Tag: 1st Infantry Division

An Unlikely Journey

Peter LarsenLeave a comment

“You should hear some of the big shells whistle over. Makes you get ‘gully low.’” E.P. Taylor of Supply Company, 142nd Infantry, wrote to his family. He continued, “You good folks back home, no matter how many descriptions you read, can have no idea of the destruction and slaughter going on and of what an infantry man has to go through.”

On October 29, 1918, the 142nd Infantry Regiment marched away from the front line after twenty-three days in harm’s way. Buried where they fell were over 180 of their comrades, four unidentified. In addition, over six hundred wounded in the 142nd made their absence felt. Battalions looked like companies.  The men wore the same clothes they entered the line wearing.

Graves of 142nd Infantry soldiers near Saint-Etienne

As they made their way back through the old battlefields, the 36th Division passed through the old Hindenburg Line, which the French captured at the beginning of the battle over four weeks ago. Before that, it had been the front line for over three years. James McCan wrote home, “We crossed what used to be the Hindenburg Line and such a sight I never saw before or since. There was not a tree or even a bunch of grass living for four miles across it.”

After spending the night at Camp Montpellier near Suippes, the 36th moved southeast toward the Argonne Forest, where an American-French group of armies was waging a colossal battle with the retreating Germans. However, the German armies would abandon a fortified line only to withdraw to another.

March to the Argonne

On October 30th, the 36th Division was on the march again and passed into control of the First American Army. In other words, they were no longer under French command. That day the division marched about fifteen miles and camped at Valmy. Moreover, the next day they marched eleven miles, to Dommartin-sur-Yevre, and took a day off. They were about to enter the Argonne Forest, the western boundary of the American battle zone. Two American armies and one French army were slowly advancing in this zone. John J. Pershing, Commanding General of American Forces, planned for his armies to seize important rail transport hubs behind German lines. If he succeeded, Germany would have to quit France and lose the war. (Read more about the Meuse-Argonne Offensive here.)

Louppy-le-Petit before the war

On November 2nd, the 36th entered the Argonne Forest, marching twelve miles to Les Charmontois. At this time, the division was passed from the American First Army to the Second Army, where they were assigned to VII Corps. The Second Army, with its six divisions, was going to attack in the direction of Metz, a fortified city and transportation center. As a result, the 36th Division was scheduled to leave for the front on November 11th, 1918.

While the marching was tough for the men, many of whom were still recovering, on November 3rd the 36th Division marched another fifteen miles. As they marched, they began to hear the distant roar of artillery fire again. Many of them arrived at their destination that day. That is to say, at the villages near Bar-le-Duc, just back of the front lines. In seven days of marching, the 36th Division had traveled over seventy-eight miles.

Louppy-le-Petit

The division was allowed two days to rest. The 142nd Infantry Regiment was quartered in and around the tiny village of Louppy-le-Petit. The area around Bar-le-Duc was just recently vacated by the 1st Infantry Division, the ‘Big Red One’. The 1st Division had been in the fighting since day six of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, and was recuperating around Bar-le-Duc after heavy losses. Now they were back in the battle; and the 36th Division would soon follow.

Replacement soldiers for the 36th Division were already arriving. Most of the replacements were from the 34th Infantry Division. The 34th was made up of National Guard units from Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, as well as North and South Dakota. These plainsmen trained at Camp Cody, New Mexico, and the Southwesterners of the 36th learned to like them. Moreover, the new men were well trained, and their morale was good.

Damaged church in Louppy-le-Petit

Captain Ethan Simpson of H Company, wounded on October 8th near Saint-Etienne, returned to his men on November 4th. In addition, others returned to the 142nd from the hospital or from their assignments away from the battlefield. These officers and men, who had missed the fighting, were most eager to see the regiment back in action. However the rest of the men, who had seen it, were not as enthusiastic.

New uniforms and boots arrived. Consequently soldiers were able to change clothes, many of them for the first time in a month. What they took off wasn’t worth saving; so piles of old ruined clothing had to be trucked away. New weapons and equipment were arriving every day.

Training again

From November 6th the men were drilling again. Veterans of the Champagne front used best practices from combat to improve the training. They used every hour of daylight to train. But on November 7th came news that the German government was asking for a cease-fire. Many of the men didn’t believe it. The French people in Louppy-le-Petit sadly shook their heads, saying the war has been going on for over four years, how many times we have heard these rumors?

For six days the men trained and grew once again into a fighting force. More men were returning from the hospital. Soldiers were gaining confidence in their mission. The 36th Division was on track to be in the combat area once more on Thursday, November 14.

On Sunday, November 10th, the division paused to remember those who had died. There were memorial services in each unit, spread out as they were across the countryside. Soldiers in the 142nd stood in a solemn vigil as each of the names were read at the service. They had been away from combat for nearly two weeks now. But they knew they might return to battle. So the men took a moment to meditate on those desperate moments in battle and the loss of so many brothers in arms.

O.K. Farrell’s stripes

Promoted

On that same day, Color Sergeant O. K. Farrell of Headquarters Company was promoted three ranks to the highest enlisted rank in the army, Regimental Sergeant Major. As Color Sergeant, he led a small platoon of Headquarters men who ran the Regimental office. Since there were two Color Sergeants, they probably each worked twelve hours every day. Now O. K. Farrell was the ranking NCO at Headquarters Company. He’d just turned twenty-two when he was promoted.

It was an unlikely journey for the men of the 36th Infantry and for O. K. Farrell. Unlikely for the division that so soon they were combat veterans, now heading back into battle. Unlikely for Farrell, now promoted to the top. However, his superiors would have seen that he was superlatively well organized and hardworking. His job before the war in the Superintendent’s Office at the Santa Fe Railroad prepared him marvelously for administering a 24/7 operations nerve center of a fighting force. To end the war, Farrell and the 36th were ready to go the distance once more.

O.K. Farrell’s promotion

To the Front

Peter LarsenLeave a comment

In the summer and fall of 1917, American Expeditionary Forces commander John J. Pershing, now a four-star general, was building an army in France. He began in June with a small advance staff and by August had assembled enough soldiers for one division, the U.S. First Infantry, known to history as The Big Red One.

By the end of 1917 Pershing would have most of four infantry divisions in France. This was not enough to make much of an impact at the front against the Germans. However these first fighters, a combination of regular army and national guardsmen together with a brigade of U.S. Marines, blazed a trail for all Americans who would fight in France.

U.S. 16th Infantry Regiment arrives at St. Nazaire France on 26 June, 1917
U.S. 16th Infantry Regiment arrives at St. Nazaire France on 26 June, 1917

“Duty First”

The 16th U.S. Infantry Regiment was one of the first American fighting units to reach France in June 1917. It was the 16th Regiment’s Second Battalion who made the famous July 4th march through Paris. From July to October the 16th Regiment trained with other regiments of the Big Red One in rural France. Although they were a Regular Army unit whose heritage went back to the Civil War, in fact many of the 16th Infantry were new recruits.

The Americans stayed in a training area with an experienced French division and learned how to fight a modern war in large formations. There they practiced trench warfare, gas mask drills and worked together with artillery units in exercises.

The goal was to enter the war as a freestanding American force that could hold, fight and win on the Western Front. But their training at home had been basic. Now they were learning from veterans who had seen it all.

Soldiers of the U.S. 16th Infantry in Bathelemont, France November 1917
Soldiers of the U.S. 16th Infantry in Bathelemont, France November 1917

Experiencing the Front

The German line first received notice from American arms at 6:05 a.m. on October 23, 1917. That’s when the cannon of Battery C, 6th Field Artillery Regiment of the Big Red One fired their first shots into German-held territory. Since October 21, 1917 American units were entering the trenches at the front line.

After months of training behind the lines, introduction to actual combat operations was intended to be gradual. American battalions would occupy one sector between French battalions, under French command. Only one battalion each from the four Infantry regiments would serve at a time, and then withdraw to be replaced by another American battalion. Moreover, the sector the Americans held was quiet.

Quiet on the Western Front was shattered on the night of 2-3 November 1917 when a company of the 7th Bavarian Landwehr Regiment, in a coordinated attack with German artillery, isolated and entered the American line held by Second Battalion, 16th U.S. Infantry.

In just minutes of savage fighting, the Bavarians made off with eleven prisoners and their weapons. They left behind seven Americans wounded and three Americans dead. Corporal James Gresham, Privates Merle Hay and Thomas Enright, all of Company F, were the first in American uniform to die in combat on the front line. The sector they held, near Bathelémont, hadn’t seen serious fighting since October 1915 and was considered quiet.

American and French soldiers give a military funeral for those killed on November 3, 1917
American and French soldiers give a military funeral for those killed on November 3, 1917

The morning after

While the Germans celebrated their raid on the inexperienced Americans, they too had left behind two of their dead and one German who deserted. Additionally seven of the German raiders were wounded. The Americans on the front line did not break and run, as so many in Germany had predicted.

Firsthand experience of close combat was a sobering moment for the First Infantry. They buried their dead that afternoon, November 3rd, in Bathelémont. The policy of sending battalions to the front line was reassessed and the 2nd Battalion was withdrawn later that month, on November 20th. Corporal Gresham, Private May and Private Enright each posthumously received the Croix de Guerre from the French nation.

Queenstown, Ireland

The first six American Navy destroyers arrived in Queenstown on May 4, 1917. Almost immediately they began patrolling the Western Approaches to the British Isles. Then six ships of Destroyer Division Seven arrived on May 17. By the fall about 37 U.S. Navy destroyers and a number of support ships were based in Queenstown. The destroyers guarded convoys inbound to the British Isles and France and made antisubmarine patrols.

On October 15, 1917 the destroyer USS Cassin was patrolling near Mine Head, Ireland when it sighted German submarine U61. Cassin gave chase, but soon a torpedo was sighted heading toward the destroyer. Cassin tried to evade the torpedo, but it looked as though it would hit the stern of the destroyer.

At that moment Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Osmond Ingram ran aft to release Cassin’s depth charges before the impact destroyed the ship. Before all the charges could be released the torpedo hit, blowing the stern off the destroyer.

GM1 Ingram’s quick thinking saved his ship but cost him his life. Nine other sailors were wounded and one officer later died of complications from exposure. But the Cassin made it back to Queenstown and was eventually repaired. Gunner’s Mate 1st Class Ingram was the first American sailor to die in combat in World War I. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (see GM1 Osmond ingram’s Medal of Honor citation here).

GM1 O. K. Ingram aboard the USS Cassin (DD-43), 15 October 1917 by Charles B. Falls
GM1 O. K. Ingram aboard the USS Cassin (DD-43), 15 October 1917 by Charles B. Falls

“Lafayette, we are here!”

Peter Larsen2 Comments

On June 13th, 1917, the cross-channel ferry entered the harbor of Boulonge-sur-Mer from England. On shore a young boy waved his arms, shouting “Vive l’Amérique” toward the incoming steamer. Though it was June, the tall, sturdily-erect man at the rail of the ship raised a gloved hand and waved to the boy, returning his greeting. The welcomes had just begun. Major General John J. Pershing was in France.

General “Black Jack” Pershing had been given command of American forces in Europe on May 10th. He had led men in combat in Cuba, the Philippines and Mexico; one of a few Americans of flag rank to do so. He was in France to build an American army that would match the French and British armies in size and professionalism, if not in experience.  With him on the steamer were his military staff of about 40 officers, some civilian employees of the federal government, about one hundred enlisted soldiers and his adjutant, Captain George S. Patton.

The first American wave into France totaled about 190 men.

General Pershing disembarks in Boulogne on 13 June 1917
General Pershing disembarks in Boulogne on 13 June 1917

(Read more about General Pershing’s arrival here)

Dark days for France

The welcome of the French was out of proportion to the size of the American advance guard. France had been in the war for nearly three years and had been bled white by the costly offensives and attrition of the Great War. French line units were deeply demoralized by the spring of 1917 and some of them had mutinied. Dozens of mutineers had been court-martialed and shot. The Americans’ arrival at this crucial time restored the spirits of all France.

Pershing’s small staff had their work cut out for them. The American Expeditionary Forces, as they were now known, were planning to bring an army of one million men across the Atlantic to fight. To accomplish this, they would have to build infrastructure: docks, roads and railroads. Incoming soldiers would need training camps, supply depots and field hospitals. They would need tons of food, fuel and clothing. As this was the early Twentieth Century, they would need horses and fodder to feed them. And weapons; no one at AEF Headquarters was sure what weapons the American Doughboy was going to use in combat.

The key to this and all other problems lay in transport. The United States had limited transatlantic shipping capacity and too many men, animals and materiél stateside. French and British generals were insistent that America send troops, but Napoléon’s rule that an army marches on its stomach had to be followed.

The vast Atlantic

Bringing the American military in force to Europe in time to defeat Germany would require the Allies had mastery of the seas. They didn’t. German submarines had resumed unrestricted attacks around the British Isles in February 1917. Britain was fearful that losses on land and sea may end the war in Germany’s favor before the United States could fully enter it.

In the early evening of April 24th, six U.S. Navy destroyers cleared Boston harbor steaming east. Their mission would become clear only when they were fifty miles east of Provincetown. Once out to sea, the orders read that they were to cross the Atlantic and make contact with a British warship outside Queenstown, Ireland. The U.S. Navy was going to war.

The six ships of Destroyer Division Eight arrived in Ireland on May 4th, 1917. Their home base was Queenstown (now Cobh), on the south coast. They began patrolling the Western Approaches of the British Isles almost immediately and were joined by another six American destroyers on May 17.

Antisubmarine patrol from Queenstown was not glamorous. The coastline was unfamiliar; filled with dangerous rocks and ledges. The weather was notoriously bad year round. German submarines were laying mines and stalking ships. American destroyermen had to learn how to track submarines from the men of the Royal Navy, who’d been at it for over two years.

Return of the Mayflower - May 4, 1917 by Bernard Gribble

The Return of the Mayflower, 4th May, 1917 by Bernard Emmanuel Finnigan Gribble

A debt repaid

Slowly, the number of American soldiers in France grew. By the end of June, about half of the U.S. First Division, the Big Red One, had landed in St. Nazaire. There was also a battalion of U.S. Marines. American soldiers and marines were enthusiastically greeted everywhere they went.

Pershing knew they were not yet ready for action. They would need to train for the relentless trench warfare of the Western Front. Also, they would need to train with new and unfamiliar weapons and tactics. Most of all, more men were needed in France.

July 4th, 1917 saw a parade in Paris. For five miles through the old city the 2nd Battalion of the 16th U.S. Infantry Regiment marched until they reached the gravesite of Gilbert du Motier, the sixth Marquis de Lafayette. With General John Pershing at the head, the Americans saluted their Revolutionary War comrade. A voice called out “Nous voilà, Lafayette!”

16th Infantry Regiment marches in Paris on July 4, 1917
16th Infantry Regiment marches in Paris on July 4, 1917