USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > An honor roll : containing a pictorial record of the gallant and courageous men from Montgomery County, Illinois, U.S.A., who served in the Great War, 1917-1918-1919 > Part 1
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 03585 0855
Compliments of
GC 940. 410 TI 6wi An honor roll
Mrs. Burson. (and) Son.
From. Veterans, of World War
They Served to keep the /Vation From this-
--
The Honor Roll
1917 --- 1918 --- 1919
To the Boys of Montgomery County:
Welcome back from the far away land of strife and scenes of war's desolation; back home to the land you loved so dearly that you offered yourselves as a sacrifice if need be to uphold the ideals symbolized by the flag we love so well-Old Glory.
Back to the country over which proudly floats the Stars and Stripes, proclaiming to the world, that here all men are equal and that Right, Justice and Democ- racy are the only rulers of this, the greatest nation on earth.
Montgomery County is proud of your achievements and she bids you a Welcome Home straight from the heart.
THE EDITOR.
PUBLISHED BY
3000
THE NEWS-HERALD, Litchfield, Ill.
COLOR SECTIONS COPYRIGHTED BY BUREAU CF ENGRAVING, INC., MINNEAPOLIS
An Honor Roll
Containing a Pictorial Record of the gallant and courageous men from Montgomery County, Illinois U. S. A., who served in the Great War. 1917 -- 1918 -- 1919
PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON
COPYRIGHT
55
30
MARSHAL FERDINAND FOCH
COPYRIGHT
GENERAL JOHN J. PERSHING
.OPYRIGHT BY CLINEDINST
O
O UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD STUDIOS. N Y.
GOVERNOR FRANK O. LOWDEN, OF ILLINOIS
STATE OF
THE
SEAL OF T
OHAL
ILLINOIS
VERE
AUG. 26TH 1818
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Governor Lowden's Welcome Home To Illinois Soldiers
Men of Illinois I welcome you home. You entered the service of your country knowing something of the trials, dangers and sufferings that were ahead of you. Some of you crossed the sea to meet those dangers in the trenches, on no man's land and on the battlefields of Europe. You saw your comrades fall but you kept on. You saw them borne away on stretch- ers or in ambulances, never expecting to see them again. But you and many of those who left you wounded and sick have come back. With the men who spent months in camps in the United States and had none of the excitement and dangers of battle yet who nevertheless served their country to the best of their ability, you have come home. You know what that word means, now, if you did not know before. Home is Illinois, America, the best country in the world. It has always been worth fighting for. Your comrades now sleeping on foreign battlefields have proven it is worth dying for and you have shown it is worthy of the great risks you have taken.
Now, men of Illinois, weary of war, longing for home and the quiet pursuits of peace, you have a new task before you. It is the preservation of the liberties for which you risked your all. It is the resumption of peaceful relations. Great problems lie ahead of us and you must aid in their solution. I am sure you will prove equal to that task as thoroughly as you met the demands of the last two trying years.
Springfield, Ill., June 9, 1919.
Governor of the State of Illinois.
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The Beginning of the World War
June 28, 1914, Frederick Francis Ferdinand, Austrian Archduke, and wife were assassinated at Sarajevo, Bosnia. This furnished the excuse for the world war which ended five years later, June 28, 1919, with the signing of the treaty of peace at Versailles. The shot which led to the war was fired by a student named Prinzip. Austria made demands on Serbia for a hand in Prinzip's trial. International complications followed, which resulted in the World War. Prinzip died of tuberculosis in jail long before the war ended.
Fought mainly in Europe, the war falls into periods briefly characterized thus: 1914-The year of the German rush across Belgium and into Northern France, with its staying at the Marne, and of hopes based on the Russian "steam roller" in East Prussia and Poland.
1915-The year of the second Russian advance, and its repulse; of the Gallipoli adventure; of Italy's entrance against Germany, and Bulgaria's with Germany; of Serbia's disaster.
SINKING OF LUSITANIA
On May 7, 1915, occurred an event which filled the world with horror. This was the sinking by a German submarine of the great Cunard liner Lusitania without the slightest warning or giving the least opportunity for her people to escape.
The result was the loss of 1134 non-combatants, about half of them women and children, and more than 200 of them Americans.
UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR
After two years of effort on the part of President Wilson to recall Germany to observance of the laws of civilized warfare the break finally came on January 31st.
On that day Berlin decreed to itself the ownership of about half of the Atlantic ocean for its submarines and assumed to bar out of this "war zone" not only all enemy, but all neutral vessels, under penalty of destruction.
On February 3, the German Ambassador to the United States was handed his passports. On April 2 President Wilson asked Congress to make a formal declaration of war, which was passed and signed on April 6-Good Friday.
1916-The year of Verdun and the Somme; of Rumania's entry and betrayal.
1917-The year of America's entry; of the Russian revolution and collapse; of Italy's disaster and retreat to the Piave; of the British victories in Mesopotamia and Palestine.
1918 The year of the last German drives, to the turning of the tide at Chateau Thierry; the year of Bulgaria's, Turkey's, Austria's collapses and submission; the year of victory and the signing of the Armistice, November 11, 1918.
THE GREATEST SINGLE HERO
Out of all the millions who went to war, a Tennessee soldier from the little town of Pall Mall has been declared the greatest single hero of the conflict, by Marshall Foch, and by the United States Congress who voted him the Congressional Medal of Honor for the most splendid indi- vidual achievement of the war. Sergeant Alvin York killed twenty Germans, took 132 prison- ers and put 36 machine gun nests out of working order, all "on his own." And this particular American was a "conscientious objector" at that; in other words, he didn't believe in killing. It's no wonder the Germans quit when the Americans got into action.
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Four Million Men THE MEN WHO SERVED
EDITOR'S NOTE -- These illuminating figures are from the official records on file in the office of the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker. They were compiled by Colonel Leonard P. Ayres, of the General Staff.
About 4,000,000 men served in the Army of the United States during the war (April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918). The total number of men serving in the armed forces of the country, including the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, and the other services, amounted to 4,800,000. It was almost true that among each 100 American citizens 5 took up arms in defense of the country.
During the Civil War 2,400,000 men served in the Northern armies or in the Navy. In that struggle 10 in each 100 inhabitants of the Northern States served as soldiers or sailors. The American effort in the war with Germany may be compared with that of the Northern States in the Civil War by noting that in the present war we raised twice as many men in actual numbers, but that, in proportion to the population, we raised only half as many.
It would be interesting and instructive to make comparisons between the numbers in the American armies during the present war and those of France, Great Britain, Italy, and Ger- many, but unfortunately this is most difficult to do fairly and truly. The reason for the difficulty lies in the diverse military policies of the nations.
It was the policy of France, for example, to mobilize and put into uniform most of the able- bodied men in the population who were not beyond middle age. Some of these were sent into the combatant forces and services of supply of the active armies. Thousands of others were put at work in munition factories. Others worked on railroads or cultivated their farms. In general, it was the policy of the Government to put its available man power into uniform and then assign these soldiers to the work that had to be done, whether it was directly military in nature or not.
In the United States it was the policy to take into the Army only those men who were physic- ally fit to fight and to assign them, save in exceptional cases, only to work directly related to the ordinary duties of a soldier. The work of making munitions, running railroads, and building ships was done by men not enrolled in the armed forces of the Nation.
It was not until the German drive was under way in March, 1918, that the Allies called upon America for the supreme effort that carried a million and a half soldiers to France in six months.
THE SELECTIVE SERVICE
The willingness with which the American people accepted the universal draft was the most remarkable feature in the history of our preparation for war.
The first registration, June 5, 1917, covered the ages from 21 to 31. The second registration, one year later (June 5, 1918, and August 24, 1918), included those who had become 21 years old since the first registration. The third registration (September 12, 1918), extended the age limits downward to 18 and upward to 45.
In the physical examinations the States of the Middle West made the best showing. Country boys did better than city boys; whites better than colored; and native born better than foreign born.
In this war twice as many men were recruited as in the Civil War and at one-twentieth of the recruiting cost.
There were 200,000 Army officers. Of every six officers, one had previous military training with troops, three were graduates of officers' training camps, and two came directly from civil life.
THE AVERAGE MAN
The average American soldier who fought in France had six months of training here, two months overseas before entering the line, and one month in a quiet sector before going into battle.
Most soldiers received their training in infantry divisions which are our typical combat units and consist of about 1,000 officers and 27,000 men.
Forty-two divisions were sent to France.
More than two-thirds of our line officers were graduates of the officers' training camps.
France and England sent to the United States nearly 800 specially skilled officers and non- commissioned officers who rendered most important aid as instructors in our training camps.
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THE TRANSPORTATION MIRACLE
During our 19 months of war more than 2,000,000 American soldiers were carried to France. Half a million of these went over in the first 13 months and a million and a half in the last 6 months.
The highest troop-carrying records are those of July, 1918, when 306,000 soldiers were carried to Europe and May, 1919, when 330,000 were brought home to America.
Most of the troops who sailed for France left from New York. Half of them landed in England and the other half landed in France.
Among every 100 Americans who went over 49 went in British ships, 45 in American ships, 3 in Italian 2 in French and 1 in Russian shipping under English control.
Our cargo ships averaged one complete trip every 70 days and our troop ships one complete trip every 35 days.
The cargo fleet was almost exclusively American. It reached the size of 2,600,000 deadweight tons and carried to Europe about 7,500,000 tons of cargo.
The greatest troop-carrier among all the ships has been the Leviathan, which landed 12,000 men, or the equivalent of a German division, in France every month.
The fastest transports have been the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific, which have made complete turnarounds, taken on new troops, and started back again in 19 days.
No such troop movement as that of the summer of 1918 had ever been contemplated, and no movement of any such number of persons by water had ever previously occurred. The record has been excelled only by the achievement in bringing the same men back to the shores of the United States. The total number of men brought home in May, 1919, was nearly 330,000.
LEFT AMERICA FROM TEN PORTS
Troops left America from ten ports, four of them Canadian. in the following numbers: Quebec, 11,000; Montreal, 34,000; Halifax, 5,000; St. Johns, 1,000; Portland, 6,000; Boston, 46,000; New York (including Hoboken and Brooklyn), 1,656,000; Philadelphia, 35,000; Balti- more, 4,000, and Norfolk (including Hampton Roads), 288,000. More than three-quarters of all the men went from New York.
Half of the troops landed in England and the other half in France. Most of those who landed in England went directly to Liverpool and most of those who landed in France went to Brest. The statistics of landings at the various European ports are as follows: Glasgow, 45,000; Manchester, 4,000; Liverpool, 844,000; Bristol Ports, 11,000; Plymouth, 1,000; Falmouth, 1,000; Southampton, 57,000; London, 62,000; LeHavre, 13,000; Brest, 791,000; St. Nazaire, 189,000; La Pallice, 4,000; Bordeaux, 50,000, and Marseilles, 1,000. To Italy went 2,000 American troops.
THE PROBLEM OF BUYING
In the spring of 1917 there were in the United States some 4,000,000 young men who were about to become soldiers, although they little suspected the fact. Before they entered the Army, as well as after they were in it, these men consumed such ordinary necessities of life as food, coats, trousers, socks, shoes and blankets.
These simple facts lead directly to the mistaken conclusion that the problem of supplying the necessities of life for the soldiers in the Army was the comparatively simple one of diverting into the camps substantially the same amounts of food and clothing as these young men would have used in their homes if there had been no war.
These men constituted about one twenty-fifth of the population of the country and undoubt- edly consumed before the war more than one twenty-fifth of the food and clothing used in the United States. But after every possible allowance has been made for the requirements of youth and the wastefulness of war, the figures of Army purchases still present surprising con- trasts with those of civilian use in normal times.
DISTRIBUTION OF SUPPLIES
Distributing supplies to the American forces in France was in the first place a problem of ports, second a problem of railroads, third a problem of motor and horse-drawn transportation, and a fourth a problem of storage.
The ports and railroads of France were crowded with war traffic and fallen into disrepair. It was not necessary to build new ports, but American engineers added 83 new berths, together with warehouses and dock equipment. It was not necessary to build new railroads, for France already had a railway net denser per square mile than that of the United States, but it was desirable to increase the carrying capacity by nearly 1,000 miles of new trackage, and by switch- ing facilities at crucial points, by new repair shops and roundhouses, and by new rolling stock.
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These things were done by the Engineers. The problems were not wholly solved. There were never enough docks to prevent some loss of time by vessels waiting to dock, but the capacity for handling American cargo was tripled from 10,000 tons per day in the spring of 1918 to 30,000 tons by November 11 and the waiting time of ships was shorter than in commercial practice. There were never wholly adequate railway facilities, but with the help of locomotives and freight cars shipped from this side freight was carried inland about as fast as it was landed.
In order to operate the transportation of supplies in France, a new system of communication had to be set up; so the Signal Corps strung its wires over nearly every part of France.
FOOD AND CLOTHING AT THE FRONT
The real test of the efficiency of the supply service comes when an army engages in battle. Measured by that test the work of feeding, clothing, and equipping the American Army was well done for, in the main, the expeditionary forces received what they needed. Within the limits of this report no account can be given in detail of how fully the supplies received over- seas met the needs of the troops. A few typical and fundamentally important items only can be selected. Food and clothing are the most essential.
At no time was there a shortage of food in the Expeditionary forces. Soldiers sometimes went hungry in this as in all other wars, but the condition was local and temporary. It oc- curred because of transportation difficulties during periods of active fighting or rapid move- ment when the units outran their rolling kitchens. The stock of food on hand in depots in France was always adequate.
In the matter of clothing also, the supply services rose to the emergency of combat. There were periods in the history of many individual units when needed supplies could not be im- mediately obtained but, as in the case of food, the difficulty was one of local transportation.
The records of the Quartermaster show that during the six months of hard fighting, from June to November, the enlisted man in the A. E. F. received on the average:
Slicker and overcoat, every 5 months.
Blanket, flannel shirt, and breeches, every two months.
Coat, every 79 days.
Shoes and puttees, every 51 days.
Drawers and undershirt, every 34 days.
Woolen socks, every 23 days.
REQUIREMENTS GREAT
The problems of feeding and clothing the Army were difficult because of the immense quan- tities involved rather than because of the difficulty of manufacturing the articles needed.
Requirements for some kinds of clothing for the Army were more than twice as great as the prewar total American production of the same articles.
To secure the articles needed for the Army the Government had to commandeer all the wool and some other staple articles in the United States and control production through all its stages.
The distribution of supplies in the Expeditionary Forces required the creation of an organ- ization called the Services of Supply, to which one-fourth of all the troops who went overseas were assigned.
American Engineers built in France 83 new ship berths, 1,000 miles of standard-gauge track, and 538 miles of narrow-gauge track.
The Signal Corps strung in France 100,000 miles of telephone and telegraph wire.
Prior to the armistice 40,000 trucks were shipped to the forces in France.
Construction projects in the United States cost twice as much as the Panama Canal, and construction overseas was on nearly as large a scale.
PNEUMONIA DEADLIER THAN BATTLE
The American battle losses were 48,909 killed and 236,000 wounded. Of every 100 American soldiers and sailors who took part in the war with Germany, two were killed or died of disease during the period of hostilities. Russia's losses were 35 times as great; Germany's 32 times as great; France's 28 times and England's 18 times.
The pneumonia-influenza epidemic killed more American soldiers than were slain in battle; this plague caused 83.6 per cent of all the deaths from disease, claiming more than 40,000 vic- tims, mostly in the United States, although thousands died in France.
In the entire American army, both in France and in this country, there occurred 112,432 deaths in battle and from disease. Of these, 48,909, or 43 per cent, were battle deaths, while 56,991, or 51 per cent, were due to disease. To other causes, including accident, were due 6,522 deaths, or 6 per cent.
The war was undoubtedly the bloodiest that has ever been fought. From 1793 to 1914 (in- cluding the Napoleonic era) total deaths in war may be safely estimated at under 6,000,000. Battle deaths alone from 1914 to 1918 totaled about 7,450,000.
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In the American army the casualty rate in the infantry was higher than in any service, the air force and the tank corps ranking second and third in deadliness. The casualty rate for officers was higher than for men, because all flyers were commissioned men.
For every man killed in action seven were wounded. Five out of every six men sent to hospitals for wounds were cured and returned to duty. In the expeditionary forces battle losses were twice as large as deaths from disease. In this war the death rate from disease was lower and the death rate from battle was higher than in any previous American war.
HOW AVIATION SERVICE GREW
When war was declared the United States had two aviation fields and 55 serviceable air- planes. The National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics advised that 51 of these were obsolete and the other four obsolescent.
Before the end of the war the Allies furnished us with 3,800 service planes.
Aviation training schools in the United States graduated 8,602 men from elementary and 4,028 from advanced courses. The total personnel of the air service increased from 1,200 at the outbreak of the war to nearly 200,000 at its close. More than 5,000 pilots and observers were sent overseas.
The first flyers wearing the American uniform were members of the Lafayette Escadrille, who were transferred to the American service in December, 1917. The American air force at the front grew from 3 squadrons in April, 1918, to 45 squadrons in November. On November 11, the 45 squadrons had an equipment of 740 planes.
American air squadrons played important roles in the battles of Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne. They brought down in combat 755 enemy planes, while their own losses of planes numbered only 357.
TRACTORS AND TANKS
An innovation in this war, development of which in the future promises to be even more important, was the increased use of motor transportation. As applied to the artillery, this meant the use of caterpillar tractors to haul the big guns, especially over rough ground. When we entered the war no suitable designs existed for caterpillar tractors of size appropriate for the medium heavy artillery. But new 5-ton and 10-ton types were perfected in this country, put into production, and 1,100 shipped overseas before November 1. About 300 larger trac- tors were also shipped and 350 more secured from the French and British. The tank was an even more important application of the caterpillar tractor to war uses.
The efforts of this country in the case of heavy 30-ton tanks were concentrated on a co- operative plan, by which this country was to furnish Liberty motors and the rest of the driving mechanism, and the British the armor plate for 1,500 tanks for the 1919 campaign. It has been estimated that about one-half the work on the American components for this project had been completed before November 11, and the work of assembly of the initial units was well under way. For immediate use in France, this country received 64 heavy tanks from the Brit- ish.
STRIKING INVENTIONS THAT HELPED WIN THE WAR
Few facilities and little experience existed at the beginning of the war for the development of many of the delicate instruments and intricate mechanisms required in the equipment of service planes. Intensive research brought some notable results, of which several deserve especial mention. These are:
The oxygen mask, equipped with telephone connections which enabled the flyer to endure the rarified air at an altitude which his plane could reach without losing speaking contact with his companions.
The military parachute, which was developed to unprecedented safety. This was used principally for escape from burning balloons, and was improved so that it would bring down safely the entire balloon basket with its load. . During the entire war there was not an American casualty due to parachute failure.
The electric-heated clothing for aviators on high altitude work. The electric suit, developed in the latter months of the war and used at the front, was lined with insulated coils through which current was driven by means of a small dynamo actuated by a miniature propeller driven by the rush of the plane through the air.
Long-focus, light-filtration cameras by which good photographs could be taken through haze from altitudes of 3 miles or more. Primary credit for this belongs to Europe, but Ameri- ca improved the mechanism and standardized the design for quantity production.
The wireless telephone, by which the aviator is able to converse easily with other planes and with ground stations. This development came too late to be of any substantial use at the front, but its value for peace as well as for any future war is obvious.
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Two Hundred Days of Battle
TWO OUT OF THREE
Two out of every three American soldiers who reached France took part in battle. The number who reached France was 2,084,000, and of these 1,390,000 saw active service in the front line.
American combat forces were organized into divisions, which, as has been noted, consisted of some 28,000 officers and men. These divisions were the largest on the western front, since the British division numbered about 15,000 and those of the French and German about 12,000 each. There were sent overseas 42 American divisions and several hundred thousand supple- mentary artillery and service of supply troops.
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