Co F 9 th In fan try zud D i vis io n
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A D V E N T U R ES
AM E R I C A N
By
D O U G H B OY
WI LLIA M
B R OW N
C o . F , 9 t h In f an t ry , zud D ivi s ion , A E F
.
C o m pi l e d
g
an d arran e d
f ro m h i s
n
o te s
B y B I RD EE N A
P R ES S
S M I TH
-
T U TT LE
OF
% I N N E Y CO.
T A COM A .
WA S
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Co py ri h t I 9 I9
By
WILLIA M
BR OWN
T A COM A . W A SH .
JAN 2 7 l 920
8
5
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CONT ENTS
C H A PT E R I
I N TH E U .
S
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1
A.
C H A PT E R II
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CH A PT ER III
D U TIES
OF
27
A D O U GH B OY
C HAP T E R IV
B A TTLE
OF
TR I P
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T O PAR I S
C H A PT E R V I
B ATT LE OF
THE
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VA U %
C H A PT E R V
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55
S O ISS ON S
CH A PT E R V II
M IH IEL OFF EN SI VE
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C H A PT E R V III
H O S P IT AL
HOM E
60
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LI FE
A GA I N
CH A PT E R %
RECORD OF
2 N D D IVISI O N
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76
Th e Ad ve n t ure s
of
g
Dou h b oy
CH A P T E R I
IN
A m e ri ca n
an
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TH E U . s . A.
Wr iting a book wa s the l e ast o f m y i n t e n
tions good o r bad but s o many p eo pl e wh om
“
”
I hav e met since my retu r n from O v e r The r e
have be e n so intere st e d in t h e l ate wa r and
what t h e A me r icans di d in it that I have w r itten
this book—s o that anyone who i s inter e sted in
the a dventures o f a dou g
hboy wh o w e nt
th r ough al l t h e batt l es that the A mericans were
in with t h e e xception o f the A rgonne M euse
o ff ensive may r e l iv e them with him
E ve ry
thing I have written i s authe ntic
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A nd now t o the story M ost of my l ife has
been spent near Puget S ound p rinci p al l y in
S eatt l e
In M arch 1 1 7 I heard o f some g
ood
homes t ead l ands in M ontana and went there t o i n
ve s t i g
hoping to find o n e that suited
a t e them
me N othing suited me—I was restless an d the
n e wspap e rs only ma de it worse
The te rrible
atrocities that the Germans committed their
frightful crue l ty to non combatants
women
and children their ruthless destruction o f h o s
pital ship s made my fi g
hting Irish blood boil
I thought of war al l day an d dreamt o f it at night
and fe l t that A merica surely must get into it
but I cou l dn t wait so I e nlisted at V alier M o n
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A D VE N T URE S O F AN
2
tana in Co D o f the 2 u d M ontana N ational
Guard o n M arch 3 l s t 1 9 1 7
Co D s home was
at the A rmo ry in V alier s o we stayed there
three weeks and drille d though we had n o uni
forms
Then W e were ordered to Helena to o l d Fort
Har r ison and outfitte d there
Fort Harrison
is a re l ic o f o l d Indian days and the buildings
are in disreputable condition
General Persh
ing was a colonel there at o n e time
I had great fun getting into my uniform
and after I d donned it and laced my le ggings
di ff erent from these wrapped ones— m y
S ome
—
feet felt so light i t sure was a case o f high
stepping
W e had the o l d round blanket rolls
over o ur shoulde rs t o o instead o f the flat back
packs of to day and we had a great time when
“
”
we tried to
p ort arms an d fall into step
cadence
It j ust wouldn t work the o l d roll
was in the way
A fter outfitting without any further train
ing diff e rent companies were sent throughout
the S tate to do guard duty f o r M ontana was
having a great deal of trouble then with the
I W W S and pro Germans
Company D was
sent t o Great Falls then subdivi ded into detach
ments and sent out to g
uard the various bri d g
es
an d tunnels in the S tate
I was sent with a
detachment of eight which was later increased
t o fourteen to B e lt a mining town eighteen mi l es
from Great Falls o n tunn e l duty
The rail
road sidetracked a b o x car for us and we
camped in that and an army tent
The secon d night W e were the re
the
%
lieutenant in charge o f the details happened t o
—
r
o
be at u camp then )
about ele ven p m we
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AM ER IC A N D OU GHB O Y
3
heard a shot fire d at the Opp osite end o f the
tunne l by o u r guar d stationed there
We
j umped into o u r clothes grabbed o u r fl a s h
lights and ran pell mell through the tunnel
The guard had s een t w o men— j ust glimp sed
their heads over t h e t o p of the tunnel
The
lieutenant sent us up the two cuts to the top o f
the tunnel where we formed a skirmish line
He ordered u s to
A n d this is re ally funny
advance across a wheat fiel d and finally he
spotted a light not far distant—perhap s a ha l f
“
mile and shouted
There s a targ
et boys
”
everybody shoot
Believe m e we a l l unloaded
o u r guns
Then we advanced t o the farmhou s e
—
skirmished around i t hunted in the woods an
hour and a half but couldn t find a trace o f
the man
W e al l kne w t h e l ight was in t h e
farmhouse —all e x cept the l ieutenant The n ext
day we wanted some mi lk so we went t o t h e
farmhouse after it and found the fo lks nea rl y
sc a r ed to death
W e rea l ly had p e p p e re d the
—
f
S id e o
the house broke the windows an d had
j ust missed hitting the fa rmer s wife in the
he ad as she l ay in bed—the shot had imbedded
itse l f in the wa ll
The peo p le were Germans
and there were three Germans w o rking f o r
—
them mi lking e t c w h o had come over since
%
the war began
Looked queer didn t it
The
lieutenant apologized p rofusely
W e ski rmish
ed
over the hill and found a sack containing
dynamite about twe nty feet from where the
men were seen the night before
They had
evidently drop pe d it when the guard fired t o
arouse us
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A D VEN T U R E S O F AN
4
O ur lieute nant turned it in at company
headquarters at Great Falls and the tunnel
guard was dou b led at night—t w o men at each
end
Later the tunnel was visited by t w o more
men and we went up again
B ut the wheat
was t o o high and we couldn t find them
O ur
lieutenant had gone s o the house was spared
By the way o ur lieutenant was killed in
France
W e hated to lose him he was such a
dandy fine fellow
A fter that— no o n e was a ll owe d over the top
the tunne l without a special railroad pass
of
The R ailway C ompany sent a sp e cial gove rn
ment detective out t o Belt o n the case
He
worked as a blacksmith W hile in town
W e were drille d daily in di ff erent army f o r
mations by o u r sergeant an d we used to use
gophers for o ur target p ractice
The night
before we left th re e men tried to attack the
tunnel guard
N ow we had bui l t a crow s
nest half way up the hill above t h e tunnel an d
W he n t h e guard
o n e man was stationed there
saw thes e three men look over the t o p o f t h e
tunne l he called to t h e man in the crow s nest
—
H e started up but sli p ped o n a board and the
noise wa rned the m e n
W he n he gained the
t op his gun proved no good— s o h e threw it
down and chased th e m but they g
o t awa y
The
guard called us with a shot and we scoured the
woods but could find no trace o f them
S ome
h o w we always suspicione d the three Germans
at the farmhouse
The next day we were r e l i e ved by rai l
road watchme n an d went up t o Gre at Fal l s f o r
t wo days o n our way to Helena
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A D VEN T UR E S
6
O F AN
The winter there was awful It snowe d and
rained o ur tents were flooded and the parade
ground was a mud hole It was bitter cold most
the time and the A labama troops s n fi e re d
of
terrib l y
Then the S unset Division was formed and
o u r company was o n e o f
its units
E ach com
pany received a hundred drafted men
all
W estern men— and we had to train them After
a few weeks of this we finished outfitting were
given new packs new rifles and new shoes
M uch to ou r sorrow our bear was put in t h e
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AMER IC AN D O U GHB O Y
CH A PT ER
11
7
.
FRA N CE
IN
A t l ast the g
lad news came that we were to
leave f o r France S o o n D ecember the fifteenth
we fairly sneaked onto the Leviathan
S he i s the largest ship
o f us and 5 0 0 nurses
afloat the V aterland of t h e Hamburg A merican
Line
W hen war was declared her crew dam
ag
but o u r naval engineers soon
e d her engines
fixed them up and made her ready f o r use
All flashlights and cameras were taken away
and we sailed the next morning T h e portholes
o f the ship were p ainted over so that no lights
would S how
S he had really been transformed
into a crui se r with big guns m o unted o n the
deck an d the finest marksmen in the navy o n
duty beside them and o u r lookouts could see
eight een mi l es The Leviathan was the on l y shi p
se nt across without a convoy
A fter we were
—
w e ran o u r course in a zig
o u t three days
zag fashion
There was n o telling W here we
“
”
were goin g The great game o f
S omewhere
was in vogue and we were some what relieved
when six submarin e chasers and o ne ae r op l an e
met us o ff the coast o f Ireland
A nd then we
had the only e xcit e ment we had o n the
who l e trip
Th e
aero pl ane sighted a submarine and
si g
na l ed t o the chase r s Two o f them went ahead
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A D VE N T U R E S OF A N
8
of us and thr ew u p a smoke scre e n while we went
ahead at o u r usual s p eed
Those chasers we re
l itt l e but O h M y % They carried a crew o f
o n e hundred and ten men and they could spot
a submarine two miles away and hit it be fore
it had time to submerge
W e anchored at the mouth of the M ersey
R iver E n g
land and lay there a l l night Chri stmas
Day W e a r rived at Liverpoo l and had Christmas
dinne r o n board the shi p —a dandy turkey dinner
On the 2 6 t h
we were transferred directly
from the ship to the train W e we re not a l lowed
ashore but what I saw of Liverpool from the
ship seem e d quaint and o l d fashioned
We
arrived at W inchester a very l arge rest and
training camp in S outhern E ngland at night
and the next day I had my first glimpse o f a
German prisoner
H e certainly looked o d d to
me
A n d t o o I saw E ngl ish girls in uniform
working in o f ficer s bille ts
O n Dec 2 8t h we were sent down to S outh
ampton and crowded like flies onto a ship f o r
“
”
The Great A dventure
The Channel was fear
“
”
fully rough — and
all lights o u t
made it
worse W e had no i dea W here we were to land
and boys who had enj oyed the ocean trip were
fearfully seasick
B e l eive me that was some
night
W e were glad to see La Havre in the morn
ing— gl ad to march three mi l es back to an E ng
lish rest camp and feel we had at last re ached
There were qui t e a few German p ris
o u r goa l
oners here—strange looking fell o ws— some in
smiles and some su l l e n
Their French gu ards
l ooked like Japanese and I noticed the l ong
s le nder bayonets o n thei r guns
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AME RIC A N D O U GHB O Y
9
Fou rteen o f us were crowded into tents su p
posed to be occupied by eight There was sn o w
it was very cold and the food
o n the ground
”
“
was p unk —j ust bread cheese tea and j am .
In the E nglish Y M C A I met an E nglish
soldier who aske d me in broad Cockney why the
“
American troops had com e t o F r ance
We
can t W hip Frit z— s o it s a cinch y o u can t
—
—
r
f
I had my Opinion o f him and o o u boys but
I held my tongue
W e reste d two days— i f you cou l d call it
“
”—
at
that and were ordered o ff to S omewhere
least we marched down to the freight yards
The stre ets were so narrow an d the houses s o
ol d
that I felt as if I were in some ancient
city
W e were loaded into box cars — litt l e French
“
”
4 0 hommes o r 8 c h e ve a ux
ones that ho l d
forty men o r ei g
ht horses )
W e had fifty
%
men in o u r car
I shal l never forget that b o x car W e found
some wine casks in the railroad yards an d aft e r
helping ourselves we filled our canteens
We
had to pay f o r that wine months afterwards
j ust before o u r company left )
W e certainly
%
were happy % we were so sure that we were
boun d straight f o r t h e front
O h %that box car was cold
A t last o n e of
us lit upon the happy expedient o f building a
fire o n the floor
W e did and near l y smoked
ourselves o ut at l east we smoked ourselves
beyond recognition and to add to the excit e
ment o u r car caught fire an d the train had t o
stop until we put it o ut
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A D VE N T URE S
10
O F AN
—
After two days o f this sort o f hardship w e
thought it was real hardship t o o %
we di d n t
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40
o ur
know what t h e months would b r i n g
)
”
men o r 8 horses car arrived at La Courtine
in the central part of France
Talk about
being disappointed
La Courtine was a quaint
on
a hill— a replica of so
o l d fashioned town
many French V illages
A bout a half mile o ut
town was a fort with large barracks
O ne
of
o f these was full o f impri soned R ussian officers
R evolutions we re the fad in R ussia— s o true
to type these R ussians started a revolution among
themselves in the barracks and the French turned
machine guns o n them The windows were shat
t e r e d and the bricks clipped o ff by the fly
ing bullets
W hen the French finally e ntered
the building they found ve ry few R ussians
unhurt and these few willing g
t h e m s e l ve s
ave g
up
The de ad and wounded strewed the floor
— o u r first bit of war
W e were at La Cou rtin e o n e un f o rg
et ab l e
week
N ot only o n account of the above inci
dent but becaus e o u r rations were short —only
canned willy t o eat an d we had no tobacco and
the French t o bacco was so rotten we couldn t
smoke it I wou l d have given five do ll ars for a
sack of Bu ll Du r ham
Then we were l oaded into b o x cars again
“
”
f or
S omewhere
S now cove re d the g
r ound
and it was bitter co l d
Fina ll y w e arrived at Lan g
r es in the Haute
M a rne district
There was ple nty of snow
here and it was v e ry co l d in the l arge o l d brick
and stone barrack s where we were bi l leted
The c ement floors were s o hard to s l e e p on o n e
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A D VEN T U R E S O F AN
12
no b e er on tap That bar surely needed A meri
—
firs t at
c a n i z i n g A ll the beer was in bottles
half franc— later at three fourths franc o r
”
“
7 5 centimes
W e cal l o ur r e staurants cafes
—but a cafe i s re ally a drinking place This
in Langres had a p retty barmai d and we
on e
—
used t o hold lengthy conversations she and I
“
—with the ai d o f my E asy French for the
”
S oldier
That book left o ut all the re a ll y i m
portant wo r ds A t any r ate I progressed mar
v e l o us l y in the wine s— the red and the whit e
vin rouge and vin b l anc %
the re should have be e n
a blue one ) though my pronunciation was atro
cio n s
Imagine an A merican with a Irish
brogue ta l king Fr e nch
A t ten p m the cafe c l osed— tho a l l shades
were tightly drawn as soon as lights were l it
for fear o f air raids and Lord knows they
were numerous enough
—
—
N o t far from Langres o n a side hi l l a
fountain gushed forth from the mouth o f an
image o f some prehistoric animal and flowed
down to two bathing pools o n di ff ere nt l evels
below
The stone was covered with carved
names
They told us that these pools belonged
to Julius Caesar an d that his wives
were
fond o f bathing here It certainly looks ancient
—
enough the stone work is so weather beaten
E vidently the uppe r poo l was for bathing and
“
”
f o r it was e dg
the lower o n e f o r sunning
ed
with large flat ro cks
O ne day while I was there anothe r so l dier came
“
”
up who had been imbibing too much vin rou g
e
—
S tanding very close to the p ond h e lectu r ed t o
me o n Caesar and his bathing p ro p ensiti e s with
a ppro p riate gestures
when sudde nly he s l i pp e d
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AM ER IC AN D O U GHB O Y
13
and fell in thus achieving the honor o f b e ing
firs t —perhaps the only A merican soldie r t o
bathe in Caesar s p ool—for the so l die r s we re
n o t a l lowed t o use it
I took my new friend t o a nearby house t o
d ry out and the l ady o f the house fed us eggs
and potatoes durin g the pro c e ss
W hen it
—
came to eating I tell y o u that boy was sober
Later I made the acquaintance of two p ro
minent motion picture men w h o were both pri
vates in Co A 2 9 t h E ngine ers and a p iano
player from the O rp heum c ircuit
On e evening we four went out together and
after several gl asses o f wine %
vin b l anc ) we
decided to form a quartette and ca ll it the
“
“
”
V in B l a n e %uartette
It surely was blank
m gand decide d to have a
We started o ut a s m g
“
”
cognac drive
It must have been a mighty
drive f o r I awoke in the morning absolutely
blank as t o what had happened
They told me
h t n ga French d o g W hatever it was
I d bee n fig
he certainly messed up my fac e
W e had one dandy song
It was dedicated
to any young man who was looking f o r a swee t
heart and it went like this %
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Oh % s h e p r o m i s e d t o
m eet
m e
w h en t h e
c l o ck
h a l f p a s t fo u r
A t t h e s t o c k y a r d s ju s t f ou r m i l es o u t of t o wn
S h e i s c o c k e y e d s h e i s cr az y ,
S h e i s kn o c k kn e e d , s h e i s l az y ,
S h e i s c r o s s e y e d a n d. p i eo n - t o e d an d l a m e
A n d h er t e e t h a r e p h o n y
F r o m c h e wi n
S wi s s b o l o n a
’
S h e s fr e c k l e -f a c e d c o n s u m p t i ve M ar y Jan e ,
”
S om e B a b y .
s t ru c k
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A D VE N T U R E S
14
O F AN
W e felt that this song was really touching
especial l y c h e ering to lonesome
lovesick
soldiers
The Y M C A had a good hut at Langres
where we liked to gather an d sing and we sang
good songs t o o
S ometimes we would see a
sad looking b o y sitting by him se lf thinkin go f
—
home and mother perhaps but not for ve ry
long f o r some other doughboy would discover
him and crack j o kes with him unti l the l one
s o m e n e s s was forgotten
Langres boasted an o l d cathedral too built
in 1 7 0 0 A D o r the reabouts
The tower had
never been finished but the interio r was really
wonderful
The houses of the town were constructed
of
stone % e ven the floors were stone and car
The p eople di dn t seem to know what
p et l e s s
and the beds were the odde st
c arpets were
—
things you ever saw s o high that they us e d
a ladder to c l imb into them—an d a feather b e d
o f down f o r a covering
The pesky thing kept
slipping o ff at night It really should have b een
anchore d
Al l the furniture corres p onded with
—
the house antique i s the word
There was nothing antique about the milk
maid % a dear she was— who drove her d o g
cart into town every morning loaded with i t s
cans o f milk S he wa l ked by it goodness knows
how far but her wooden shoes k e p t her feet
dry and clattered merrily a l ong on the cobble
stones
The wagons o f France are very high t wo
wheeled carts an d the horses a re always hitch e d
in singl e fi l e not side by si de as we hitch ours
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AME RIC AN D O U GHB O Y
15
The o l d hotel bus had a lad d er hooked o n
it which use d t o puzzle me until
o n e side o f
I saw the driver lean it against the bus one
day and climb up t o bring the baggage down
from the top
I certa inly laughed at that an d
the j oke was o n me
In our company we had an o l d man whom
”
“
we had nick named
Powder R iver
long b e
fore we l eft M ontana His favorite saying was
“
Powder R iver— a mile wi de and an inch deep
”
let e r buck % E very tim e he wou l d say it an
“
other old fellow i n the company used to say Hook
“
”
“
”
em cow %
Powder R iver and Hook em
”
were great pals
They were a pair o f
Cow
comica l ducks
“
”
O ne day I saw Hook em C ow going down
the stre e t with a swe l l l ooking French dams e l
and when I asked him how he had captured
“
”
her he answered Ji s t hooked h e r like a c o w
“
”
A gain I saw Powder R iver in a b l ack j ack
game and later when I asked him how he came
“
out he said I blowed up_b ut Powde r R iver s
—
a mi l e wi de and an inch deep s o let e r buck
I m j ust as happy without m oney as I am with
”
it
“
”
S cotty was in our com p any t o o and he was
“
”
every inch a fighter But S cotty liked the amber
foam t o o well and s p e nt most o f hi s time in
“
”
the guard house which didn t worry S cotty
in the least I remember seeing him once—b e
fore the M P s had gotte n him trying to lea d
two goats that he had picked up on the roa d
somewhere into town I laughed s o hard I had t o
sit down
He wou l d pull an d pull those goats
and when the goats refused to move he tried
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A D VEN T U R E S O F AN
16
to push them
Time after time they butted
him over an d S cotty was about t o give up when
the brilliant thought o f milking them came
t o him . That proved a failure t o o s o he gave
it up and meandered o n down t o the barracks
eluded the guard an d finished the day in peace
ful sleep
I went o n down t o the Y M C A hut
—
It happened t o be quiet there t h e tin pan
p iano was still and silence reigned
W hen it
is quiet a doughboy always thinks Of home—s o
I wrote t o my mother dear and se nt her this
litt l e p oem which I had written and cal l ed
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“
L on e l y I
si
t
an d
M Y M OT H E R
th i n k
”
t h e p as t,
s w e e t t o l as t .
o
f
A n d d r e a m of l ove t o o
A r o u n d m e b l o o m s m a n y a fr a r an t f l o wer
Th e
ar d e n s a r e s p r e a d , r i c h l a wn a n d b o w e r
M y l i t t l e r a n c h h o m e wi t h a p o rc h s o wi d e
T o w h i ch I on c e b r o u h t a b l u s h i n
b ri d e
A n d w h e n s h e c a m e t o t h r i l l m y s o u l wi t h b l i s s
’
S h e f a d e d a n d v an i s h e d b y a n o t h e r m a n s ki s s .
B u t I h a v e a fr i e n d , m o s t l o v a b l e o f a l l
I c a n a l m o s t h e ar h er
en t l e c a l l .
S o m e t i m es h er en t l e s p i ri t i s wi t h m e ,
S o m e t i m e s h er s m i l i n
fa c e I s e e .
T h en I l au h a n d c a n s p u r n an y o t h e r
A s t h i s d e ar o n e i s m y m o t h er .
’
—
I m
et ti n
o l d er— t h e
u
n
e
I am
s
i s s tti n
ch i l l e d
”
M o t h er d e ar , y ou r p l a c e i s w a i t i n , n e v e r fil l e d
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
g
.
A D VEN T U R E S O F AN
18
di d
It requi red about three days to outfit
them then Off t o the front they wou l d go a h
other bunch woul d arrive an d the same per
f o rm a n c e would be gone thru again
Instead o f being sent t o the guard house
”
“
S cotty and I w e re given the highly de sirable
“
”
position as kitchen police
Talk about
work % E very bunch of casuals seemed hun
grier than the last ones and if eating fitted
Y ou
the m f o r t h e front—they sure we r e fit
never saw hap p i e r bun c hes
N ext to o ur kitchen was a p rivate resi dence
and the l ady o f the house was mo r e than goo d
t o S cotty and I
W hen we we r e n o t busy she
would invite us ov e r to her p arlor f o r a g
lass
of
r are O l d win e and some music
S h e had
a p iano and seemed t o e nj oy the r a g
t ime
music that I cou l d p lay
S h e had ne ve r heard
ra g
tim e be fore which pr obab l y acc ounts f o r it
S cotty would sin gS cotc h son g
s to my ac c om
p a n i m e n t an d the lady wou l d l ook at u s in
”
“
w o nde r
S he used to invite Co D s non co m
quartette in t o o Of course I always butte d into
“
”
a l l qua r te tte s o ngs with my fine V in Blanc
tenor
I thought I cou l d sing but they to l d me
it was rotten
I shou l d worry % I always e n
j oyed myself making a noise anyway Thi s was
o u r favorite song %
“
D ru n k l a s t n i g
h t d ru n k t h e n i g
h t b ef o r e
Go i n gt o g
e t d ru n k t o n i g
h t as I n e ver d i d b ef o r e
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F or wh en I m d ru n k, I m a s h ap p y a s c a n b e
‘
’
A n d I a m a m e m b e r of Co m p a n y D .
Gl o r i o u s , l o r i ou s on e k e of b eer f o r t h e f ou r
’
g
o
f
’
,
g
us
Gl o r y b e t o Go d t h a t t h er e a r e
F o r t h e f o u r o f u s c an d r i n k i t
no
al
l
m or e
a l on e.
o
f
us ,
AMER IC AN D O U GHB O Y
19
We sang this n o t because we really wer e
drinking men of such caliber but because it had
plenty o f harmony in it Y o u understand
A nother funny thing when y o u weren t the
chief actor was to watch a doughboy try t o
talk to a pretty French girl
The girl would
—
—
talk in French the soldier in E nglish their
“
”
only word I n common was O ui — the French
“
”
“
”
The n they
f o r yes and it sounds like wee
would try talking with their han d s like a couple
Hebrews and eve ntually they seemed to u n
of
d e r s t a n d each other tho it was rich to watch
them
M ontrichard is surrounded by vineyards
and farms and the grass i s green the year
”
“
around
%e ep ers who take care o f the large
vineyards contro ll ed by E nglish interests live in
c aves in the hillside where the wine is stored
They hol d ve ry responsible positions and have
a great dea l Of work to do
A fter the gra p es
—
t
it is
are picked and the j uice pressed o u
st o red in l arge vats in these caves and left
there to age
The French use wine as we use tea and
co ffee and se l dom eat a mea l without their glass
”
“
of
V in R ouge
There is an O l d castle at M ontrichard cen
t ur i e s Old where it i s said %ing R ichard was
impri soned f o r five years— then escape d through
a tunnel d ug
by one of his friends
W e used
it as a guar d house
The O l d cells were absolu t ely with o ut any
light an d the Ol d ta nk was still there in which
people were drowned in ancient times f o r
various off ense s
The sides o f the tank were
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A D VEN T U R E S
20
O F AN
about ten feet high and the water very deep
so there was no chance for escape
The chape l must have been built before the
castle was it looked so much Older and more
weather beaten
On e day I watche d the little children o f
the villa g
e m ake their first communion
The
little girls were dressed in white with long
white veils whi l e the boys were in black with
white glove s and straw hats
B efore making
communion they march e d through the vi ll age
streets— the children l eading car ryin ga large
banner fo l lowed by the p ri e sts i n the ir robes
and then the r e l atives
all solemnly sin g
ing
The p eo pl e by the r oadside crossed the mse l ves
as the procession p assed and I rememb e r in g
my o wn first communion in my far away chi l d
hood did likewise
It was v e ry im p ressive and
it wil l a l ways be o n e of my most precious mem
o r i e s o f France
A few days l ate r a sad auto acc i dent o c~
curred in which a Y M C A work e r and
a private we re ki ll ed
A squad o f us w a s
ordered to dig a g
rave f o r the m in the c e me
t e ry
A n Ol d m a n about ninety years o f a g
e
met us there t o show us whe re to dig and we
learned that he had been the c ar e ta ker and
grave digger of this cemete ry all his l ife Wh e n
we had dug one grave about four feet de e p
we struck something hard and discovered a bone
“
Of a human being and a litt l e late r— S had e s o f
”
w e dug up a skul l an d before o u r
Yorick —
graves were finished we had dug up two s k e l e
tons
The Old man told u s that when the
graves were a certain number o f years o l d
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AME RI CAN D O U GHB O Y
21
they were d ug up to make room f o r more graves
—
O nly the vaults are never disturbed s o some of
the cemeteries o f France must be ce nturies Old
”
“
M y position as kitchen police seemed to
—
be a never e nding jo b j ust one bunch after
another o f tired hungry casuals
It got o n
“
my nerves and I began to think that
The
”
Front was a myth— s o I decided to ask the
captain if I could go to the front with the next
bunch of casuals
Th e captain gave me permission t o go so
”
“
I dropped my position as kitchen police i m
mediately and went into training and I trained
with a will
W e were closer to the Huns now
than we had been in M ontana
T h e Cher R iver ran close t o o u r training
grounds and on e hour o f o u r training each day
was devoted to swimming
The boys who di d
n o t know how to swim were usually thrown in
by o u r sturdy swimming instructors and it
“
”
was a case of sink o r swim
but it certainly
put us in the p ink o f condition in a very sho rt
time
A t last we were notifie d that we were t o
leave and for fear our destination wouldn t
suit me I scouted around and much to my
disgust found o u t that the next bunch Of casuals
were to be sent to t h e A lsace Lorraine Fron t
N o w I knew there was very little fighting
“
”
on
that Front and I thirsted f o r the fray %
so I asked the captain if I might wait and go
with anothe r bunch o f casuals but he a b s o
l ute l y refused me his permission t o do this
S O what could I do but j ust hide until the train
had go ne
I certainly was reprimanded f o r
that stunt but I will always be gla d I di d i t
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A D VEN T URE S OF AN
22
“
’
even tho I had to go back to the kitchen as kit
”
chen po l ic e
M or e casuals came an d trained and
work w e nt o n as usual
T h e Germans at this time were making an
advance o n Paris an d I fe l t sure that A merican
soldiers wou l d be use d there so when orders
cam e that I was to leave for the front with the
next train l o ad o f casuals an d I foun d o ut that
o u r destination was to be somewhere near Paris
I was sure I had guessed right Th e r e was o n e
happy Yank in camp that night f o r I f e lt
“
”
now that I was on my way t o the big fig
ht
and I was sorry that S cotty had gone to Al sace
Lorraine with the other train load
There were about five hundred o f us and o u r
de parture was kept very secret W e were lined
u p about
A M an d escorted t o a l onely
de p ot three miles distant
At
we we r e
loaded into box cars and Off we went
The trip was uneventful but we boys were
for we were really g
o ing t o a
c ertain l y hap p y
“
”
fighting front
W e tapped a l l the j oy water
k e gs we could find on o u r tri p as we went thru
O ur lives were at stak e
t h e various vil l ages
“
”
we shou l d worry % W e d be
s o we fe l t that
happy f o r the little while we had left
W e passed through some very interesting
towns and villa g
es
O rleans a city of
is a very large and beautifu l town o f very
ancient origin
It lies o n the right bank Of
the L o ire and is surrounded by a wonderfu l
f orest
Joan o f A rc led the French troops
when the y retook O rleans from the E nglish
“
—
1
42
9
in
and after that she was ca lled The
”
M ai d Of O rleans
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A D VEN T URE S OF AN
24
was getting d usk with no lights except the
flashes from the cannon whe n they were fired
flashes that threw a weird gleam into the gath
ering darkness
It was as if some giant han d
were Opening roaring f u rn a n c e doors and shut
ting them again with a tremendous bang
O ur truck passed by a camouflaged gun j ust
as it went Off and we nearly j umped o ut o f our
skins— i t was S O unexpected
French soldiers
were Operating it an d the y held their hands
over their ears when they fired it
W e passed
through many small villages where there wasn t
a sign o f a civilian
A l l we re des e rted with
only a few French soldiers on guard
The
farther toward the front we went the more
camouflaged gu n s we saw
They were usually
—
the world famous 7 5 s t h e gun that wrought
more havoc with the Hun s army an d su ppl ie s
than any other
It i s really a marvelous gun
W e were ordered to unload at a litt l e vil l age
called Chaumont e n Vi x i n ne ar V aux and re
port to the headquarters o f the 9 t h Infantry
R egu l ars of the 2 n d D ivision %
The 2 u d D ivisio n
was composed o f the 9 t h and 2 3 r d Infantry and
the 5 t h an d 6 t h M arines besi des the usua l
bat t e ri e s o f arti ll ery machine gun batta l ions
m e n ) to be
engineers etc in a ll about
placed in diff erent companies of the 9 t h In
f a n t ry
I was assigned to Co F and after being
loaded up with am m unition was s e nt down to
where the company was holding the line a b o ut
a mi l e and a half f r om the Paris road W hen I
arrived there with some others e v e ry t h n gwas
very quiet
But presently I began to fe e l that
there would soon be som e thing doing and b e
It
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AME R IC AN D O U GHB O Y
25
lieve me there was % The Fre nch bombarded
the little town o f M o n n ea ux and I never had
We
heard s o much noise in my l ife before
could scarcely make ourselves heard
The Ge r
mans had been h o l d n gthe town f o r two hours
when at
A M orde rs came f o r us to take
the town M y wish had at last come true The
barrage kept j ust ahead Of us and away we
went but we were t oo impetuous in t o o much
Of a hurry and some o f the boys ran into o u r
e and were killed
That taught us
o wn barra g
a much needed lesson and in all of o u r other
battles we worked in fine c o operation with the
artillery
A t last we took M o n n e a ux but to o ur great
disap p ointment n o t a Ge rman was to be seen
They had evacuated the town during the bom
W hen the
b a r d m e n t e vi dent l y in great haste
civilians l eft the town during the advance o f
the Germans the y had to leave so quickly that
everythin gthey owned was left behind—their
catt l e chicke ns rabbits etc The artill e ry kil l e d
some o f them but aft e r we took the town they
made many a fe ast fo r o ur tired hungry
dou g
hboys
A nd som etimes we certa inly were
hungry
The re were some very fine homes in
the town too in which w e w e r e bil l eted and
say it was j ust swell to l ie in o n e of those b i g
beds all covered up w t h feather beds o f down
aft er sleeping o ut o n the cold hard ground
W e used the cel l ars too to gre at advantag
e
during he avy she ll fir e
N O use taking chanc e s
O ur line was established o n the outskirts o f
M o n n e a ux within a hundred yards Of the Paris
S O thi s road down which so many m e n
road
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A D VE N T U R E S OF A N
26
and ladies o f high degree had gone into Paris
“
”
was now N O M an s Land
The first thing
we di d was to dig i n — and dig in j ust deep
enough so as to be somewhat protected from
shell fire In none of our campaigns did we ever
stop long enough to dig trenches such as t h e
French and Germans had done
The holes w e
dug tho came in mighty handy and at times
there would have been a gre at many more casu
a l t i e s if it had n o t been f o r them
W e were real l y l ucky to be able to e stab
lish o u r line here for we w e re in a little valley
about twenty fe et wi de with a fine stream
running through it an d we used that stream to
good advantage and thought Of it Often in the
days that followed when we had to lay in
m u d with no chance o f a wash until we were
relieved
W e held this line f o r thirty nine days before
we made an attack and I want to tell a few
of
the experi e nces we had during those days
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AMER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
CH A PT ER III
D U TIES OF
TH E
27
.
D O U GH B O Y S
W e were divi ded into squads and each squa d
had its position in the l ine
A nd that position
was our home Be l ieve me— i t was some home
A hole in the ground f o r a house the sky f o r a
roof two army blankets for a covering and your
helm e t f o r a pillow
It wasn t quite as l u xu r i
but we re ally enj o yed i t
o u s as a mansion
f o r it was s o o ut o f the ordinary
N ext t o us French poilus occupied about half
of Hill 2 0 4
The Germans still held the other
half N ext to the French were the 5 t h and 6 t h
M arine s holding the line at Chateau Thierry
Hill 2 0 4 ha d
an d they were having a h o t time
to be taken before our line could be straighten
ed Out
W e had expected the French to take
it the day after we took o u r position o n June
l st
1 9 1 8 but the Germans made the attack
We had a fine V iew o f the battle It was a great
s ight
The Germans attacked in mass forma
tion an d the French machine gunners mowed
them down by the hundreds so that their a t
tack was a complet e failure
Then the German
“
”
a rtillery turned l o o se o n o ur lines and
wo wi e
—those shells hit close If we happened t o be
a way from our resp e ctive ho l es w h e n a b o m
b a r d m e n t began
we dived for the first o n e
“
”
handy for any ho l e was home sweet home
w hen t h e shells be g
an to burst near us
It
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A D VEN T U R E S OF AN
28
rea l ly was laughable t h o t o watch every dough
boy dive a t the same instant W e all developed
some speed The bombardment would last abou t
fifteen o r twenty minutes and then quietness
would reign— and the quietness was wonde r
ful U nconsciously we would breathe deep sighs
Of relie f and O h %such a wave o f thankfulness
would surge thru o u r hearts
Perhap s we would have pe ace for an hour
“
”
and then whiz ban g and another b o m
o r so
“
ad i n fin
b a r d m e n t would commence an d so o n
”
itum
Those were the kind o f pl e asure p il l s
Jerry gave us during o u r thirty nine days out
ing there
He always she l led us when he
thought he wou l d catch us unawar e s but we
were wise to his tactics and the way he played
the game
The German sni p er was the one we had t o
—
watch out for f o r he was the trickiest soldier
t h e German had and an absolutely dead sho t
—
W hen he shot h e shot to kil l and rare l y missed
his mark H e used a w o nderfu l ly a c curate sight
Th e troub l e
o n his gun ca ll e d a te l escop e sight
with t h e nasty devi l was that he was so hard t o
fin d — for he was usually so well concealed and
camouflaged B ut once we l ocated him that was
the e n d o f Herr S ni p er for we sent o ut a small
p atrol flanked him o n a ll si des—s o as to make
escap e imp o ssib l e and p r oce e ded t o re move him
from this ea rthly s p h e r e
A snipe r never wa s
taken prisone r
O nce severa l o f o ur men we re ki ll ed by a
sniper that we cou l dn t se e m to spot F o r two
days we watched continuously with strong
glasses bef ore we locat e d him
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AMER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
29
S everal days before an o l d c o w peacefully
”
“
grazing in N O M an s Lan d
had been killed
by a shrapnel shell
A t night t h e Huns h a d
sent a patrol o ut hauled the dead c o w in an d
substituted a pasteboard c o w with a sniper
inside—prepared for devilment But he ma d e
t h e great mistake of moving aroun d t o o much
“
”
and accidently moved the
dead
cow
O ne
Of o u r sergeants saw this and ordered a few
Of our men to fire at it
Goodnight S ni p er
A nother sniper conceale d himself near us
in a tree
He was quite cleverly camouflage d
f o r he had painted himself uniform and gun
all green
It was hard to locate him too o u t
“
”
we made him l ook green when we did
The German m achine gunners were als o very
clever about concealing themse l ves and usually
stuck to their guns unti l the end A bunch of us
ran into some machine g
unners on e day who had
been chained to the trees close b y their guns
b y their o wn men
The Huns were cruel both
t o their o wn men and t h e enemy
O ne place I remember particularly
It was
in the Chate au Thier ry drive
The Huns had
painted a l arge R ed C ross o n the towe r Of a
h alf ruined town hal l beyond V aux
W e thought
they were using it for a hospita l and o ur
artil l ery never thought of shel l in g it
N ow
here s what Je rry did % H e had a machine gun
planted up there in the tower and shot down
a lot o f o ur troops goin gthru before we dis
covered where the shells came from
W hen
we went to take it we h ad to break thru a heavy
t rap door padlocked on the outside mind y o u
Those D utchmen were locked in by their o wn
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A D VE N T U R E S OF
30
AN
—
men and when we di d get in we p ai d them
,
back for the dead boys in khaki along the road
“
”
They tried the %amerad stuff but we threw
o t th r ough
the m o ut the window and when they g
falling 1 5 0 feet they didn t man any m ore
machine guns
the
OH duty we were a happy bunch
Yankee doughboy usually is
Fear never e nter
ed Our heads and what time we di d have t o our
selves we s p ent i n the little de serted village of
M o n n e a ux
W e gathered in all the cattle p igs
chickens and rabbits and kept them c o r ra l e d
and f e d th em so when we wanted a swe ll feed
we had it
I made a rather good start at learning the
butcher s trade in M on n e a ux
On e day I was
ramb l ing a r ound l o oking at the empty houses
an d ran into a r e a l c l assy looking home E very
thing was i n its place j ust as the peop l e had
—
i
t
left
s o I deci ded t o take possession o f it for
the time bein g T h e kitchen was a dandy o n e
and I was hungry— s o I decided to have a feed
“
”
The garden was ful l o f green stuff and pota
o t a hind l e gOf a pig that had been
toes an d I g
butchered in ou r corra l
Gee %but that was a
f e ed that can never be dup l icated
I roasted that leg in the oven with the pota
t oes and fixed up everything else eatable that
I could find in the garden
But you can t e nj oy anything a l one so I i n
v i t e d a couple o f French soldiers in Off the street
t o dine with me
N ow they knew o f a cellar
in which there was still some rare o l d cham
pagne so they hurried Off to fetch some for o u r
banquet W e ate and drank to o ur heart s co n
tent and forg
ot the war and a ll its miseries
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AMER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
31
O ur company like d to come back t o M on
neaux in the daytime and pile into the big
“
”
comfy be ds in the deserted houses and sleep
We were so busy at night that we had to sleep
in the daytime
O nce I was peacefully s l eeping in my man
s ion when without the slightest warning a she l l
burst in the room next to me and nearly covered
me with plaster O ut I tumbled and made f o r the
cellar where I slumbered de eply during the rest
o f the bombardment
This house had a very fine piano in it and
we boys enj oyed it s o—kept it busy every minute
we were free
Two Of the boys found a trom
bone and a bass horn and we formed a j azz
“
”
band and ca l led it the D ou g
hboys Jazz
We
found s o me stovepipe hats and swallow tail
coats t o o and we d dress u p in those
W e we re a continual surprise to the French
soldiers in the village
They us e d t o look at
us as if we were maniacs
W e di dn t worry
about that tho and we di d have the time o f
o ur lives
We gave a cabare t show one day— with o u r
band and dress suits
It was simply swell and
we laugh e d s o much we never noticed the bom
b a r d m e n t tho the town was under heavy shell
fire a t the tim e
W e couldn t let a little thing
like that stop o u r show
“
”
W e had
Fatima
the fattest person in
captivity and the g
reatest ballet dancer in the
wor l d at least in o u r estimation
He wore
such wonderful gowns Oh % baby % A petti
coat and a corset
W hen h e wou l d balle t
you know d ance a skirt dance o r s o right when
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A D VEN T U R E S OF A N
82
it began to get interesting his fo o t would slip
and down he would g
a la Fatty
o with a crash
A rbuck l e
”
“
Cannon Ball Pete gave a monologue in
which he declared he could eat more cannonballs
than the %aiser could manufacture
A nother o n e of the boys put o n a good act
”
“
entitled Dirty E va
the c h a rm n gsociety girl
from S yracuse N Y and the world at l arge
S h e cou l d eat mud with as much re l ish as we
“
”
would fried chicken
D irty E va
was so
dirty that we used t o bathe her with water from
the M arne and save the water and use it as a
cem e nt substitute t o wa l l up our ho l e s in the
ground
“
”
Bayonet Jim
the ne x t o n the program
cou l d swa l low a bayon e t with ease and p l easure
and cut Off hi s ri g
ht arm without a pain o r
twitch W henever I touched him f o r some cash
“
h e wou l d say
Y o u can have anythin gI have
”
”
“
ev e n my ri g
ht arm
He was a wonde rful
man
We thought o ur show was sim p ly imm e nse
and we were wondering how we cou l d make
“
”
arran g
ements f o r a world tour when
Lou
%
came in S ounds l ike a fema l e doesn t it
But
it was only o u r l ieutenant and he to l d u s we
were great dea l better soldiers than actors
so we took his word f o r it and went back o ut
to the lines to pre p are f o r o u r night s work
which was usua ll y made up of trench digging
patrol duty and barbed wire stringing
I en
j oyed stringing the wire e ntangl ements
It was
rea ll y interesting work
O ur trenches here were o nly three feet de ep
—
s o we needed t h e entanglements
f o r in case
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A ME R IC A N
D OU GHB O Y
33
an enemy attack o u r rifles could d o a deadly
o t through
amount o f work before the Huns g
the wire
The troops statione d back o f the front line
usually in a small wood formed details and cut
stakes for us and brou g
ht them and the wire
down t o us two miles ahead after it grew dark
Then a platoon was detailed from the front
line trenches to strin g the wire
O dd but
the coils of wire used to make me home sick for
the ranch
I d strung so much o f it there f o r
such a diff erent p urp ose
A ny way we l eft the tr e nches at ten and
worked until t wo in t h e morning
A machine
gun an d gunners we r e a l ways sent o ut ah e ad
of us in case o f an attack s o we fe l t j ust as
safe as if we we r e o n o u r o wn doorstep and
even g
rew s o bo l d that we talk e d out l oud
S o l diers have a queer way o f g
etting used to
most anything and we are al l fata l ists after a
fashion
We usually went o ut about sixty yards in
front o f o ur first line and if we worked fast
and it wasn t too muddy we could string
seventy five yards of entanglements in a night
The French and German strung their wire
criss cross about the height o f the knee t o tangl e
up advancing so l diers but the Yank s used a
di ff ere nt system W e drove a middle stake leav
Th e
ing about four feet above the ground
tall men of the p l ato o n had to drive these W e
used a wooden mallet covered with a gunny
sack to drown the sound o f the blows The n o n
each side o f the r o w o f tall stakes we drove
a row o f shorter ones and then we strung the
of
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A D VE N T URE S O F AN
34
—
had gloves usually
we
wire
S ometimes we
—
i
dn
t
and we had t o be carefu l or we eithe r got
d
o t o u r hands badl y
tangled in our o wn wire or g
torn
A wire was first strung along the tall stakes
N O staples were used t h e wire was j ust wound
aroun d them
Then wires were strung criss
cross from these stakes to the short ones o n
either side and l astly along the t w o rows o f
short ones
Twisting it around the stakes was
usually where we tore o u r hands and swore at
the Germans
W e b l am e d e verything o n the m
y o u know from the mud up to delayed letters
f rom o u r sweethea r ts
S ometimes a lie utenant sometimes a ser
geant was boss o f the pl atoon
W e w o rked
first streaks o f morning light shot
u nti l the
across the sky
B efore an attack at dawn our e n g
ineers
crept o ut and cut the Ge rman wire entan g
le
ments
S ometimes the tanks would break them
down for us but they cou l dn t c l ear the wire
away an d I have often had my leggin g
s cut to
ribbons
W e rol l ed a huge barrel o f wine u p from
M inotte put it o ut in front o f o ur l ines an d cam
o ufla g
ed
it with hay
Then at night befo r e
w e went o u t to string o ur a l lotment Of wire we
each took a drink for ambition s sake but when
we came back we drank to o ur heart s content
a n d slept the slee p O f a good soldier
re ady t o
attack at dawn
A l l our trench digging was done at night
a lso
In front o f o u r first line another trench
w a s a l ways dug to be used f o r day and night
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AM ER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
35
by observers machine gunners an d snipers
W hen we were thru digging we always cam
dirt with hay for this
o uf l a g
e d the t h r o w n o u t
reason % It i s very hard f o r the aerial Observe r in
an aeroplane to distingu ish the changes such as
trenches s h e l l h o l e s etc
ma d e in the night
S o ae rial photographs are taken and these are
very carefully compared and the changes ther e
seen noted
Thus we tried to camouflage o u r
digging so as t o show no change in the German
air photographe rs work
W hen a H un aeroplane would come over o u r
lines we usually stoo d very still That made i t
hard f o r the aviator t o see us
But there was
o n e plane that use d t o come over o u r lines every
morning and take photographs
W e watched
him quietly f o r about five mornings then we
“
”
got tired o f this bird —s o we decided t o shoot
at him the next m orning if he came By George
he was ri g
ht there o n the d o t
W hen he w a s
about two hundred feet above us we all let g
o
at him W e thought h e had a charmed life f o r
o ur shots never fazed him
N ext morning we
let him have it again but he sat up there a b s o
l ut e l y unconcerned and to o k his b l amed pictur e s
so we were order e d to bring an anti aircraft
gun up an d p lace it o n the front line The next
morning when he came back that g
made
un
quick work of him
He was brought down in
“
”
o u r l ines and pl ac e d o n
the croaking sheet
The construction of t h e ae r o pl ane was new to
us
The body was mad e o f steel oval shaped
no wonder o ur rifle bu ll ets j ust glanced o ff wh e n
“
”
we hit it
But t h e bul l ets from anti didn t
bad luck t o the aviator
It is very di fficult
w ork
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A D VEN T U R E S OF AN
36
to hit a mark as t h e g
unn e rs have t o j ud g
e
the distance—s o the s h e lls a r e time d t o break
as near as p ossible t o the ae ro p lane
The air
craft sh e l ls break into smal l pi ec e s t h e same
—
as the high e x pl osive sh e ll s but they must
eithe r hit some vita l part o f the m achin e o r
wound the aviator before the aerop l ane i s brought
down
A n obse r vation balloon di dn t last very l ong
at the front either Th e y were used prin c i p a ll y
t o di r ect artillery fire o n t h e ammunition an d
food stu ff s trains o r autos going u p t o t h e Ge r
man l ines
The aviators wou l d finish these
ba ll oons up in a hur ry
They wou l d soar u p
in the clouds dive down o ver the ba ll oon and
drop a fire bomb which wou l d set it a fire
Al l
we wou l d s e e was a large burst of flame
Then
the signal man in the bal l oon would j ump o u t
the parachute attached to his back wou l d O p en
up and he would land safe ly in o ur lines ready
”
“
to go u p in anoth e r ba l loon and spy on F r i t zy
The si g
n a l m e n o f the army had very danger
o u s work to do and were un der shell fir e most o f
the time l aying l ines o f communication as fast
as the d o ughboys advanced an d th e y had to work
fast t o keep up with us
The y l aid l ine s of
communication to the artillery a l so in order to
direct the barrage fire
W ithout a barrage in
front Of us an advance wou l d have be e n a l most
N o t that we feared death but
certain death
we di dn t want to was t e any good men
“
”
Practica ll y all the day fi g
hting was d o ne
by means o f these com m unication l ines run t o
the arti ll ery by the si g
na l m e n and their hazard
ous work kep t them on the j ump
They s le p t
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A D VE N T URE S OF AN
38
a l ittle exhibition o f what was going to
happ e n to him
If I foun d wire —
stringing interesting I cer
t a i n l y found night patrol work e xciting
We
always went out at ten o clock at night and
what was l eft of us came back at t w o in the
mornin g j ust before dawn
There were always eight o r twelve o f us with
a sergeant in command
W e blackened our
“
”
faces like nigger comedians put gunny sack s
over our we l l worn shiny helmets crawled thru
o ur barbed wire and began o u r hunt in the dark
“
”
in N O M an s Land f o r a German patrol
We
carried both rifles an d han d grenades
N ow there are nearly always forty men in
a German patro l— about ten with ri fles and the
“
r est with hand grenades which we called
potato
“
”
”
m ashers
from their shapes
These mashers
a re dangerous contrivances and being near o n e
“
”
when it e xplodes means
lights o u t f o r you
we sure had to keep o u r eyes Open or
SO
rather ears Open when we were o ut on night
p atrol
W hat we wanted principal ly was p risoners
for information
S o when we met a German
p atrol in a bunch we u sed o u r gr e nades %if we
met them singly we used o u r r ifles
The men
in t h e trenches o f course knew we were hav
i n g a skirm ish but they always let us fight
If any Of o ur m e n were hurt
i t o ut alone
Other men were sent o u t from o u r tre nches to
brin gthem in
If we brought in any German p r isoners we
used to scare the l ife o ut Of them and say —the
oor
fools
wou
l
d
come
th
r
ough
with
a
ll
kinds
p
h im l
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AM ER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
39
information an d it was generally the truth
—
Talk about cowards they were so dea d scare d
being shot that they couldn t get their i n
of
formation o ut fast enough an d they all ran true
S ometimes we ve
t o form with few ex c eptions
had them sneak out o f their trenches and walk
straight over t o ours give themselves up an d
t ell everything they knew about their military
situation
O ut at night we had t o exercise all the skill
and strategy that we knew for sometimes Ger
man patrols would pull o ff some new stunt that
we were n t wise t o
U sually the whole patrol
worked together sendin go n e o r two men o ut
—
r
i f we ran across each other
t o meet o u p atro l
while the others would conceal themselves
nearby ready to slice us up
Fritz thought we d be fools enough to go at
him in a bunch but we didn t W e d send on e
o r two men o u t to flank them while t h e
rest
would get ready to do u p the rest O f their
bunch
I remember a skirmish o n e night o n the
Paris road
It ran betwe en o u r trenches— a
broad b eautiful road that had been bordered
by t wo rows Of beautiful trees n o w torn and
shattered and uprooted by shel l fire
“
”
W e bumped into o n e of Jerry s patrols
threw o u r grenades into it and used o u r rifles
with telling eff ect f o r we cou l d hear the wounded
Germans a hollering
o t pretty h o t for us
It g
t o o for the y threw
“
”
their beastly potato mashers
Three o f o u r
men were wounded and the rest of us scattered
and hunted f o r she ll holes until we could find
of
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A D VE N T U R E S
40
O F AN
way back to o ur trenches —
c raw l back
you
know through the mu d
W hen we finally got
back another p atro l was sent out to l ook f o r
the wounded H uns but they had been gathered
u p by the ir o w n men and carried back to the
trenches A few ni g
hts l ate r o n e o f our p atro l s
brought u s in some p ri soners w h o gave us i n
formation that helped u s l ater when we a t
tacked V au x
A nother night o u r patro l stumbled right o n
t o the Hun s trench— an d the trenches here were
only holes three feet d e ep j ust for protection in
case of she l l fire
an d their sentry shou t ed
“
”
%
W ho goes there
in broke n E ng l ish
Luckily
one o f o u r men could s p eak German flu e n t l y
s o he ye l led back that he was o n e Of a German
“
”
patro l that had b e en o u t in N o M an s Land
and passed the sentry The r e st of us l ai d l ow
in the tall wheat
Pretty soon he came back
“
bursting with news He sai d it would be darn
”
t o tak e some p ri soners— s o we cre p t
e d e asy
quiet l y up t o the very edge o f t h e trench
We
“
”
listened to F r i t zy talking for a minute then
o n e o f the boys thre w a hand grenade in an d the
fun began
They came out l ike a bunch o f
b e es an d we had a good five minute scra p
came o ff victors with eight p ri s o ners including
t h e sent ry and ca l led it a night s work
S ometimes we would locate a machine gun
in the daytime that was holding us up and o u r
patro l s wou l d creep o ut at night through the
barbed wire flank the machine gun ne st throw
“
”
a grenade into it an d
goodnight
Jerry
didn t bother us any more
o ur
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AME RIC A N D OU GHB O Y
41
nights made the work harder fo r the
boys had t o crawl through the mu d and sli m e
until they were wet throu g
h an d cak e d with
mud and sometimes when we j umped into a shell
hole f o r safety we wou l d l and in th re e o r four
feet of water
But the work pai d
for
the information we d ug o ut Of o u r prisoners
helped a lot in planning our attacks
W hen we were in the front line trenche s
“
”
rations and
chuck
came up t o us at
o ur
P M and
A M — j ust four hours
apart and that had to do us f o r the whole next
“
”
—
day s o we a l ways ate the chow at night and
Y o u see
saved o ur rations for t h e daytime
”
“
if the ch o w detail as we called the doughboys
wh o brought our food u p to us came u p in the
daytime sure as fate Fritz wou l d s p ot them
and shel l s would come from all directions
Fritz wou l d do anything to keep us from getting
something to eat
For thirty nine days we he l d that line under
continuous shell fir e—and kep t t h e Germans from
gettin ginto Paris This wasn t what the Yanks
came ov e r f o r tho — they wanted action and
they soon g
o t it
Holding the l ine wasn t suf
fic i e n t however f o r it soon became imperative
to push the enemy back in o rder to c apture his
strong positions and obse rvation p osts
Then we sure had o u r first real battle and
o ur S econd D ivision di d itself prou d f o r here s
what we had op p osing u s— what we d been
holding that line against % The 87 t h Ge rman
“
”
D ivision cal l ed the A luminum D ivisi on
most
of
the 1 9 7 th 2 3 7 t h 10 t h 2 8t h and 5 t h Ger
—
man Guard Divisions s o you see—w e had some
R ainy
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A D VE N T U R E S OF
42
AN
battle It was no wonder that the Huns thought
“
as a ca p tured lett er l ater expressed it
that
”
the A mericans were t o o fiery
U p t o July 1 1 9 1 8 against the most pow
e rf ul
opposition that the German A rmy could
exert the S econd D ivision had advan c ed its
front an average distance of a litt l e more than
8 ths Of a
two kilometers %
a ki l ometer i s 5 %
mile ) and had taken more than eight hundred
p risoners and ninety machine guns and auto
ma t ic rifles
W e must r emember t o o that this
was at a ti m e when Germany was loudly p ro
claiming the o ve rthrow and dissolution Of the
All ied armi e s
A s a matt e r o f fact it was precisely at thi s
time that the German l eaders r ea l ize d that the
scale was swinging a g
ainst them slowly but
sure l y and it was the B att l e o f Chateau T h e i rry
that showed t h e first g
r eat t e st of the Yank
an d Boch e
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,
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AMER IC AN D O U GH B O Y
CH A PT E R I V
B A TTLE
OF
43
.
VA U %
This was my first real battle and really i t
meant more to me than any o f the others f o r
it meant that my test had come
The littl e
village o f V aux lay in the creek valley between
Hill 2 0 4 taken by the Yanks and French o n
June 7 t h and 8t h and the positions north o f
Bois de la M orette taken by the 9 t h Infantry
It was a l itt l e innocent looking place but it
didn t pay t o be deceived by its looks for the
little stone house s o f V aux were fortresses arm
ed with machine g
uns its cellars were bomb
proofs fi l l e d with l arge numbers o f Germans and
its str eets were fil l ed with hidd e n tra p s and
ghastly surp rises for the enemy
The Paris
M etz road which ran through the village cer
t a i n l y lai d bare the strategy that Fritz hoped
“
”
to foo l us with He had dug tank traps in it
—
__
holes about twenty feet deep c o vered with
thin boards j ust below the level o f the road then
filled up with dirt to t h e road l evel
It was
practically impossible to detect them but a
tank going down the road would break through
“
”
au
and
revoir
These traps were tricky
but o ur enginee rs discovered them before a n y
appreciable amount o f damage was done
The little village Of V aux thrust o ut a men
acing salient into the A merican line and t h e
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A D VE N T U R E S O F AN
44
Germans coul d swee p M o n n e a ux and the com
m u n i ca t i o n
lines o f Hil l 2 0 4 with their fire
so o ur 9 t h Infantry and the troops o f the 3 r d
Division in l iaison ne ar M o n n ea ux were o r
dered to capture the town The refugee i n h ab i
tants of the town described f o r o u r ben e fit
the construction an d l ocation o f the cellars and
the intricacies of its streets Here t o o is where
ht patro l work counted f o r we found
o u r ni g
ma p s o f V aux an d t h e German trenche s o n
some Of o ur pri soners
Picture postals were
carefu ll y studi e d too an d a plan o f attack de
cided o n
O ur attack was ordered for Ju l y 1 s t an d
every p l atoon and squad l eader who was to
be in it was given a map o f t h e town with the
particu l ar cellar his squad was to ca pture
designated in red ink
V au x had si xty ei g
ht
cellars and the Huns had made most o f them
shell proof
A b o ut
that afternoon o ur arti l lery sub
je c t e d the town t o a terrific bom b ardment
which soon r educed it to ruins
A nd by the
way the French di dn t l ike that a little bit
but goodness knows with a ll the reconstructi o n
work w e were doing ove r there in the rec l aim e d
area they ought not to hav e been p e eve d a b o u t
on e
little o l d dese rted vi ll age fi ll ed with Huns
“
”
At
P M we went over t h e top o n a
front o f about two kilometers o u r 9 t h Infant ry
fightin gin c o n ju c t i o n with the 2 3 r d Infantry
o n the l eft
an d the troops o f the 3 r d Division
acting in conne ction with l ot h French Colonial
troop s
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A D VEN T URE S O F AN
46
bunch o f o ur men distinguished them
selves i n this battle
O ne Yank in o u r c o m
pany brou g
ht in two hundred prisoners A Ger
man captain surrendered himself an d tol d wher e
f
w
o
o
here
was
a
detachment
hun dred men
t
t
—
that wi she d to give themse lves u p s o t h i s
Yank was sent o u t to get them and get them he
did an d m arched them in in double file with
their hands up in the air
The y were really
—
a tough looking bunch and scar e d say thei r
faces were as white as death
They sai d they
hadn t had anythin gto eat for three days o n
account of o ur intense artillery fire which had
comp l etely broken up their lines Of communi
cation
W e captured a German l ieutenant t o o a n d
when some o f o u r men started to se a r ch him he
obj ected strenuously— sai d he was an Off icer
and refused to be searched
Imagine that line
o f talk taking with a doughboy
O ne o f the search e rs l et l oose with a swing
“
”
that connected square l y with t h e L o u s j aw
and he went down f o r the count and when he
came to he had forgotten his l ine Of argument and
was as timi d as a hare I wonder if they neve r
l earn to use their fists in D eutschland
The Batt l e Of V aux was the one in whic h
I w o n my Croix de Guerre I brought in s o me
“
”
Fritzies too and be cause we were brigaded
with the French I received the French Cross
sometime l ater from the French Gene ral Petain
It was rea l ly funny— the w a y I happene d
to capture them
A s I sai d before V aux was
he ld by the Huns with about fifty machine guns
—
and each of o ur squads had a designated c e l lar
A
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AMER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
47
to take We ma d e the attack and all went we l l
until I lost m y squad o r rather my squad
lost me
I was ready for Jerry t h o f o r I ha d
thre e hundred rounds Of ammunition twelve
grenades and o n e liquid fire grenade o n me
W ell anyway I went o n and threw a hand
grenade into the first c ellar I came to After the
”
“
F r i t z I es
smoke cleared away o ut came the
with thei r hands up — and they kept a coming
and a coming until I thought I d captured the
whole German army
There were twenty altogether and I ca l led
“
—
A nyone in this
gun
leveled
you
know
o ut
”
%
bunch speak E nglish
and o n e fe llow said
”
“
“
S ure I m from M ilwaukee and I said W ell
te l l your friends to keep their hands up and
”
march an d do it d
quick
and they
marched belie ve me and I took them t o camp
an d that s al l I did
—
A nd the funniest thing the poor geeks were
half starved
O ne o f the m had a loaf o f the
worst black bread I e ver saw and he held o n to
—
—
o t t o ca m p
hands up until we g
Thought
it
we were beasts and starved o u r prisoners
%
wasn t he a foo l
A nd that i s h o w I w on my
C roix de Guerre
A fter getting ri d o f t h e Huns I returned
to o u r l ine which was now established o n a
small hi l l j ust on the o ut s k i t r s Of the town
where we prepared for the counter attack I have
already mentioned
W hen it did come it was
a complete failure f o r our machine gun fire
was so heavy and s o accurate that the advancing
enemy troo p s were either mown d o w n or their
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A D VEN T U R E S
48
O F AN
retreat cut o ff so we took several hundred more
p r i son e rs
W e held o ur line f o r nin e days before we
were re l ieve d and we had some s p o r t those nine
days
I hap p ened to be in a plat o on that was
detai l e d t o g
o over t o Hi ll 2 0 4 every night t o
h e l p the Fr e nch in cas e the e nemy made an
ear l y mo r ning attack
The first night y o u know to the amazem e nt
o f the Fr e nch we decid e d t o g
o over and te ase
“
”
Fritz a bit—s o we sta rt e d to craw l toward
their trenches o n o u r hands an d knees
Bing %
Al l
of a sudden a Ge rm an machin e g
un
o p ened up o n u s — h o t and h e avy I m te l ling y o u
“
”
and th e n wo w i e
an A ustrian 8 8 decided to
he lp d o us up
S ay % If th e re s any shell a
doughboy hates it s this on e f o r t h o it s a
sma ll she ll its raises the dickens among t h e
troo p s
S o there we were literally between t h e
devi l and the deep sea— machine g
un fire and
that b l ank e ty A ustrian 88
O ne o f the she ll s
—
hit near me s o I lay flat f o r a minute then
made f o r the hole it had made — and I m te l ling
y o u it doesn t make o n e on l y j ust big enough
W ell
f o r a man to curl up in and that s all
three o f us had the same i dea strike us at the
same time but I sprin t e d as I used t o d o in my
good O l d bas e ba ll days and l anded the r e first
and snai l ed myse l f snugly i n while the other two
dou g
hboys l ay flat o n the ground j ust at the ed g
e
of the sh e ll ho l e
All o f a su dden a shell
hit r i g
ht between them—ki ll ing both and send
ing me a kiting about fift e en fe et from my b l e ss
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A ME RIC A N
D OU GHB O Y
49
ed she ll hole
I gathered myself up and lit o u t
—
f o r a l arge rock nearby made it by George an d
considered myself lucky even tho my arm was
b l e eding badly where a bit of shrapne l from
the shel l had hit me
Directly behind this rock was a badly wound
ed doughboy with o n e o f his legs terribly
mang l ed from a she ll e xplosion
W e d a l l been
ta ug
ht how t o u se o ur first ai d kit f o r ourselves
but this p oor cha p was so shot up and bleeding
to death s o fast that he cou l d hardly move
S O I cut the string Off the upper pa rt o f his
legging wound it tight l y around the upper
part o f his leg made a hitch in it and
sto p ped the flow o f bloo d
Ge e % I felt sorry
f o r him but I hunted up t h e lieutenant an d
he ordered the b o y taken back of the lin e s to a
hos p ital where he e ventually recovered
That
was enough for on e night
O ur platoon dug holes in the side o f Hill 2 0 4
so we d have a place to j ump into in case o f
shell fire when we were over there at night
helping the French
O ne night when I came over my hole wasn t
there In place o f it there was o n e about fifteen
times as large dug for me by a shell that had
landed someti m e during the day directly in the
It was sure lucky f o r me
o n e that I had dug
that I was abs e nt o r I d have be e n with the
angels o r Inge rsoll
This hill t o o was the l imit f o r sni p ers W e
didn t dare put o u r n o s e s o ut for fear of them
and e ven then we l ost quite a l o t of o ur men
that way
O ne night we fix ed up a bunch o f
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50
A D VE N T U R E S OF AN
—
peg away a t w e
dummies for the snipers t o
were tired o f losing good men
W e fixed 0
dummies so that we could make them move b y
p ulling a string from a distance back and we
“
”
sure g
Fritzie s goat They shot all d ay long
ot
at o u r bait and spared us
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AMER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
CH A PT ER V
A
TR I P T O
51
.
PA R IS
A fter holding the line nine d ays o u r divi
sion had a notification from General Pershing
that we we re to be given a great surprise as
soon as we were relieved
W ell o f course we
were j ubilant f o r we were sure that meant
about a ten day pass t o Pari s f o r all o f us
Talk about a d isappointment % A nd we had held
that blooming line f o r thirty nine d ays had been
shelled all the time and had battled at V aux in the
Bois de la R oche and o n the Hill
Instead o f passes we were relieved and hike d
back to a small village about fifteen miles behind
the lines and the re we were billeted f o r a week s
rest while o u r Divi sion was being recruited up
t o war strength f o r we had lost so many men
That was hard luck but we had to make the
best o f i t
so we put in o u r time laying around
fixing up o u r clothe s an d playing blackj ack
O ne night I w o n 2 4 0 0 frances
and
then a most brilliant idea came into my head
I decided t o g
W O L %
absent without
o A
leave ) to Paris and stay as long as the money
lasted
A nother fe llow deci ded to accompany
me but we got separated after we reached Paris
%
S ay
That s the time I like to remembe r and
n o t the battles with their incessant cannonading
and the wounded and the dead
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A D VEN T U R E S OF A N
52
I make no excuse s n o w f o r my P a rI s tr i p
except that thirty nine days o f fighting i s a
long time and I was—O h %s o hungry f o r some
fun
S O when I struck Paris and found tha t
champagne was only seven francs a bott l e I
proceeded to make up f o r lost time
A nd the
foo l things I did tho it all seemed quite r e ason
able then %
A fte r drinking all I could I l eft the cafe an d
Th e first thing I saw
started o ut for a walk
was a shabby b l ind o l d begg
er
S o I took
him a l ong with me unti l I found a clothing sho p
and th e re with the ai d o f a clerk wh o cou l d
speak some E nglish we fitted him o ut in brand
n e w c l othes and turned him l oose
and I don t
know t o this day h o w much I paid for them
Then a ll O f a sudden I found six French
girls with me—d o n t know where they came
from— an d they a ll seem e d so happy
I bought
them everything they wanted
W e had a gay
day until nine o c l ock came
E very light in
Paris was turned o ut as usual at that time for
fear o f an air rai d so my p arty broke up and
the M P s %
military p olice ) sent me back t o
the hotel
The next day I started o ut a g
ain sti l l feeling
good
W hi l e passing an apartment house I
he ard music
I w e nt in an d o n up the stairs
unti l I found the a p artment where the piano
was and knocked bo l dly o n the door W hen the
lady op e ned it I made moti ons with my hands
as if p l ayin ga p iano
S he nodd e d vigorously
and t o ok me into the parlor where her daughter
was pl ayin gthe piano W e had a musica l time
—ful l or empty I m always ready for music
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54
A D VE N T U R E S O F AN
General Pershing s great surpri se came
I t was an order for
the day I got back t o o
o u r D ivi sion t o proceed at once t o the S oissons
front where we had the hardest fighting that
o ur
division ha d t o con t end with during the
war
’
An d
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AM ER IC AN D O U GHB O Y
C H A PT E R V I
B A T TLE
OF
55
.
S O I SS O N S
O ur Divisi o n was taken by night o n July
1 6 th in motor busses t o a little village near
the western si d e Of the forest o f V illers Co t
Here we stopped all day o f the 17 th t o
t e re t s
receive extra ammunition and supplies an d n o t
until night came d i d we get marching orders
thru the forest
W e had orde rs t o attack the Huns o n the
o h the
eastern edge of the forest at
a m —
morning o f the 1 8th
N ow that blooming forest was about seven
miles wide and interse cte d everywhere with
paths and roads
It was heavy timber t o o
W ell o ur O ffi cers didn t seem t o know what
roads we ought t o take and we got scattered
all thru that fool wood and mixed up b eautifully
with the transports waiting the re f o r the a t
tack
The airplanes cou l dn t see them in t h e
woo d s y o u know
A nd it poured like blazes
The Offic ers
worked like mad trying t o find the diff erent
companies and batta lions and guide them t o
their positions
E ve rything was in a terrible
mix u p and i n the rain and darkness— w e had
t o put on a l l the spee d we could to get t o
o u r j umping Off place in time f o r t h e attack
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A D VE N T U R E S OF A N
56
It s e emed impossib l e that the D ivision cou l d
eve r be ready by
a m
But we stumbled
o n in the j e t black darkness ran when we cou l d
flo un d e re d th r u the mud—any road we cou l d
—
ot
find l e adin g in the right direction and g
there—j ust as morning brok e and the arti ll ery
l ai d down a bara g
e o n the enemy s tre nches
Go d % S uch a night %
The 5 t h M arines 9 t h an d 2 3 r d Infantries
went over behind t h e barrage and we hadn t
had a minute to get o u r breath from o ur night s
“
”
exp erience but we stil l had pe p enough t o
sh o ot o r bayonet o r ca p ture the first G e rmans
that we ran into
Th ey had no i de a we were
near them and we must have seemed to them
lik e ghosts comin go ut o f the gray dawn
That day an d the ne xt are j ust a whir l o f
—
fighting in my remembrance shooting running
fa l ling into she ll holes— sending back captured
Huns—and o n again— whi l e a ll aroun d in the
—
little ravines and o n the p l at eaus thousands o f
boys in khaki made their l ast sacrifice
M y company came back with only fo rty
m en left an d most Of them we r e woun d ed
T h e first p art o f our drive was ac r oss r o ll ing
country—our first obj ective be ing som e fa rm
houses
W e hadn t had time before o u r a d
vance t o have any hand o r rifle g
renade s
o r machine guns given us
so we only had our
r i fle s —but we reached o u r first obj e ctive fifte en
minutes aft e r going over
Th e Germans lai d down a heavy counter
barrage an d our men fe ll o n a l l si des
At
a I n the prisoners began to stream back
to the rear an d we c o ntinued o n to o u r second
Obj ective capturing qui t e a few fie l d guns
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AMER IC A N D OU GHB O Y
57
A fter the rolling country was passed we
entered another marshy wood and came up t o
the embankment Of the S oi ssons Pari s railway
We had the 1 s t M oroccan Division on the left
Of us and the 3 8t h French Division on the right
The Germans holding the embankment fought
like fiends and every advantageous spot had a
machine gun o n it The struggle here was ter
rible and yet by
a m
five hours after
“
”
the
kick o ff
we had advanced nearly five
miles captured the embankme nt and occupied
the plateau overlooking V ierzy beyond
N early
all o ur O ff icers were ki l led o r w o un d ed but
we kept o n going
We took part of the village Of V ierzy and
a large bunch Of prisoners and surrounded the
rest o f the town The German army showed the
most stubborn resistance
O ur support waves an d mopping up troop s
which came up behind us had ha r d work dig
ging them o u t o f the town and the dugouts in
the ravines surrounding it
W e l ost s o many men here that troops from
the rear we re sent up to fill the gaps
We
were beaten down l ike a field of wheat in a
terrific thunde r showe r
Just east o f V ierzy we ran into an avalanche
Of shells the enemy were s e nding over and it
tore o ur line s al l to pieces
The noise o f the
cannonading is indescribable
The boys proved themselves heroes in every
way and many di d some wond e rful feats
It
se emed j ust like pa rt Of the day s work t o us
then
W e forgot the l ack o f food o r wate r
forgot the rain and mud and death itself seemed
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A D VE N T U R E S O F AN
58
j ust like a release from the t e rrible carnage
M en badly wounded kept o n going oblivious
to their condition until they dropped down
E ven then some tried to crawl o n striving to
he l p
It was the Great R eaper w h o reaped
in the fie l ds Of France that day
W e had had no food an d very little water
but at
that evening the lines Of the 2 n d
Divi sion were c l osed up and we continued o u r
advance
By
O c l ock in the face o f i h
tense artillery and machine gun fire we had
gone ahead more than a mi le o n the plateau
and V ierzy had been ca p tured
The few o f us
that were l e ft were ordere d t o dig in for the
night for we had g
ained near l y six miles
an d o u r who l e l ine o f advance was covered
with wounde d which had to b e taken care o f
In the m o rning the 2 n d E ngineers %
now
there was a dandy bunch o f m en % they dug all
night and fought a ll day ) a dvanced th r ou g
h
what was l eft o f o u r two Infantry regim e nts
and the M arines and g
ained more than a mi l e
and a half W e came up then dug in an d h e l d
If we cou l d have gone a ha l f
al l
our g
ai n s
mile farther we wou l d have reache d the S ois
sons Chateau Thierry highway
However t o go farther was impossib l e W e
had lost nearly half o f o u r men an d had had
SO
no cooked food for two days and a night
we were relieved o n the night of the 1 9 t h by
a French D ivision and rested in the fore st until
the next day s noon
W e were so exhausted
that we fell aslee p j ust where we were when the
rest order came
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A D VE N T U R E S O F AN
60
C H A PT E R V II
B A TTLE OF
.
S T . M I H IEL
A fter o ur terrib l e loss in the S oissons and pre
ceding battles what was l eft O f us was sent t o a
smal l vi ll age near Tou l t o re cruit the D ivision u p
to war stren g
th and train a g
ain A numbe r o f men
fr o m T e xas were se nt in to fi ll u p an d how we
did enj oy l istening to their S outhern acc e nt
l aughed at it too—but say they were as fine
a bunch o f so l diers as anyone e ver saw an d they
knew the art O f so l di e ring f r om A t o Z
A nd ta l k about trainin g why o ur Office r s
trained us as if we d never been trained before
We made eve ry formati on p ossible and studied
al l di fferent tactics for attacking the enemy
This l ast i s t h e most essentia l thin gin mode rn
warfar e
W e marched over the hills near Tou l
ti ll we were tough as leather and formations
were secon d nature t o us They taught us h o w
—
fl
R
i
to u se t h e S ho S ho
too a French gun
e
made somewhat on the order o f a machine gun
It require d three men t o operate it and shot
eighteen shots in succession but it was very
eff ective
Before our o r ders came to leave f o r
a di ff e r ent sector we staged an attack
It
worked p erfect l y especia l ly the si g
na l co rp
work with the aeroplanes whi l e we were a d
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AMER IC AN D OU GHB O Y
va n c i n
61
g
The Texas troops we re especially fin e
in their new work and we were well prepared to
meet t h e German in any sort o f an attack o r
mane uver that the Germans wished
These
Texas boys had stren g
th and brains and w o n
“
”
d e rf ul vita l ity and
Fritz would h a ve been
worried if he could have seen them
O ur fig
ht
ing power was increasing daily while that o f
“
”
t h e Germans was decreasing— s o
Fritz was
bil l ed f o r defeat and I rather think the German
people themselves were beginning to worry
though the g o ve rnment suppressed all d i s c o u ra g
ing war news
Then orders came f o r o u r Division to
move up to the S t M ihiel S ector W e marche d
—
there a hike I shall ne ver forget
It raine d
something terrib l e the who l e time and the troops
were soaked throu g
h and through
W e had no
dry c l othes for a change and we could not buil d
fires during our rest periods f o r the smoke
wou l d have given o u r p o s itions away and
“
”
Fritz
would have commenced his favorite
pastim e —that o f shelling the woods whe re o u r
troops were stationed
S O we let our clothes
”
“
dry o n o u r backs rather than have Fritz s
pel l ets to ta ke with o u r meals
A nd if you ve never seen French mud you ve
never seen real mud
Get a layer started o n
“
your feet and it j ust keeps taking unto itself
”
more mud until one has a width and thickness
It takes stren g
th to
o f five or six inches O f it
lift shoes coated like that o n a l ong hike with
—
the rain pouring down but we certainly agreed
with o n e doughboy poet who wrote %
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62
“
A D VE N T URE S OF AN
g
We
h a v e h e a r d of T e x as
um b o
A n d t h e m u d i n t h e P h i l i p p i n es
Wh er e , i f w e h a d l e s l i k e Ju m b o
Th e m u d w o u l d c o v e r o u r j e a n s
B u t n ev er d i d w e
e t a ch an c e
T o fe e l r ea l m u d t i l l w e h i t F r a n c e
,
g
,
,
g
“
Ou r
We
We
It
s h o es
o
f t en
,
.
d eep i n i t ,
s l e ep i n i t ,
ar e
we ep i n i t
e v e r y wh er e %
a l m os t
’
We
s
g
h a ve t o fi h t i n i t
A n d v en t o u r s p i t e i n i t
We l o o k a s i h t i n i t ,
’
”
B u t w e d o n t ca re
,
g
,
.
—
W e were boys a long ways from hom e
”
“
and we wanted to beat up the Germans as
soon as possible and g
et
back home and we
intended t o do it mud or no mud rain o r no
rain From so m ewhere I never could quite figure
it o ut our troo p s se e me d to get a sup p ly o f
inward stren g
th and purpose that carried us
through a lot o f hardships
W hen we reached o ur positi on in the woods
”
“
we pitched o u r pup tents and craw l ed i nt o
them wet as coul d be and slept better than we
ever had o n a feather bed at home the sleep
Of he a l thy exhaustion
N ext day o u r outfits were completed an d
by night we were ready for the big drive an d
as so o n as it was dark we started out for the
O l d trenche s on the A lsace Lorraine front Talk
about rain % It came down in torrents that night
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AMER IC AN D O U GHB O Y
‘
63
W e thought we were soaked the night before
— but we must have b een dre aming
It wasn t
a patching to this soaking The o l d c om m u n i c a
tion trenches that we went through were some
—
thing awful the mud was from six inches to
a foot d e ep
S ometimes I wonder if things
don t always seem worse o ut in the pitch black
d arkness
W e reached the front line trenches about
midnight ready for o u r attack at d awn
At o n e O clock a m Se ptember 12 t h it was
“
”
o ur
artillery Opene d up o n
Fritz
and his
gang the most terrific shell fir e the world had
ever kn o wn
A ll the thun d er storms that ever
happe ned o n thi s Old globe put together wouldn t
begin t o me asure up t o the noise that the great
A merican artillery made that morning That front
billed as a quiet sector t o o
We couldn t hear
ourse lves think o n o u r si d e and n o living thing
could last long o n the other The bombardment
lasted about four hours and it is claimed that
more shells were fired in thi s battle than in
any previous o n e that the A llie d P owers were
in It sounded t o me like the end Of the world
O ne o f the boys cupped his hands and yelled
“
full stren g
th into my e a r % S ay boy some
”
Fourth o f July we re having %
His voice
sounded like a whisper to me
W hat he sai d
was the truth believe me
A t dawn the barrage lifted and we went
”
“
over the t op
W e could breathe better in the
“
”
stil l ness and w e re eager t o be o ff
Fritz
had worke d for four years laying his acres of
but o u r artillery
b arbed wire entangl ements
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A D VEN T U R E S OF
64
AN
tore them a l l t o pi e ces
The mass o f wire
bothere d us a l itt l e thou g
h f o r it to re through
o ur le g
gin g
s and cut our l egs
After we had
gone a short ways at least a third o f t h e boys
had no leggin g
s l eft In front o f us we r e some
de ep woods but we figured that if we c ould get
through those safely out into the open stretch
of
fie l d b e yond w e d have pl ain sai l ing f o r a
whi l e But after a ll we had very l itt l e trouble
taking the woods
O nce in a whi l e a machine
—
gun stationed on a p latfo rm u p in a tree
—
would take its tol l and ho l d us u p but not for
very l ong
W e advanced so fast through the
woods that the Germans were com p letely b e
wilde red V e r y few o f them stay e d to welcome
us and those that di d had their hands high in
the air and had comp l exions l ike ghosts S im p ly
scar e d to death they were A fter g
oing through
the woods we made a sharp turn to the right
and came o ut into a l arge O p e n fie l d
Intense
machine gun fire he l d us up for about half
an hour but some o f o u r m e n p erformed their
a l ready famous flanking stunt and put the guns
o ut o f
commission
W e skirmished ac r oss the
fi e l d and then m e t the Germans coming toward
%
us in a ll dir e ctions
W ere we frightened
I
guess not They all had th e ir hands in the air
That bombardment had tak e n a l l the pe p o ut
o f th e m
O ur t r oo p s had no time t o bother with them
j ust motion e d to them t o kee p o n g
oing t o
—
ward the road f o r the t r oo p s behin d us wou l d
take care of them
Th e n again we went throu g
h anoth e r bunch
woods which the Germans he l d as l ong as
of
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A D VE N T URE S O F A N
66
N o w Of course we had
keg o f beer o n tap
b e en given or d ers n o t t o touch o r taste anything
that the Germans left in their retreat— but we
had almost reached our Obj ective which was
Jaulny and nothing had happened to m e yet
s o I decided t o try the beer—orders o r no orders
I picked o ut the biggest stein hanging o n
the wall fille d it up at the tap and sai d to the
“
”
boys % Here goes poison o r n o poison
an d
down my throat the German brew trickled
The boys stared at me waiting t o see me
“
”
kick Off
but I fe lt fine s o tried another stein
full
Thought I d die then but n o such luck
W ell when I didn t croak the boys made a dive
f o r the rest o f the steins o n the wall an d made
quick work o f that keg
o
We had about three more kilome ters t o g
before we reached J a u l n y which was o u r Ob jec
tive
Part of the 9 t h Infantry was detailed t o
o with the 2 3 r d Infantry to capture the town
g
Of Th i a c o u rt w h c h was the German supply
base o f the A lsace Lorraine sector
The 9 t h Infantry took the town o f J a u l n y in
a very short time A fter the Germans had b e en
driven o ut the women who had been in the
town during the four years o f German occupa
tion came out from t h e cellars with outstretche d
arms to greet us
They hugged and kissed us
and told us through French interprete rs h o w
terrib l y they had suff ered under Ge rman tyr
anny and how al l the men had been forced to
fight f o r Ge rmany
They were all ordere d by
o u r Ofli c e rs to stay in o n e large cellar for pro
The next eve ning they
t e c t i o n during shell fir e
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AM E RIC AN D O U GHB O Y
67
were taken t o the rear
They were j ust l ike
—
children they were so happy they couldn t ex
press it
A fter four years o f privation their
deliverance seemed too good to be true
There were a lot Of Ol d women in the town
of
T h i a c o urt too whe n that was taken
They
could not seem to realize that they were free
The capture o f Th i a c o u r t cut the Germans
Off
from their base Of supp l ies and it was a
fe ather t oo in our cap s
F o r we capture d
over a million do l lars worth Of su p plies There
was everything imaginab l e in that town that
an army could use The Germans had evacuated
the town so hastily that they eve n left l a rge
guns mounted o n flat cars in the railroad yar d
A fter T h i ac o urt and Jau l ny %
Obj ectives )
o ur
“
were taken we began to give ourselves a look
”
ing over
O ur bunch of soldiers looked more
like tramps than a Division o f U ncle S am s
fighting forces
O ur clothing was torn and
cake d with mud from head to foot and o u r guns
were all rusty
M y gun was never clean after
that fight
Try as I wou l d I never could get
the rust Off but e v en an o l d rusty gun comes
in handy sometimes
O ur rusty guns not only
“
”
defeated Fritz
but they sure made us work
hard t o get them ready for inspection f o r gun
inspection by the Of ficers was very strict and
if o ur guns didn t suit we not only had to d o
“
ot
extra detail work but g
a good
bawling
”
by the O ff icer and who in the devil wants
o ut
”
“
to be bawled o ut in front Of his s o ldier pals
%
N ot I
un
f o r having a dirty g
O ur biggest problem after we ha d reste d
awhile was h o w to change our wet clothes an d
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A D VEN T U R E S O F A N
68
what t o d o with ourselves while they were
drying o ut
W e managed it beautifu ll y how
ever f o r we found a German quart e rmaster s
de partment and arrayed ourselves in new Ger
man uniforms and boots while our uniforms
dri e d out
W e were in J a ul n y for three days
when we were ordered back for a rest N e eded
it too we did
The F r ench Off icers said that
we c o u l d not possibly take o u r Obj ectives in less
than three days but it on l y took us nine hours
to do the jo b
The divisions in thi s drive that
he lped t o make history were t h e l s t 2 u d 3 r d
2 6t h 3 7 t h and 42 n d
Their remarkable achi e ve
ments will never be duplicated
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AME R IC AN D O U GHB O Y
CH A PT ER V III
69
.
H O S P ITA L LI FE
Aft er this battle I went to the hospital but
before tel l ing the h o w and why O f this — I want
t o tell something about the men wound e d o n a
battlefie l d
W hen troops go into battle they are usually
s o keyed up that a wound comes as a climax and
relieves the tension I have seen men instantly
killed by a bullet retain exactly the crouching
sitting or kn e eling position they had when hit
Their muscles an d nerves were so ten s e at the
time that even death di d n o t relieve the strain
The bodies would fall over at a touch— still
retaining the same position
In most cases when a man i s wounded he
doe s n o t fee l acute pain f o r some time after
He has usually nothing t o say when he i s o n
the stretcher going t o the dressing station— f o r
the nerve centers deadene d by the wound have
n o t yet recovered sensitiveness
But by the time
the wounded men have reached the evacuation o r
base hospitals the nerves are norma l again and
the pain begins It i s amazing tho to the unin
i t i a t e d t o see men horribly wounded n o t even
—
moaning and wounds at the front were hor
rible f o r a fragment O f she l l always carries
away what it hits
S ome of the men appeared
rather interested in their wounds some paid no
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A D VE N T U R E S OF AN
70
attention t o them while o thers were horrifie d
and wanted to die I remember o n e fellow w h o
attempted t o shoot himself but the piece o f
she l l that crippled him had broken his revolver
t oo
Boys with shattere d legs begged their c o m
rades to shoot them
I shall always remember
how they pleaded
W e passe d o n e such in an
advance one morning and retired that night by
a different route
W hen we went by the same
place the next morning we foun d this same
soldi er dead with a bullet in his he ad % but we
never knew whether he di d it himself or whether
som e German patrol shot him in the night
I
wonde r sometimes if the choice of the decisi o n
—
should n o t be left to the wounded man but of
course that was impossible
The r e was little time o n the battlefield f o r
last messages an d ve ry few were given in the
hospitals f o r o u r boys always felt as if they
Last messages were
w e r e going t o get well
either given o r writt e n before the advances in
the gray morning hours W e had time then and
usually some writing pap er
W ounded men have little t o say though % i n
every battle we heard calls f o r help both when
we went into and when we returned from an
attack— yet the calls we r e few in comparison
with the numbe r wounded
In most cases whe r e a man was killed o r
wounded his belongings such as wri st watch
ring and knife were co l lecte d if possible an d
mailed t o his neare st re l ative
In some Of the
battles t h o —where we only thou g
ht o f food an d
—
water shells and sleep peril and victory
—
where we had only o n e dominant thought to
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AM ER IC AN D O U GHB O Y
71
beat the Boche w e ha d n o time to think that
a mother might care for a dead son s watch
and if we had there was no p aper for hi s com
rades to wrap it in n o r any t o mail it
It all
had to be done Officially and there was s o little
time
I was sent back to the hospital at Toul in
“
”
O ctober 1 9 1 8 sick with the famous flu
I
was kept there two days transferred t o a
hospital train and taken clear across France to
the Beau Desert Hospital a few miles from
“
”
Bordeaux There the flu developed into pneu
monia and then empyema %
p us abscesses b e
tween the lung and chest walls ) and I lay there
f o r five months between life and death
This hos p ita l was bui l t Of cement and had
very l ittle heat in it and sometimes the cold
was intense
It was hard to be sick and cold
t o o—but we made the best o f it and say we
had the best bunch Of nurses
They did every
thing i n their power to make us well and
happy— they always had a new j oke f o r us
to laugh at
Laughing helped l ike thunder % it
was so easy t o be blue in France every time you
thought h o w wi de the ocean was
O ne Of our nurses was such a dear E ve r y
—
mo rning when she rep o rted for duty she a l
“
ways greeted u s with a H o w are y o u my dear
”
children
and somehow I always felt better
she was so like a mother to us
The overseas R ed Cross N urses underwent a
great ma n y hardships t o o
The field hospitals
we r e near the front and sometimes un der fire
M any times I have seen German planes bombing
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A D VE N T U R E S OF
72
AN
h OS p i t a l s — without
fie l d
any excuse f o r
the out r a g
e for l arge R ed C rosses we r e painte d
o n the roofs o f the hospita l s p l ain l y vi sible from
an ae r op l ane
S ometimes t oo the nurses had to live on the
same kin d o f grub that we did—j ust plain
“
”
canned W illie and hardtack but they never
grumbled
They deserve a specia l niche in
history
The S alvation A rmy the R ed Cross and the
%ni g
hts o f Columbu s were so good t o us at
the front and in the hospita l
W hi l e we we r e
l ying in bed death staring us in the face they
di d far more than we ever expected them t o
They brought us practically everyth ing we
asked for
U ncle S am s boys will always have
a warm s p ot in their hearts f o r these i n s t i t u
tions and no one w h o ever donated anythin g
to these organizations need regret it
o ur
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A D VEN T U R E S OF AN
74
O n M arch 1 s t 1 9 1 9 I was sent t o the Base
Hospital at Camp Lewis W ashing
ton A ll along
the route the R ed C ross Chapters Of each town
and city met us and nearly kil l ed us giving
us so much to eat an d so much to smoke
I
never had any i dea that there were so many
kind women in the wor l d
A t Camp Lewis I stayed in the empyema
ward until my discha r ge o n the 2 9 t h o f June 1 9 1 9
In my estimation the hosp ital at thi s camp
had the finest staff o f Off icers in the army
I
had beg
un t o think I wou l d never get well
but my recovery under their care was fair l y
rapi d and thanks to them I am well today
perhaps not as wel l as before my enlistment
“
but as a doughboy once said A s long as we re
”
a l ive we shou l d worry
Camp Lewis Hospital had a great many
visitors then who brought us flowers candies
cakes and everythin g S o me came out o f curi
osi ty
to hear the stories fr om overseas—but
—
sick m e n don t l ike t o talk and some came to
cheer us up
There was o n e woman who wil l r e main in
my memory forever
S he rare l y missed a day
in coming to our ward an d she always came
“
with a smil e—o n e that seem ed to say
Y o u re
”
all going to get well
S he nursed us a ll in h e r
happy motherly way an d made us al l we l l
S he was M rs Hiram Tuttle o f Tacoma W ash
ing
t o n and she was known as the M other o f
W ard 8 1 at t h e Base Hospital
The boys o f
8 1 wi ll never forget her
—
I was in France fifteen months ten months
the firing line with the shock troops and
on
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AME R IC AN D OU GHB O Y
75
five months in the hospital I spent nine months
in the hospital A ltogether I was in the army two
years and three months and I d willingly do it
again if o ur Country needed me
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A D VEN T URE S OF AN
76
CH A PT E R %
R E CORD OF
.
2 N D D I VI SI O N
N ext to having wo n the C roix de Guerre I
am proud o f having belonged to the 2 u d Divi
sion In the records o f the Intelligence D ep art
ment o f the German general staff the S econd
Division was rated as the highest Of the Ameri
can Divisions but the men of o u r Divi sion will
tell y o u that that s a mistake that the first
Divisi on was j ust as good O ur o wn records show
that the 2 n d Division cap ture d about one fourth
Of the entire number o f prisoners captured by
the Am erican E xpeditionary Forces % o n e fourth
and suf
Of the tota l num b er o f guns captured
f e r e d about o n e tenth o f the total number o f
casua l ties
W e served in the V erdun se ctor the Chateau
Thierry and the S t M ihie l S ectors the Cham
pa g
n e and the M euse A rg
onne o ff ensives
O ur D ivision captured 2 88 Ofli c e r s and 1 1
uns and 1 35 6 machine guns
0 2 6 men 3 43 g
O ur tota l advance was about forty miles
against thirty nine diff erent German divisions
and o ur casua l tie s w e re
men
Then t o o we are proud because o u r Divi
sion has been decorated more than any other
O ur historian has a whole sheaf Of citations
and congratulatory te legrams from President
%ings Field M arsha l s and Generals
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