USA > New York > The Minute men of '17 - a history of the service rendered during the recent world war by the Ninth Coast Artillery Corps, New York Guard and the Veteran Corps of Artillery, state of New York > Part 10
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That same night, Tuesday, September 25, one of a fleet of raiders penetrated the London barrage and dropped his bombs on London. I watched the raid from the deserted streets. I could distinctly hear the German planes and could see the burst- ing shells, but the enemy was invisible. The next day, I went to a section of London on Old Kent Road near Old Grange Street where the police admitted me into their lines because of my uniform. I counted approximately 150 houses that ranged from being practically demolished to having some portion of their fronts blown in.
On Saturday, September 29, came one of the worst of the air raids on London. I watched it on the roof of my hotel until ordered down by the proprietor, after which I went out on the street. I could see many bursts of shells in many different direc- tions, and could hear the drone of the engines of the German planes, but, as usual, could not distinguish them 14,000 feet in the air. The streets were deserted, not alone because of danger from falling bombs, but also because of danger from the fire of the defending anti-aircraft guns, since everything that went up must come down. I realized this when a shell fell in the street and half buried itself a short distance from where I was but fortunately did not explode; and later when some one ran from a protecting cornice and picked a shell fragment from the sidewalk nearby. I was told that many persons were necessarily killed by the fire of the home defense batteries.
On Sunday, September 30, I went to Shoeburyness where I was welcomed by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Mortimore, Commandant of the British Anti-Aircraft Artillery School. He introduced me to General Sclater-Booth who was in charge of all the Artillery Schools. That day I spent in study; that evening I went with Colonel Mortimore to the forts, as a raid was expected. I was inspecting a crack battery composed of young fellows who had been drummer boys and buglers in the British Armies in
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France and who had been taken out of the fighting on account of their youth, when the familiar drone of the engines of the German raiders could be heard. Suddenly the guns turned and began firing a few feet over my head, and I quickly changed my position. Soon the other batteries joined in the attack. One after another the Ger- mans passed overhead until fourteen of them had gone by. I could tell by the sound of their engines that the bursting shells had caused them to change their course in the sky. I could not see any of the planes, though one of the officers said that he had distinguished one for an instant as it passed between us and the moon. Soon the firing was taken up by the batteries nearer London, and those with whom I was stationed ceased firing. Then we waited to fire at the raiders when they should return from bombing London. Very soon the familiar drone was heard once more, and the same scene was repeated.
The next day I spent in study. That evening I was at dinner when the warnings of an approaching raid were received. Soon the firing began, and the windows of the building shook with each explosion. The officers off duty leisurely finished their dinners, and then I walked with Colonel Mortimore to the batteries that were firing at the raiders who were high in the air above the school buildings. The scene was a repetition of that of the night before. The shots seemed to be close, but no German was brought down.
The reader will note that during my first ten days in England there had been a total of six air raids on London, one attack elsewhere and one false alarm.
A Major Stanley was among those who entertained me at the officers club when I seemed lonely. I learned quite by accident that he was a son of the Earl of Derby. the head of one of the oldest families and one of the most noted peers of England.
On October 3rd, after a visit to the British testing grounds, I returned to London. That night, I located Ward who had just arrived. On the next day, I arranged to inspect the London defenses and called on Ambassador Page. The next day, I began my inspection by going to various gun and light stations in and about London.
I returned to London October 3. Ward meanwhile was making arrangements for my visiting the British front where anti-aircraft fighting could be studied at its best. At that time, the great offensive towards Cambrai was contemplated and the British did not wish to be bothered by the presence of any foreign officers. General Lassiter stated that he had tried in vain to get permission for several United States Major- Generals on a tour of inspection to visit the front. The lid was down tight and everything seemed hopeless, except to Ward. He obtained the permission which had been refused to the Major-Generals. Colonel James the officer in charge of issuing passes told Ward :
'If Major Stoddard wishes to go to the front, I will see that a pass will be issued. I advise, however, against his going, as a great offensive is about to begin, and I would not care to go to the front myself at this time
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unless obliged to do so. My advice is to wait. As it is, the last American to whom I issued a pass to go to the front is still in the hospital.'
Ward brought this message to me and my answer was;
'I am not on a sight-seeing expedition, I am studying anti-aircraft and haste is necessary; if I can learn more about anti-aircraft at the front, I wish to obtain a pass.'
A pass was issued the same day that my answer was delivered at the British war office, and arrangements were made by telephone with Sir Douglas Haig's head- quarters for me to be met by an army automobile at Boulogne the next day.
It was near midday when I arrived at Boulogne where I found a British army chauffeur and automobile awaiting me, and began my long automobile ride through northern France. During my ride, I learned for the first time that I was being taken to Albert on the Somme front.
At dusk, we passed the famous Albert cathedral with the statue of the Virgin still hanging by her feet from the steeple. The chauffeur left me at the Anti-Air- craft Artillery headquarters of the British Third Army, where I was welcomed by a Major Arnold and his fellow officers.
That night after dinner, Major Arnold took me in his automobile to Bapaume. The road between Albert and Bapaume is historic for the reason that it is the scene of the terrible fighting of 1916. Towns like Pozieres and Le Sars had disappeared entirely. Everywhere lay the rubbish of a battlefield. First one met dugouts, trenches and wire of the British, then came No Man's Land and beyond came the wire, trenches, dugouts of the Germans. A few hundred yards further, the same scene would be repeated, and British graves showed where the men lay who had given their lives to win that little stretch of ground. A short distance away on either side of the road were all that remained of Ovillers, Contalmaison, Thiepval, Courcel- lette, Martinpinch, Eaucourt l'abbaye, Butte de Warlencourt, Grevillers, Thilloy, whose names are famous in the history of the Somme battles.
The city of Bapaume, during the battles of 1916, had been well behind the German lines and as a result was untouched except by long distance shell fire. When the Germans retreated in the spring of 1917, they dynamited or arranged for the destruc- tion of every building in the city. The ones left standing were caused to blow up with devilish ingenuity after the advent of the British. Some were arranged with time devices. Others blew up when a certain object was touched by British soldiers. Near Bapaume was a large castle which was probably used by the British as a head- quarters. I could not learn its exact use for the reason that the British, like the other combatants, concealed their losses. The chateau was a land mark for miles around. One day a British soldier moved a statue in a pagoda-like outhouse, and all that was left of the castle was a large hole in the ground. That night I dined in a dugout
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near where the chateau had been. As I emerged a bursting star shell lit up the sky long enough for me to see where the statue had been. The hole in the ground where the chateau had been could be easily seen in the darkness.
In the dugout one might almost have imagined himself in a London dining room, ex- cept for the sound of the guns which never stopped firing at the front. My hosts told me that there was much entertaining by officers at the front, in order to alleviate the frightful monotony of their existence. After a very excellent dinner, Major Arnold and I entered his automobile and our hosts entered theirs and we took a road which paralleled the German lines to where a theatrical show was to be given by the soldiers of a departing division. Soon we reached what seemed to be a large dugout in front of which officers were alighting noiselessly in the dark from other automobiles. Inside the whole scene was changed. At one end of a large room was a stage; in the front row on either side sat the nurses and behind them the officers in order of rank. Soon Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng, commander of the Third Army, arrived and the show began. All the time intermittent firing was taking place. No one paid any attention to shells which might be bursting somewhere in the neighborhood.
All of the actors and the orchestra were British Tommies. At the end of an ex- cellent show, Major Arnold and I re-entered the automobile and retraced our course back to Albert. I saw a light which seemed to be in a field only a short distance away and asked Arnold what it was. He answered that it was a flare from the Ger- man trenches lighted so that any possible British night raiders might be discovered in No Man's Land.
The next morning, my old friend, Colonel Mortimore, commandant of the Anti- Aircraft School at Shoeburyness called on an inspection tour at the front. I was present when he and his aide, Colonel Wilkenson, talked with Major Arnold and his aides concerning possible improvement in the anti-aircraft service. In the late afternoon, Major Arnold and I went to Peronne. Once more I passed through the old battlefield of 1916. I passed in the distance Guillemont, Combles, and other names famous in the history of the Somme. Peronne had been dynamited like Ba- paume and I dined with some officers in one of the few houses left standing. One of my hosts dryly remarked that no one knew when that house would blow up.
Early on the morning of October 12, Major Arnold and I started on an inspection of anti-aircraft batteries. There were two particularly that he wished to show me, one was in the first line, and the other in the second line. On the road to Bapaume, we passed many U. S. engineers who were helping the British-Indians salvage objects of military value from the battlefield. The engineers were operating a narrow gauge railroad which during rainy weather was one of the best means of transporta- tion in the muddy Somme country. That morning, I counted nine tanks that lay as they had been abandoned at the time of the battle. Reaching Bapaume, we turned to the left taking the road to Arras which paralleled the German Lines. We passed the
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ruins of Sapignies, Behagnies, Evillers, Boyeles, Mercatel, Beaurains, Achicourt to Arras where we lunched, after inspecting a battery near by. After lunch, we took the road towards Lens which led into the German lines. Soon we alighted and walked until we came to a position where No Man's Land and the trenches of both sides could be distinguished. Except for the intermittent firing that never stops at. the front, one would not have thought that he was looking at one of the greatest battle scenes in the world, for this was the far-famed Vimy Ridge from which I was looking into the German lines. The ground was covered with the debris of a battle- field. I saw German shell cases, relics of when a German battery had held the Ridge. I also saw British bandoliers, cartridge clips, fuse caps and exploded German shells, relics of the present occupancy by the British.
It was broad daylight and a clear day, and since the German trenches could be seen by us, I wondered why we in the automobile could not be seen by those in the German trenches. I asked Arnold, "Cannot the Germans see us?" "Yes" was his answer. "Is it not dangerous going along like this within plain sight of the Germans?" I asked.
"No, the Germans have not been shelling automobiles on this road lately; they will not turn their guns on us unless we get stuck," he replied.
"But we might get stuck," I suggested.
"That might not make any difference," he answered. "We would then have two chances; in the first place, the Germans might not open fire after all; and in the second place, they might not hit us if they did."
Passing Arras which had been bombarded by the Germans shortly before, we turned off the Bapaume road at Baurains through Neuville Vitasse and beyond St. Martin Sur Cojeul where we alighted from the automobile and entered the trenches. After walking some distance, we reached a pair of camouflaged anti-aircraft guns concealed in a hollow on either side of which were dugouts in which the gun crews lived. The young Lieutenant in command gave us a cup of tea in his dugout which was well fitted with furniture captured from the Germans. This battery had been pushed up very close to the German lines, and its crew expected momentarily to be discovered and shelled. I looked through a peep hole towards the German trenches but could see nothing through the mist. As Major Arnold and I began to retrace our steps, it was raining; there was almost a foot of mud in the trenches, and it was so dark that we could hardly see where we were going. As we departed, the Lieu- tenant casually called out,
"Oh! By the way! If you don't take the first road to the right, you will be in the German lines !"
I am glad to say that Major Arnold and I found the first road to the right.
Early the next morning, October 13, 1917, the Major and I started out in his automobile taking the road through Beaucourt, Miramont, Achiet-le-petit, Bucquoy,
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Ayette, to Boiry where we inspected a second line battery. As no German planes offered themselves as targets, the battery commander showed the skill of his battery by bursting a shell in the sky and then trying to hit the smoke with the succeeding shots. We later returned through Achiet-le-Grand, to Bapaume and thence back to Albert. That night, I motored to Amiens, and after bidding the Major farewell, I caught the late train for Paris.
In Paris I rejoined my companions, and one may well imagine that there was some swapping of experiences.
On October 15, Ward, Wilder and I inspected guns and searchlights at Neuilly, and also a large searchlight at Mont Valarien, all of which were a part of the Paris defences. Ward at once made preparations to obtain permission for us to visit the French front. It seems that General Pershing had issued orders that no more officers were to be permitted to go as observers with the French. Ward was ill and could not see General Pershing personally. He however timed matters so wonderfully that he requested permission of General Pershing over the telephone for us to visit the French front just at the time that a prominent General was asking General Pershing that our request be granted.
I had hoped that we would be sent to Verdun, but because of the necessity for haste, we were sent to Chemin-des-Dames. On October 18, Wilder and I took an early train to Chateau Thierry where the Americans later fought. Ward did not accompany us, as he had decided to remain abroad and he wished to spend the last days of our stay in preparing his portion of the report on the Paris defenses so that I might take it home with me. At Chateau Thierry, Wilder and I were met by a French Captain in an automobile which took us north past Fismes to the head- quarters of Lt .- General Duchene, commander of the French Tenth Army. After reporting to the General, we lunched with General Lise commanding the Artillery. Afterwards, Wilder and I in two automobiles went towards the front lines. Chemin- des-Dames was a ridge which ran through the centre of a plain; roughly the Germans held one side of the ridge and the French the other. As the road upon which we were travelling could be seen from the German lines, the French had raised long strips of sheeting about 10 feet high which prevented the Germans from seeing what was passing along the road. The French at that time were preparing for their drive towards Laon and the Germans knew that troops in large numbers were being con- stantly brought forward under cover of this sheeting. The Germans therefore tried to spray the roads with shrapnel. As my auto, which was ahead of Wilder's was proceeding, there came a crash and a shell burst in the air about 60 yards away to the right.
Wilder and I soon separated. He went to the first anti-aircraft sector and I went to the fourth, commanded by Captain Cuny. During the evening, I went with one of the officers to see the lights in No Man's Land. The French flares only lighted
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for an instant; the German flares remained lighted a trifle longer. The night was clear and the flares of the combatants could be seen in either direction as far as eye- sight could reach. Intermittent firing crackled and roared. Thereafter I went to battery headquarters which was the only building in that locality which had not been demolished by the German artillery. No one could explain why the building had been spared, except that it was in the rear of and concealed by some rocks and trees. The Germans had such an accurate range of everything in the locality that when about fifteen soldiers were drilling a few yards away from the headquarters, a shell was sent by the Germans accurately into the centre of the group. That night, I slept in the dining room of the headquarters. In the middle of the night, there came an alarm that the German airplanes were overhead, but I was so tired that I refused to get excited and went back to sleep. The next morning, I learned that the Ger- mans had tried to gas us during the night.
Early the next morning, Captain Cuny took me forward into the trenches. He took me to an anti-aircraft gun, the crew of which was comfortably situated in an elaborate system of trenches and dugouts. I remarked concerning the excellence of the trenches.
"Yes," said the officer in charge, "the trenches are good, but we did not build them; they were built for a field battery which was here for some time until the Ger- mans got the exact range and put it out of existence. The Germans, having the exact range do not believe that anyone would be crazy enough to come back, but here we are."
We passed along towards the Infantry trenches in front. On the sides of the trenches were dugouts, over the doors of which the soldiers had placed amusing names. In front I could see the backs of some of the Infantry in a front trench, while bullets from a German machine gun crackled over our heads. Retracing our steps, we walked into the open. We passed a place where an anti-aircraft gun had been demolished by shell fire two days before. We passed an ambulance driven by an American. I saw one man with his head in his hands and a dark pool of blood in front of him. He was on his way to a dressing station in the rear. No one seemed to pay any attention to men wounded but able to walk.
We crossed a bridge to a demolished building called the Ferme-de-la-Pêcherie. The Germans had been particularly active in trying to hit troops crossing the bridge which was literally covered with shell fragments and shrapnel balls. About were many graves. As we were walking along in the rear of the Infantry trenches, the sight was one long to be remembered. From our rear, the French batteries were firing over our heads at the Germans; the Germans in turn were firing over our heads at the French batteries. Sometimes a ragged black explosion about 60 feet high and 30 feet across would show where a large shell had landed among the Infantry trenches. Shells were bursting all around us. The nearest was a shrapnel which
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exploded 30 yards away, and we could feel the displaced air and hear the shrapnel balls whiz past.
The sky was filled with French aeroplanes which were observing and photograph- ing the German trenches in preparation for the Infantry attack which was soon to take place. The German batteries were firing at the French with high ex- plosive which produces a black smoke. The French planes were firing at the few German planes that dared to go up in the air with shrapnel, which produces a white smoke. Sometimes I could tell the nationality of the plane, which appeared like a speck in the sky, by the color of the shell bursts. The French anti-aircraft gun- ners were so well trained that they could distinguish the nationality and make of a plane which appeared to be a small speck in the distance.
In the late afternoon, an officer called for me in an automobile and I left Captain Cuny's battery to join Wilder in the first sector. On the way, I saw a plane flying low over No Man's Land past Captain Cuny's battery which I had just left. The battery fired two shots, both of which burst directly over the plane, which landed apparently disabled in among the German trenches. When I reached Wilder, I learned for the first time that he had been gassed the night before. Late that night, we went to Chateau Thierry and took a train for Paris.
While Major Stoddard was in England Captain Wilder re- mained at the artillery school at Arnouville. Arnouville was on the way to the front out from the Gare du Nord, the nearest sta- tion being Villiers-le-Bel-Gonnesse.
Arnouville is a small village in the agricultural country on a sunny hillside above a quiet stream. On the banks of this stream was a magnificent estate surrounding a beautiful chateau, belong- ing to a South American millionaire who left at the beginning of the war. The chateau was unoccupied save for a caretaker, and Commandant Pachezey who occupied a room on the ground floor. The drill grounds were at the top of the hill just before you ar- rive at Arnouville from the station, and the school was in a farm building midway between the Chateau grounds and the town pump on Arnouville's single paved street. This school was the Ecole de Tir contre Avions of the French Army, and was a war time insti- tution founded for the purpose of training officers and men in anti- aircraft work. When the Commission arrived there were already two Americans taking the training under the French, Captains
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AMBASSADE DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE AUX ÉTATS-UNIS
Les Autorités des Douanes Françaisse sont prides d'accordor & M.M. 10 Major Franois 9. Stoddard file, 10 Capitaine Robert B. Wilder ot le Lieutenant Cabot Ward, citoyens audricning qui se rendent en France chargés d'une mission militaire, toutes les facilitde pour l'en- trée de louro bagages et de procéder 8700 400 égards particuliers aux formalités dont elles ne pourraient Ion dispenser./.
L'Ambasontour de France :
Meneteuro los Officiers Awa Douanes Françaises .
6. 101 %
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Humbert and Anderson of our Coast Artillery, and as they had only begun their course Captain Wilder joined them in their studies. This was the first American class in a school which later under Major Anderson's direction trained hundreds of our men.
Without going into details of the course of instruction pursued by Captain Wilder, it is sufficient to say that the course included a trip to the front and qualified the officers to command a battery in action. During the first night which Captain Wilder spent at the front in the First Section of the Tenth French Army an un- fortunate incident occurred. The Captain was spending the night in a dugout in the trenches at Chemin-des-Dames in company with two French officers. This dugout was the size of an ordinary room but only just high enough in which to stand upright. It was constructed partially underground, and partially built up of sand- bags, which entirely covered the roof ten feet deep, and was camou- flaged by a shield of trees. Two windows and a door occupied one side. They were screened with cheese cloth which was wet down at the approach of gas. A gas attack occurred on the night which Captain Wilder spent there, and the orderly who gave the warning neglected to latch the door completely. The gas arrived on a gust of wind which blew the door open, and the three officers were slightly gassed before it could be closed. Captain Wilder being asleep receiving no injury to his eyes, but suffered later from the after effects of gas poisoning.
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