An American Soldier in the Great War: The World War I Diary and Letters of Elmer O. Smith.

By John DellaGiustina  

Hellgate Press, 2015

Reviewed by Michael P. Kihntopf

     

Elmer Smith's Unit, the 119th Field Artillery, Marching
Through Detroit on Their Way to the Western Front, 1917

West Point graduate John DellaGiustina has brought his considerable expertise as a military intelligence officer to bear on editing his grandfather’s correspondence and diary of 1916 –1919. The author has generously interceded in many instances by giving the reader a broad historical picture of the events that were occurring around his grandfather.  These asides are needed to put a perspective on letters and diary entries since, as the author says in the preface, Private Elmer O. Smith, at the bottom of the command structure, was not aware of the things that were forcing the war to a conclusion. Nevertheless, the daily conversations about the routine he had with himself in his diary and in censored letters home provide a valuable insight into how the private soldier saw things.    

Elmer O. Smith, a Michigan resident, was working and attending school in Lansing, Michigan, when war was declared in April 1917. The author provides a platform for knowing Smith by quoting letters he wrote home during the year before the war. The letters are well constructed and display his classical education so prevalent during the beginning of the 20th century. One can clearly see that he is a young man launching his life without a clear, distinct goal. That changed in April 1917 when he decided to enlist in Battery B, Michigan National Guard, rather than wait to be conscripted. When the National Guards were federalized, Battery B became part of the 119th Field Artillery Regiment, 57th Field Artillery Brigade of the 32nd Division.   

A Camouflaged 75 of the 119th F.A. Firing in France

The reader will have a very lucid picture of Smith’s training in Texas and New Jersey before departing for France from the letters that he wrote to various relatives. His letters are always calm and very businesslike rather than filled with the adjectives and adverbs that inexperienced youths so often display when viewing new environs. This purposeful communication allows the reader to see a realistic world rather than one of exaggeration.  Smith’s diary, begun on 1 July 1918, becomes the sole star of the book in its second part. It is the musing and reporting of a highly observant individual who simply states the facts.  However, he does not lament the destruction and conditions of frontline service.  

References to gory deaths do not abound. In his letter to his sister (page 193) on 30 August 1918 he states:  “I have been laying a telephone line this afternoon one field we ran it thru was still full of dead Dutchman (a term for Germans and not Hollanders). Well, sis I will have to quit. Write soon.” It is, perhaps, Smith’s a way of acceptance for being in a war. To his chagrin, when he finally arrives at the front line, he is wounded in an artillery blast within hours and evacuated. Naivety does show here in his diary. He feels that he had cheated his comrades by being wounded and unable to participate with them in the offensive campaign. Luckily for him, or unluckily depending on one’s view point, Smith returns to the battery in time for fighting around Chateau Thierry and continues with the 32nd Division through the Armistice.

   

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DellaGiustina’s editing of the many letters, diary entries, and historical background is superb.  Nowhere in the book do we see a relative’s propensity to overstate the actions of a family member. Clearly, the author, trained by the U.S. Army, has kept to the facts and allowed his grandfather to shine. Sometimes the brevity is tedious, but a soldier’s life was never one of continuous actions. One can readily see how mundane existence at the lowest level was.  

This is an excellent primary source document for those digging into the Great War’s soldier’s life.  It is a different aspect that should not be ignored.