New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the world war, 1917-1918, Part 21

Author: Wall, John P. (John Patrick), 1867-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: New Brunswick, N.J. : S. M. Christie Press
Number of Pages: 246


USA > New Jersey > Middlesex County > New Brunswick > New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the world war, 1917-1918 > Part 21


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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Well, we moved in the support trenches.


Can you imagine trying to get sleep in a trench ? These trenches, being exceptionally narrow, just wide enough for one body. So sometimes the head of one man would overlap the feet of another sleeping farther in. The man sleeping in back of me wore hob-nailed shoes, that rested against my bare head, and every time he would cough or stretch in his sleep the hobs sank into my dome and my head sank into my shoulders.


I will never forget the expression of some of the boys as we lay in the trenches.


One of the boys said: "My God, if my poor old mother could only see me now! I remember the time that if I went to the front door without my coat on she'd say, 'Now, John, don't do that, you might catch cold.' And we all laughed."


On the night of September 25 we were ordered to make up our square packs and be ready to move any nimnute to dugouts about a mile away, as the artillery barrage was expected to start around 1 A. M. of the 26th.


Rifle in hand, pack on back, gas mask ready to use at a second's notice (as we always had gas alarms), and that is one fear we all had-"gas." We didn't fear the Hun as much as the deadly gas.


At 12 o'clock midnight Wednesday we were on our way, and finally reached our assigned dugout after ducking shells which the Germans were throwing over. They were always shelling the road and rail- heads, for if they could damage the roads it would prevent the Yankees from advancing more quickly; but the good work of the engineers was so great and swift that there was absolutely no holdups.


At 11:30 sharp on the night of September 25 the heavens lit up for miles around. We could see flares going up, and the roar of the cannon was deafening The earth seemed to be rocking, and one could hardly believe it, but it is a fact, that some boys' ear drums were affected by it. They had French 75s and American big guns lined up, one after another, on a 50-mile front.


We were told our objectives would be German soil,


One hundred forty-four


War Camp Community House on Bayard Street


VARDE RUBER


+


TRENCH AT THE CORNER OF LIVINGSTON AVENUE AND GEORGE STREET, USED TO ADVERTISE THE RED CROSS DRIVE


ARMORY OF CO. H, ON CODWISE AVENUE


--


IN THE WORLD WAR


and ours was a million dollar barrage; also that General Pershing said it would be either "Heaven, Hell or Hoboken" for us by Christmas.


During this barrage they had wire cutters out cut- ting the barbed-wire entanglements in front of our trenches so that we could get through.


At 2.30 A. M. Thursday the 26th, the Allied artil- lery began the barrage, Being 60 feet in a dugout, we couldn't hear much of the noise, and, eager to get an earful of it. I made my way up the wet stair- way of the dugout. It sure was a wonderful sight to see the flashes of fire of our cannon here and there and everywhere one could set his eyes. And the noise was deafening. First it was "bang," "bing," "whizz," and then some. Great, it was, and some- thing I shall never forget.


At 5 o'clock A. M. I had a cup of hot coffee and a hardtack, and word came that we were to go over. The company formed; we were ready to get the Hun.


Well, out of the trenches we went, over the top with a yell, "Up and at 'em, boys; let's give 'em hell." Up to noon that day we hadn't seen a sign of a Dutchman. We just crawled over the shell holes, some of them as big as the New York subway. About noon we ran into an awful heavy smoke, which hung right over a big swamp, and we couldn't see a hand in front of us. All of a sudden someone yelled, "Gas!" What a sensation! We didn't know who was aside of us. It might have been the Ger- mans. Well, I put my mask on in about two sec- onds and continued to go forward, when suddenly I found myself up to my knees in water. I got mad, ripped off my mask and went through the smoke O. K.


When we passed the smoke we went up a high ridge, and this is where we got our first Germans.


We now began to come under machine-gun fire. Whee! maybe those babies can't pump the lead out of them; but they didn't stop us. We went forward from one shell hole to another. Finally one Fritzie got my range. I could hear the bullets singing as they passed me. Down I flopped in a shell hole, and every time I put my head up, zing, zing, they would fly over my head with a beautiful song. I couldn't locate the son of a gun, for there was a big woods about 300 yards on my left, but I knew he was in there, somewhere. All of a sudden the cap- tain of D Company fell in on top of me, and I yelled, "Keep down, a machine gun's playing on me." He said, "I know it. They chased me out of my hole."


Well, we laid there for over an hour, and every time we showed ourselves he would pop at us. He sure did mean business. Finally we both made one dash and soon we were safe in another hole. Later we got him with his machine gun in a tree top.


Our officers were right with us all the time, not behind us, but in front of us, and every time we got caught in a barrage our officers would tell us


to dig in, and they would be standing up, taking all kinds of chances.


Our casualties for the first day out were not so heavy. When it got dark we were told to lie down and make the best of it. We were very tired from pushing on all day, and we flopped right in the mud and water. It was raining hard, and the nights were cold. The only protection we had were our overcoats and raincoats, having been relieved of our blankets and other equipment before we went over the top.


During the night flares would go up that would illumine the earth. We would keep perfectly quiet, and then the Boche would send some whizz-bangs or high explosive shells over. One young fellow lay down with his head resting on his hands, when, during the night, a high explosive shell dropped near him and cut him from the waist down. The poor fellow never knew what struck him, as his head still rested on his hands when we left there.


By this time our misery was so great that we didn't care whether we were knocked off or not. At sunrise we would push again. More than once our artillery would fall short. On one occasion we had to fall back a trifle, that being the only logical thing to do under the circumstances.


"Artillery falling short. Pass the word back," we could hear being shouted as our own shells were dropping among our boys. This was due to the doughboys advancing more rapidly than the artillery could follow, the result of which was that we had to advance through a murderous artillery and machine- gun fire without the support of our artillery fire. They had trouble in getting the artillery up on ac- count of mud and rain, and the French horses were gassed up and could only go a few kilometers and would be all in. We were over there to beat the Boche, and in war, where an objective can be gained, they don't consider casualties.


We had an exceptionally hard territory to go through-one large hill after another with whizz- bangs flying all around us. One young fellow was about 10 feet to the left of me, when three or four machine-gun bullets clipped him in the neck and tore half his neck away. Lying in a pool of blood, he did not live long.


Day after day and night after night it rained, and I remember we almost reached the top of the hill when we were told to dig in for the night. I took my little shovel and dug a hole and threw the dirt around me as a protection against shellfire. I was so tired I could hardly stand. I lay down and threw my raincoat over me, and when I woke up I was lying in water and my raincoat gone. Some fellow apparently thought I was knocked off and took the raincoat. Early that morning the Boches started a barrage on us, but their range was long and the shells were dropping to the left of us, not doing us


One hunderd forty-five


NEW BRUNSWICK


any harm, when, all of a sudden, I saw a Boche air- plane hovering above us. He took news of our posi- tion back to their artillery, and the scene that fol- lowed was one I'll never forget. That morning we could see arms, legs and human bodies flying in the air.


The hillside was strewn with bandages, broken pistols, shells and equipment of every sort. Here and there were rotting limbs of men who had died and whose bodies had been torn again by the frenzy of German shells and hurled into the clean air from their burying place. Saplings that had been cut in two by machine-gun fire and gnarled bushes and stumps of shattered trees stuck their twisted forms out of the hill, like crippled men, showing their scars.


We passed over a road where the carnage was something awful-dead French soldiers and our boys and horses partly blown apart, drivers lying beside their horses. They had been trying to get rations and ammunition up to us, and the Boches shelled the road unmercifully.


During the night they shelled us something awful, and all night long we could hear calls for "first aid." Some strong, some weak. It was just like a night- mare. That night I dug in, and a shell struck so close to me that it threw me bodily upon three other fellows quite a few yards away. One of the fellows said that he thought it was some poor fellow blown to bits, and when he stretched out his hands he expected to feel the insides of a man. We lay there and joked for a while, and I pulled out my tobacco bag, rolled a cigarette and smoked it under a raincoat, so the flare wouldn't show, when a shell broke near, and zing! something hit my helmet. It was a piece of shrapnel, and it sure did put a dent in my old derby.


That morning we went into the woods again, and when we came out our company was knocked to hell. I don't know how many we lost there, but it sure did get a lot of our best boys. When I think of how some of them died with shrapnel and bullets in them I have to take my hat off. I saw my bud- dies come out with arms hanging on by threads; one man shot in the mouth, and the blood choking him. What a sight he was! Another shot in the stomach and breast, and one with machine-gun bullets in both legs.


By this time we were so weak we could hardly stand. Our rations made us awfully thirsty, and drinking water was very, very scarce. We were told never to drink out of a shell hole, it may be contaminated, but more than one lad took a chance. We would have drunk gasoline if we could have gotten it. In the trenches a pint would have to last us 32 hours.


We bivouaced or dug in on the hill for the night, where the forms of both Germans and Americans lay, and which is too ugly to write about.


We hadn't dug in and tried to sleep a couple of hours when it rained. All this time no rations came up to us and we were all in. Hungry we were, so we decided to steal the rations out of the dead men's packs. However, I managed to get three packages of hardtack and shared them with my pals. This taking off of dead men going against me, I decided I would go hungry a few more days, which I did.


It was not until the morning of the fifth day that we got anything warm to eat or drink. Then we were given a quarter of a cupful of black coffee. We were then on the verge of collapse, shivering from the cold and exposure. Our clothes hadn't been dry for many a day, and one can easily imagine what good a little stimulant would have done us. The French soldier always had his ration of wine and the English his ration of rum, but they must have thought we were camels.


We took our position on the hill, and by this time we were almost faint from hunger and thirst. Whenever we passed a shell hole with water in it we drank it, bugs and everything. Finally a fellow came up with some hardtack, and he asked if I was hungry. I swore at him, and he gave me a box and a drink of water from a can.


As we were eating a shell fell in amongst us and killed three and wounded four. How I escaped I cannot tell. I was blinded. The smoke filled my eyes and lungs. I was burning up, and when I open- ed my eyes I found myself lying on the ground. The water just streaming from my eyes and kept on doing so for 12 days after.


At last we were relieved. We could see our relief coming over the hill. "Hurry up! Gee! thy're slow, but steady." It was then five buddies and my- self became separated from our outfit and we went sightseeing in Montfaucon, with Fritzie still drop- ping an occasional shell in the town. What a sight to behold! Not a thing in that town untouched. Dead horses and blood just filled the place. Our artillery sure did clean them out. It was now that the fierceness of it all dawned on me. As I walked back over the ground we had taken I saw our boys lying dead here and there, some with their heads blown off. I saw one that was hit with a shell, that ripped his clothes right off! I just had to sit down and cry.


That day we went back to the trenches where we came from and spent two more days and nights in them, and then started on a never-to-be-forgotten five-day hike to a rest camp, as they called it. On this hike men fell out by the dozens. They cried and kept on until they fell down exhausted. I stuck it out, and we finally reached the woods and were put in shacks.


Well, what happened after that I will tell you when I get home, as I am now getting writers' cramp. Best regards to all. * *


One hundred forty-six


IN


THE WORLD WAR


Milltown Frenchmen Answer


Call of Motherland for Assistance


War was declared on France by Germany, August 4, 1914. Word was sent to the French at Mill- town on August 5, and on the 6th trolley cars loaded with Frenchmen left for France and they were fighting in the front line trenches on Aug. 26, twenty days after leaving Milltown.


Eighty-six Frenchmen, residents of Milltown in 1914, responded to the call to arms of their native country in August of that year, and can be traced as having faithfully done their duty at the place assigned them in the organization of the land's de- fence.


The following eighteen made the great sacrifice, making the blood price paid by Milltown's French colony for the allied victory as high as twenty-one per cent of its male population:


Chevalier, Emile-Gassed, died of the poison since the Armistice.


Collet, E .- Killed in action in Champagne.


Cretau, F .- Killed on August 15, 1918, on the Somme.


Delin, G .- Died in a hospital in Lyons.


Falchier-(Presumed killed in action. Reported missing after the first battle of the Marne, Sep- tember, 1914.)


Le Fichant, V .- Killed in Argonne Forest, 1914.


Fournier, S .- Killed in action in Belgium in 1914. Guillot, F .- Killed in atcion in Belgium in 1914. Lamy-Killed in atcion in Alsace, 1914.


Mazieres, F .- Killed in action in 1917, in the Aisne. De Monteleon, G .- Killed at Verdun, 1917.


De Monteleon, R .- Killed in Belgium, 1914.


Poignonnec, P .- Killed in Champagne, 1915. Queignec, P .- Killed on the Somme, 1916. Riou, J .- Killed in Flanders, 1915.


Redon, G .- (Presumed killed in action. Reported missing after an engagement at Alsace in 1914.)


The following is a list of the French people, resi- dents of Milltown in 1914, who served their country during the war, many of them nearing the age limit of 48, up to which all Frenchmen were enlisted ,un- less they had six children:


Bridier, S .- Infantry Captain, started in the war as sergeant, four times cited for bravery, croix de guerre, Legion of Honor.


Cholet, P .- Blue Devils, later Franco-American Aviation Corps, started as a private in 1914 and made captain on the battlefields. Croix de guerre, five citations, twice wounded.


Dhavernaz, J .- Artillery Captain, French high commission in the United States.


Amadieu, L .- Lieutenant, Cavalry, armored cars. Started as a sergeant, cited twice for bravery, Croix de guerre, served with the American Expeditionary Forces for a few months.


Bourgade, J .- Lieutenant, Quarteramster Corps, once wounded.


Fleurant, F .- Lieutenant, French High Commis- sion in the United States.


Gele, E .- Lieutenant, Artillery Technical Section. Gorends, L .- Head Officer, Field Ambulance.


Jumet, E .- Lieutenant, Engineers Corps, Railway Division.


Salomon, P .- Lieutenant, Infantry, five times cited for bravery, croix de guerre, twice wounded.


Vauchez, J .- Lieutenant, Artillery, French High Commission in the United States.


Gatherias-Artillery, Sub-Lieutenant, instructor to the American Army, Medaille Militaire.


Non Commissioned Officers, Corporals and Privates: Barrere, P .- Siege Artillery.


Bartherotte, P .- Infantry.


Baury, J. B .- Artillery Technical Section.


Belin, H .- Blue Devils.


Bernard, J .- Once wounded, once cited for bravery, croix de guerre.


Bernard, Louis-Infantry, croix de guerre, once cited for bravery.


Berthelot, Y .- Infantry.


Bordel, C .- Ordnance Departmen.t


Breat-Infantry.


Chardonnet, Th .- Infantry.


Coojean, J .- Infantry, once cited for bravery. Cazic, P .- Infantry.


David, M .- Engineers Division, Radio Operator.


Daviou, L .- Siege Artillery, once cited for bravery, croix de guerre.


Decelle, L .- Blue Devils.


Domas, G. P .- Artillery Technical Section.


Evennou, R .- Infantry.


Fabre, H .- Infantry.


Farbat, S .- Infantry. 1


Fraisse, A .- Wounded in Champagne, 1915.


Gaydier, J .- Infantry.


Garde, E .- Infantry and later on Engineers, as radio operator. Genet, J .- Blue Devils.


Gorgeon, J .- Infantry.


Goaec, J .- Ordnance Department.


Grand, G .- Croix de guerre, once cited for bravery.


Grange, A .- Blue Devils, twice cited for bravery, Italian war medal, croix de guerre.


One hundred forty-seven


NEW BRUNSWICK


Grangemarre, A .- Ordinance Department. Guernigou, J .- Artillery Technical Section.


Jegou, J. M .- Infantry, croix de guerre, four times cited for bravery, twice wounded.


Kervran, J .- Infantry, wounded in Champagne, in 1915, croix de guerre, cited for bravery.


Lafarge, J. .- Blue Devils.


Lann, J .- Infantry.


Laz, Y .- Infantry. Le Gall, F .- Infantry.


Le Guillou, L .- Infantry, twice wounded, once cited for bravery, croix de guerre.


Le Naour, J .- Infantry.


Le Roux, L .- Infantry.


Le Rouzic, J .- Marine, Medaille Militaire, cited for bravery, croix de guerre, wounded. Maguet, J. M .- Artillery.


Mallegol, J .- Ordnance, Department. Mechan-Infantry.


Miossec, J. F .- Infantry.


Miossec, F .- Infantry.


Mitton, L .- Naval Coast Artillery.


Pialoux, A .- Croix de guerre, cited for bravery.


Pichaudon-Infantry.


Poignonnec, J .- Infantry, cited for bravery, croix de guerre.


Queignac, J .- Infantry.


Renoux, A .- Artillery Technical Department.


Rousselot, F. J .- Engineers.


Schlumberger, P .- French Field Artillery with the Belgian Army, twice wounded, twice cited for brav- ery.


Suignard, N .- Infantry, wounded in Artois, in 1914 after having been wounded served in a gun powder plant.


Vaury, J .- Ordnance Department.


Villecourt, C .- Infantry.


The United States Takes Over the Marconi Station


As soon as the United States declared war upon had been shattered by direct communication between two nations at war. Shortly the message came Germany, it took over the Radio Station on Easton avenue, and placed it under the direction of the Navy .. from Nauen that they were in receipt of the call. On April 7, 1917, a detachment of marines were put on guard and remained until May, 1920.


Late in October, 1917, the Washington key which actuated the great wireless station in New Bruns- wick, N. J., clicked off


This translated from the telegraph code into the alphabet reads:


P-O-Z-DE-N-F-F


And then in quick succession:


"POZ-POZ-POZ-de-NFF-NFF-NFF"


This fairly electrified the men in the station:


"Washington is calling Germany direct"-Some- thing extraordinary!


"POZ" is the call for the Nauen station in the outskirts of Berlin, and "de NFF" meant "From New Brunswick, U. S. A." Thus all diplomatic precedents


Then followed the historic note of President Wil- son demanding the abdication of the Kaiser, stating that the American Government would not negotiate with any but the German people direct. So, from the very beginning the negotiations leading up to the armistice were conducted through the New Brunswick, N. J., Naval Radio Station.


Every day New Brunswick communicated with San Francisco and San Diego, Cal., with Admiral Sims' flagship in British waters; also with Paris, Rome and Wales. Secretary Daniels "spoke" to President Wilson through the New Brunswick station while on board the George Washington in the mid- dle of the Atlantic Ocean.


The wireless telegraph of the "George Washing- ton" received New Brunswick messages continually and kept President Wilson informed of world and home events while on the high seas.


1


LIEUT. GEORGE JONES HAS AN ARGUMENT AT CAMP DIX


One hundred forty-eight


IN


THE WORLD WAR


America's Total War Casualities


Final revised figures of casualties during the war compiled by the War Department, together with an analysis of the casualties by States, shows that Mon- tana and Connecticut lead by a considerable margin. New York and Pennsylavnia are naturally far ahead in the actual number of casualties.


New Jersey


10,166


2,367


4.006


Oklahoma


6,358


1,471


3.8


Michigan


10,369


2,751


3.6


New Hampshire


1,535


358


3.55


Minnesota


7,323


2,133


3.52


Ohio


16,007


4,082


3.3


Vermont


1,170


300


3.288


follows:


Killed in action.


34,248


Died of disease.


23,430


Died of wounds.


13,700


Kansas


5,182


1,270


3.09


Died of accident


2,019


250


71


3.05


Drowned


300


Maryland


3,812


975


3.02


Suicide


272


Missouri


10,385


2,562


3.009


Murder or homicide


154


Virginia


6,130


1,635


2.9


Executed by sentence, general court-martial


10


Rhode Island


1,562


1,836


2,83


Other known causes.


489


6,190


1,836


2,83


Causes undetermined


1,839


Presumed dead.


650


Arizona


557


150


2.72


Total dead


77,118


Utah


1,006


302


2.69


Prisoners unaccounted for.


15


Prisoners died.


147


New Mexico


860


228


2.66


Prisoners repatriated


4,270


Total prisoners.


4,432


Texas


10,133


2,722


2.6


South Carolina


3,919


1,138


2.58


Nebraska


3,041


855


2.55


Washington


3,070


877


2.51


Alabama


5,160


1,251


2.4


Kentucky


5,380


1,436


2.349


Oregon


1,577


512


2.344


District of


Columbia


773


202


2.33


Colorado


1,759


537


2.2


Indiana


5,766


1,510


2.1


Arkansas


2,658


683


1.7


Georgia


4,425


1,530


1.6


Delaware


303


87


1.4


Louisiana


2,169


823


1.3


Mississippi


2,303


904


1.28


Connecticut


6,265


1,265


5.6


Wyoming


676


233


4.6


Pennsylvania


35,042


7,898


4.5


North Dakota


2,560


700


4.43


New York


40,222


9,196


4,41


Wisconsin


9,913


2,649


4.2


Idaho


1,351


409


4.1


Massachusetts


13,505


2,955


4.01


Montana


3,443


934


9.1


Florida


1,171


467


1.27


Alaska


15


6


Hawaii


13


4


Porto Rico


12


1


Philippines


7


3


Canal Zone


3


2


Maine


2,090


518


2.68


North Carolina


5,799


1,610


2.62


Wounded slightly.


91,189


Wounded severely


83,390


Wounded, degree undetermined


46,480


Total wounded


221,050


Missing in action


3


Grand total


302,612


CASUALTIES BY STATES


Casualties


Casualties per 1000 of Dead population


Iowa


7,311


2,161


3.286


Illinois


18,264


4,260


3.22


West Virginia


4,018


1,063


3.208


South Dakota


1,867


554


3.1


Nevada


California


6,650


1,747


2.76


Tennessee


New Jersey's Share of Human Sacrifices was 2,367 Dead and 7,799 Wounded.


One hundred forty-nine


The revised figures give the total casualties of the American forces in the war as 302,612, divided as


NEW BRUNSWICK


Cost of War in Men and Money


More than four times as many lives were lost in the four and a half years of the great war as were sacrificed in all the Napoleonic conflicts from 1790 to 1815. More than twice as many persons were killed as in the preceding century and a quarter from the French Revolution in 1789 to the close of the Balkan wars in 1913. Such are the astounding con- clusions of statisticians.


Country


Known Dead Severely Wounded


Russia


1,762,064


1,000,000


France


1,427,800


700,000


Great Britain


807,451


617,740


Serbia


707,343


322,000


Italy


507,160


500,000


Great Britain


$35,334,011,868


France


24,265,582,800


United States


22,625,252,843


United States


117,151


43,000


Russia


22,593,950,000


Greece


15,000


10,000


Italy


12,413,998,000


Portugal


4,000


5,000


British Colonies


4,493,813,072


Japan


300


400


Other Allies


3,963,867,914


Total, Allies


5,954,386


3,438,140


Total cost to Allies


$125,690,476,497


Germany


1,611,104


1,600,000


Germany


$37,775,000,000


Austria-Hungary


911,000


850,000


Austria-Hungary


20,622,960,600


Turkey


436,974


107,772


Bulgaria


1,245,200,000


Bulgaria


101,224


300,000


Turkey


1,000,000,000


Total enemies


3,060,302


2,857,772


Total cost to enemies


$60,643,160,600


Grand total


9,014,688


6,295,912


Grand total


$186,333,637,097


Estimates vary geratly as to the money cost of the war. The Copenhagen War Study Society made it $18,785,000,000 for the first year and $33,065,000,000 for the second. Another authority figured the third year at $39,247,900,000. This would make $91,097,- 900,000. These are close to the figures of the Lib- erty Loan Bureau of the Treasury Department, which


estimated the cost for the three years at $89,721,- 500,000. The Swiss Bank of Geneva estimated that the fourth year cost as much as the other three years together, which would make the total cost $180,000,- 000,000. Secretary Baker's figures to the close of the war were $197,000,000,000. Edgar Crammond, the English statistician, figured it at $210,175,000,000, while Ernest L. Bogart,, of the University of Illinois, made it somewhat less, or $186,333,637,097, with in- direct costs of $151,612,542,560, to total of $337,946,- 179,657. The net cost, deducting advances by one state to another, are thus given:




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