An artist’s memoir of Belleau Wood, Soissons and St Mihiel

I received a parcel from McFarland Publishers today, containing a memoir of an enlisted US Marine, Louis C. Linn, who served at Belleau Wood, Soissons and St Mihiel. At Belleau Wood with Rifle and Sketchpad. I wrote the chapter introductions and footnotes for the book.

I also wrote the following summary and assessment of Linn’s memoir, only part of which appears in the book.

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Louis Linn wrote his memoir of service with the Marine Brigade in France in 1918 about ten years after the end of the war. This is just when the great majority of memoirs, novels and books of poems about the First World War began to appear, in the late 1920s and early ‘30s. For nearly all the participants of the war, from whatever country, it took at least a decade before combat veterans could “come to terms” with the trauma of the war, and gain the perspective necessary to write about it with some clarity and dispassion.

Linn’s memoir is rough-hewn. It reads like a rough draft written straight through and never revised, with passages of lyric force and clarity interspersed with passages which are much less certain, where Linn is clearly struggling to capture experiences that are not easily rendered into language.

Memoirs are difficult to write at best, for a host of reasons, and memoirs dealing with trauma are the most difficult of all. Yet unlike many memoirists from the war, Linn never resorts to easy shortcuts with the language. There are no euphemisms or clichés, or any of the easy formulaic phrases heard so often during the war itself. There is no talk of “dash” or “valor” or “elan”. There is not the slightest whiff of patriotism, esprit de corps, or demonization of the enemy. He never even refers to himself as a Marine, but just as a plain infantry soldier.

Linn’s perspective is personal and ground-level. There is no sense of larger issues, strategic objectives, or being part of a Great Crusade. What he writes about is getting through each day. If there is a moral compass in Linn’s account, it too is personal and ground-level. What Linn describes again and again are relations between individuals, and their rank and nationality scarcely figure into it. He observes numerous instances of callousness, cruelty and injustice, and these become a part of his record. Some of those he meets elicit his sympathy, or pity, even occasionally his admiration, but many more provoke his ridicule and contempt, especially if they are officers.

What strikes the reader most of all is Linn’s uncompromising frankness, whether about human flaws, including his own, or the sordid particulars of life in the trenches. He never fudges, or makes excuses, or offers explanations. He just puts it down as he remembers it, in detail, and with no apparent concern for the impression he makes, either of himself, or on the reader. This is what gives Linn’s memoir its great value as a document of core human experience. If his phrasing is not always polished, his forthrightness never falters.

Louis Linn was a member of 77th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, 4th Brigade of Marines, Second Division (Regular), A.E.F. Of all the American divisions participating in the Great War, the Second Division suffered the most casualties, captured the second most territory, captured the most enemy prisoners and equipment, and won the most decorations for valor.

The Second Division was the only Army division in the history of the United States to contain a brigade of Marines, and the only Army division ever to be commanded by a Marine. It was due to the participation of this single Marine brigade that the Marine Corps, in six months time, went from being a minor expeditionary fighting force attached to the Navy, to being considered a first-rate force of shock troops by the German Army. It was this single Marine brigade which made the Marine Corps a participant on the world stage, and prepared it for playing a major role in the next world war, and which provided the crucial core of experienced field officers for that war.

Of three major battles, all of which were devastating for the Marine Brigade, Linn participated in two, Belleau Wood and Soissons, and in those two he participated in the very worst of the fighting. He came through Belleau Wood unscathed, was badly wounded at Soissons, and then, at St. Mihiel, during an attack when only seven Marines were wounded by a concealed grenade, Linn was one of the seven, and he was wounded badly enough that he remained hospitalized until after the Armistice.

Regarding his experiences in the war, Linn’s daughter, Laura Jane Linn Wright writes that ” . . . [he] always carried a sketchbook and a stub of a pencil in his pocket. He carried them all through the war. He drew, whenever he could, to try to maintain his sanity in a terrible situation. Drawing gave him a measure of mental peace. He was tormented by nightmares. He wrote his memoir several years after the war, partly as a catharsis, using his sketches as illustrations. Or perhaps the sketches brought back his experiences. He made woodcuts from some of the sketches to more vividly convey the bleakness and horror of the war . . . ”

BJ Omanson

For more about this book, go here.

 

Armistice Day

Armistice Day, November 11

Eleventh hour, eleventh day, eleventh month

1918 – 2011

Some unusual documents awarded to a Marine officer of the Second Division, AEF

2ndLt Wilbur T. Love, USMC

Quartermaster Sergeant Wilbur T. Love joined Headquarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion at its formation at Quantico in September, 1917, and served with the battalion throughout the war.  

For his actions at Belleau Wood on June 7-8, 1918, Quartermaster Sgt Love was awarded the Silver Star Citation.  His commendation read:  “He carried supplies and ammunition into the town of Bouresches, on horse-back while the enemy was counter attacking the town.  During this trip he not only ran the gauntlet of raking machine-gun fire from the southern edge of Bois de Belleau, but went through places where bursting shells and gas made passage almost impossible”.

GSgt Love was promoted to 2dLt on September 26, after St. Mihiel and on the eve of the Battle of Blanc Mont.

Several of his citations are shown below.  The US Army Citation is well-known to all students of the AEF, but the others are much less common.  I would be grateful to anyone who could enlighten us regarding the history of these documents.

BJ Omanson

 

Burial detail, Belleau Wood: an old-timer is laid to rest

Among the wartime effects of Cpl. Frank W. Dunham of 15^th Company, 6^th Machine Gun Battalion, are several photographs which he took during the fighting at Belleau Wood in June, 1918.  One of the photos shows four Marines carrying a body toward a stand of trees.  On the back of the photograph, the scrawled caption in pencil reads: “1^st Sgt Hunter carted to the grave.  Belleau Wood.”

First Sergeant Daniel Amos Hunter, USMC, known to his men as “Pop”, was a crusty old-timer who had served four enlistments in the regular Army, fought in the Spanish American War, and was on his third hitch with the Marines.  He had served in Santo Domingo, Mexico, Cuba, aboard various ships and, as a seasoned veteran of four court martials, had seen the inside of more than his share of brigs 

At shortly after 3 a.m. on June 6^th, Marines of the 49^th and 67^th Companies, 1^st Battalion, 5^th Marines, lay hidden in position on either side of Hill 142 southwest of Belleau Wood.  According to the original plan, two additional companies, the  17^th and 66^th, should have been in position to join the assault, but had not yet been relieved by the French and so were still deployed near Les Mares Farm.  The assault was also to have been supported by barrage fire from two companies of the 6^th Machine Gun Battalion, but one of their companies was tied up elsewhere, also awaiting relief from the French, which meant that the two companies of the 1st Battalion were supported by just ten guns of 15^th Company dug in behind them, between Champillon and Bois St. Martin.  Among these ten machine gun crews was Cpl. Dunham.

At first light, 0345, 1^st Sgt Hunter– as described by George Clark–  “… strode out before his line, checked right and left, then, with a whistle to his mouth, blew it once.  Forward, over his head, and downward went his cane, pointing toward the company’s objective, straight ahead…”  The two companies set off down the slopes of Hill 142 and out into the open, moving northward across wheatfields still softened with nighttime mist toward the village of Torcy.  According to Lt. John W. Thomason of 49th Company, the wheat was wet with dew and festooned with poppies and the immense red sun was just a handsbreadth above the horizon.  It was pleasantly cool and the blue woods ahead looked inviting…, and it was just then that hell fell out of the heavens, with artillery and machine gun fire hitting the Marines simultaneously.

Much of the devastating fire was from Maxim machine guns manned by three companies of the German 460^th Infantry Regiment, barricaded in a wooded copse just to the northwest, with a clear view of the advancing Marines.  The Germans were taking barrage fire from the guns of 15^th Company, but it was not enough to silence them.  67^th Company, advancing through the wheat, was completely cut to pieces.  “Pop” Hunter was hit, got back on his feet, was hit again and again rose– all the while shouting to his men to keep moving– and then was hit a third time, in the head, and this time he lay where he fell.

1st Sgt Hunter being carted to his grave

Some days later the dead were gathered up and laid to a proper rest by burial parties of Marines.  Much of the grisly work was done by new replacements, led by a few seasoned veterans.  One of the newcomers to 67^th Company, detailed to burial duty that day, was Pvt. Elton E. Mackin, who had only been with the company about a week.  A trench had been dug by a squad of Engineers and a corporal of the 67^th, “Tugboat” Wilson, was working down in the trench, taking the bodies one at a time, laying them out in position and covering them with earth.  As the bodies were being handed down, an “old-timer” stopped to observe the proceedings.  Occasionally, when one of the bodies was an officer, the old-timer would silently flick off a salute.  What happened then is best described in Mackin’s own words:

“After a time, as the work progressed, a body was handed down dressed in forest greens with a top-cutter’s chevrons above hashmarks denoting seven enlistments.  A whistle dangled loosely from a cord about the sergeant’s neck, and the flap of his holster flopped about untidily.  The old-timer, still watching, made a sharp salute.  Turning to a boot he said, “Get a blanket, soldier.  Wrap him up proper.  That’s ‘Pop’ Hunter.”

 1st Sergeant Hunter would posthumously be awarded both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross for his actions that morning.  His citation would read:  “For extraordinary heroism in action. He fearlessly exposed himself and encouraged all men near him, although he himself was wounded three times.”   1st Sgt. Hunter was also a recipient of the Silver Star Citation.

I would like to express my gratitude to Paul Higgins, whose wife is the great-grandneice of Frank W. Dunham, for permission to use this remarkable photograph of 1st Sgt Hunter’s burial detail.

BJ Omanson

~~~~~

SOURCES:

Asprey, Robert B.  At Belleau Wood (NY: GP Putnam’s Sons, 1965), p 151.

 Clark, George B.  Devil Dogs: Fighting Marines of World War I.  (Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1999), pp 102-4.

 Clark, George B.  Decorated Marines of the Fourth Brigade in World War I.  (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2007), p. 58.

Curtis, Captain T.J. and Captain L.R. Long.  History of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion, Fourth Brigade, U.S. Marines, Second Division, and Its Participation in the Great War.  (Neuwied on the Rhine, Germany: March, 1919), p. 15.

Mackin, Elton E.  Suddenly We Didn’t Want to Die: Memoirs of a World War I Marine.  With an introduction and annotation by George B. Clark.  (Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1999), pp 43-4.

Muster Rolls of the U.S. Marine Corps, 1798-1892; (National Archives Microfilm Publication T1118, 123 rolls); Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Returns from U.S. Military Posts, 1800-1916; Microfilm Serial: M617; Microfilm Roll: 1107

Register of Enlistments in the U.S. Army, 1798-1914; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M233, 81 rolls); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780’s-1917, Record Group 94; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Thomason, John W., Jr.  Fix Bayonets!  (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926), pp 9-10.

Thomason, John W., Jr.  The United States Army Second Division Northwest of Chateau Thierry in World War I.  Edited by George B. Clark.  (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2007), pp. 82-5.

The spirit of Lt. G.E.M. Thornycroft, 4th King’s African Rifles, seen standing outside Scaleby Parish Church in Cumbria, England, the day after he is killed in Kenya

What follows in an account by Lady Lilith Savile concerning the death of her fiancé, Lt (acting Captain) G.E.M. Thornycroft of 4th King’s African Rifles. It is extracted from her memoir, a typescript located in the archives of the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum in Lancaster, England.

On September 13th [1914], most of us went to the little church at Scaleby & now I am coming to what I really want to put down, & and it is as clear to me now after almost 54 years as it was then.

(acting Captain) G.E.M. Thornycroft

I think it must have been during the singing of a hymn as we were standing, & the window beside us was clear glass; I was thinking of Gerald, & wondering how soon I should hear he was coming, & and looking out of the window, I saw him standing on the grass a few yards away.

I thought “Why! there is Gerry.”  I wasn’t at all anxious, just thrilled by what I thought was an extraordinary piece of imagination. I remember thinking, almost in merriment, shall I rush out of church, or shall I sit down & exclaim that I have seen a vision– not really of course meaning to do anything, but feeling overcome by what, as I say, I took to be ‘vivid imagination’.  If I had really known that it was a vision, I should have been terrified for fear it meant that something had happened to him.

Scaleby Parish Church

He was in uniform & and looking straight at me, but did not smile & and looked sad – & then suddenly, he was not there.  Lovely golden September days followed, but on the 18th two telegrams came, one for my mother from my father, and one addressed to me from Gerald’s mother telling be that “our Gerald is on the Roll of Honour, killed in action at Kisium”.  Even now I find it hard to write of it & and I must pass over this bitter sorrow.

I was beside myself with misery, but that clear sight of him from the window in the church stayed with me.  He had been killed leading a charge against the Germans who had crossed the border from German East Africa on the 12th– but no date was given in the telegram & and the news did not even reach his mother until late on the 17th.

I do not know why it was on the 13th that I saw him, & and not the 12th, but there it is, & though I need no proof of the truth of my vision, I realised a long time afterwards that if any proof were needed, it was in the fact that, although I had many snapshots of him from Africa in Khaki, I had never before seen him in uniform & and in my thoughts did not think of him except in mufti as I had known him.

~~~~~

My thanks to James White and Phil Tomaselli for bringing this account to my attention, and to Peter Donnelly, Curator of the King’s Own Royal Regiment Museum for permission to reprint Lady Savile’s account here.

Additional information about Lt. G.E.M. Thornycroft may be found on the museum’s website, here.

BJ Omanson

Spiritualism in the Great War

Here begins a series of accounts from the war which fall under the heading of “spiritualism”, the general belief in the supernatural and the survival of the dead.  I am by no means advocating a particular interpretation of this phenomena, but intend only to collect wartime-era accounts of paranormal incidents and reproduce them here, for the most part without comment.

In his cultural study of the Great War, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning (1995), Jay Winter writes the following about such phenomena:  … the experience of the trenches could not easily be explained in conventional theological (or indeed in any other rational) terms.  For this reason a host of spiritualist images, stories, and legends proliferated during the conflict among frontline troops.  Some tales were about the dead; others about magical forces affecting the living…

And now for the accounts themselves.  The following three stories are taken from the book Psychical Phenomena and the War (1918) by Hereward Carrington. Additional accounts from this book and other sources will appear from time to time on this blog, under the Spiritualism in the Great War banner.

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A Vision Coinciding With Death

A very touching story was told me by a Bournemouth  wife. Her husband, a sergeant in the  Devons, went to France on July 25, 1915. She had received letters regularly from him, all of which were very happy and cheerful, and so she began to be quite reassured in her mind about him, feeling certain that whatsoever danger he had to face he would come safely through.

On the evening of September 25, 1915, at about ten o’clock, she was sitting on her bed in her room talking to another girl, who was sharing it with her. The light was full on, and neither of them had as yet thought of getting into bed, so deep were they in their chat about the events of the day and the war.

And then suddenly there came a silence. The wife had broken off sharply in the middle of a sentence and sat there staring into space.

For, standing there before her in uniform, was her husband! For two or three minutes she remained there looking at him, and she was struck by the expression of sadness in his eye. Getting up quickly she advanced to the spot where he was standing, but by the time she had reached it the vision had disappeared.

Though only that morning the wife had had a letter saying her husband was safe and well, she felt sure that the vision foreboded evil. She was right. Soon afterwards she received a letter from the War Office, saying that he had been killed in the Battle of Loos on September 25, 1915, the very date she had seemed to see him stand beside her bed.

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For the next case I am indebted to the kindness of Mrs. Marie Russak-Hotchner. She has called the case that of

Private Rex

One of the most remarkable stories was told me recently by a lieutenant who had been invalided home in Canada, a man of fine family and unquestionable veracity. The names I shall use in the story are fictitious, but the real ones will be given privately if corroboration of the story is desired.

Lieut. Smith was stationed in No-man’s-land, and one evening was taking some of his men from one place to another. They were marching along, very fatigued, but undisturbed except from the usual dangers of distant shell fire.

Suddenly Lieut. Smith saw one of his men, Private Rex, begin to lag a little behind the rest, and judged that he might be ill. Watching him, he saw his pace continue to slacken until he was marching in line with himself. For a private to fall out and march beside his officer was, of course, unusual, and so the latter challenged the procedure. He asked the private if he were ill, but he replied in the negative ; he asked if he were cold, but the private again said “No.”

But Lieut. Smith clearly saw that something was wrong with the man, and he therefore stepped closer to him and asked him if he were hungry. The private replied, “A little.” The officer had a package of malted milk tablets in his pocket, and gave him some. As he took them the officer noted that his hand was icy cold and that he was very pale.

Just at that moment Lieut. Smith’s attention was diverted by the necessity of giving some commands to his men and of walking to another position. When he returned to his former place, he observed that Private Rex was no longer there, but as there had not been time for him to return to his own squad, the officer thought he might have fallen because ill, or possibly because wishing to desert. So he halted the regiment, and went back some distance to look for the missing man. Thinking there was some trouble, a junior officer came running to Lieut. Smith to give him assistance. The latter told him how Private Rex had fallen out of his place, seeming to be ill, accepted the food tablets, and then suddenly disappeared, and the officer suggested that a search should be made for him.

The junior officer, in great astonishment, replied that there must be some mistake, as Private Rex had been killed in battle and he had attended the burial three days previously. He also reminded Lieut. Smith that he also had been present. The lieutenant then recalled the fact which, because of the stress of subsequent fighting and of the death of so many others, he had momentarily forgotten.

But Lieut. Smith told the second officer, as he repeated emphatically to me, that he had certainly seen, talked to, and touched Private Rex that evening; that it was Private Rex, and no other, who walked beside him ; that he knew him well, and that it was truly his icy hand into which he placed the tablet of food, and his pale face into which he had looked as he asked him the questions about his health.

Lieut. Smith said that it was quite a common occurrence for men in the war zone to see the ghosts of their comrades who had been killed. And he added, “It takes away all fear of death, for I know that Private Rex lives, though dead.”

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The following group of cases are from the Journal of the English Society for Psychical Research, and, it will be seen, are very well authenticated. They are (usually) preceded by editorial remarks by the editor, Mrs. Salter. The first case was published in the Journal for May- June, 1917. This is the incident:

A Dream Vision

March 15, 1917.

My son, Lieut. A___ L___ J___ , of the 1st King’s Shropshire L. L, was killed at daybreak on Saturday, April 22nd, 1916.

At daybreak on the next morning, Easter Sunday, about 24 hours after his death took place, when I was lying half awake and half asleep, I had the vision or dream, an account of which follows.

I saw two soldiers in khaki, standing beside a pile of clothing and accoutrements which, in some way, I knew to be Alec’s, and my first feeling was one of anger and annoyance that they should be meddling with his things, for they were apparently looking through them and arranging them. Then one of them took up a khaki shirt which was wrapped around something so as to form a  kind of roll. He took hold of one end of it and let the rest drop so as it unrolled itself and a pair of heavy, extremely muddy boots fell out and banged heavily on the floor, and something else fell which made a metallic jingle. I thought “That is his revolver,” but immediately afterwards thought “No, it is too light to be his revolver, which would have made more of a clang.”

As these things fell out on to the floor the two men laughed, but a sad wistful kind of laugh with no semblance of mirth in it. And then the words, “Alec is dead and they are going through his kit,” were most clearly borne in on my mind. They were not spoken and I heard no voice, but they were just as clear as if I had done so. And then I became fully awake, these words repeating themselves in my mind and with the fullest conviction of their truth which I never lost. I suppose I still tried to persuade myself that it might not be true, but it was useless and when the official telegram arrived it only confirmed what I already knew.

G___ J___

~ ~ ~

In a letter of the same date, March 15, 1917, Dr. J___ adds the following comments on his statement:

. . . Two points have to be borne in mind in estimating the importance of the dream as an intimation of my son’s death and not as a mere coincidence.

(1) He went out to the front in October, 1914, and was there continuously (with three short leaves) until his death on April 22, 1916 Easter Saturday. During these eighteen months I never had any dream or any impression of his being in serious danger, although I often knew that he was in the midst of hard fighting and he was wounded in three places in August, 1915, at Hooge.

(2) At the time when I had the dream I was under the impression that his battalion was resting and that they would not be in the fighting line until the middle of the week. Hence, my mind was quite easy about him and I was not feeling at all anxious. In the ordinary course of events they were not due in the trenches until the “Wednesday, but they were unexpectedly called upon on the evening of Good Friday to move up at once to recapture a trench which had been taken by the Germans some days before. It was after having accomplished this, and whilst the position was being consolidated, that he was killed.

I had never in my life had any dream so vivid as this one was, and when I saw in the Sunday papers that his battalion had accomplished this “fine feat,” as they called it, I had no doubt whatever that my boy was dead. “When the official telegram came on Wednesday I felt that it was hardly necessary to open it. …

I shall always think (as a nephew does to whom I told my dream on Sunday afternoon) that this vision was Alec’s way of letting me know what had happened.

A minor point that may be worth noticing is that when I heard the metallic clink when the shirt unrolled and let its contents fall on the floor, I at first thought “That is his revolver,” but then immediately thought the noise was too “jingly” to be made by the fall of a heavy Colt such as he had. When his things came home, however, I found that instead of a heavy Colt he had a light automatic pistol which, in falling, would have made exactly such a sound as I heard.

I do not suppose that his kit was actually being gone through at the time of my dream, nor do I think that it makes much difference whether it was so or not.  But the regimental surgeon (since killed himself) who came to see me early in June told me that he believed that they really were going through Alec’s things about the time of my dream.

G___ J___ .

~ ~ ~

In a subsequent letter he writes :

March 25, 1917.

. . . The only person whom I told the dream to, before the arrival of the War Office telegram, was my nephew who was here on Sunday, the 23rd April (1916).

I enclose the letter which he sent me when he had definite news of Alec’s death. I also enclose a copy of part of a letter which the regimental surgeon (since killed) wrote to his father. I do this in order to show the conditions under which the attack was made, especially as to mud.

One does not want to read too much into such an experience, but I have often thought that what I saw had a certain amount of symbolism in it. The fact that the boots which fell out of the rolled-up shirt were so exceedingly muddy, and that the other thing which dropped out was, as I at first thought, his revolver, point to the terribly muddy condition of the attack, and to the fact that it was an attack, for otherwise the revolver would not have been carried. But this is a minor point.

G___ J___ .

~ ~ ~

The letter of Dr. J ‘s nephew, Mr. N. C. R___, to which reference is made above, began as follows:

May 4, 1916.

I hear Alec has died at Ypres. Your dream has come true. Alec appears to have been trying to let
you know. . . .

N. C. R___,

~ ~ ~

The reference in* the above letter to Dr. J___ ‘s dream implies that Mr. R had heard of it before
he heard of Lieut. J___ ‘s death, but we asked also for an independent statement from Mr. R___ that Dr. J___ had related his dream to him on the day on which it occurred, April 23, 1916, before Dr. J___ himself knew of its verification. In reply Mr. R___ wrote as follows :

~ ~ ~

April 3, 1917.

I have been asked by my uncle, Dr. G___ J___ , to send you a statement to the effect that he told me of the dream or vision which he had of his son’s death before actual confirmation.

This I can do.

I was spending the afternoon of Easter Sunday last year (April 23, 1916) at his house, and while at tea he came in from paying a professional visit somewhere.

After tea lie spoke to me of his dream. I regret to say I cannot remember all he said, but I do recollect his saying he saw two officers looking over and packing his son’s kit. He was angry at their meddling, but it suddenly dawned upon him that his son was dead. Whether A___ J___appeared in the dream I forget.

Some days afterwards I heard that A___  J___  was dead, confirmation having reached him, Dr. J___ , on a date after the 23rd April.

N. C. B___ .

~ ~ ~

As regards the circumstances under which Lieut. J___ lost his life we print below extracts from the letter to which Dr. J___ refers on March 25, written by the regimental surgeon:

April 27, 1916.

. . . You will have seen by the papers about the gallant attack the Btn. made the other night to retake some trenches lost by another Btn. It was as the Army Commander said, “A magnificent feat of arms,” and you can guess what the higher command thought of it when they honoured the regiment by mentioning them by name an honour which has only been paid twice all the time out here. Unless one is on the spot, though, one could not realize the conditions under which the attack was made or the apparently hopeless job it seemed. I don’t think any other Btn. could have done it. The mud, to take one point only, was so deep that the men had to throw themselves down and crawl putting their rifles and bombs ahead a few feet and then struggling up to them. Of course the rifles were so covered with mud that they could not shoot, so the men just struggled on until they could use the bayonet.  We had men utterly engulfed in the mud and suffocated. It was a glorious achievement, and the cost was heavy. . . .  J___ who used to write “At the Front” in Punch was shot through the heart gallantly superintending his company consolidating the captured position. As dawn broke he was so busy with so much to see to, that he would not take cover, but kept walking from end to end of the trench over the top to save time. He was picked off by a sniper.

T.I.

~ ~ ~

In a letter to Dr. J___ from one of Lieut. J___ ‘s fellow-officers, giving an account of his death, the muddy condition of the ground is again emphasized. He writes :

May 7, 1916.

… As you know the conditions were simply awful.  Pitch dark, and wading up to our waists in mud. . . .  It appears from the evidence given above that at the time when Dr. J___ had the dream which he regarded as an intimation of his son’s death, Lieut. J___ had been dead about twenty-four hours. It is a strong point in favour of the assumption that some other factor than chance-coincidence was involved, that during the year and a half that his son had been at the front Dr. J___ had had no other similar impression about him, and that on April 23, 1916, he had reason to believe that Lieut. J___ was temporarily out of danger.

If it is the fact that Lieut. J___ ‘s kit was being examined about the time of Dr. J___ ‘s dream, it may be that he received an impression of an actual scene which took place. But it seems more probable, as he suggests, that the dream was a piece of symbolic imagery representing the fact, telepathically conveyed to him, that his son had been killed in the attack on the previous day.

We are indebted to Dr. J___ for the trouble he has taken in providing us with evidence for which we asked.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Further paranormal stories from the Great War will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead.

BJ Omanson

1st Engineers clearing & repairing roads near Soissons during the fighting of 19-23 July 1918

The caption scrawled in pencil on the back of this 93-year-old photograph reads:

Repairing Roads
1st Engrs
Soissons

The photo would have been taken sometime between July 19-23, 1918.  Men of the 1st Engineers, 1st Division, AEF, appear to be clearing away rubble, gathering it into mule-drawn wagons to be hauled away and dumped, or used to fill in shell holes in the road. 

During the heavy fighting of these few days in mid-July, in which the 1st Division suffered over 7000 casualties, the Engineers traded in their shovels for rifles and moved right into the front lines.  In several of their companies the casualty rate was as high as among any of the infantry companies.  Altogether the 1st Engineer Regiment lost 251 men and 5 officers during the five days of fighting at Soissons.

A critical part of the Engineers’ support of the attack was keeping the roads cleared and repaired so that the artillery and tanks could move up into their front-line positions.   One description taken from A History of the 1st Engineers, 1st US Division (Coblenz, Germany,  April 1919) which describes  this activity, appears to accord closely with the scene shown in the photograph:

‘D’ and ‘F’ Companies moved as far as Division Headquarters during the night 17-18 and at 3:30 AM on the 18th moved up to  COEUVRES to be there by 6 AM and clear routes for the artillery. This work was done and required the removal of debris from the streets of COEUVERS and the filling of shell holes.

This isn’t to say conclusively that the scene in the photograph occured in Coeuvres on July 18, although it very well could have.  As the History of the 1st Engineers makes clear, road-clearing and repair was carried on by the engineers in a number of locations on the Soissons front during the period July 19-23 (and this in addition to their stints of front-line fighting alongside the infantry).

Comments and observations about this photograph, or about the 1st Engineers at Soissons, are most welcome.  Any additional information obtained will be printed here, with the contributors acknowledged.  (Particular thanks to Jim Broshot for alerting me to the online availaility of the History of the 1st Engineers).

BJ Omanson

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Below is the entire chapter on Soissons from the History of the 1st Engineers.  Descriptions of road repair are in bold type.

After one day’s stop at ROISSY and before our wagon trains had caught up with us, the Regiment  received orders to load into French camions on the afternoon of July 15 for parts unknown. We didn’t know then, but have since learned that a truck movement for a combat division usually means that a fight is to be staged very soon and they are to participate. The movement started at 7:30 PM, and the troops were disembarked in the Bois de COMPIEGNE near PALESNES at 8 AM the next morning, where the First Division was being concentrated. One day was spent in the woods and on the afternoon of the following day, July 17, a movement was begun towards the front, for the division was scheduled to attack, the following morning, in the great Allied counter-offensive of July 18 that cut off the CHATEAU-THIERRY salient and proved to be the turning point in the war. Our wagon trains arrived just in time to move out with the troops and they had been almost constantly on the move for five days with practically no rest nor sleep.

 Below is given report of the operations of the Engineer regiment during the attack that out-lines the action of the various companies: 

“For the first two days, there was some engineer work done, but most of the regiment was used as infantry reserves for the brigades and the Division. 

“The attack started at 4:45 AM, July I6 without any artillery preparation. On July 17, one company of engineers was ordered to report to each brigade commander. ‘B’ Company reported to the First Brigade and ‘I’ Company to the Second Brigade. On this date also ‘A’ Company was ordered to report to the French Commandant in charge of the tanks, which were to be used in the attack. Later on in the evening, ‘D’ and ‘F’ companies were ordered to report to the Commanding Officers of the artillery groups with the two brigades to assist the artillery in moving forward after the first phase of the attack. This left but one company, ‘C’ Company, which was held as a Division Reserve at Division Headquarters.

“The work will be taken up by days for the whole regiment”.

 July 17 and Night 17-18.

  ’A’ Company reported to the Commandant of Tanks at Division Headquarters at Mortefontaine at 7:30 PM. There were three groups of tanks. One platoon was assigned to each group and one platoon was held in reserve.  The company was equipped with picks, shovels, axes and saws. Five men were assigned to each tank. Their duties were to clear obstruction from routes for the tanks and to assist them to get moving if they were stalled. This work was to be carried on up to the front line trenches.  The work was satisfactorily accomplished as is evidenced by the attached translation of a letter of commendation from the French officer in charge.

 The Company Commander of ‘B’ Company reported to the Brigade Commander during the afternoon and received instructions to take the company to Brigade Headquarters near Coeuvres, which was done during the night 17-18.

 ‘C’ Company moved up from the rear to Division Headquarters at Mortefontaine during the night 17-lSth and remained as Division Reserves.

‘D’ and ‘F’ Companies moved as far as Division Headquarters during the night 17-18 and at 3:30 AM on the 18th Company moved up to  COEUVRES to be there by 6 AM and clear routes for the artillery. This work was done and required the removal of debris from the streets of COEUVERS and the filling of shell holes.

‘E’ Company reported to the Second Brigade commander and then moved up to the Brigade Headquarters during the night 17-18, July 18 and the night 18-19.

After ‘A’ Company’s work with the tanks had finished, they were pretty well scattered. One platoon spent the morning bringing in wounded from the battlefield.  At 3 PM, the company had been assembled and were in a position between COEUVRES and CUTRY. There they remained until night when they moved to a camp on the hill south of CUTRY with ‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘F’ companies and the Engineer Train.  

At 4:40 AM, ‘B’ Company received verbal orders to report to a battalion in support of the attacking waves. The Battalion Commander was found at 11 AM, near MISSY.  ‘B’Company dug in on the trail leading from the cross-roads at TILIEULE to MISSY. At dusk they were moved back on the reverse slope behind the cross-roads and dug in. Four men were wounded here.

 ‘C’ Company moved up to COEUVRES during the morning and then repaired roads from CUTRY to RAPERIE, filling shell holes and clearing obstructions. The distance covered was about 2 kilometers. After dark the company moved to the position on the hill south of CUTRY.

 After the artillery had gone forward, ‘D’ and ‘F’ Companies repaired roads in COEUVRES and DUTRY and between these towns.  After dark both Companies moved to the position on the hill south of CUTRY.

 ‘E’ Company repaired roads in CUTRY during the day and night.  Three truck loads of picks, shovels, axes and saws were moved up to a dump beyond CUTRY during the morning.  Some of these were used by the reserve troops, but not a great number.  During the afternoon six truck loads of tools, wire, and sandbags were moved up to RAPERIE.  There were ordered to MISSY, but as the attack had advanced but a short distance beyond the town, it was not possible to take the truck train  so far forward.  During the night all the of the tools  wire and sandbags were reloaded on the trucks and brought back to CUTRY.

 July 19 and Night of 19-20.

 During the day ‘A’ Company repaired roads from CUTRY to RAPERIE; from RAPERIE to DOMMIERS, a distance of about ten kilometers. Two men were wounded on this work.

 At 4 AM, ‘B’ Company was ordered to advance with the battalion of the 16th Infantry in support of the attack. They passed the PARIS-SOISSONS road and dug in. Captain Carter and four men were wounded by machine gun bullets. At 11 F M., acting under verbal orders of the Brigade Commander, the company moved forward to the front line battalion and readied there at 1 A. M., on the 20th. They dug in until daylight 2 kilometers west of the railroad.  

‘C’, ‘D’ and ‘F’ companies, as a Division Reserve, moved forward to RAPERIE and afterwards to TILLEULS, where they remained all day. During the night the companies moved forward across the PARIS-SOISSONS road in Reserve.

 During the night ‘E’ Company carried ammunition, tools and rations to companies of the 26th Infantry in the front line. They had four casualties.  At 6 AM, 9 trucks loaded with tools, wire and sandbags started from CUTRY and went forward to the farm at the cross-roads in the PARIS-SOISSONS road and a dump was established. This was as far forward as was possible to go at that time. During the night 2,000 shovels and 1,000 picks were moved forward from here to a dump one kilometer east of CHAUDUN. 150 wounded were evacuated from the cross-roads in trucks.  

July 20 and Night of 20-21.

 At 10 AM, ‘A’ Company moved up to the position of ‘D’ and ‘T’ companies as Division Reserves.

 At 4 AM, ‘B’ Company was ordered to advance in the attack in the second wave as support for ‘C Company, 16th Infantry. They advanced as far as the railroad and were there all day. The 1st Brigade had advanced farther than the 2nd Brigade which was on the left. ‘B’ Company formed the left flank during the day and the night. Two officers were wounded here and 62 men were killed and wounded.

‘C’ Company lay all day east of the PARIS-SOISSONS road in support. Captain Drinkwater was wounded here and 44 men were killed and wounded. At night they moved up to PLOISSY. 

‘D’, ‘A” and T’ companies remained all day and night east of the PARIS-SOISSONS road as Division Reserves.

‘F’ Company remained in Brigade reserve near the PARIS-SOISSONS road.  

The trucks carried 1,500 wood pickets to the dump at the cross-roads on the PARIS-SOISSONS load. Also a dump of wire and pickets was made at cross-roads of CUTRY to be used as a reserve supply.

July 21 and Night of 21-22.

 Companies ‘A’ ,’D’ and ‘P’ remained as Division reserves east of PARIS-SOISSONS road.

 Company ‘B’ remained in Brigade reserve when the battalion advanced. At 8 AM, ‘B’ Company received telephone orders from the CO of the 16th Infantry to move to the front and reinforce any front line company that needed it most. They moved to the front and were given the left flank to the Brigade front to hold with an Infantry company remaining in support of the left Battalion. Nine men were wounded here.

At 6 PM, ‘C’ Company was ordered up to the SOISSONS-CHATEAU-THIERRY road to dig in. They ran into machine guns and two officers were wounded and with the artillery fire that followed. 67 men were killed and wounded.  They then were ordered back to the railroad where they dug in. 

‘K’ Company remained in Brigade Reserve near the PARIS-SOISSONS road.  During the day the tools at the dump at the cross-roads on the PARIS-SOISSONS road were loaded on trucks and at night those in the dump east of CHAUDUN were loaded. These were held in readiness to be moved forward if needed by the Brigades. During the day a German Engineer dump was located near the cross-roads on the PARIS-SOISSONS road. It was well-camouflaged. It contained 1,000 picks, 2,500 shovels, 20,000 sand bags, 250 rolls barbed wire, 1,300 yards of Resaux Ribard, 1,500 lin. feet 3 in. by 6 in. lumber, 600 lin. feet 1 1/2 in. by 6 in. lumber, 300 screw pickets, 60 wood pickets. Also a German dump of 40 rolls of barbed wire and 150 screw pickets was located near MISSY.

July 22 and Night of 22-23.

Companies ‘A’, ‘D” and T’ remained as Division Reserves east of the PARIS-SOISSONS road.

‘B’ Company remained in the front line as the left flank of the 1st Brigade until relieved by the Scottish Rifles at 2 AM, July 23. They captured a boche machine gun and 2 prisoners and killed many of the enemy. They furnished men to fill up depleted machine gun squads, and men as runners. The First-Aid Station with the company ‘A’ as the foremost aid station and was used for evacuation from the front line for the 1st Brigade after the last position was reached.

‘C’ Company received an order to police the battlefield and bury the dead. They started at 10 AM and kept at it until 8 PM, burying 60 men and salvaging 5 wagon-loads of material. They were relieved at 9 PM, July 22.

‘E’ Company remained as Brigade Reserves until relieved.

The Engineer tools in the trucks were held ready all day but were not called for. At night the were taken away. The wire, sandbags, pickets, boche tools and other engineer materials in the dumps were turned over to the C.R.E. of the Scotch Division that relieved the 1st Division.  During the night 22-23, all Engineer companies were relieved by elements of the Scotch Division.

Total casualties in the 1^st Engineers at Soissons were 251 men and 5 officers.

 

IN THE FIELD

Tank Corps, Group XII

July 20, 1918

“Report of Major Commanding XIIth Group of Tank Corps, on the aid given by a Company of Engineers, 1^st Division during the battle of 18^th July 1918.

“The Xllth Group having no accompanying infantry and the passage of the great ravine of COEUVRES necessitating considerable work for clearing the roads, the CO of this group asked for a company of Engineers of the 1st Division on the morning of the 17th. This company of Engineers stationed at Palesne was ordered to place itself at the disposal of the Tank Group at Mortefontaine. 

No trucks being available, it had to walk all the way through, the heat being very great. It reached its destination at 7:30.

Once on the spot, the three sections gave invaluable aid, working with remarkable ardour and intelligence and obtaining wonderful results. The aid thus afforded was at least equal to the one that could have been obtained from a very good Infantry company accompanying and working with the group since a long time.

Without this company of Engineers it is very likely that the group, which had no Infantry to accompany it, could not have been able to climb on the hill and take part in the battle from the start.
 
“The way through Cutry for instance was impassible without fixing it up. During the fight the sections remained at the disposal of the group Commander, following the tanks closely.
 
Signed X

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Commanding Group XII.

“The company of Engineers of the 1st Division placed at the disposal of the tank group has been above all praise. I would be pleased if officers and men receive due felicitations for their bravery and zeal.

“Signed Major MERLANT, “C. A. Tank Corps. 1st D.I.U.S.”

~~~~~

 This was our first big attack and we experienced the terrific strain — physical and mental — of a modern offensive. For five days and five nights our men went with practically no sleep and without hot food, being subjected to intense artillery and machine gun fire. The enemy air-craft was very active and constantly machine-gunned the troops and roads.

As soon as it became dark, their bombing planes came over and we were bombed for the first time by the light of flares. The planes dropped parachute flares that lighted up a large area and then they bombed targets that were quite visible. There were but few trenches and it is a most uncomfortable sensation to be bombed when the bomber sees his target.

The advance of the Division was very rapid for the first two days and a large number of prisoners and guns were captured, with many of the enemy killed. Then the resistance stiffened, as the enemy threw in fresh divisions and the advance became very difficult. It was necessary to storm the village of BERZY-le-SEC three times before it finally remained in the hands of our troops.

Our engineers conducted themselves like experienced infantry. ‘B’ Company was in the front wave of the attack for three days and advanced successfully against the enemy in spite of very heavy casualties. ‘C’ Company also suffered heavily while acting as supporting infantry. The work of ‘A’ Company with the tanks enabled the tanks to get over in the attack in spite of many obstructions. ‘D’ and ‘F’ companies made it possible for the artillery to make an early move forward by clearing and repairing the roads. ‘E’ Company was in support of the Second Brigade throughout the attack.

Many of the features of a big attack stand out prominently because it was the first time we had experienced them. Large numbers of enemy prisoners came marching down the roads, the wounded were being carried back, the dead were strewn thickiv through the fields, broken wagons and guns lay in disorder everywhere, and the complete shambles of a terrific battle made a picture never to be forgotten. One gets the impression that everything is disconnected and that there is no organized central idea, unless it be to go forward.

About midnight July 22, our division was relieved by the 15th Scottish Division and the Regiment marched to an embussing point on the PARIS-SOISSONS road and the next night were loaded on trucks and moved to BEAUMARCHAIS. The wagon transportation made the same trip in two days marching. We had learned another severe lesson in modern warfare and felt ourselves a little older and a little wiser.

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Daniel Ross comments:  It is not uncommon for engineers to be required to fight as infantry.  The Great War is replete with instances where they needed their rifle and bayonet as much as their pick and shovel.  Numerous decorations have been won as recognition of this – from the Crimea onwards there have been quite a number of VCs won by the Royal Engineers