USA > New York > The first hundred years : records and reminiscences of a century of Company I, Seventh Regiment, N.G.N.Y., 1838-1938 > Part 33
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Captain Hayes' transfer left the Company in the hands of First Lieutenant Percy M. Hall, our old First Sergeant on the Border and as popular a man as ever wore a uniform.
The Company officers after reorganization consisted of two First Lieutenants and two Second Lieutenants, namely, Russell M. Vernon, Percy M. Hall, John A. Korschen and Frank M. Gould. We were, therefore, in need of a Captain; and this office was soon filled by Raphael A. Egan of Company I of the old 1st N.Y.
We soon learned to like our new skipper. He had been given a most promis- ing introduction by Captain Hayes and he lived up to it. He was a big six- footer, well proportioned, with an irresistible smile, full of fun, and looked every inch a leader of men.
With the new organization of 250 men well in hand, a period of intensive training set in, and let it be stated for the uninitiated, it was intensive training with a capital I. We had bayonet fighting, bombing practice, and all forms of modern warfare, varied by trips to practice trenches ranging in length from 24 to 72 hours under all sorts of weather conditions, besides a heavy schedule of "close order" to keep our discipline up to the mark. We hiked many miles with full equipment to fit us for the struggle in France, and occasionally there were night manoeuvers.
Our markmanship had to be brought up to standard by a course of instruc- tion at the range at Glassy Rock, N.C., which was some twenty-nine miles from camp, and to which we had to hoof it, up and back. No survivor will forget Glassy Rock and the range. The arrival of the dusty and footsore battalions, the acquaintance with some interesting inhabitants of these mountains-the land of the "still"-the eating of corn pones made by an old deserter from the Confederate Army who fled there and stayed all his life, and various other occurrences, will be looked back upon as real events in our history. We shall remember the day we followed the barrage put down by our own artillery, and captured dummy trenches. How little we knew of trenches and barrages then! But it seemed like the real thing.
Another event, or series of events, which may well be recorded here, is the transfer of men from the Company to special units for which previous training in civil life had fitted them. There were calls for motor mechanics, truck drivers, engineers, steam fitters, and even interpreters. Each call cut a swath through our ranks that was appalling. We lost many good men in this way.
376
THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF COMPANY I
It is also a sad duty to record the death of Charley Rowe, the first man of Company I to give his life for his country. After a long illness from pneu- monia, he died at the Base Hospital, December 9, 1917. He was a general favorite in the Company and his loss was a terrible blow. The Company at- tended his funeral at the church in Spartanburg, and Bugler Potter blew "Taps" over the coffin. Charley's name stands first on our long Roll of Honor.
Training had certainly become monotonous about the time orders were re- ceived to proceed to an Atlantic port. Interest in life at once revived. Days and nights were full of inspections. Lieutenant Hall left with the advance party under Major Sherman. Rumors immedately began to circulate that we were going to have one last look at the "big town."
Consequently the course our troop train pursued was carefully watched, the excitement reaching a crisis when the train pulled in to Danville, Va. At this time it was known that if we turned to the right it meant Newport News and if we turned to the left it meant Washington and New York. We turned to the right !
At Newport News we were quartered in fine barracks at Camp Stuart, where the National Army had suffered the horrors of war, and proceeded to be equipped and inspected again to the limit. The camp soon filled up with mothers, wives, and sweethearts, not to mention other relatives, and for a few days the guards were busy.
Finally the last goodbyes were said and we embarked for that strange land of fighting and adventure on the good ship Susquehanna, once a German liner.
Several changes had taken place in our personnel before we sailed. In the first place Lieutenant Gould was forced to leave us at Spartanburg, owing to defective hearing. He was very popular as a platoon commander and with the whole Company, officers and men. He was a splendid officer, always most earnest and conscientious in his work, always looking out for the interests and for the welfare of his comrades. Our old "Topper" Harold Floyd also left us to accept a commission as Second Lieutenant, being assigned to Company F. Second Lieutenant C. G. Leland, ex-First Sergeant of Company L, had joined up with Company I at Camp Wadsworth shortly after being commissioned, and Second Lieutenant John B. Jessup was assigned to us at Newport News to take Lieu- tenant Gould's place. Sergeant J. Lester Burnett was promoted to the rank of "Topper."
We had a rather uneventful voyage as far as submarines were concerned. There were many boat drills, and, with the exception of a day or two of rough weather and some target practice for the ship's crew, there was nothing note- worthy to record. The trip lasted fourteen days and we landed in Brest on May 23, 1918.
After a short stay in the fields near Pontanezen, of fond memory, we pro- ceeded by rail to the British sector on the Somme. Proceeding by rail sounds ordinary enough, but to the doughboy it is a phrase of horror. Our means of transportation was invariably a long train of box-cars bearing the inscription "40 hommes 8 chevaux en long" over the door. Being interpreted this meant
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OVERSEAS
Favières' main street
the cars were capable of holding forty men or eight horses. Usually the horses had been there before us.
We piled into these cars at the rate above mentioned and then flat-wheeled it for thirty-six hours to the town of Noyelles. Here we detrained and hiked to a camp some kilos from the station. We were guided by a "Tommy" who at once proceeded to set a precedent for all our British guides and take us in the wrong direction. Result: four miles unnecessary walk in a roundabout way to Nouvion on the edge of Crecy Forest.
Next morning we hiked back to Noyelles and thence to a small town called Favières, a short distance from the coast. The Hun, or "Jerry" as the Tommies call him, must have had an inkling as to what we were to do to him eventually, for the night we arrived at Noyelles his planes bombed the place, and almost every night thereafter we received similar tokens of his esteem.
We trained a little at Favières and drilled a little and bathed in the canal. Here we were first issued that modern form of military headgear known as the "Tin Derby" and also drew that other article of haberdashery which was cursed every mile of the hike, yet clung to most affectionately in the trenches-the gas mask.
We also learned our first smattering of French. It used to be amusing to see Frank Dee saunter up to a benign-looking old French lady and scare her out of many years growth by flapping his arms wildly about and cackling. This, in Frank's words, was "businessing" her for an egg or two. Words sig- nifying champagne or its poor relatives, vin blanc and vin rouge, the boys had little difficulty in picking up, and soon some of them could even pronounce cognac without sounding the "g." Le Crotoy, a little coast town at the mouth of the Somme, was our favorite week-ending place. We could walk over there on Saturday afternoons or Sundays and get nicely stung at the Hotel de Com-
378
THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF COMPANY I
merce on one of those five- and ten-franc dinners. It was worth the price, how- ever, during those beautiful days in May and June. It was apple blossom time in Picardy, the weather was fine, and the food more plentiful there than in any other part of France we visited. Our stay at Favières stands out as one of the pleasantest of our ten-month itinerary.
Lieutenant Harrison Uhl, an old Company I man who had gone with our detail to the 69th and been commissioned in France, by a strange bit of luck joined his old Company at Favières.
Leaving there on June 17, we hiked south across the Somme to a place called Woignarue, not far from Treport on the coast. It was a man-killing march of twenty-five kilometers, and consequently many tent poles, pins, condiment cans, and extra shoes were lost en route. After a few days of drills and target prac- tice on the beach and a demonstration of gas in warfare, we moved on by easy stages eastward to Bouquemaison, near the city of Doullens. This was a vil- lage of some size where there were plenty of estaminets and eating places. One could purchase eggs and chips if one had the price. We were glad to get them at any price, for variations to the army "slum" were always acceptable.
It is necessary to pass lightly over a number of places which may have his- torical value to the individual. Books and books could be written of individual acts and experiences, but the mere mention of a few places will bring back to many readers incidents which they can enlarge upon themselves.
Leaving Bouquemaison on July 2, after being inspected by General Pershing himself in front of our billets, we proceeded by rail again to the north and detrained at the city of St. Omer in the wee, small hours of the morning, and hiked to a little town called Buysscheure. Here we stopped long enough to celebrate the Fourth of July in as befitting a manner as possible. There was a review in the morning, speeches and athletic games in the afternoon that
The estaminet, Favières
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OVERSEAS
"Jerry" Stanton and the rolling kitchen in the orchard
Company I billets at Favières
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THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF COMPANY I
were rudely interrupted by an air raid of the Boche. If "Jerry" had succeeded in laying an egg in that field, the 54th Brigade would have been "na poo."
We left this place for Ledringhem, resting there a day or two and then mov- ing on over the plain of Flanders to Winnezeele. Here Dilke House Farm was shared by the 3rd Battalion and a British labor outfit. The buildings stood in the center of a quadrangle of several acres with good greensward for drilling, baseball, and cricket. Pup tents were pitched around the four sides of the field under the poplar trees which screened our camp. It wasn't so bad, but the washing facilities were poor, for all we had for the daily formality was a dirty old pond which we shared with the cattle. We became acquainted here with the British game of "Crown and Anchor," which if well manipulated by the bank, becomes a sort of "heads I win, tails you lose" affair, as several Company sports discovered.
At Winnezeele we first heard the "zing" of the big ones. For the first night of our stay there the Boche shelled us, and the next day we were ordered to dig in. To the east of our camp the spire of Steenvoorde church showed over the rise, and a few miles beyond, in the distance, the Mont des Chats with its famous monastery stood out on the sky line. We used to watch the shells break on the crest of this hill. Some of the boys wandered up into Steenvoorde and saw their first war-wrecked town. Evidences of German Kultur were in every street. The church had a big hole in it, but the spire was intact, and a fine spire it was. One Sunday a few of us visited the church and found a small organ un-
British Labor Battalion Avls
Drill Ground
Lorries
Co.I
lewis Gun Pit
Course of IL Falling plane
Cricket
Barn
Field .
staje
A A
House
Oficer's
3rd Batalin
tento A
x
Hans
A
Co. K
11/1
..........
To Winnezeele
Hore pools
Camp at Dilke House, Winnezeele, July 1918
-
6000
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OVERSEAS
injured. Erskine Barker, who was an excellent organist, played amid the wrecked pews and the débris of fallen walls, and some good old American hymns were sung.
It was at Winnezeele, too, that Lieutenant Hall came back to us, after fin- ishing his course at an infantry school down in the American sector-to the great satisfaction of the entire Company. His everlasting stock of cheerfulness and good-nature increased the morale of any unit he was with.
General Plumer, commanding the Second British Army, of which we were now a part, reviewed our battalion in a field east of the camp one fine day. There was a lot of mystery connected with this, and the old Rumor Committee was very busy.
We expected to go right up to the front, but after a ten-day stay we left Winnezeele and marched back a few miles to Oudezeele, where Division Head- quarters were installed. Our camp here was in another fine field with shade and plenty of water. Officers and N.C.O.'s were now regularly sent up to the front in small parties with British units to learn the game.
It was at Oudezeele that we got the news of Corporal Billy Leonard's death. Billy had left us at Winnezeele to go up, at his own request, on observation duty-"Just to see how they do it," he said. A British wiring party was going out one night to mend some wire and Billy volunteered to go along. While en- gaged in their work the Boche artillery put down a barrage. Billy was hit by a shell fragment and killed instantly. He was buried up on the side of the Scherpenburg. The news sent a shock through the Company. We couldn't be- lieve it at first. War up to this point had not been an affair in which people were killed. Now it came home to us. Billy's smile and cheery words had often dispelled the "blues" in camp or on the march. He was one of the mainstays and chief supporters of the Company spirit. His loss was a blow to all of us, and the memory of his wonderful personality and his noble death will never fade with the years. Corporal Leonard was the first man of the 27th Division killed in action.
We stayed at Oudezeele three days and then hiked toward the front again to the little hamlet of Steen Akker, under the shadow of Mont des Chats and not far from Abeele. We had hardly arrived there, hot and tired, when a ter- rific storm came up and drenched us before we could get our tents up. It was a sad-looking outfit that finally, its shelters pitched and the storm cleared away, came out in the sun to dry themselves. It was then that Bill Waddell, clad in a très négligée costume (as most of his garments were hanging up to dry), came over to the next tent and with chattering teeth and in his own peculiar way said, "SSSay, SSSergeant, yyyou dddon't ever sssee these ppppic- tures on rrrrecruiting pppposters, dddo you?"
At Steen Akker Captain Egan took command of the 3rd Battalion when Cap- tain Barnard left for school, and Company I was turned over to Lieutenant Vernon. Soon we left for our début in the line. We were sent up to hold reserve trenches known as the East Poperinghe line. For three days we dug and im- proved this position under fire from the enemy's long range guns, but the period would have been uneventful had not one of "Jerry's" big shells landed
382
THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF COMPANY I
plumb in the midst of the house where our cooks were sleeping, wounding Meade Wicks, Archie Eronimus, and Bill O'Rourke. Being attacked in the culinary department made the boys very sore, but the chow wagon was soon running on full time again under Mess Sergeant Stanton's able management.
After our trick in the East Poperinghe line the Company went back for further training to a range at Petit Dilques near St. Omer. We shot daily on the range for a week and worked out several military problems, then hiked back again to Winnezeele, thence to the farm of the old Trappist monks near Watou. After a short rest we marched up one night, past the city of Poperinghe, to a British sector known as the Dickebusch line. At last we were up in front in the deadly Ypres salient. We were put in by squads and platoons with British units at first, and gradually the 3rd Battalion took over the Ridge Wood position from the "Sherwood Foresters," and we were on our own.
RIDGE WOOD
Our position out in front of Dickebusch Lake was a rather ticklish one for green troops. The British expected Rupprecht of Bavaria to come around the north end of Kemmel and try to smash his way to the Channel. Nothing but the German defeat at the Marne in July and August prevented him from
ijver hock
Division Boundary
Scottish . wood ʻ
<- To Ypres
Brasserie
The Bund Lesester
Bristol Camp
German
Right Br
Etano
CI
Left
de
B'n
Dickebusch
Indu's Tafim
Inter Betting Bounda
Chat .
Co.L
Mayor's Post
Vierstraat
56
Dickebusch
1
10
O
1
0
Iona House !
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L
German lines
1
-
Hallebast
Chateau
Dickebusch Sector Aug. 1918
.
brox !
Map of Dickebusch sector and Ridge Wood where Company I first went into the line, August 1918
Approximate Front Line
-
Brigade Boundary -
cheapside
Captain's . Post
York Roads
Lines
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OVERSEAS
trying it. So we were presumably to act as a buffer when the crash should come. There wasn't the slightest chance of getting out alive in the event of a big attack.
For some time the platoons of Company I were distributed with the "Leices- ters" on the Bund, or embankment, of the lake; some were with the "Norfolks" at Opium Farm in full view of Kemmel, where a shell took out the end of our barn without hurting a man. The first platoon to go in with the British lost Privates Osborn and Gallagher killed, and several men wounded. A ration- carrying party on the night of the 16th of August, under Sergeant Ed Morris and Sergeant Ginniff, was badly knocked out by a shell which wounded eleven.
On the night of the 18th the Ridge Wood position was taken over by Com- panies I and L, with Companies K and M in support. Company P. C. was established in the wood and the 1st Platoon (counter-attack) under Lieutenant Hall was held near at hand. The 2nd Platoon, Lieutenant Leland, held the salient formed by two trenches crossing at right angles and leading into the Boche lines. Up to these old trenches German raiding parties crept at night or early morning and bombed out the position. Sergeant George Rowe held this strenuous post with two Lewis gun squads under a fire which came from every point of the compass. To the left, Lieutenant Jessup with the 3rd Platoon held about 150 yards of trench, connecting on his left with the Norfolks at the Bras- serie road. This platoon was badly shot up by trench bombs, one landing in a fire bay and killing Privates McLeod and Leary and wounding six others. The 4th Platoon, under Sergeant Garey, held trenches on the eastern edge of Ridge Wood, connecting with Company L on its right.
On the morning of the 23rd "Jerry" started something. Creeping up the old trenches, he attempted to surprise the 2nd Platoon, but Sergeant Clayton
The skyline in Ridge Wood from Company I's trench
August 18th
2nd Platoon position in front of idoewood
Brasserie Water tank
Vierstraat.
York Road
. Here Corp. M'head and Put Leary were killed
Genau lines
A
German lines
Listening
Post VYD
3rd Platoon At. Jessup. -
Sgt. Clayton with Calkin's Lewis Gens
Serát. Rowe with Kunkle's Lewis ouns
Water
Miller and Doolittle's rifle squads
Corp. Dausch's squad
Cheapside
4 th Platoon Serot Garey.
Piddewood.
The "elbow" at Ridge Wood
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OVERSEAS
A typical trench in Ridge Wood
was on the job and he treated the raiders to a hot rifle and Lewis gun fire which discouraged them. At the same time the enemy artillery put down a box barrage on Company L and another party of Huns came over on a raid. One platoon of Company L was literally blasted out of its trench and through a mistake in command fell back a little. Seeing this, Lieutenant Hall promptly ordered Sergeants Neely and Brown to get the 1st Platoon out and form a line of re- sistance. This was quickly accomplished and the Company L men soon rallied and retook the position. The 4th Platoon also rendered assistance with an enfilading Lewis gun fire. Later, when a dispatch from Corps came through commending the 3rd Battalion for repulsing this attack and complimenting Company L, the prompt assistance rendered by the 1st Platoon of Company I was also mentioned.
The Company came through this twelve-day tour of duty with remarkably few casualties considering the number of men crowded into trenches under continual machine gun and trench mortar fire. Our platoons at this time were as large as British companies.
We were finally relieved on the night of August 23, just missing a catas- trophe at Ouderdom Corners, where we stopped for water on the march out. We hiked back to Trappiste Farm and from there to Oudezeele again. Then came rumors of going to the American sector, which were clinched by orders to move on September 3. It was a long hike to Proven, where we entrained and pro- ceeded by way of Calais and Boulogne to Doullens. From there we made an- other long, hot hike to the town of Beauquesne, which was in the British Fourth Army area. This was a "bon sector." There was plenty of food for sale, and
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THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF COMPANY I
Dickebusch Lake, 1918
the men soon forgot the stern realities of war again. We went out on several extensive manoeuvers, and once the 3rd Battalion was selected by the Major General to give a demonstration of taking machine gun nests, before all the officers of the division.
At Beauquesne Lieutenant Vernon was transferred to the Judge Advocate's Department and Lieutenant Hall took command of the Company. Although the war seemed to be going along pretty well for our side, it was by no means over for us, as some thought. Beauquesne was too good to last. We had been there about three weeks when an order came through, moving us up to the advance railhead at Tincourt. We detrained at night and after wandering
OUDERDOM
Ouderdom, Belgium, where the Company stopped to fill canteens and were shelled out, August 23, 1918
.
387
OVERSEAS
1
View of Dickebusch Lake (1933), the "Bund" in the distance
around for some time we camped in the remains of Allaines, a few miles north of Peronne. A day or two later the big news came. This news, as passed on by Lieutenant Hall, was that our Regiment had been selected to take a prominent part in an attack on the Hindenburg Line, the most formidable system of defense ever created by man. We knew it was a serious job, entrusted to the best regi- ment they could find. The British had told us something about this famous position.
We wrote our last letters home, and on the afternoon of the 27th of Sep- tember started moving forward with a light combat pack on our shoulders, which signified business. We got as far forward as possible by daylight and waited for dusk. Lieutenant Leland and Sergeant Rowe had been with the advance party at the front in Ronssoy. They now returned to the Company with the news that the position we were about to take over could not be found. The Lieutenant's account of what happened during the next two days is as follows :
Just at dusk we met the head of the column a few hundred yards east of the town. Captain Brady, Operations Officer, came up and to him Lieu- tenant Byrns, commanding the advance party, made his report, explaining that there was no established position to take over in the dark and advising the Regiment to wait until the situation cleared up in the morning.
Captain Brady replied that the Colonel had been ordered to take position on the night of the 27th, that there was no option in the matter, the Regiment must go in and take a position as near as possible to the one planned.
The advance party reported back to the various companies. For at least two hours the 107th lay along the road from St. Emilie to Ronssoy. That road was packed with every kind of military vehicle known to the service. The two streams of incoming and outgoing traffic were blocked now and then by the débris of a wrecked limber or a big gun stuck in a new shell hole. A few "whiz bangs" well placed on that corner at the entrance to Ronssoy that night
388
THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS OF COMPANY I
The field at Allaines, France, in which Company I camped September 26, 1918. In the center around his shelter tent Lieutenant Hall collected his sergeants and told them of the plans for the attack on the Hindenburg Line
RONSSOY - Vue Generale
Looking back at Ronssoy from Kent Lane
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OVERSEAS
would have wiped out half a battalion and no end of transport. All who had been around there during the afternoon were on tenterhooks.
The 3rd Battalion for an interminable time was half in the village and half outside, strung around the crowded crossroads to which the Boche artillery had paid so much attention that afternoon. The big ones fell in the field all about, but none landed on the corner while we were there.
Kent Lane In this sunken road Company I lay for two nights and left it on the morning of the 29th of September for the attack on Guillemont Farm
Finally orders to move came along and we got the men up out of the fields beside the road. The only light was from the stars and the frequent Very lights and star shells put up by the Boche. Turning to the right downhill on one of the side streets, into the valley, Company I stopped on what we now know to be Guillemont Road at its junction with Kent Lane. After another long wait, during which Lieutenant Hall and I investigated trenches near the road for cover, with no success, Captain Egan placed us in a sunken road (Kent Lane) just north of the Guillemont Road. Both banks of this road had small "tin bivvies," several of them already occupied by dead Tommies, as I found by
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