of about 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in October 1918 in France during the closing weeks of W. W. 1.

This group consisted of many Irish, Polish, Italian and Jewish immigrants, mostly from New York. Surely it must have been difficult for Lieutenant to pronounce the names correctly

Immigration forms an indelible part of American history and in this case the European presence in the Lost Batallion is clearly caused by the big wave of European immigration from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. Most of these immigrants arrived at Ellis Island and if they were lucky they could continue their journey to New York.