USA > Tennessee > Knox County > Knox County in the World War, 1917-1919 > Part 8
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Yours very sincerely, JOHN MONASH, Commanding Australian Corps.
To: Major-General G. W. Read, Comd'g., II American Corps.
October 9th, 1918.
Major-General G. W. Read, II American Corps.
On this first occasion on which the II American Corps has taken part in battle of its own, I desire to convey to you, General Read, and all members of your staff as well as to all other ranks of the Thirtieth Division, my hearty congratu- lations on your victory today. The gallantry of your infantry and the precision with which all staff arrangements have worked has filled me with admiration and it has given me pleasure to report your unqualified success to Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.
HENRY RAWLINSON, General, Commanding Fourth British Army.
Major-General G. W. Read, II American Corps.
October 12, 1918.
The Commander-in-Chief desires you to convey to the officers and soldiers of your Corps his appreciation of the magnificent qualities which have enabled them, against powerful resistance, to advance more than ten miles and to take more than six thousand prisoners since September twenty-seven.
McANDREWS.
Major-General G. W. Read, II American Corps.
October 20, 1918.
I wish to express to you personally, and to all the officers and men serving under you, my warm appreciation of the very valuable and gallant services ren- dered by you throughout the recent operations with the 4th British Army. Called
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up to attack positions of great strength held by a determined enemy, all ranks of the 27th and 30th Divisions under your command displayed an energy, courage and determination in attack which proved irresistible. It does not need me to tell you that in the heavy fighting of the past three weeks you have earned the lasting esteem and admiration of your British comrades-in-arms whose success you have so nobly shared.
D. HAIG, Field Marshal.
October 22nd, 1918.
1I American Corps:
Now that the American Corps has come out of the line for a well-earned period of rest and training, I desire to place on record my appreciation of the gallantry and the fine soldierly spirit they have displayed throughout the recent hard fight- ing.
The breaking of the great Hindenburg System of defense, coupled with the capture of Brancourt, Busigny and St. Souplet, and finally the forcing of the passages of the Selle river, constitute a series of victories of which each officer, N. C. O. and man has every reason to feel proud.
The Corps has been very well supported by the artillery of the Australian Corps, to whom I desire to offer my best thanks for their skill and endurance during the long months they have now been in action.
The efficiency with which the staff work of the Corps has been carried out on this their first experience as a fighting Corps in the line of battle has filled me with admiration, and 1 attribute it largely to the zeal and unity of purpose which has throughout animated the whole Corps.
The outstanding feature of their recent victories has been the surpassing gal- lantry and self-sacrifice of the regimental officers and men. 1 congratulate them on their prowess and offer them, one and all, my warmest thanks for the leading part they have taken in the recent operations.
It is possible now to give the Corps a period of rest, during which special attention should be paid to the training of the smaller units in minor tactics, such as the attack of strong points and machine gun nests. The experience they have had of actual combat will assist them to improve their fighting efficiency in this respect.
In thanking the Corps as a whole for the great services they have rendered to the Allied cause, I desire to wish all ranks the best good fortune in the future. RAWLINSON,
Commanding 4th British Army. Busigny, October 27, 1918.
Commanding General, 30th Division:
Acting as a representative of the commune and in its name, consequently in the name, too, of a part of France, I take the liberty to come and express to our liberator and to the gallant troops under your command our feelings of deepest and eternal gratitude.
For those who have not been submitted, as we have, for four years, to the in- tolerable and abhorred German yoke, it is difficult to realize how great were the relief, the joy, the well-being, in a word the unexpressible happiness. we all felt when the first Allied troops made their way through our village, and this great event has been for us like the dawn of a resurrection.
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I should be very thankful to you if you would convey to all your officers, N. C. O's. and men under your command, our deep feelings of admiration and eternal gratitude.
Please, Sir, accept the expression of my highest consideration, and believe me,
Yours most devotedly, The Mayor of Busigny, E. MAIRIS.
November 15th, 1918.
Commanding General, 30th Division :
1. Referring to the telegram from the Commander-in-Chief of appreciation of the sacrifice and service of the troops of the American Expeditionary Force, I feel that it should be impressed upon the men of our command that they, and the organizations to which they belong, have played an exceptional part in bringing about the magnificent results which the Commander-in-chief has so warmly eulogized, and that every advantage should be taken of this expression of what has been done in the past and confidence as to the future by those in command to inspire their men with pride in the service they have had as soldiers in the Army of the United States, and to keep alive this "proud consciousness of a new Amer- icanism born of sacrifice."
2. I would request that you convey to your command my appreciation of the part they have taken in our great victory, and my thanks for their heroic devotion to duty; and that I share with them their sorrow for fallen comrades, and their pride in the high achievements of the men of this Corps.
G. W. READ, Major-General, Commanding II Corps.
November 16th, 1918.
Commanding General, II American Corps:
Now that the II American Corps is leaving the British zone, I wish once more to thank you and all officers, non-commissioned officers and men under your com- mand, on behalf both of myself and all ranks of the British Armies, in France and Flanders, for the very gallant and efficient service you have rendered during the period of your operations with the Fourth British Army.
On the 29th of September, you took part with distinction in the great and critical attack which shattered the enemy's resistance in the Hindenburg Line and opened the road to final victory. The deeds of the 27th and 30th American Di- visions who on that day took Bellicourt and Nauroy and so gallantly sustained the desperate struggle for Bony, will rank with the highest achievements of this war. They will always be remembered by the British Regiments that fought beside you.
Since that date, through three weeks of almost continuous fighting, you ad- vanced from one success to another, overcoming all resistance, beating off numer- ous counter-attacks, and capturing several thousand prisoners and many guns. The names of Brancourt, Premont, Busigny, Vaux-Andigny, St .- Souplet and Maz- inghein testify to the dash and energy of your attacks.
I rejoice at the success which has attended your efforts and I am proud to have had you under my command.
(Signed) D. HAIG, Field Marshal.
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GENERAL LAWRENCE D. TYSON
In rank, length of service, and experience in military affairs, General Tyson stands at the head of the national guardsmen of Tennessee. His military career reached its apex in his command of the Fifty-ninth Infantry Brigade, of the Thirtieth Division, during the World War. For the splendid manner in which he handled it in its operations on one of the most difficult parts of the front he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by the War Department upon the recommendation of General Pershing.
General Tyson's career as a soldier began in 1883 when he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Ninth United States Infantry, after he had completed the four-year course at the West Point Military Academy. He remained as an officer of the regular army until 1896, when he resigned to come to Knoxville to reside and enter business. When war with Spain arose, General Tyson volunteered his services and was made colonel of the Sixth Volunteer Infantry. With his regiment he saw service in Porto Rico. After the declaration of war against Germany, Governor Rye recognized General Tyson's military ability by com- missioning him brigadier general of the Tennessee volunteer troops. In the reorganization of the national guard troops of Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina, into the Thirtieth Division, General Tyson was placed in command of the Fifty-ninth Infantry Brigade. He accompanied it to France and led it in its battles in the Ypres sector in Bel- gimm and in the attack on the Hindenburg Line, together with the bitter engagements which followed it in the succeeding three weeks.
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FIFTY-NINTH BRIGADE
The Fifty-ninth Infantry Brigade of the Thirtieth Division, organized at Camp Sevier, S. C., in September, 1917, was composed of the 117th and 118th Infantry regiments and the 114th Machine Gun Battalion. The 117th Infantry originally was the Third Tennessee Infantry, the 118th Infantry was the former First South Carolina Infantry, while the machine gun battalion was made up of Troops A, B, C, Tennessee cavalry, from Nashville, Chattanooga and Athens, respectively. To bring them up to war strength in accordance with the revised tables of organization, there were large infusions of draft men into each unit of the brigade in the fall of 1917. These men were largely from Tennessee and the Middle West. They made most excellent soldiers.
The first commander of the brigade was Gen. W. S. Scott. He was succeeded soon after its organization by Gen. Lawrence D. Tyson, of Knoxville, who went to Camp Sevier as the head of all the Tennessee national guard troops. Gen. Tyson commanded the brigade through its period of training at Camp Sevier, in all of its operations overseas, and until it was mustered out of service in April, 1919. Though most brigades went through a series of changes in the per- sonnel of their higher commanders during the war, the Fifty-ninth was peculiarly an exception in this respect. Gen. Tyson remained with it during its entire ser- vice. So also did Lieut .- Col. Thomas J. Wyrick, brigade adjutant, and Lieuts. Rye and Milburn, Gen. Tyson's aides. Colonel Spence commanded the 117th In- fantry from its organization until its discharge, but Col. Peter K. McCulley was succeeded by Col. Orrin R. Wolfe in France as commander of the 118th Infantry. Major J. Perry Fyffe, who was the first commander of the machine gun battalion, was relieved by Major E. B. Cantey after the brigade's arrival overseas.
Movement of the brigade from Camp Sevier, where it trained for approxi- mately eight months after its organization, began early in May, 1918. The route taken was by New York to Liverpool, across England, and then by the Eng- lish Channel to Calais, France. Before the end of the month all units of the brigade were in France and under the intensive training of English instructors. On July 4 the brigade moved forward into Belgium, the first American troops to enter the little country. The division remained in support of the 33rd and 49th British Divisions for several days, but units up to the battalion went into the battle line for real experience. The Thirtieth Division finally took over the Canal Sector from the 33rd British on August 17, and the brigade thereafter saw front line duty daily until its withdrawal.
During the period in Belgium, which was largely spent in accustoming the regiments to trench warfare and in training them for the big offensive a month later in the Somme area, the casualties of the brigade were very light. They included two officers killed, four officers wounded, four enlisted men killed, five died of wounds, and fifty-six wounded, a total of 71 for the operations in Belgium.
The brigade was withdrawn from the Canal Sector September 4-5 and placed in reserve for a short course in training with tanks. Two weeks later the final move in preparation for the big offensive between St. Quentin and Cambrai was made, and on September 23 the brigade took over the line just west of Bellicourt from the First Australian Division. The 118th Infantry went into the front lines, with the 117th Infantry in support. They were relieved shortly before the attack by the 60th Brigade.
The plan of battle was that the Sixtieth Brigade, plus Company H, of the 117th Infantry, and the 114th Machine Gun Battalion, should attack on the divisional front, penetrate the barbed wire entanglements, and capture Belli-
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court and Nauroy. Its elements were to have the protection of a creeping bar- rage and be preceded by a strong array of tanks. The Fifty-ninth Brigade was allotted the task of creating a divisional reserve and exploiting the line to the southeast after the St. Quentin Canal had been crossed. Exploitation of this territory was assigned to the 117th, while the 118th made up the divisional re- serve.
The sector of attack for the division was considered the most strongly forti- fied part of the whole Hindenburg Line, which extended from the English Chan- nel to the Swiss border. The defensive fortifications were thought to be the strongest that could possibly be erected and capable of withstanding any offense. In addition to the St. Quentin Canal, which reached a depth of 75 feet at places and some 150 feet in width, the Germans had built four series of trenches, each of which was protected by heavy barbed wire entanglements. It was through these obstacles that the assaulting waves had to pass. At the apex of the de- fenses of the German lines, and in front of Bellicourt, the canal ran through a tunnel, in which 30,000 troops could be billeted in safety. The approaches to the tunnel were made almost impregnable by numbers of machine guns, which com- manded the canal both north and south. Furthermore, smaller tunnels made connection with many points of the trench system in front of the canal.
Two elements favored the attack. The first of these was an intense artillery preparation from hundreds of British and Australian guns. These played upon the enemy lines, but did little damage to the barbed wire. The other element was a heavy fog, which concealed the advance of the Americans and prevented the full effect of the German machine gun and rifle fire from playing upon them accurately. Undoubtedly, many of the companies became lost from each other and wandered from the direction of their objectives, but their losses were not so heavy as they would have been if the morning had been clear.
The crushing of the main defenses of the line and the cleaning up of machine gun nests continued throughout September 29 and the two succeeding days, when the brigade and division were relieved for a short time to rest and recuperate for further attacks. The brigade's casualties in the drive upon the Hindenburg Line, which stands out as one of the great battles of the war, were 854 out of a total strength of 7,661 men and officers. They were divided as follows: officers killed, 3; officers wounded, 37; men killed, 79; men died of wounds, 39; men wounded, 696.
The heaviest and bloodiest fighting of the brigade, however, was upon October 8 and 9. In these two days the towns of Geneve, Ponchaux, Montbrehain, Bran- court, Premont, Busigny, and Becquigny were captured, and an advance of close to 10,000 yards was made against the most determined resistance by the German divisions with machine guns, artillery, and infantry. The attack was taken up on October 10 and 11 by the Sixtieth Brigade. On October 12 the Thir- tieth Division was relieved by the Twenty-seventh American Division for a brief rest. However, the Thirtieth was called back on October 16, and the follow- ing morning the Fifty-ninth Brigade again took up the battle against the enemy. It captured Molain and advanced across the Selle River before it was relieved by the Sixtieth Brigade, which continued the fighting until the afternoon of October 19.
From October 5 to 19, inclusive, covering this hard fighting beyond the Hin- denburg Line, the brigade suffered 2,571 casualties. Of 194 officers, 22 were killed, 1 died of wounds, and 66 were wounded. From the enlisted personnel of the brigade, comprising 6,857 men, 382 were killed, 56 died of wounds, and 2,044 were wounded. Summarizing the casualties of the brigade from the time it went
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into the line until it was finally withdrawn, the total killed and wounded of officers and enlisted men was 3,496, or 45.5 per cent of the brigade's strength. The units of the brigade advanced approximately 19,700 yards for a penetration of about 11 miles into the lines of the enemy.
While exact figures are impossible because of the rapidity of the advance and the fierceness of the fighting, yet a fairly accurate count of the spoils taken by the brigade in its operations in the line shows the following: prisoners captured, 2736; field pieces taken, 65; machine guns captured, 446; rifles and other small arms, 4171; trench mortars, 72; anti-tank guns, 25; bicycles, 200; anti-aircraft guns, 5; minnenwerfers, 3; and square miles of territory taken, 18.2. In the attack on the Hindenburg Line and the operations that followed it, the following ad- vances were made: jumping-off line to St. Quentin Canal, 1,900 yards; St. Quen- tin Canal to objective on September 29, 2,400 yards; operations of October 7, 8, and 9, 9,800 yards; operations of October 17 and 18, 5,600 yards.
Exhausted by the long siege of fighting, the brigade was withdrawn with the rest of the division to the Heilly training area near Amiens on October 20. Re- placements for the thinned ranks were to be drawn and men and officers were to be given a few days of rest before returning to the fighting again. Just when orders were expected for a return to the front, the armistice was signed and all fighting ceased. Toward the end of November orders were received from Amer- ican General Headquarters to entrain for the Le Mans area. There the brigade remained until early in March, 1919, when it again entrained for St. Nazaire, where boats were waiting to transport its units to the United States. Landing was made at Charleston, South Carolina, during the last days of that month. The 118th Infantry was mustered out at Camp Jackson, but the 117th Infantry and the 114th Machine Gun Battalion, after great parades through Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga, were demobilized at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, about the middle of April, 1919.
Recognition of the splendid fighting qualities of the brigade is shown in the number of medals, crosses and citations bestowed upon it. General Tyson was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by General Pershing for his sterling leadership during the battle activities of the brigade. One officer and seven men received the Congressional Medal, the highest and most coveted military honor that our government bestows. No other brigade in the history of the army has been awarded so many. Fifteen officers were decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, while the same award was made to 69 enlisted men of the Brigade. British Military Crosses were bestowed upon 21 officers, and the British Military Medal conferred upon 54 men of the enlisted personnel. The Distinguished Con- duct Medal was granted to 31 men. Citations for personal bravery were given to 57 officers and 250 men by Major-General Lewis, the division commander.
The brigade upon its return was a far different organization from what it was when its members left their homes nearly two years before. They came back battle-scarred veterans, bronzed and hardened from twenty months of ser- vice in the open under sun and rain, enduring the hardships of heat and cold. They served their apprenticeship in the school of war at Camp Sevier, where they hewed their camp and drill grounds out of pine forests and learned the rudi- ments of warfare from American and British instructors. They became masters . of the art in the three months in which they were thrown against the best troops of the hitherto victorious German armies. They were at home equally in trench or in open warfare, able to cope with any foe they met, recognized as the peer of any troops on either side, and regarded as the superior of most of them.
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COLONEL CARY F. SPENCE
The military career of Colonel Spence extends over a period of more than two decades. It began with the Spanish-American war in 1898, when he was com- missioned first lieutenant and appointed regimental adjutant of the Sixth Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of Captain the following year while on duty in Porto Rico.
After the close of the war, Colonel Spence did not allow his interest in military affairs to lapse, but continued to be an active factor in Tennessee national guard cireles. This lively participation in military matters led to his choice later as colonel of the Third Tennessee Infantry. When war with Mexico threatened in 1916, he recruited the regiment to full strength and led it to the border, where it saw nearly a year of service on guard duty.
Colonel Spence's most active war service, however, was in the World War, through which he led the 117th Infantry. He accompanied it to Camp Sevier in Septemher, 1917; directed its training in preparation for overseas duty ; was its active commander through all the fighting in Belgium, the attack upon the Hinden- burg Line, and the several battles which followed ; and he brought home the regiment in the spring of 1919 to be mustered out. In recognition of his leadership, Colonel Spence was cited in divisional orders by Major-General Lewis, while he was also the recipient of special honor from General Pershing in the form of a citation for his work upon the Western Front.
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THE 117th INFANTRY
The Third Tennessee Infantry, as the 117th Infantry was known in state service, was a veteran organization when President Wilson called the national guard into federal service as a part of the great army that was to fight Germany. The regiment had spent nine months on the Mexican border, patrolling our south- ern boundary to prevent trouble with our neighbors. The regiment left Knoxville June 16, 1916, and did not return home until March 20, 1917, to be mustered out. A few weeks later, following the declaration of war, the Third Tennessee was again sworn into state service and ten days later into the service of the federal government.
An active recruiting campaign was conducted to raise the companies to full strength. At the same time, infantry foot drill and physical exercises were given daily to put the men in good physical trim and training. Recruiting and drilling were carried on simultaneously until the regiment assembled at Knoxville and departed for Camp Sevier, S. C., early in September, 1917. There, in the or- ganization of the Thirtieth Division, it was designated the 117th Infantry of the 59th Brigade.
The personnel of the officers of the regiment, together with the localities from which the companies were recruited, was as follows: Colonel Cary F. Spence, commanding, Knoxville; Lieutenant-Colonel Charles F. Brown, Chattanooga; Headquarters Company, of Knoxville, Captain Thomas J. Wyrick; Supply Com- pany, of Knoxville, Captain Roscoe A. D. Stanis, 2nd Lieut. John A. Skelton; Machine Gun Company, of Knoxville, Captain Robert A. McMillan, 1st Lieut. James N. Condon, 2nd Lieut. James C. Compton, 2nd Lieut. Neal A. Reynolds.
First Battalion-Major Charles W. Dyer, Knoxville; 1st Lieut. Oscar J. B. Whitehurst; Company A, of Knoxville, Captain Ernest W. Andes, 1st Lieut. Fred W. Fritts, 2nd Lieut. George P. Howard; Company B, of Maryville and Knox- ville, Captain Emerson J. Lones, 1st Lieut. Wiley W. Boring, 2nd Lieut. Robert M. Lindsay; Company C, of Knoxville, Captain George A. Blair, 1st Lieut. Lynn Z. Morris, 2nd Lieut. George W. McMillan; Company D, of Knoxville, Captain Harry W. Curtis, Jr., 1st Lieut. Belmont Earle, 2nd Lieut. John Walker Leach.
Second Battalion-Major Caleb R. Hathaway, Ist Lieut. Robert W. Swatts; Company E, of Hampton, Captain Philip I. Brummit, 1st Lieut. Fred Baker, 2nd Lieut. Charles Mitchell; Company F, of Johnson City, Captain George H. Scott, Ist Lieut. Robey Williams, 2nd Lieut. Richard K. Gibson, Jr .; Company G, of Elizabethton, Captain E. C. Cass, 1st Lieut. Byrn H. Folsom, 2nd Lieut, Van Dyke Ochs; Company H, of Bristol, Captain W. A. Buckles, 1st Lieut. George Burrow, 2nd Lieut. Joseph Morton.
Third Battalion-Major Dan M. Ellis, 1st Lieut. Ernest Brown; Company I, of Athens, Captain Nathaniel Callen, 1st Lieut. Glenn Cauthron, 2nd Lieut. Rolfe Moody; Company K, of Chattanooga, Captain Ernest Bell, Ist Lieut. Harry L. Clark, 2nd Lieut. Amiel W. Brinkley; Company L, of Etowah, Captain David W. Lillard, 1st Lieut. Charles D. Walters, 2nd Lieut. William C. Boyd; Company M, of Tellico Plains, Captain Burley J. Pennington, 1st Lieut. Levi J. Moorehouse, 2nd Lieut. N. E. Ellis.
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