Tips on Trench Fighting

by André LaFargue, Captain, 153d Regiment of Infantry, 
French Army Trench Fighting

The foot soldier in the trenches is not over-fond of work; he often prefers to curl up in the mud under indifferent shelter to taking a little trouble. So, when he is subjected to bombardment, he has no cover to get under.

Furthermore, the foot soldier considers that he is in the trench merely to keep the enemy from getting through if he attacks. Since the enemy does not attack every day, the fighting habit is lost, and the enemy is left to plant entanglements and dig his shelters without molestation, so that, when the time comes to attack him, you will have to go up against thoroughly prepared defenses, which must be taken by main force.

The enemy that you do not kill beforehand will perhaps kill you on the day of the assault.

What the Foot Soldier Should Do in the Trenches

1. Be careful of himself.

2. Train himself and get seasoned to war.

3. Destroy Germans.

How to Take Care of Yourself

To get yourself killed or wounded in the trenches through carelessness or negligence is sheer stupidity because you have not been of any use. A soldier can never be replaced. Therefore build yourself a good shelter so that you can laugh at bombardments and sleep in peace. Do not do the imprudent things with which everybody is so familiar. Watch over your comrades who are careless, and especially over newcomers and young soldiers who want to see everything and are ignorant of trench customs. 

How to Get Seasoned to War

In the trenches, people fall into ways that are bad in battle. They stay continually in the shelters; when they move about, it is nearly always in the zigzags, so that they find it very disagreeable to have to pass through open spaces where the bullets are whistling. You must fortify yourself so as not to let any bullet bother you on the day of attack. To this end, go on patrol at night, and plant entanglements in front of the first line.

You should profit by your stay in the trench to learn skill [that] is your surest protection in battle. Every day fire a carefully aimed string at the enemy’s trench; study the point of aim of your rifle for different ranges; practice quick aiming to prepare yourself for firing at close range. Every soldier familiarizes himself with the throwing of the different types of grenades; he should interest himself in everything charged with explosives, the methods of priming bombs, trench weapons, etc.

The Attack on the Trench

In case of an attack, everybody goes promptly to his battle station. Sometimes, when the attack is preceded by a violent bombardment, the station is wiped out; the trench is nothing but a mass of holes and hillocks. You must then take such shelter as you can find; a solid trench is not necessary in order to fight.

Sometimes, it also happens that the enemy succeeds in getting into your trench and pushing by before the defenders can get out of their shelters. You must not think that all is lost; make a space around the shelters with grenades and shoot the enemy in the back. By working in this way, intrepid garrisons have annihilated whole German companies, which had already pushed beyond the first trench.

From: United States Marine Corps in the First World War
Downloadable at:

https://www.usmcu.edu/historydivision/frequently-requested/publications

Rapid Fire World War–Five Incredible Days in April 1915

French Colonials Killed by Gas at Ypres

• The first  gas attack of the Western Front launched on 22 April 1915 at Ypres 1915 was just the first of a rapid series of fateful, tragic, and memorable events that unfolded in less than a week.

Rupert Brooke, Royal Naval Division

• The following day, one of the first of the notable "war poets" to emerge, Lt. Rupert Brooke of the Royal Naval Division, would die on the island of Skyros. 

Armenian Family on a Deportation March

• On 24 April the Ottoman Empire would begin its systematic massacres and deportations of its Armenian subjects.

Gully Ravine, Gallipoli Peninsula

• Sunday the 25th will forever be remembered as the landing day at Gallipoli, the start of the memorable and ill-fated land campaign. 

Italian Ambassador to Great Britain, Marquis Guglielmo Imperiali

• In London 24 hours later, Italian and Allied diplomats executed the treaty bringing Italy into the war. Anticipating an Allied victory to come soon, Italy's representatives never realized they were signing a death warrant for 600,000 of their citizens. 

• Meanwhile in New York on 24 April the RMS Lusitania completed its 201st transatlantic voyage and began loading cargo for its next trip, which would be its last.

Recommended: The Exciting Life of Georgetown University Alum—Laurence Stallings

From: SFS: Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service


December 8, 2017
by Matt Ellison and Charlotte Kelly

Capt. Laurence Stallings, 1918

Laurence Stallings, who graduated with a master’s degree from the School of Foreign Service in 1922, turned his experience as a wounded veteran in the First World War into inspiration for a career as a journalist, author, and playwright.

Laurence Tucker Stallings was born on 25 November 1894 in Macon, GA, to Larkin Tucker Stallings and Aurora Brooks Stallings. In 1912 he matriculated to Wake Forest University, where he became the editor of the literary magazine on campus, Old Gold and Black. It was there where he met his first wife, Helen Poteat, the daughter of the university's president.

In 1916, Stallings graduated from Wake Forest and got a job writing advertising copy for a local military recruiting office. Then, in 1917, he joined the United States Marine Reserve. On 24 April 1918 he left Philadelphia aboard the USS Henderson for overseas duty in France. Stallings served in France as a platoon commander with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, during the fighting at Chateau-Thierry. At the Battle of Belleau Wood, Stallings was shot in the right leg leading a successful assault on an enemy machine gun installation. He was promoted to captain, awarded the Silver Star, and given the Croix de Guerre by the French government. Although he begged not to have the leg amputated, a wish respected at the time, he would have to have it amputated in 1922 after a bad fall on ice. He began work on his novel Plumes while recovering at Walter Reed Hospital.

Stallings was no longer able to serve due to his injury and returned home to the United States. Stallings married Helen Poteat on 8 March 1919 and had two daughters, Sylvia, born in 1926, and Diana, born in 1931. Stallings then attended the School of Foreign Service, where he received his master’s degree in foreign service in 1922. After graduation he began working as a reporter, critic, and entertainment editor at the New York World. 

Perhaps Stallings’s greatest work was his pseudo-autobiographical novel Plumes, which told the story of Richard Plume, a U.S. Marine whose combat injuries cost him a leg and much of his faith in government and society. The novel was published in 1924 and became a huge success, with nine printings in that year alone. The novel was so popular, in fact, that it was adapted into King Vidor’s 1925 film The Big Parade, which was MGM’s largest-grossing film until Gone with the Wind in 1939.

Stallings’s career in the arts and entertainment blossomed when he began to collaborate with playwright Maxwell Anderson. The two co-wrote several plays together, their first and most successful being What Price Glory, a comedy-drama which depicted the rivalry between two U.S. Marine Corps officers fighting in France during WWI. What Price Glory opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City in 1924, ran for 435 performances, and was adapted twice for film.

Stallings and Anderson went on to co-write two more plays—The First Flight and The Buccaneer, both of which premiered in 1925—before going their separate ways. Stallings continued to work in theater. He wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Deep River, which ran briefly in October of 1926. He co-wrote the book for the 1928 musical Rainbow with Oscar Hammerstein, adapted Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms for the stage in 1930, co-wrote the book for the 1937 musical Virginia, and he wrote the play The Streets Are Guarded, which premiered in 1944.

After this big success, Stallings served as a key influence for several of John Ford’s greatest films, having wrote or co-wrote 3 Godfathers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Sun Shines Bright. He is also credited for contributing to the screenwriting of Vidor’s Northwest Passage, as well as Leslie Fenton’s The Man from Dakota and On Our Merry Way.

According the Los Angeles Times, Stallings “lived adventurously despite the loss of his right leg.” In the interwar years between screen-writing assignments, Stallings traveled the world as an editor and writer for the newsreel service, Fox Movietone News. This work brought him to cover Europe and wars in Spain and Ethiopia in the 1930s. In Hollywood, the LA Times wrote, Stallings “gained a reputation as a ‘two-fisted’ writer, specializing in tales of war and adventure.”

Continue reading the article at:

https://sfs.georgetown.edu/alumnus-laurence-stallings-used-wwi-experience-inspire-books-plays-films/

The Development of Aeromedical Evacuation in the First World War

Col. David M. Lam, U.S. Army,  M.D., M.P.H

A Curtis "Jenny" Converted to an Air Ambulance, Scott Field, IL

Between 1892 and 1910, the innovative Surgeon General of the Dutch Army, General De Mooy, developed an entire concept for medical evacuation, including ground vehicles, aircraft, dirigibles, and captive balloons pulled by horses. Unfortunately, this forward-looking concept, which earned him the sobriquet of "the Jules Verne of aviation medicine", was never tested or implemented.

The first great step forward in the concept of aeromedical evacuation occurred in 1909, when Captain George Gossman, a U.S. Army medical officer, joined with Lieutenant Albert Rhodes of the Coast Artillery Corps in designing and building an aircraft specifically for the transport of patients. The aircraft, though crude and requiring the patient to lie unprotected on the wing alongside the pilot, was successfully flown (once!), and Gossmann and Rhodes attempted to convince the War Department to develop the concept further. Since this proposal was made only a year after the Army purchased its first motor-driven ground ambulance, and in the same year in which the Army purchased its first aircraft (it was not to purchase another for two years), it may be imagined with what degree of success they met. In the face of War Department obstinance, numerous medical officers took up the battle for air evacuation.  The response of the War Department echoed that of the newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, which proclaimed that "the hazard of being severely wounded was sufficient without the additional hazard of transportation by airplane."

In France, too, military medical professionals faced opposition from the Ministry of War in attempting to develop an air evacuation capability, but the opposition of the conservatives was to be overridden by the force of circumstances. In November of 1915, during the retreat of the Serbian Army from Albania, it became impossible to evacuate all the sick and wounded of the French Expeditionary Force by ground, and it was unthinkable to abandon the wounded to capture. Therefore, although the only available aircraft were fighter aircraft in poor condition, the decision was made to attempt evacuation by air. The first heavier-than-air evacuation in history took place on 15 November 1915, and over the succeeding month, 13 wounded were evacuated from frontline, poorly prepared airstrips, often within rifle shot of the enemy. Based on this dramatic evidence of the usefulness of air evacuation, as well as on the results of exercise trials, the French government authorized the development of the first air ambulances, which were first used in combat on the Aisne front in 1917. However, the risk of aircraft losses derailed this experiment, with one member of the Chamber of Deputies crying "Are there not enough dead in France today without killing our wounded in airplanes?"

The French Air Service Converted the Breuget-14 Bomber
to Air Ambulances

A fixed-wing aircraft was first officially used as an air ambulance in 1917 in Turkey, when an injured British soldier was transported from the battlefield to the nearest medical facility. The hospital was located three days away by road, but the patient arrived in 45 minutes by air, reportedly saving his life. French records at the time indicated that, if casualties could be evacuated by air within six hours of injury, the mortality rate among the wounded would fall from 60 percent to less than ten percent.

The United States, in gearing up for entry into WWI, developed numerous new flying fields. These fields were established in areas of the country with poor roads, and it was often a matter of several hours before a student pilot injured in a crash could be brought to a hospital. Flight Surgeons rapidly began to develop air ambulance conversions of the JN-4 "Jenny" training aircraft, and by 1919 such ambulances were a fixture on all training fields.

Aftermath

By the end of WWI, air ambulances were in common use in the United States and had seen limited combat use in France. No other nation actually used air evacuation, though the United Kingdom had experimented with it before the war. However, neither medical systems nor the airframes themselves were able to allow in-flight medical care. Though built in numerous versions, each of these early air ambulances had one common feature—the patient was enclosed in the fuselage, without an attendant, and with no possibility for care in flight. In this regard, they were the model for most air ambulances during this period. Even though the air ambulance was a reality, it was seen only as a means of transport, rather than as an integrated part of the medical care system.

British  DH.9A Air Ambulance in Somaliland, 1920

Although air ambulances were certainly in increasing use following WWI, there did not appear to be any great need for systematic air evacuation on a large scale during peacetime. Most nations paid little attention to the issue, though military air evacuation systems were developed by France and Britain for use in their colonial wars and successfully evacuated thousands of casualties. For the first time, there was an effort to provide some limited in-flight care, and one Breguet XIV-b Limousine was described as having "electric boilers, coverlets, tank of oxygen, surgical instruments, and dressings." For the first time, aircraft were integrated into the military medical system, even though still under command of non-medical officers. The benefits were clearly recognized, but unfortunately the systemic changes needed in military medical establishments to make optimum use of this new modality were not adopted by most nations.

Beginning in 1920, the U.S. Army developed an ambulance modification of the De Havilland DH-4, which was produced in significant numbers, and several of which were used extensively on the Mexican border. Just as had been the case with earlier air ambulances, these planes carried their patients isolated in coffin-like enclosures built into the fuselage. 

From: "Medical Evacuation, History and Development—The Future in the Multinational Environment"  by Col. David M. Lam, U.S. Army,  M.D., M.P.H

The Defeat of Imperial Germany: 1917–1918 Reviewed by James M. Gallen

The Defeat of Imperial Germany: 1917–1918

by Rod Paschall

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1989

For many, their image of the Great War is one of water and rat filled trenches, denuded no-man's-land, futile over the top charges into machine gun fire in which nothing moves but the death toll. However, we know that something changed because the war did end. That is the story of The Defeat Of Imperial Germany: 1917–1918.

One of the Most Famous Photos of the 1918 Campaign
Gas Victims of the British 55th Division, April 1918

What I like best about this tome is the way it chronicles the shift from the stalemate that existed on 1 January 1917 to the Armistice of 11 November 1918. The first chapter sets the stage by describing the state of each contending army. British General Haig was commanding the greatly expanded New Army, which replaced the small professional force that had been destroyed in 1915. The French Army had carried the bulk of the fighting in 1916 while the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) rebuilt and was showing wear by 1917. The strength of the German Army was its Army Staff organization and its ability to adapt to changing challenges and opportunities. Ironically it was the autocratic Germany nation that spawned a more merit-based staff system than did the democratic French and British. While the Europeans were stalemated "Over There," the U.S. Army was stalemated in Mexico in its search for Pancho Villa. Despite its small size, the U. S. Army had improved its officer corps since the Spanish-American War and had a tradition of rapid expansion through volunteer units. It also had the advantage of a commander-in-chief, Woodrow Wilson, who knew his limitations and was not inclined to micro-manage.

Three of the key events of 1917 were Germany's implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare, the release of the Zimmerman Telegram, and the American declaration of war that followed. The author brings out the fact that the Zimmerman Telegram not only offered Mexico support in retaking Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but also suggested an outreach to Japan. Interestingly, California was not mentioned, perhaps with the thought of dangling that before the Japanese.

Although perhaps the most significant events of 1917, the Russian Revolutions in March when the tsar was overthrown and in October when the Communists came to power, are given little ink. In fact this book does not say much about the revolutions. Lenin and Trotsky make the index once each and Nicholas II, Kerensky, and Kornilov not at all. The authors seem to play down the significance of the revolutions as factors in the defeat of Germany.

Nineteen-seventeen was a year of glory and degradation. The British seized the initiative with renewed vigor in their Flanders campaign while French effectiveness was impaired by widespread mutinies that were closely kept secrets. Canada is said to have won its nationhood on Vimy Ridge, where its corps first operated as a unit. The British offensive, while impressive in scope, sunk into a sea of mud and blood that made Passchendaele the name for the worst of the war.

The dawn of 1918 brought both danger and opportunity to both sides. The Russians were withdrawing and the Yanks were coming, but what difference would it make? German troops were moved from the Eastern to Western Fronts, but the instability of the new Soviet Union and breakaway republics required the retention of a substantial guard. When the Yanks got here what help would they be? In European minds, they were untrained, poorly equipped, and weakly led. Then there was the problem of the Italian Front on which both Italy and Austria-Hungary called on their stronger allies for aid.

The British introduced a new style of warfare at Cambrai where trucks, tanks, and airplanes transformed combat forever. The British used their new equipment to break the German defensive system but had not learned to exploit their advantage to rout the foe. In a deviation from Pershing's insistence that Americans fight as units under their own command, two battalions were placed in the French line. Their performance provided support for claims that the Americans were unprepared and poor fighters.

The American Expeditionary Force was expected to be huge, but its impact remained to be proven. The German offensives from 20 March through 4 June 1918, first against the French along the Somme and then against the British in the Lys Offensive, were attempts to win the war before the Americans could make their power felt. The German failure to break the Allied lines set up the American First Infantry's limited, but successful, attack at Cantigny. The Marines' victory at Belleau Wood, to which they were ironically transported by Vietnamese troops, was followed by the reduction of the St. Mihiel Salient.

U.S. 18th Infantry, 1st Division, Advancing
 Second Day of the St. Mihiel Offensive

The final American drive through the Meuse-Argonne region was the largest American military operation to that time and continued up to the Armistice. On these pages I found aspects of the war that I had not picked up in other reading. I have read about the Allies maneuvering for postwar advantage during World War II but do not recall the suggestion that Haig and Foch tried to minimize American success to diminish Wilson's stature at the peace conference. Clemenceau's recommendation that Pershing be removed may have been aimed at Wilson's prestige. The American preference for rifles over machine guns came as a surprise as did the objections to strategic bombing when it was first introduced during this war. The influence of the Spanish Flu on the competing armies is a topic I had not seen raised elsewhere.

Readers will also enjoy the appearance of well-known names such as Eddie Rickenbacker, Alvin York, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, and George S. Patton. The genius of The Defeat Of Imperial Germany: 1917–1918 is its ability to organize the bullet points of why the Allies won into a narrative that aids the understanding of the road to victory and the challenges, within and outside the Allied ranks, that were overcome to achieve it.

James M. Gallen

What to Expect from Worldwar1.com in 2018

Happy 2018!

Here's some what you can look for in the coming year from all our publications at Worldwar1.com, including Roads to the Great War, the St. Mihiel Trip-Wire, Over the Top magazine, and our constellation of educational websites.

The Big Stories of 1918

The Yanks to the Front

The Zeebrugge Raid

Which Was the Right General for 1918?

The Spanish Influenza Pandemic

Germany Rolls the Dice

The British Army's Finest Moment

     

Armistice Day: Paris, 11 November 1918

Reviews and Recommendations for Your WWI Bookshelf

Try These On the War in 1918: 

Germany's Last Gamble: The Five Ludendorff Offensives The German Offensives of 1918: The Last Desperate Gamble  by Ian Passingham	American Expeditionary  Force's Battles in WWI American Armies & Battlefields in Europe from the ABMC
Turmoil in Russia:  Revolution, Civil War, Intervention Russia in Flames, War, Revolution: Civil War 1914–1921 by Laura Engelstein	The British Army's Final  100-Day Campaign Hundred Days: The Campaign That Ended World War I by Nick Lloyd

Ring in the New Year with a French 75 Cocktail

Caution: Over 21 Only

Just as the Great War has its own music and poetry, it has its own cocktail.  The drink was created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris—later Harry's New York Bar—by barman Harry MacElhone. The combination was said to have such a kick that it felt like being shelled with the powerful French 75mm field gun.  The early recipe was tinkered with considerably and it seems to have evolvecd into its "classic" version in the 1920s.  There seems to be something of an urban legend that the  French 75 was invented by or for the French-American Ace Raoul Lufbery, but there  doesn't appear to be any supporting evidence for this. Anyway, a happy 2018 to all.

Ingredients in the French 75

• 1⁄2 oz lemon juice
• 1⁄2 oz simple syrup
• 1 oz gin
• 3 oz champagne or prosecco 

Garnish:
1  lemon twist

Glass: champagne flute (originally a Tom Collins glass)

Making the French 75

• Add all the ingredients except the champagne or prosecco to a shaker and fill with ice.
• Shake well and strain into the glass.
• Top with the champagne and garnish with a lemon twist.

Source:  Liquor.com

A Roads Classic: Who Was the First Ace?

Pégoud Receiving the Croix de Guerre

A Jaunty-Looking Pégoud

The term "ace" was first used in World War I when French newspapers described Adolphe Pégoud (1889–1915) as l'as (French for "ace") after he shot down five German aircraft. After serving in the French Army he pursued a career in aviation and received his private pilot's license in March 1913.

While he was a test pilot for Blériot, he was credited with being the first aviator to fly a loop, although it was discovered much later that a Russian pilot had preceded him by 13 days and, also to be the first pilot to jump with a parachute from his aircraft. Joining the French Air Service he was assigned to fly a Maurice Farman over the Argonne sector, where he achieved his five victories.

After gaining a sixth victory, Pégoud was shot down and killed 31 August 1915 by one of his prewar students, Walter Kandulski. Pégoud's tomb is at Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris.

Click Image to Enlarge

Immortalized in Comics

Sources:  Tony Langley Collection, Wikipedia, and http://www.theaerodrome.com/index.php

British Shell Failure at Jutland

After Jutland, Still Afloat

The German battlecruiser SMS Seydlitz (above) survived 24 large shell hits from Royal Naval dreadnoughts during the Battle of Jutland. How was this possible? 

The answer is that British naval armor-piercing shells proved to be utterly inadequate to the challenge. They were brittle and frequently simply disintegrated on contact without penetration. When the explosive content did activate, it proved to be too weak to ensure an effective impact explosion. The Germans shells, in contrast, had delayed action fuses that considerably improved their efficacy. (Source: WFA Website)

"Mostest with the Leastest" in the Great War

Maude: Forgotten Victor of Mesopotamia

One measure of distinguished generalship is the ability to find victory despite limited resources. As Bedford Forrest might have put it, "Doing the mostest with the leastest." An example from the First World War is British Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, successor to defeated and subsequently disgraced General Charles Townshend in the Mesopotamian theater. Maude was appointed by Imperial General Staff Chief William Robertson, who thought he could be depended upon to hold the line and not request reinforcements from the Western Front. 

Maude, however, worked with what he had, carefully rebuilding his limited forces, outmaneuvering more than outfighting his German-commanded Turkish opponents—eventually regaining the strategic initiative. He recaptured Kut in February 1917 and took Baghdad less than a month later. His successes continued, but he was fatally struck down by cholera the same year in November. A year later, his successor, General William Marshall, accepted the Turkish surrender at Mosul. 

A Roads Classic: Princess Mary's Christmas Gift

Our Little Token

1914

Contributed by: Kimball Worcester, Assistant Editor

The first winter of the Great War saw two events that sustain one's hope in the potential for good even in times of dire conflict. One event was the spontaneous Christmas truce on the Western Front, primarily between British and German forces. The other was the spontaneous generosity of a 17-year-old girl, Princess Mary, only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. Her intention was to provide a Christmas gift for every person serving in the King's uniform, both abroad and on the home front. Her wish was fulfilled to an astounding degree and created one of the most touching mementos of the war. Princess Mary's Christmas Gift Fund was announced on 15 October 1914. The Princess had wanted to underwrite it herself from her allowance, but it was decided by the inaugural committee, headed by the Duke of Devonshire, that a public subscription was the better source for funding. The response was enormously positive and generous. Ultimately £200,000 was raised by a nation eager to respond to the Princess's plea:

"I want you now to help me to send a Christmas present from the whole of the nation to every sailor afloat and every soldier at the front. I am sure that we should all be happier to feel that we had helped to send our little token of love and sympathy on Christmas morning, something that would be useful and of permanent value, and the making of which may be the means of providing employment in trades adversely affected by the war...Please will you help me?" 

The gift itself was a brass box, a tin with a hinged lid that measures 5" x 3 3/8" x 1 1/8". The lid bears a left-profile portrait of the Princess, with her initial "M" on either side of the portrait. The seven Allies of the time are represented: embossed at the corners are Belgium, Japan, Montenegro, and Servia, and at the sides are France and Russia. "Imperium Britannicum" holds place of honor above Princess Mary's portrait, and "Christmas 1914" balances the center beneath her portrait. Within the box were several gifts that were distributed thus:

• Smokers received tobacco, a packet of cigarettes, a tinder, and a pipe; a photo of Princess Mary and a Christmas card from her.

• Non-smokers received a bullet pencil in a .303 cartridge, the photo and Christmas card, a khaki writing case, and a packet of acid tablets.

• Nurses received chocolates in their box, along with the photo and card.

• The various Indian servicemen received gifts in accordance with their dietary and/or religious observances, often sweets and spices instead of tobacco.

By Christmas of 1914, approximately 355,000 boxes had been distributed. Given the extensive fronts across the globe, it took well into 1916 to distribute all the boxes to those entitled to them; during that time war widows were included in the recipients. Ultimately, 2.5 million boxes were made, filled, and given out. Many were carefully sent home from the front as keepsakes.

Princess Mary continued her connection with the armed services throughout her life (1897–1965), becoming colonel-in-chief of the Royal Scots (1918) and of the Royal Signal Corps (1935) in addition to several Commonwealth corps and regiments. The legacy of the Princess Mary box is a genuine testament to her spirit of public service.

Was There Such a Thing in the World's Great War as the Lost Battalion? Reviewed by Peter L. Belmonte

Was There Such a Thing in the World's Great War as the Lost Battalion? Memoir of Sgt Major Walter Baldwin, 308th Infantry.

Privately Published, Thomas J. Baldwin, 2016

The story of the Lost Battalion is well known to many students of World War I. There are several books that focus on the heroic stand of Major Charles Whittlesey's command in a dank ravine in the Argonne Forest almost a century ago. Firsthand recollections of the event, however, are rare. Walter J. Baldwin, who was a corporal in charge of the runners in Whittlesey's battalion headquarters, wrote his memoir in the 1930s. Now Baldwin's son, Thomas J. Baldwin, has transcribed his father's typescript and published it in this book. The book is arranged with Thomas's transcription placed opposite a facsimile of his father's original typescript, page-by-page. Thomas's chapter summary and his father's typewritten roster of men in the Lost Battalion precede the narrative. A few photographs, including one of Sgt. Baldwin in uniform and another depicting his medals, are appended after the narrative.

Walter Baldwin's memoir is a chronological presentation of his time in the army, from induction to discharge. He was drafted in the fall of 1918 and assigned to the 308th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, and his memoir covers his time in training, shipment overseas, and combat in July and August 1918. The thrust of the memoir, however, is Baldwin's recollection of combat in the Argonne Forest. Baldwin entered the Argonne on the first day of the offensive, 26 September. By 2 October, Whittlesey's command (actually parts of two battalions and men from some other miscellaneous units) had become separated from the rest of the regiment and surrounded in a ravine, called "the pocket." In the ensuing five days, the men in the pocket endured a terrible ordeal.

Baldwin recalled the horror of sudden death, in this case by improperly ranged American artillery:

We were moving slowly to our new rendezvous, with Ben Gaedeke, our Sergeant Major, not ten feet in front of me, when there came a blinding flash and terrific roar, as a shell burst just beyond me, then everything went black, while earth and rocks that had been tossed high in the air began to fall. I had not seen Ben hit and I never saw him afterward, nor could a vestige of his clothing be located. He was just blotted off the earth, by his own countrymen's shell. [p. 101]

Sgt. Major Walter Baldwin

Because of his position, Baldwin was close to Whittlesey throughout the ordeal. This allowed Baldwin to authoritatively refute one myth concerning the Lost Battalion and Major Whittlesey. At one point, several of Whittlesey's men left their position, without permission, in order to retrieve supplies dropped to the men by U.S. aircraft. One man, Private Lowell R. Hollingshead, was captured and coerced into carrying a surrender ultimatum back to Whittlesey. About this, Baldwin wrote (capitals in the original):

I WAS WITHIN FIVE FEET OF MAJOR WHITLESSLEY [sic] WHEN HE RECEIVED THE NOTE FROM HOLLINGSHEAD, and positively declare, he never made use of the world famed expression, by telling the German commander to "GO TO HELL," which is simply a myth, for as there was absolutely no recognition given to the Boche communication, therefore there was no necessity to answer it. [p. 109]

Hollingshead, however, bore the wrath of Whittlesey: "Turning to the unfortunate Hollingshead, the Major berated him unmercifully, in a loud angry voice, for having left his post without permission, ordering him at once to report to his company commander. This incident had spread like wildfire through the ranks." [p.109] No doubt Whittlesey's handling of the situation reinforced the necessity to obey orders in their precarious position.

After relief from the pocket and another brief stint in the lines, Baldwin became ill and spent most of the rest of the war in the hospital. He was promoted to battalion sergeant major and returned to the U.S. for discharge in the spring of 1919.

Although he did not have much formal schooling, Baldwin wrote well, if floridly; his memoir is easy reading and enjoyable. Most of Baldwin's recollections of his time in the "pocket" are fairly general; one would have hoped for more descriptions of daily routine and of particular incidents. But Baldwin, of course, wrote precisely what he wanted to, and for that we should be grateful. And kudos to Thomas Baldwin for publishing his father's memoir; we hope more such "family memoirs" will come out of the woodwork and into print.

Marker and Memorial at the Lost Battalion Site
Rob Laplander (Mentioned Below) Was Primarily Responsible for the Memorial

(For an in-depth analysis of the Lost Battalion, see Robert Laplander's two excellent books on the subject: Finding the Lost Battalion: Beyond the Rumors, Myths and Legends of America's Famous WW1 Epic [724pp., lulu.com], and The Lost Battalion: Return to the Charlevaux [160pp. American Expeditionary Foundation])

Peter L. Belmonte

Two Doughboys Report a White Christmas

By Paul Albright

There was a White Christmas in parts of France and Germany 99 years ago as two Doughboys from the same family turned their thoughts to family and friends located far-off in the farmlands of North Dakota. 

It was Christmas Day, 1918—some six weeks after the Armistice was signed—that Private Palmer Hanson of Company G., 138th Infantry, wrote to his brother, Adoph Hanson, in Mayville, North Dakota: “Will take time and drop you a few lines today as it is Christmas day and not(h)ing else to do, as we are not drilling today.” Private Hanson noted that rain on Christmas Eve had turned to snow by Christmas Day, but the snow was melting almost as soon as it hit the ground.

One day later, Private Carl Molden addressed a letter to his cousin, (Miss) Caroline Hanson of Mayville, in which he noted the troops “had a White Xmas here…about 2 inches of snow in the morning. But very cold.” He was off duty from his kitchen assignment the afternoon after Christmas.

Both 1918 Christmas letters were mailed as free soldiers' mail to Mayville, North Dakota, by the two Doughboy relatives, one of whom was in France and the other in occupied Germany

Private Hanson was writing from Dagonville, located in the Meuse department of northeastern France. Private Molden, who was with the AEF’s 54th Pioneer Infantry, was stationed across the border at Sehlem in Germany’s Rheinland-Palantinate region. Private Molden was a cousin of Caroline Hanson and was either a cousin or a nephew of Private Hanson. Their letters were preserved in a family archive eventually housed at the State Historical Society of North Dakota in Bismarck.

Palmer Hanson was a guest in a French household as he wrote his Christmas Day letter home. “I and a couple other boys are at a French house writing now. They are very nice people, and it is nice and warm in here.”

Christmas was livelier where Private Molden was at. There was chicken for Christmas dinner followed by “lots of doings, dancers and Xmas fooling.” But he missed North Dakota: “Would liked I had been home myself for Xmas. Hope I will be back before spring. If I do I will come and visit you. Would like to see Palmer again to(o).”

Both soldiers received Christmas goodies. Private Hanson said he and an army buddy had acquired “two big bowls of milk each. The first time I drank milk for a long time, except can(ned) milk. But I am used to it now.” 

“Yesterday we got chocolate candy and some other stuff, and today for dinner we got nuts, grapes and one-half pound of candy each. Spose (Suppose) you are going to have Xmas tree this year, too,” he commented in the letter addressed to his brother Adoph.

Private Molden used stationery provided by the Knights of Columbus for the letter to his cousin from Sehlem, Germany, written the day after Christmas 1918.

Private Molden’s Christmas presents “so far” consisted of “a package of cookies, bar of candy and a package of tobacco.”

The envelopes of both letters carried censor signatures and censor cancellations and were mailed postage-free as “Soldiers' Mail.” Private Hanson’s letter was postmarked in December (exact day indecipherable), but Private Hanson’s letter was not postmarked until a week later—New Year’s Day 1919. 

Source: The Palmer Hanson World War I letters collection (#21336) at the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

103 Years Ago: The Christmas Truce Opens

Captain Jake Armes of the 1st Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment wrote to his wife and described this incredible occurrence. Armes did return home to his family after the war; he died in 1948. 

24/12/14

I have just been through one of the most extraordinary scenes imaginable. To-night is Xmas Eve and I came up into the trenches this evening for my tour of duty in them. Firing was going on all the time and the enemy's machine guns were at it hard, firing at us. Then about seven the firing stopped.

I was in my dug-out reading a paper and the mail was being dished out. It was reported that the Germans had lighted their trenches up all along our front. We had been calling to one another for some time Xmas wishes and other things. I went out and they shouted "no shooting" and then somehow the scene became a peaceful one. All our men got out of their trenches and sat on the parapet, the Germans did the same, and they talked to one another in English and broken English. I got on top of the trench and talked German and asked them to sing a German Volkslied, which they did, then our men sang quite well and each side clapped and cheered the other.

I asked a German who sang a solo to sing one of Schumann's songs, so he sang The Two Grenadiers splendidly. Our men were a good audience and really enjoyed his singing.

Then Pope and I walked across and held a conversation with the German officer in command.

Artist's Depiction of Christmas Eve, 1914

One of his men introduced us properly, he asked my name and then presented me to his officer. I gave the latter permission to bury some German dead who are lying in between us, and we agreed to have no shooting until 12 midnight to-morrow. We talked together, 10 or more Germans gathered round. I was almost in their lines within a yard or so. We saluted each other, he thanked me for permission to bury his dead, and we fixed up how many men were to do it, and that otherwise both sides must remain in their trenches.

Then we wished one another goodnight and a good night's rest, and a happy Xmas and parted with a salute. I got back to the trench. The Germans sang Die Wacht Am Rhein it sounded well. Then our men sang quite well Christians Awake, it sounded so well, and with a goodnight we all got back into our trenches. It was a curious scene, a lovely moonlit night, the German trenches with small lights on them, and the men on both sides gathered in groups on the parapets.

At times we heard the guns in the distance and an occasional rifle shot. I can hear them now, but about us is absolute quiet. I allowed one or two men to go out and meet a German or two half way. They exchanged cigars, a smoke and talked. The officer I spoke to hopes we shall do the same on New Year's Day, I said "yes, if I am here". I felt I must sit down and write the story of this Xmas Eve before I went to lie down. Of course no precautions are relaxed, but I think they mean to play the game. All the same, I think I shall be awake all night so as to be on the safe side. It is weird to think that to-morrow night we shall be at it hard again. If one gets through this show it will be an Xmas time to live in one's memory. The German who sang had a really fine voice.

Am just off for a walk around the trenches to see all is well. Goodnight.

Xmas Day.

We had an absolutely quiet night in front of us though just to our right and left there was sniping going on. In my trenches and in those of the enemy opposite to us were only nice big fires blazing and occasional songs and conversation. This morning at the Reveille the Germans sent out parties to bury their dead. Our men went out to help, and then we all on both sides met in the middle, and in groups began to talk and exchange gifts of tobacco, etc. All this morning we have been fraternizing, singing songs. I have been within a yard in fact to their trenches, have spoken to and exchanged greetings with a Colonel, Staff Officers and several Company Officers. All were very nice and we fixed up that the men should not go near their opponents trenches, but remain about midway between the lines. The whole thing is extraordinary. The men were all so natural and friendly. Several photos were taken, a group of German officers, a German officer and myself, and a group of British and German soldiers. 

The Germans are Saxons, a good looking lot, only wishing for peace in a manly way, and they seem in no way at their last gasp. I was astonished at the easy way in which our men and theirs got on with each other.

No-Man's-Land, Flanders, Christmas Day 1914

We have just knocked off for dinner, and have arranged to meet again afterwards until dusk when we go in again and have [illegible] until 9pm, when War begins again. I wonder who will start the shooting! They say "Fire in the air and we will", and such things, but of course it will start and tomorrow we shall be at it hard killing one another. It is an extraordinary state of affairs which allows of a "Peace Day". I have never seen men so pleased to have a day off as both sides.

Their opera singer is going to give us a song or two tonight and perhaps I may give them one. Try and imagine two lines of trenches in peace, only 50 yards apart, the men of either side have never seen each other except perhaps a head now and again, and have never been outside in front of their trenches. Then suddenly one day men stream out and nest in friendly talk in the middle. One fellow, a married man, wanted so much a photo of Betty and Nancy in bed, which I had, and I gave him it as I had two: It seems he showed it all round, as several Germans told me afterwards about it. He gave me a photo of himself and family taken the other day which he had just got.

Well must finish now so as to get this off to-day. Have just finished dinner. Pork chop. Plum pudding. Mince pies. Ginger, and bottle of Wine and a cigar, and have drunk to all at home and especially to you my darling one. Must go outside now to supervise the meetings of the men and the Germans.

Will try and write more in a day or two. Keep this letter carefully and send copies to all. I think they will be interested. It did feel funny walking over alone towards the enemy's trenches to meet someone half-way, and then to arrange a Xmas peace. It will be a thing to remember all one's life.

Kiss the babies and give them my love. Write me a long letter and tell me all the news. I hope the photos come out all-right. Probably you will see them in some paper.

Yours, Jake

Source:  Letters of Note Website, 19 October 2015

The French Intellectuals and the Great War of 1914–1918

The Cases of Ernest Psichari and Charles Péguy,
French Soldier-Intellectuals on the Eve of the Great War

By Dr. Paul W. Gery

Prior to the cataclysmic outbreak of the violence of World War I in 1914, few observers predicted a long, drawn-out, violent conflict that would result in the enormous numbers of casualties.  In the case of the French intellectuals prior to the war, very few predicted the violence of the Great War. In fact, the prospect of a war to cleanse society of stagnation and renew the roots of civilization was actually a fervent desire among many French intellectuals, to include such writers such as Maurice Barrès, Ernest Psichari, and Charles Péguy.  Prewar French society praised the roles of the Church and the Army in their efforts to foster a new sense of French nationalism and patriotic fervor. Two French authors who were converted to the nationalist message of past military and religious glory of France were the French writer Ernest Psichari and the poet Charles Péguy.

Ernest Psichari

Psichari was a grandson of the well-known French historian, Ernest Renan, who made critical studies of sacred texts that shook his faith in religious doctrine.  Renan then focused his studies on historical relativism and oriented himself toward skepticism. Psichari, born in 1883, initially shared the intellectual attitudes of his grandfather, but in 1903 Psichari faced a personal crisis and he joined the army in 1905.  Later, in 1913, he converted to Catholicism and henceforth Psichari became an ardent supporter of the Army and the Church.  Viewing society as being sick in its various manifestations, he soon became a career soldier in the French Army.

 For Psichari, the ascetic life of a soldier and war became a source of physical, moral and spiritual regeneration, and he expressed these sentiments in several of his written works, to include l’Appel des armes (The Call to Arms, 1911) and Terres de soleil et de sommeil (Lands of Sun and Sleep, 1908).  The latter work recounted his military experiences in North Africa.  The life and works of Psichari represent a generation of idealistic nationalists in France during the years leading up to the outbreak of war in 1914.  Moreover, for Psichari, death in combat for a noble cause constituted for him the glorious summit of the soldier.

Charles Péguy

Another example of the intellectual and religious transformation that affected French intellectuals in the years preceding the Great War was the French poet Charles Péguy. In a similar manner as in the case of Psichari, Péguy admired military life, condemned the excesses of contemporary materialism in society and believed that war was both necessary and inevitable.  Péguy was born in 1873 in Orléans and lost his father when Péguy was less than one year old. Raised by his mother and grandmother, Péguy took an interest in socialism and the plight of the French  poor. At the time of the Dreyfus Affair, Péguy actively worked to prove the innocence of the Alsatian officer of Jewish descent who was unjustly accused of transmitting French military secrets to the Germans.  Péguy’s poetic themes focused soon on Jeanne d’Arc, the heroine of religious faith and the French motherland. He rediscovered his religious faith that inspired him to admire the sentiments of heroism and mysticism that were evident in the works of the 17th-century playwright Pierre Corneille.

Both Psichari and Péguy anticipated a war with Germany, and they believed that such a war between France and Germany was inevitable. The two French writers shared the love of heroism, sacrifice for the nation and religious faith embodied in the Catholic religion. The ardent enthusiasm of the two writers was diffused not only among French intellectuals, but throughout the European intellectual community as well.  This attitude manifested itself in feelings of the need to prove one’s courage in battle, as if the age of chivalry still existed at the turn of the 20th century.  For example, the British poet Rupert Brooke expressed the sentiment of many heroic-minded youth in his famous sonnet titled "Peace", written in 1914:

Now, God be thanked who has matched us with His hour,
And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping.

Psichari's Grave at Rossignol

Yet, the European youth did not understand that the epoch of individual glory and the chivalrous warrior no longer existed prior to the onset of war in 1914.  Psichari and Péguy had anticipated a mighty crusade against the barbarism of imperial Germany and her allies.  Very rapidly, the war evolved into a protracted and violent war of mass, one in which man was but a number in the most destructive war of the modern era. Perhaps it is fitting that both Psichari and Péguy were killed early in the conflict. Psichari was a second lieutenant serving with the 2nd Colonial Artillery Regiment when he was killed in action in Rossignol, Belgium, in August 1914, just weeks after the start of the war. I have not visited the site, but apparently there is some kind of memorial for him at Rossignol.  

Péguy's Burial Site at Villeroy

Péguy, a reserve lieutenant, killed by a bullet to the forehead after rejoining his reserve unit at the beginning of the battle of the Marne at Villeroy. It was as if the two French authors had prophesied their deaths on the battlefield. Moreover, their deaths seemed to confirm their sentiments that the noblest calling is to die for one’s country, a sentiment that had already captured the souls and thinking of a generation of European youth on the eve of the most destructive and violent war that Europe had yet to experience. 

100 Years Ago: Russia Opens Separate Peace Negotiations with Germany

On 22 December 1917, delegations sent by the Central Powers meet face to face with the representatives of the October Revolution. Trotsky later writes, “The circumstances of history willed that the delegates of the most revolutionary regime ever known to humanity should sit at the same diplomatic table with the representatives of the most reactionary caste among all the ruling classes.”

Central Powers' Delegates at Brest-Litovsk (1917–1918): German General Max Hoffmann, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Czernin, Ottoman Talaat Pasha and
German Foreign Minister Kühlman

Leader of the Bolshevik Delegation,
Adolf Abramovich Joffe

The day after the Bolshevik seizure of power on 7 November 1917, the Soviet government promulgated its “Decree on Peace”, urging all combatants to conclude a “just, democratic peace”. The Allies decided on 22 November not to respond. But the Central Powers had been awaiting exactly such an invitation; Germany had funded Vladimir Ilich Lenin’s  return to Russia hoping he would end the war on the Eastern Front. On 15 December Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria concluded an armistice with Russia. The negotiations took place at the German High Command Headquarters East in the fortress of Brest-Litovsk. While the Germans used the role of hosts to woo the Russians with oysters and roast  goose, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Leon Trotsky (1879–1940), wanted the talks transferred to Stockholm, where the Germans had less power and the world could watch.

Brest-Litovsk brought two utterly different cultures face to face: the traditional diplomacy of the  Central Powers confronting the revolutionaries’ flair for political agitation. Although the Central Powers continued to use French among themselves, it was agreed that the treaty languages should be German, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Turkish, and Russian. Eager to abolish traditional diplomacy, the Bolsheviks sent among the 28 delegates to Brest-Litovsk on 22 December 1917: a sailor, a soldier, a peasant, a worker, and a female terrorist who boasted of having assassinated a governor general.

The Central Powers’ representatives, in contrast, were of aristocratic origin and remained comme il faut in all dealings with their “guests”. The delegation leaders drew the Bolsheviks under Adolf Abramovich Joffe into six days of polite exchanges, only to reach an impasse—each side, invoking the “right of national self-determination”, insisted that on conclusion of a peace the other must withdraw its troops from Russia’s occupied western regions.  The discussions were adjourned to be reconvened after the New Year.  The Russian delegation, now led by Trotsky, returned to Brest-Litovsk on 7 January 1918.
To be continued...

Source: International Encyclopedia of the First World War