The Duckboards of Camp Pontanezen

Life at Pre-Duckboard Camp Pontanezen

Camp Pontanezen was an immense American debarkation center built around six stone barracks buildings erected by Napoleon I. It was  located two miles north of Brest, which is on France's Peninsula of Finisterre. The depth and excellence of the Brest harbor caused it to be utilized far more extensively than any other French port for the arriving and departing troops of the AEF. In all, 791,000 men landed here in 1917 and 1918. The Doughboys passing through were treated to an array of discomforts, wallowing in the mud and sleeping in tents or poorly heated barracks. It rains most of the year at Brest, and the roads, firm underneath, were coated with slippery, semi-fluid mud which caused countless trucks to spin out of control and thousands of Doughboys to suffer wet feet.

The 1000-Acre Base at Its Peak

Meal Time at the Camp

Much sickness resulted.  Eventually, however, the camp was drained and otherwise made more comfortable and the vast numbers of troops who embarked there for return to the United States after the Armistice did not suffer as they had on landing in France. The individual most credited with cleaning up the 1,000 acre camp was a notable Marine and twice-Medal of Honor recipient named Smedley Butler. Promoted to brigadier general, he was assigned as the camp's commander in the fall of 1918. Upon arriving, Butler was appalled at the condition of the camp and determined to correct matters.He submitted numerous requests for duckboards, panels of  wooden slats joined together, so they could be used as sidewalks. However, even though a surplus supply of duckboards was sitting in a nearby port warehouse, he heard no response. He decided to take matters into his own hands.

The Benefits of Duckboarding

General Butler (rt) Being Decorated by General Pershing
(Note Butler's Shoulder Patch)

He marched a large formation of men to the warehouse to commandeer the duckboards and other supplies needed to improve the camp. As the story goes, Butler himself led the way back, carrying a duckboard back up the hill to Camp Pontanezen. His daring raid of the warehouse earned him the nickname "General Duckboard" and confirmed his reputation as a "soldier's general." Life at the camp improved immediately. The symbol of the duckboard was embraced by the troops and spread around camp, painted on various surfaces including the main gate. General Pershing even approved a duckboard shoulder patch for the camp's personnel and decorated Butler for his leadership. The improvements were so appreciated that permanent cadre named their camp newspaper The Pontanezen Duckboard.

Main Gate

Camp Pontanezen remained open until December 1919.

Sources:  Wiki Commons; Univ. of Michigan Library; Library of Congress: N.Dakota Inst. of Regional Studies

The Allies Face Defeat at Gallipoli

Temporary Cemetery Anzac Sector

During the land campaign, the invading troops and generals at Gallipoli found themselves bogged down in the same sort of 1915-style trench warfare as their counterparts on the Western Front. There, the 1915 campaign saw failure after failure: Aubers Ridge, Artois (twice), Loos, and Champagne (twice). In August 1915, the last Allied offensive at Gallipoli failed in similar fashion. 

Following the failure of the August offensive at Suvla Bay and Anzac, the commander of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF), General Sir Ian Hamilton, knew the best he could hope to achieve in the short term was to establish a defensive line strong enough to deter any future Turkish attack. While Hamilton believed a decisive victory was still possible, he also knew that this would require additional divisions. Any extra divisions were unlikely, as the British cabinet was losing confidence in the concept of an indirect approach against the Central Powers through Constantinople.

Key Positions of the Allied Forces
Note That Turkish Forces Control Almost All the Peninsula (and All the High Ground and the Straits)

The Western Front was seen as the decisive theatre and one that had priority on resources. The result was a declining flow of reinforcements to the peninsula, leaving many units well below their authorized establishments. Despite this, Hamilton would not contemplate an evacuation, fearing significant casualties from such a difficult operation. 

In early September Hamilton requested 95,000 additional troops. Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener denied the request. By October, there was growing sentiment in the British press and Parliament for evacuating Gallipoli.

Facing an impasse, the British cabinet acted and on 14 October 1915 replaced Hamilton with General Sir Charles Monro, an experienced commander from the Western Front. Prior to his departure, Monro was warned by Winston Churchill that a withdrawal from Gallipoli would be disastrous. By 31 October Monro had undertaken an inspection of his new command and provided an assessment of the Gallipoli situation to Lord Kitchener. With the exception of the Anzacs, Monro felt his troops were not capable of further sustained effort. Any successful offensive would require frontal attacks into entrenched enemy positions and, even if contemplated, there was no room within the existing beachheads to accommodate the men or artillery required to support future offensives.

Lord Kitchener at Cape Helles

Furthermore, the approaching winter gales would make any logistical buildup across the beaches increasingly difficult. Intelligence reports also indicated  the impending arrival of significant German artillery reinforcements, including heavy caliber howitzers. Once the Ottomans had these weapons in place they could systematically demolish the Allied trenches. Monro concluded that an evacuation was the only course of action open. Upon learning this, Churchill said of Monro, ''He came, he saw, he capitulated."

On 1 November, Monro and naval commander Admiral de Robeck agreed to establish a joint naval-military committee to develop an evacuation plan. Monro formally advised Kitchener to evacuate the peninsula "in consequence of the grave daily wastage of officers and men. . . and owing to the lack of prospect of being able to drive the Turks from their entrenched lines." He estimated a loss of roughly 40 percent—40,000 men—in an evacuation. Kitchener initially refused to accept defeat and the pessimistic casualty prediction of an evacuation so quickly.

V Beach Under Fire

After considering some alternate schemes for salvaging the Gallipoli operation, Lord Kitchener concluded the Allies were left with only two options, staying put or evacuating. He decided to assess the situation himself and sailed from Marseilles on 7 November for the headquarters at Mudros.

His first stop was on the 12th at Cape Helles, where he visited the beaches, but not the front line. Kitchener mostly met with senior staff and officials, including Lt. General William Birdwood, who would ultimately command the evacuation. His most informative stops were over the next two days at Anzac and the Suvla sector. 

The subsequent days were spent in meetings and conferences at Mudros. Then Kitchener left temporarily for a flying visit to Salonika and to interview the Greek king in Athens. Returning on 22 November, and after further consultation with senior commanders, he recommended to the British War Cabinet that Anzac and Suvla be evacuated and Helles retained for a time.

Wounded Diggers and Medics

General Monro was then elevated to the position of commander-in-chief Mediterranean and the commander of the Anzacs, Lieutenant General William Birdwood, was confirmed as commander of the Dardanelles Army. He would oversee the withdrawal. Birdwood's chief of staff, Brigadier C.B.B. White, started work on the evacuation plan. On 7 December the British Cabinet approved the scheme to evacuate Suvla and Anzac.

Sources: Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs, Canberra; The Australian Defense News Bureau; Over the Top, January 2016

I Just Discovered a "New" Outdoor Museum on the Italian Front at Mte Brestovec

Click on Images to Enlarge

Gun Postion with Informational Kiosks

Well "new" to me, it was apparently dedicated in 2012. While wandering lonely as a cloud o'er the vales and hills of the Italian Front on Google maps, I came upon a fluttering host of artillery bunkers and rather well preserved trenches of the stony type particular to that sector of the war. Somehow, in my three visits to the Italian Front, sadly, I missed the World War I Outdoor Museum at Monte Brestovec, Italy. It appears to be an outstanding exhibit of military archeology.

Trenches

Further investigation on my part led to a flood of high quality photos on the Internet, like those shown here. At first, I was puzzled at how the restorers of the site had created such a neat and clean look to its tunnels and barricades.  In my experience, such restored positions still have a battered, weathered feeling, 100+ years after the fighting. Additional research, though, revealed the interesting fact that these improvements at Mount Brestovec—completed by the Italian Army after its successful advance to this point after the Fifth and Sixth Battles of the Isonzo—had rarely, if ever, drawn enemy fire. Here's the background.

Tunnel in the Artillery Section

This 200-meter peak that dominates the surrounding region of the Carso Plateau was used by the Austro-Hungarian army for observation of Italian movements between Gorizia and the Gulf of Trieste from the start of hostilities in the Spring of 1915. For over a year, General Cadorna's forces took heavy casualties in an almost futile efforts to advance across the plateau towards Trieste. In 1916, however, he managed to organize two attacks that proved somewhat successful. In the Fifth Isonzo, the Italian Army captured the nearby village San Michele del Carso  and, in the Sixth, the city of Gorizia farther north. (Details on those battles HERE.) These successes allowed the Italian Army to secure Mte Brestovec but additional sections of the Carso leaving it 2.5 miles closer to Trieste.

Observer Outpost

Following the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo, the Italian Military Command concluded it needed to build new defensive lines to prevent new attacks by the Austrian Army, especially if they moved in force into the valley just east of Brestovec. Following an order by the Duke of Aosta Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, Commander of the Third Army, the whole section west of the valley  around Mte Brestovec was fortified and entrenched with enclosed artillery galleries around its crest and strong trenches protecting the position. Eight gun emplacements were excavated under the summit, which housed eight 49mm cannons. Two tunnels allowed access to the guns and cover for infantry passing to the trenches.  

Infantry Transit Tunnel

The new construction of the field works took from January 1917 to late summer. For a time afterward, the action moved to the north and things were relatively quiet around Mte. Brestovec. Then, in October 1917, catastrophe struck the Italian Army. The Second Army was nearly destroyed at Caporetto and the Third Army was forced to abandon the Carso including the new fortifications.

Summit of Mte Brestovec

Today visitors can tour the entire site which has been enhanced with informational kiosks, cut-outs of the contending soldiers and the artillery pieces. Visitors can follow two routes, describing the experiences of two soldiers, an Austro-Hungarian and an Italian who served in the area. The entrance of the Italian soldier's route bears the inscription La pace (Peace) and the entrance of the Austro-Hungarian soldier bears the inscription Vo(g)liamo la pace (We want peace). These words were etched into rock by soldiers serving on Brestovec.

The Trail from San Michele to the Site

For Visitors

1.  Approach the village of San Michele del Carso via SS55. Eventually, you will see signage for Mte. Brestovec. Follow those through the winding village roads.

2.  You will be guided to the campo sportivo (sports playground). Park the car by the playground and continue on foot.

3. Follow the signposts for the Brestovec trail.

4.  Details about the hike.

• Duration: 2 hrs total, 30min from San Michele to the first trenches

• GPS coordinates: 45.877547, 13.574102

• Altitude: 208 m

• Recommended Equipment: Trekking clothing and footwear, drinks and food in your backpack, and a flashlight

Sources:  Paths of Peace; TripAdvisor.com; Isonzobattlefields.com

Soldiers and Gentlemen: A History of the University and Public Schools Brigade of the Royal Fusiliers 1914–1918

To Order This Work Click HERE

By Colin W. Taylor

Helion & Company, 2024

Reviewed by David F. Beer

It is heart breaking now to see the poor remnants of our battalion on parade and to think of the brave show we used to make a few weeks ago on the same parade. A few weeks it is only, but it seems to be an age...I have asked myself time and again why I have been singled out for God’s especial mercy and protection when comrades, better men than myself, have been struck down by my side. (Sergeant Holden, 3rd Public Schools)

Growing up in a working-class family in a village in rural Devonshire, I didn’t have many friends who attended a university or a public school (a term which in Britain means a decidedly high-class private school). Nevertheless, I found Soldiers and Gentlemen to be an enlightening and fascinating read. Known as the UPS Brigade attached to the Royal Fusiliers, these army units consisted of university and public school students or graduates who chose to serve as “gentleman rankers" so they could remain among men of their own class rather than mix with recruits from lower social groups.

Colin Taylor’s book is a highly detailed account (over 500 pages) of the formation of these battalions, the men who volunteered, the problems encountered, and above all the accounts in the men’s own words of their experiences once they became soldiers. Since these men were from the more educated classes, it’s not surprising that their letters, diaries, memoirs, and reports were often more telling than those of the average Tommy. Moreover, the brigade published two trench journals, The Pow-Wow and The Gasper, which according to the author were exemplars of the trench magazine genre.

The UPS battalions had no shortage of recruits—but not always for the reasons one might expect. Public school and university students and graduates were anxious to become part of the "show" since there was a widespread feeling that the war wouldn’t last long. Many had a secondary plan, however. Once they were in the army, they would apply for a commission, since their education and class would practically ensure it. Over time, many did receive commissions and were transferred to other regiments. This frustrated and slowed down the training and deployment of the UPS battalions, however, since their numbers were so often depleted by losing these men.

From the Book

By the end of 1914 much of the UPS was in France and on active duty. From this point, Taylor describes in almost exhaustive detail the movements and experiences of the UPS men from the opening battles of the war to the closing ones, including the air war and the tank war—both of which found “gentlemen rankers” involved. His history is greatly augmented by numerous quotes from the men and by prolific footnotes. Further narrative describes action seen in the “side-shows” of Gallipoli, Salonika, Palestine, the Italian Front, and Russia, although these accounts mainly involved ex-UPS men who had moved on to other units.

There is much, much more in this book than I can begin to describe in a short review. Its 500 pages on gloss paper, with countless photographs, 12 maps, extensive footnotes and appendices with key documents, all bring alive the background, organization, training, and fighting that encompassed the lives (and often deaths) of the men who made up the UPS.

David F. Beer

Lonesome Memorial #9: Cobbers Statue at the Australian Memorial Park, Fromelles

Cobbers

Dedicated in 1998, the Australian Memorial Park Commemorates the Australians killed during the 1916 Battle of Fromelles. Located at the position of the German Army's front line, its centerpiece, designed by Australian sculptor Peter Corlett,  is known as Cobbers (buddies or pals). It was inspired by the heroics of Sergeant Simon Fraser in rescuing a wounded compatriot from no man's land after the battle. The title comes from a letter that Fraser, a farmer from Byaduk, Victoria, wrote a few days after the battle and that was widely quoted in Australia's official history of World War I.

The Memorial Park

We found a fine haul of wounded and brought them in; but it was not where I heard this fellow calling, so I had another shot for it, and came across a splendid specimen of humanity trying to wriggle into a trench with a big wound in his thigh. He was about 14 stone weight, and I could not lift him on my back; but I managed to get him into an old trench, and told him to lie quiet while I got a stretcher. Then another man about 30 yards out sang out "Don’t forget me, cobber." I went in and got four volunteers with stretchers, and we got both men in safely.

German Frontline Bunker at the Park

Background on the Battle of Fromelles:

Fromelles was the first major battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. Directed against a strong German position known as the Sugar Loaf Salient, the attack was intended primarily as a feint to draw German troops away from the Somme offensive then being pursued farther to the south. A seven-hour preparatory bombardment deprived the attack of any hope of surprise and ultimately proved ineffective in subduing the well-entrenched defenders. 

When the troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions attacked at 6 p.m. on 19 July 1916, they suffered heavily at the hands of German machine gunners. Small parts of the German trenches were captured by the 8th and 14th Australian Brigades, but, devoid of flanking support and subjected to fierce counterattacks, they were forced to withdraw. By 8 a.m. on 20 July 1916, the battle was over. The 5th Australian Division suffered 5,533 casualties, rendering it incapable of offensive action for many months; the 61st British Division suffered 1,547. The German casualties were little more than 1,000. 

Visitor's Map

Finding the Memorial:

The Australian Memorial Park is 6 miles northeast of the Indian Memorial at Neuve Chapelle, a 10-minute drive via D171 and a right turn at D22. A visit to the site  should also include the nearby VC Corner Cemetery, plus the small but quite excellent Musée de la Bataille and the new Pheasant Wood Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in the village of Fromelles. Above is a helpful tourist map of the area I discovered online. Click on it to view it in full size.

Sources: Wikipedia, Australian War Memorial, Nord Pas de Calais Tourism Board

How the Germans Received the Armies of Occupation

 

British troops entering Malmédy—the town, then still German territory, would become Belgian in 1919

By Edward Wright

A Sabbath peace was on the green, lonely land. In the bright frosty air church bells were calling the peasants to Mass in the Ardennes and the Eifel, and the churches were filled, and the woods and fields empty on Sunday, December 1st, 1918, as British Hussars and Lancers crossed the German frontier. Ahead of the conquerors rose ridge after ridge of high, pine-crowned uplands, with roads running by the edge of green ravines and by pleasant timber-built farmhouses, standing blank and sullen, with, closed doors and blinds drawn.

It was a country in which a thousand determined men, with machine-guns, might have held back an army. Yet this wild borderland of the greatest of all military States was left without a single company of defenders. By strange historic irony, the dividing stream between the Belgian and German Ardennes was named Red Water. By the blood of millions of men, with that of many women and children, had the new invaders purchased the power to cross it.

Behind the British soldiers in the liberated towns of Belgium was a whirl of dancing joy. Soldiers and girls, staid matrons and stiff officers, swayed hand-in-hand down the streets, singing in an ecstasy of happiness, or playing kiss-in-the-ring. There were more solemn scenes of joy in the cities of Lorraine and Alsace while the Americans and French were preparing to cross the hostile frontier.

Sullen German Anger

Some of the British columns were able to carry the joy of liberation on to Prussian soil. For when they entered the lovely region of Malmédy, where the green fir trees stood out in Christmas-glory against crimson stretches of withered bracken, the troops were welcomed by Walloons, whose forefathers had been torn from the Belgian nation by the robber race of Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

For the rest however, Germany awaited her conquerors in a kind of recovered pride. The people had just seen their beaten soldiers wearily trailing by like an army of tramps. In many cases they had been robbed by their own troops, and the. pillaging had not been stopped until burgomasters formed armed town guards and received assistance from good regiments of first-line forces. Yet many of the best German troops marched back to the Rhine with carts and barrows piled with plunder, all of which did not come from France or Belgium. Some divisions demobilised themselves on the march by the simple process of deserting, and then breaking into shops and taking civilian suits. The soldiers that remained steady and disciplined were given young firs as Christmas-trees, and provided with garlands of the last autumnal flowers growing in the warm valleys. To keep them from disorder they were flattered profusely and told they were unbeaten, and it was partly through the influence of their own oratory that the Germans along the Rhine began to recover from the patent effects of their abject national surrender.

Few of them were frightened at the clattering hoofs and fluttering pennons of the British advance guards. A remarkable rumour had gone through the country that Germany would be in a position to resume the struggle and carry it to a victorious end within five years. Hard, averted faces, glowering eyes, or bitter looks met the British troops as they wound in unending columns over the wooded heights and along the valley meadows. Here and there a woman or a man broke into tears, but the German population generally at first held itself in sullen, silent anger, as though it were being deeply wronged. At Aix-la-Chapelle, in the cathedral where Charlemagne, the Belgian, lies, a service of penitence was held on the Sunday when the Allies crossed the border.

American artillery marching under the
Roman gate at Trier

 Force—Not Its Symbol

But the penitence was not for the wrong done to the children, women, and non- combatants of Belgium, but for the national weakness that allowed the land to be occupied by enemies. The strange religious service was followed by some outbreaks of violence towards the Belgian troops, and it was found necessary in this section of the march of occupation to keep strong forces immediately following the two squadrons of cavalry that led the way. Sheer force alone was what the Germans recognised and obeyed; a mere symbol of force was insufficient, at least around Aix-la-Chapelle, to overawe the extraordinary Teuton. Because Belgium was a small nation with a small Army, he would not, even in the day of utter defeat, abate his savage arrogance. Only when the main force of the Belgian Army poured towards the Rhine, from Dusseldorf to the Dutch frontier, and strong French and American forces took over Aix, did the German change his attitude.

Towards the .marching power of the British Empire, however, with Canadians threading the old lava beds of the Eifel towards Bonn, and Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, and South Africans climbing through the Ardennes towards Cologne, the amazing German gradually became friendly. It was because he hated the Briton most that he respected him most, his hatred having been evoked by fear. The marching British divisions were superb in condition and appearance. Their horses shone with health and good feeding; their arms glittered as brightly as polish could make them; their uniforms were smart and their bearing magnificent.

An Awe-inspiring Display

Critical Teutons could discern no starvation effect from any submarine blockade in the swinging, ringing movement of the men who had broken through all the Hindenburg lines and then marched over the Meuse and into Prussia. Joined with the movement of the other forces of the Grand Alliance, the British invasion swelled in a lew days into an awe-inspiring display of multitudinous force. There then occurred, especially in regard to the British Army, a popular act of submission that may be compared with the surrender of the German High Sea Fleet to Admiral Beatty's squadrons. The German people generally turned completely about. Instead of meeting their victors in silent, sullen, proud anger, they implored them to hasten their advance, in disregard of the rate of progress fixed by the terms of the armistice.

The British soldier became, by the most remarkable of transformations, the saviour of the Germans. Rioting broke out at Duren, Cologne, and other places in the interval between the retirement of the German forces and the arrival of the conquering army. Cavalry, horse-artillery, and machine-gun brigades had to be sent eastward in haste to save the Germans from their own men. Then it was that the Rhineland flowered into welcome. Highlanders, striding along to the skirl of their bagpipes, found themselves accompanied by crowds of laughing, cheering children, while German girls and women smiled at the picturesquely kilted soldiers who had broken and killed a hundred thousand German men in battle. Shops and hotels produced abundant luxuries in food, in a land that had clamorously professed to be starving. Finally, a new political party arose agitating for annexation by the British Empire. In the French sector of occupation there was another party desirous of joining the country to France. Probably, if the Americans had entertained the idea, there would have been a third German group anxious to enter the United States. The more moderate men aimed at a complete break with Prussia, and the erection of a Westphalian-Rhine-land republic.

Thus the Germans cringed in spirit, if not in body, eager for any arrangement likely to save them from paying their large share of costs in the lost war. When the British entered Cologne on December 6th, Germans were still rioting in the old French city of- Metz, but in the capital of the Rhineland waving crowds greeted the conquerors.

General Plumer in Cologne

The German garrison of Cologne leaving the city

It was the same in the city of Bonn. As soon as the Teutons were overawed in their own country by a great gathering of force, they became curiously submissive. Germans were seen kicking each other because the wants of the British were not instantly attended to—in the city in which captured and badly-wounded British soldiers, faint with thirst and pain, were once tortured by the offer of glasses of water by German Red Cross nurses, who jeeringly emptied the drink on the ground before it could be taken by the weak, outstretched hands. Also—in streets along which returning British and French prisoners had lately trudged, dying of hunger, yet uncared-for during the German Revolution when the Germans were themselves shrieking for humanitarian treatment—one could at times catch the sound of the "Marseillaise" and other airs of the Allies, played in well-supplied restaurants to promote trade and please the invading forces.

And when, on December 12th, 1918, standing beneath the mud-plastered statue of the Kaiser, on the towered Hohenzollern Bridge at Cologne, General Plumer took the salute of his cavalry as they rode over the Rhine to occupy Solingen and other bridge-head towns, the Teutons crowded to the spectacle as though it were a Kaiser review. Perhaps some cafe bands played "Rule, Britannia," or "Tipperary" that night, for these were among the airs to which the British horse crossed the last line of defence of the shattered Empire that Bismarck had built of blood and iron. The iron had rusted out with the blood spilt upon it.

 Source: The Tony Langley Collection

The Lochnagar Mine Crater — Visible from 438 Miles in Space

Click on Images to Enlarge

The Crater on a July 1st Commemoration Day

On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, a  charge of 60,000 lbs (26.8 tons) of ammonal explosive was blown at 7:28 a.m leaving behind the Lochnagar Crater, an impression 70 feet deep and 330 feet wide. It was a bloody day. Though British troops gained control of the crater, surviving German troops fired at the soldiers who advanced toward them.

From Space

A century on, the crater is visible from high in the sky. It appears as a black dot close to the town of Albert in this image, created by NASA’s Earth Observatory in October using the Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 satellites orbit the Earth at an altitude of 705 kilometers (438 miles). It’s a testament to the long life of war—in memory and the land itself.

Click HERE to see some details about the action around the crater on 1 July 1916.

Italy's Ultra-Dramatic War Posters

There was such an enthusiastic response to my recent article on my favorite war posters that I thought I might share some other interesting specimens with our readers.  You would probably guess that the nation that produced Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael might be pretty good at producing spectacular visual propaganda, and you would be absolutely correct.  Here are some examples of the war work of Italian artists.

One other related matter.  One of our commentators on the early article asked where he could purchase such posters. Well, the last I checked, there was an active market for posters on eBay.  There's also at least one fairly expensive price guide for poster collectors titled World War I Posters  that can be found HERE.

Click on Posters to Enlarge

Eyewitness: What a Preacher Saw under Fire

Chaplain Karl Reiland

About My Great Uncle Karl Reiland by Garth Gustafson

My Uncle Karl was born on 23 October 1872 in Brooklyn and died 12 September 1964 in Winstead, CT. He was educated in the public schools of Middletown, CT, and studied at Cheshire Military Academy and Trinity College in Hartford. Later, he attended the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria and the Berkeley Divinity School of Middletown. He was Rector of St. George's Church in New York City from 1912 to 1936 (later Rector Emeritus until his death in 1964). Well-known in his day,  he was a wonderful communicator and a powerful speaker. 

In the Spring of 1918, the Red Cross approached him and asked if he would travel to France to deliver an important message to our servicemen. The message was not to worry about their families back home, their families would be well cared for by the Red Cross and US Government. Karl was with the Red Cross at Château-Thierry, Soissons, the Vesle and Aisne. He saw a lot action in that six-month period and the New York Times interviewed him and published this article when he returned in November 1918.

Rev. Karl Reiland, rector of St. George’s Church in Stuyvesant Square, returned recently from a visit of several months to the battlefront of France.

Early last Spring the Red Cross asked Dr. Reiland to go before the men in the cantonments and impress upon them that there was no need for them to worry about their families while they were in the army, as the Red Cross and the Government would see that every soldier’s wife, mother, and babies would be comfortable and well cared for.

Dr. Reiland felt that it was not right for any man to appear before men who were going into the inferno of the battlefield unless he too, knew something of what they were to go through. He told the Red Cross this, and the result was that he was sent on a special detail to France. While there, as a member of several Red Cross units, he visited the battleline from Soissons to Rheims. He was present at the battle of Chateau-Thierry, at the battles of the Vesle and the Aisne, and was several times under fire.

“I had been in Paris but a few days when an SOS call came from Chateau-Thierry, and a relief unit started out at once. I was fortunate enough to be a member of it. What I saw there and subsequently on the Vesle, and still later in the hospitals, convalescent homes, and refugee centers qualifies me to give our boys the message that has been assigned to me.”

At Chateau-Thierry Dr. Reiland slept in a camion with two bags of sugar and one of coffee for a mattress. It was here that he saw the Red Cross step into the breach and furnish 6,500 compresses to stem the flow of American blood. After the fight, our boys rested in the woods and made flapjacks. The Red Cross unit was encamped in the cemetery.  The soldiers sent over and invited them to a flapjack party, and there with the cemetery shining white in the moonlight and the bodies of dead Germans everywhere, they cooked and ate flapjacks.

American Red Cross Hut at Château-Thierry

“But this did not last long,” said Dr. Reiland. “The battle progressed so rapidly that we were soon ordered on to another station. That was the way with us for weeks. We no sooner set up stakes at one place, delivered whatever supplies were asked for, handed out chocolates and cigarettes and mosquito nets to the boys, than a need arose for us a few miles further on. Our boys are some fighters you know, and they do not understand the word retreat”.

It was while at Crezancy on the Marne that Dr. Reiland interviewed some boche prisoners. “There,” he narrated, “I met the little boche who surrendered and, after surrendering, turned his machine gun on his comrades, who fired back at him, and finally succeeded in catching him in the ankle. In spite of this, he assisted the American soldier whose prisoner he was, and who had also received a shot in the leg, back to the American trenches. When the American soldier was taken to the hospital he refused to be quiet until assured that the little boche was beside him. This little chap-he was only 18 and about five feet one or two-told me that he had never wanted to fight the Americans, but that the German officers had told them that if they were caught by the Americans they would be tortured and starved. The soldier who captured him says he is going to take the youngster back home with him as a mascot when the war is over.”

Here Dr. Reiland paused in his narrative for a word about the magnanimity of the French. “It is no wonder” said he, “that their spirit trudges forward triumphantly. It is magnificent beyond words. In spite of what France has suffered at the hands of Germany, her soldiers have the least hatred in their hearts and display the most kindness towards the German prisoners of any of the allied soldiers. Why, when I was talking to the little boche in the hospital a French General who was passing through the ward came up, looked down at him, patted his blonde head and sighed with a shake of his head, 'Too young! too young for war'”.

“I saw another French officer lift a wounded German up and take a pillow from under his head because the pillow was too high and, when the ambulance moved or went over a rut, the German’s head would be bumped. He held the man’s head on his arm until the stretcher was lowered, when he put the pillow back. You can’t put down a spirit as divine as that.”

Traveling by Train with a Red Cross Group (2nd from left)

At Orleans there were hundreds of serious shrapnel and gas cases. Dr. Reiland saw many of our boys who are suffering from mustard gas burns. This gas, the most cruel invention of the Hun, is craftier than the gas mask, for it makes its way to whatever part of the body is moist from perspiration and inflicts deep burns. “The hospital here,” Dr. Reiland continued, “is the most wonderful one I have ever seen. It was an old municipal building, and has now been renovated and equipped with all modern apparatus and fittings, and its staff members are specialists of note.”

“The Red Cross is rendering splendid service at Orleans among the refugees and repatriees, the latter returned through Evian. With the aid of the French Government and the cooperation of the Roman Catholic clergy, a mattress factory has been established where the repatriees and refugees make a good livelihood by making mattresses out of moss furnished by the French Government. The problem of housing also fell to the Red Cross. The result of this is that the people look upon all Americans as ministering angels. If one visits one of these homes he must visit all in that block, or the dear people are hurt, for they all want to offer wine.”

In the warehouse at Blois from which the Red Cross sends out its supplies there is everything from “socks to sausages”, according to Dr. Reiland. It was here that the tragedy of the homeless was brought most closely home to him. He saw returning citizens prying about among the shattered ruins of their homes, some of them trying to clear away the debris with the hope of starting to build again. He came across one old woman who had, after digging for a whole day, found the crucifix which hung for years just over her bed. She was weeping bitterly as she held it up to him and pointed to the shattered feet of the Saviour.

“And I must not forget to tell about one lady from Lille. It was my fortune to be introduced to her. And she, for about the thousandth time, much to her delight, regaled me with the tale of how she spat on the Kaiser’s picture. It was during  the first days of terror in Belgium. She told me that she had ranted around, infuriated at the outrages committed by the German soldiers against her fellow citizens.  Finally, she was arrested and taken before a German officer, who told her that for punishment she must kiss the Kaiser’s picture. While she was telling me all this she was illustrating what she did, and, believe me, she was some spitter. The consequence of her act was condemnation to death.

“But she did not want to die, so she just pretended that she was crazy, and, forgetting her age, picked up her skirts and danced a gay ballet. They let her go, and delivered her over to the authorities at Evian as a repatriee.”

Long after the War,
Close to the End of a Distinguished Career

Source: The New York Times, Published 10 November 1918

Evaluating the Early Performance of the AEF

U.S. Officer Observing Artillery Fire at Cantigny
(1st Division Operation)

By Mark E. Grotelueschen

When General Ludendorff launched Operation Michael in mid-March 1918, only four full American divisions were in the front lines of the Western Front, and of those four only one  was completely trained and in full command of its own sector. Americans were occupying just 27 of the Western Front’s roughly 750 kilometers of trenches. By the end of June, AEF divisions  were occupying more than 95 kilometers of frontage, a  clear indication of America’s growing contribution to the Allied war effort. 

By the beginning of July, after brutal fighting at Cantigny, Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Vaux, the bloodied American units had proved that even though they were inexperienced, they were willing to fight hard and learn fast. . . In May and June, more than 460,000 American troops arrived in France, assuring both the Allies and the Germans  that the American presence would grow dramatically in the coming months. More important, in specific locations along the increasingly active Western Front in the spring of 1918—at Cantigny, Château-Thierry, Lucy-le-Bocage, Belleau Wood, and  Vaux—a growing number of American units demonstrated that they were willing and able to fight with the grit and determination  necessary to achieve an Allied victory.  

Marne River at Château-Thierry Where the
German Offensive Was Halted
(3rd Division Operation)

[These] bloodied American units had proved that even though they were inexperienced, they were willing to fight hard and learn fast. Those characteristics, in conjunction with the flood of American reinforcements arriving in France by the thousands each day, suggested that the tide was beginning to turn against the Central Powers. The Americans were not only in the war; they were joining the fight.

The American divisions employed in these early operations—the 1st, 2d, and 3d—showed all the signs of inexperienced units in their first engagements. The Allies that fought with them, the Germans that fought against them, and even the American officers  and men within the divisions and at AEF GHQ all were aware of this fact. Yet these three divisions, and those that came after them, were fighting in extraordinarily difficult tactical, operational, and strategic situations. All but one went into combat without having completed a full training program. At times, they arrived on a battlefield and went into action without sufficient maps or enough time to examine the terrain and establish liaison with the units alongside them. In light of these challenges, it is not surprising that these untried officers and men made mistakes and suffered more casualties than hindsight suggests they should have. 

Section of Belleau Wood Captured by Marines
(2nd Division Operation)

Yet for all their inexperience, they occasionally demonstrated sufficient skill to competently plan and execute attacks against a more capable and experienced foe, and showed the tenacity and courage to fight their battles through to victory even in the face of the initial problems, mistakes, and terrible losses that were almost unavoidable characteristics of any Great War battle. The Americans displayed these strengths and weaknesses in  May and June 1918, when these AEF divisions helped stop and then turn back a desperate German Army. These same divisions, as well as a number of others, would show them again in mid-July during the true turning point of the war—the Second Battle of the Marne.

Selection from Into the Fight, April-June 2018, U.S. Army Center of Military History