USA > Wisconsin > Racine County > Racine county in the world war > Part 45
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To get the 50,000 missing from the battle- field on the morning after the armistice down to less than 300 is a very creditable consumma- tion of an unusually complicated and tedious piece of work, while the ways and means used are well worth while recording.
While the war was on, periodic alphabetical lists of the missing in action were made by liaison maintained between the Central Records Office and the Provost Marshal General's of- fice, and these lists distributed to every nook and corner of Europe. They went certainly to all organization commanders, to all hospitals, to all M. P. headquarters, to all hospitals and convalescent camps, to all ports, to all prisons in enemy territory, to the headquarters of all Allied Armies and to numerous other places that from time to time suggested themselves as mediums.
As fast as missing men were found-and those who handled the records know under what queer circumstances and in what almost uncanny ways some of them were found-oth-
ers would take their place in this scattered as well as lost battalion. Its ranks were always well filled, and the 50,000 that were missing at the close of the war by no means represents the sum total of all the men carried as missing in action during the war. Three times that num- ber would be a safe and conservative estimate of the number of Americans who disappeared from the friendly eyes of their comrades on A. E. F. battlefields in ways unaccounted for.
With the firing of the last gun, however, and the realization that at last the list of missing in action was stationary, the men at the Cen- tral Records Office at Bourges began a deter- mined effort to clear up the 50,000 names whose presence on that list was casting a shadow mingled of dread and hope in thousands of American homes.
The first step taken was the compilation of all of the names, together with their organiza- tions and the date upon which each was last seen and accounted for, in book form. That little baby-blue colored book, prefaced by a statement from the Adjutant General of the A. E. F., went to all the mediums through which it had been found possible to locate miss- ing men.
Diligent searches were of course made in hospitals. A careful check was made against the reports of the Graves Registration Service as isolated and unknown dead were found and identified. Agents were sent out to search every homegoing list. As organizations came and went through Le Mans or moved through other central points, their rosters were gone over and many of the missing found. The re- turn of our prisoners from Germany accounted for several.
In the meantime, the personnel officers of all organizations in the A. E. F. had been sum- moned to Bourges to make a check in person of their rosters against the missing in action list, and the number of missing had been reduced from 50,000 to 25,905.
It is a toss-up as to which is the hardest to explain, the way the men got lost or the way they turned up. Not a few of them went to France for the express purpose of getting lost -not a few were German spies. There were others who had no special leanings toward the enemy or his lines, but, quite to the contrary, were moved by a decided disinclination to con- tact with him. Many who were carried as missing in action were simply AWOL, just as it was inversely found that many AWOL's were realy missing in action.
The bulk of the lost sheep of the A. E. F.
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Rephotos by John Hood
Top Row-Wayne O. Axtell, Mrs. W. O. Axtell, Helen C. Huguenin, Annette M. Schacht, Regina Heck, Arthur Heck. Second-E. L. Prostredik, P. S. Fuller, W. F. Kammerrer, S. N. Bensinger, Christ Helding, R. Kowalsky. Third-Oswald Rasmussen, H. N. Pedersen, Einer Linberg, Harry E. Williams, Victor Thompson, Arthur Nehoda. Fourth-Frank N. Dax, Wm. Holmes, E. H. Sieverkropp, Soren Thiesen, Christ Petersen, Oscar Frings. Fifth-Nels H. Petersen, Stanley Hood, M. P. Shellberg, J. H. Ryan, F. C. Spychalla, E. H. Price. Bottom-C. H. Doolin, John Albin, Bernard H. Miller, John J. Eckert, Valentine Dittman, W. A. Sholzen.
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were found, however, in hospitals and organi- zations other than their own. More than half of the 50,000 missing at the close of the war were found in this way. Another goodly por- tion were discovered to have put one over on all concerned and gotten away to the States. Several cases are on record of adventurous ones who disguised themselves in various ways and betook themselves on cattle boat or freigh- ter to some strange parts and eventually back to the U. S. A.
The final official figures on the search for the 25,905 missing in action show that 23 percent. of them were dead, 16 percent. prisoners, 25 percent. lost from their organizations and sub- sequently returned, and 36 percent. sick or wounded in hospitals.
In the last days of September 1919 there was more than one homegoing from those parts of France which are now beginning to classify their memories of the A. E. F. While the tail end of the A. E. F. itself was wagging on the French coast, there was under way the exodus of the last of the 49,000 German prisoners who had been held in American camps since the armistice.
The German prisoners on September 1 num- bered more than 40,000, almost 10,000 having been previously repartriated for various rea- sons. The total number of prisoners in the custody of the A. E. F. was 49,884, according to the latest revised figures, and this number included 737 Austrians.
The Inter-Allied Council in the middle of September notified the War Department at Washington by cable that all enemy prisoners would be released as soon as possible, and would not be held until the ratification of the Peace Treaty by all the signatories. The Council gave September 30 as the date when all the prisoners held by the Americans would be out of France.
The United States maintained its own good name throughout by its administration of its Prisoner of War camps in France. Despite the fact that 2,719 of the prisoners were suffering from wounds when taken, there were only a few hundred deaths in the camps. Clothed, housed, and fed as well as the average Amer- ican units in permanent posts, the German prisoners were so well treated that they came to feel themselves a part of the A. E. F., so much so that a group of them at Brest proudly decorated themselves with service stripes six months after they had been captured. They
were dressed in bright green uniforms, made over and colored from the doughboy's discards, with the familiar stenciled letters "P. W." as an additional distinction. The prison camps were the only places in the A. E. F. where goldfish was not in disfavor, although the sample menus that Uncle Sam's propaganda department distributed so liberally behind the German lines had not been specific about the kind of "fisch" that would be served to all who wanted to come over and get it.
The principal Prisoner of War enclosures were at Is-sur-Tille, in the Advance Section, and at St .- Pierre-des-Corps, on the outskirts of Tours. From these two points the prisoners wele transferred to labor companies, approx- imately 125 in number each, scattered through- out France.
With the going of the German prisoners, the homeward movement of their keepers also be- gan. Members of the Out-of-Luck Club-7,488 Yanks-composed the 104 Prisoner of War Escort Companies on September 1. They started for the United States in detachments as the prisoners started for Germany.
Thirteen cents out of each dollar spent in the war for strictly army purposes was devoted to the pay of officers and enlisted men, and the total pay roll of the army for the 25 months of the war up to May 1, 1919, was $1,831,273,000, which is more than the combined salaries of all the public school teachers and principals in the United States for the five years from 1912 to 1916.
Eliminating the $10,000,000,000 which the United States has lent the Allies, subject to repayment, the cost of the war to the end of April was $21,850,000,000, according to govern- ment statisticians. This figure includes such items as the building of ships for the Emer- gency Fleet Corporation, the construction and operation of naval vessels, food, clothing, pay, and land and ocean transportation of the army, which cost almost as much after the Armistice as during the fighting. The sum actually ex- pended on the army account was $14,244,061,- 000. Deducting from this sum the average peace time expenditures of the army, the sta- tisticians estimate an army expenditure of $13,- 930,000,000 directly chargeable to the war.
The total cost of the war, $21,850,000,000, represented an average of $1,000,000 an hour for the whole twenty-five months. The total is twenty times the pre-war debt of the United States. It is nearly enough to have paid the
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Photos From War History Committee
Top Row-John C. Powers, F. C. Bronenkart, H. D. Oneson, G. W. Stettler, Fred I. Hansen, J. A. Huck, O. Goldbeck. Second-W. W. Feiker, Lawrence A. Nelson, N. I. Peil, Root. A. Jacobsen, N. M. C. Due, G. O. Downing, Frank Lipp. Third-R. S. Kinreed, J. A. Mutchie, R. Koblisek, L. A. Bu.terfield, F N. Seibold, F. S. Bagdon, L. M. Pfeifer. Fourth-Christ Sondergaard, H. Roeschen, W. F. Gersonde, A. M. Hardie, A. W. Gerber, P. Matvenik, Alfred Markusson. Fifth-Sigwart Simonson, P. S. Peterson, A. F. Bartel, J. G. Tessner, F. C. Benecik, Edw. Kruppstadt, Chas. P. Beyer. Bottom-E. A. Chmel, Erick Hack, B. A. McGregor, E. A. Brook, Mike Bilen, Christ Poulson, Lewis H. Lasch.
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entire costs of the United States Government from 1791 up to the outbreak of the European war. It was sufficient to have carried on the Revolutionary War for a thousand years at the rate of money-spending that war involved.
In addition to the thirteen cents for pay, for each dollar directly expended for army pur- poses, the following distribution was figured: Quartermaster, 44 cents; Ordnance, 29 cents; Air Service, 6 cents; Engineers, 4 cents; Medi- cal, 2 cents; Signal Corps and miscellaneous, 2 cents.
There were certain people for whom the sold- ier had an especial feeling, which was not ex- actly love. These parties were:
The guy that named them rest camps.
The guy that decided to locate a trench mor- tar in the next bay.
The guy with mustard gas on his clothes who took refuge in our dugout during a bit of shelling.
The guy who decided that the line of trenches we had dug to about three feet depth was "er- roneously located."
The guy who assured us we would get our Christmas packages.
The guy who figured out the equipment we must take to France with us.
The guy who made us ship our surplus equip- ment to Gievres and assured us we could find it again.
The guy who calculated the number of cars necessary to move a battalion.
The guy who assured us at least three times a day in the submarine zone that he didn't feel the slightest uneasiness.
The guy that invented the steel helmet, gas mask and overseas cap.
The guy that yelled "Gas" every hour or so during the night, with no reason whatever.
The General who feared men would get un- disciplined if they were not drilling twelve hours every day, including Sunday, when they were presumed to be in a "rest area."
When the flu epidemic was at its height in America in the fall of 1918 this story gained circulation all over the country:
"Medical officers and nurses were discovered at not a few of the camps deliberately injecting the virus of influenza into the veins of soldiers who presented themselves at infirmaries and hospitals for treatment. Camp Upton and
Camp Grant were two of the cantonments men- tioned specifically.
"Of course the fiends were members of the German intelligence section masquerading as American officers. They were treated none too gently. An immediate court-martial. Sen- tence of death. A firing squad the next morn- ing.
"At least six nurses had already been ex- ecuted. There was no telling how many such spies, male and female, were circulating freely through the camps. It was appalling. What was to be done? Could the Medical Depart- ment as a whole be trusted since it was so con- taminated ? And if the Medical Department was a festering sore of kultur, how could vic- tory be won ?"
The one comforting feature of this second barrage of hectic imaginings was that it was so preposterous that many of those who saw beneath the surface were not caught in it. But there are always the gullible and the exces- sively gullible.
Here is how the story originated. The facts were dug up by members of our Military Intel- ligence Department. It must be set down first that no American medical officer and no mem- ber of the Army Nurse Corps ever was sus- pected, or tried for such despicable treason. At two or three camps visiting parents and soldiers were near the infirmaries when the anti-pneumonia vaccine was being adminis- tered to groups of men. They were lined up by units, their arms bared, to facilitate and speed the work. With thousands of men to be so treated no time could be lost. Each in- jection took but an instant, and the lines were constantly moving.
Frequently such remarks as these floated through the windows of the hospital buildings to be heard by those on the outside:
"Just been shot with flu germs. That doc did sure jab me." From a soldier.
"Come on there. Shake a leg. Got a lot of you fellows to shoot before the day's over." From a medical officer.
"Shoot"-"shot"-"flu germs."
Someone messed up these terms in his head. Then, establishing his own premises, he put two and two together. Officers were shooting men with flu germs. The tale, once started, gathered material and momentum with the speed and force of a mountain slide. Nurses were brought in to garnish it. It would never have done to neglect the romantic feminine ap- peal.
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Photos by Pavek-Leonard-Billings
Top Row-F. C. Christensen, Otto Jandl, Louis Bronenkant, A. J. Pluhar, W. E. Larson, Eric E. Christiansen. Second-Walter Heublein, A. C. Amend, Lars K. Meyer, John F. Christenson, Peter Knudson, Rudolph Becker. Third-M. Hommelson, Alfred E. Wright, Iner Anderson, Raymond H. Weins, A. W. Kwapil, L. K. Slama. Fourth-Warren Williamson, Fred J. Weiss, Henry L. Larson, E. J. Cashman, John W. Harcus, Lyle K. Brehm. Bottom-J. W. Nelson, Henry J. Weise, M. A. Hulett, Erwin Sorenson, Wm. J. Higgins, Victor Christofferson.
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The final passing of the flu epidemie garn- ered in this crop of distortions-but not before the rumor had found its way into print under the label of fact and been strenuously denied in official announcements.
The following is taken from the Daily News of Baraboo, Wisconsin:
"Over at Camp Grant they are just dying by the hundreds. Three of our undertakers and one from Beloit worked with all the Rockford undertakers all one night last week getting bodies ready to be sent away. Mr. Wilbeck said the bodies were piled sixteen deep waiting to be cared for. They found one old villain guilty over there this week-a doctor. Every soldier in his camp died. They became sus- picious of him, examined his medicine and found poison in it, so they took him out, made him dig his own grave, and shot him right down. Even that was too good, though."
The strands varied a little, but the texture of the stories was the same. Accordingly, this
statement was issued broadcast from the office of the Surgeon General:
"There have been no more insidiously false reports come to my attention than those, re- cently widely spread, to the effect that nurses and medical officers have been executed at the 'stage hour' of sunrise for spreading influenza or pneumonia germs among soldiers.
"There have been no medical officers, nurses, or anyone else executed at any camp in the United States or abroad for any such cause.
"The reports are ridiculous and without the slightest foundation of fact. They have taken many forms, but through them all has run such a significant likeness of texture that it is not unlikely that the German propagandist is taking advantage of and spreading them. Un- fortunately, as is so frequently the case, those behind the baseless reports have been and are being aided in the nefarious dissemination of them by many thoughtless persons who have not taken the time to investigate before pass- ing the reports on."
Wrecked building at Chateau-Thierry. The horseman in the foreground is Lt. H. J. Sanders of Racine. The pic- ture was taken July 30, 1919.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE WONDERFUL OCCASION OF A SUPPLY TRAIN WRECK
I N EVERYONE'S life there is one day which stands out above all others as "Der Tag"_ the day of days. To about 4,000 men of the 57th Artillery brigade that unforgettable occasion arrived in the early days of 1919 when, weary of waiting for embarking orders and sick of the endless routine of drills which had no purpose to men anxious to be demobilized, they were suddenly plunged into such a riot of high living as had never befallen soldiers anywhere on this cold, uncharitable earth.
Let it be understood, first of all, that money was a scarce article among all but the most successful of crap shooters, and while all men dreamed of going to Paris some day for a big time mighty few ever had a chance to cast an artistic eye about the Louvre or eat luncheon at Versailles. In the villages about Rozieres- en-Blois prices of all staples had mounted sky- high and the goods were scarce at that.
Under such circumstances came the famous train wreck!
A daily newspaper would not give much space to such a wreck; nobody was killed, and all there was to it was that fifty freight cars jumped the track and rolled into the ditch at Mauvages, three miles from the Rozieres bill- ets.
The real news of the affair, however, laid in the fact that these cars were loaded with champagne, sweet chocolate, canned milk, candy and cookies! Nothing else; just that, and fifty carloads of it. It was intended for the French army at Verdun.
How the news travelled, no one has been able to explain. But before the train crew had wired to division headquarters for a wrecking crew, the 57th Artillery brigade was perform- ing most remarkable feats of salvage work, and within an hour they were being ably as- sisted by motor truck companies and infantry from places as far away as Barleduc, thirty miles over the hills.
Every champagne bottle that was not broken was carefully lifted from the cars and carried
to a place of "safety" in billets, woods or hay piles. Trucks departed with candy and canned milk piled to the arched roofs. Mule skinners who detested the idea of manual labor brought their six-mule teams to the spot on a gallop, loaded their escort wagons "on the high" and were gone for parts unknown before one could realize that they had had time to harness and hitch.
French civilians, flocking to the scene with bags and baskets, were given limited amounts of the dainties by soldiers who took their names and afterward reported them to the French authorities for stealing the goods.
Lieut. William Wadewitz was ordered to the scene in an auto by the commander of the 121st F. A. to stop the looting. If he had ar- rived five minutes later he wouldn't have ob- tained anything, but he was able to load up his car with enough to supply the officers' mess with luxuries of life for the next three weeks. Back in the barracks, the space between the board siding and the tar paper lining of the buildings was packed with cake chocolate. Doughboys staggered down the road with their packs filled with bottles of champagne and their interiors lined with the same, minus the bottles. Every cheek and chin was streaked with candy and chocolate, like a child's face on Christmas morning.
Oh, what a day it was, my countrymen!
The details of that grand and glorious occa- sion are too sacred for public recital, but be it said that in these days of prohibition, high cost of living, economy and thrift, no such a time as that will ever again be seen by any large group of American citizens!
There was an aftermath, which fortunately did not occur in time to affect any of the boys of Battery C or Battery F.
Lieut. Harry J. Sanders, formerly with Bat- tery C, was transferred from the 121st F. A., during the height of the Chateau-Thierry drive,
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to the Regulating Station "A." Later he was, even though on his way home, in June, 1919, again transferred, this time into the R. R. & C. Service, that is, Rents, Requisitions and Claims, not "Rest, Recreation and Comfort" as it was frequently translated.
While in that service he saw much of that very difficult side of the business end of the Claims against the American Forces.
In August, 1919, while at Tours, in the R. R. & C. service, he was handling French railroad A. E. F .- the settlement of the thousands of claims against the A. E. F. His particular department was the East Railroad, the line operating in most of the American sectors. Let him tell it:
"One claim in particular riveted my atten- tion, owing to the large amount claimed and the peculiar nature of the alleged offense. There had been a wreck on the railroad near the town of Mauvages, in the Gondrecourt area. Several freight cars had been almost de- molished and a large quantity of champagne and chocolate had been appropriated. The French claim was that the appropriating had been done by American soldiers and a little by French civilians. I was astounded at the amount of the claim-93,000 francs, with an- other claimant to hear from. Oh, boys! That was sure some claim. And it made my mouth water to read what the items were. Real, fine honest-to-goodness champagne. And Moet & Chandon at that! And other good brands! And they claimed our boys came with trucks to cart it away.
"And there were stacks of papers in the file all about it. Naturally, I was curious to know what organization had felt the need of wallow- ing in such stuff as real champagne. I search- ed further through the papers in the file, when, lo and behold! I met friends. The only or- ganizations claimed implicated were the 119th and 121st Regiments Field Artillery, in both of which regiments I had formerly served and which, when I was reading, were long ago de- mobilized. Ye Gods, thought I, I might have known it; leave it to the old 121st to do things right. 1 turned to another officer in the of- fice with me and showed him the claim, of which he had already heard. When I explain- ed to him who were the alleged culprits he said, 'Well, if that's the organization you graduated from, I don't wonder at it.'
"On my return to Racine, when I related this to some of the 121st boys and asked how they enjoyed it, I was greeted with much laughter and many knowing smiles. But, strange as it
may seem, not a soul in this town had so much as a taste of the stuff, nor does anybody know anybody else that did. Strange; Oh, ye camels, 93,000 francs worth.
"Eventually it was decided that French civi- lians had stolen the bulk of the articles, and while soldiers may have taken a few items, the men had now gone home and could not be held responsible."
Early in the war, the Army recruiting serv- ice furnished a number of striking posters urg- ing men to join the colors as volunteers. On April 20, 1917, the following display advertise- ment, occupying a quarter of a page, appeared in both the Racine newspapers: "Your coun- try needs you! Do not wait to be drafted. Are you not ready today? The time for ex- cuses has passed. We want men for men's work, not for child's play. This is the time for patriotism and sacrifice. Join one of the Ra- cine batteries."
The following extracts from the interesting private diary of Lieut. Wallace Coleman, Ra- cine Aviator and winner of the Distinguished Service Cross, show that the life of a combat flyer was not one of ease and security:
"In St. Mihiel offensive, Sept. 12, 1918-With Lt. Belzer went out on daylight patrol for three hours. Hun Albatros tackled us about Metz and we shot him down in flames. Bonyer and Johnston in one machine-Suiter and Morse in another, and myself, got in a fight with a num- ber of Hun machines. Our two machines went down. At noon took another pilot's patrol. Had a good scrap over Eubezen with two single seater Pfalz. Shot down one which crashed in the woods.
"Sept. 13-On daylight patrol with Lieut. Aldrich. Raining very hard and we shot up a number of German prisoners before we found they were under American guard.
"Sept. 14-With Belzer volunteered for a special trip to find out location of German In- fantry. Coupled up with a number of French machines and then got into a fight with eight Huns. Three of the French machines went down in flames. We were driven out on ar- count of gun trouble and after fixing our guns went back and got into a fight with seven ene- my machines which drove us out. We went in a third time and got in a fight with three more and then went home, our machine a wreck, as it was shot to pieces.
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