Four Works About the Marines in WWI Reviewed by James Thomas

• The Tower at the Edge of the Wood, Bois Belleau Seventy-Five Years After,  B.J. Omanson.  Monongahela Press, Morgantown, WV, 2017.

• Three Early Booklets About the Battle of Belleau Wood, edited by B. J. Omanson. Monongahela Press, 2017.

• Seventy-Eighth Company, Sixth Marines, George H. Donaldson. Monongahela Press, 2017.

• A History of the 20th Co., 5th Regiment, United States Marines, Captain Francis Fisk. Monongahela Press, 2017.

Bradley J. Omanson, poet, historian, and man of many talents, has done a great service to the study of World War I by bringing back into print several original accounts of the U.S. Marines in the Great War, as well as adding his own remarkable work tying them all together.  As a Marine myself—though of much later vintage—I took on the task of reviewing this little collection simply because they were about Marines.  Like Mr. Omanson’s grandfather, my great-uncle fought with the 6th Marines at Belleau Wood.   Perhaps they even knew each other.  Both told frightening stories to little boys of danger and adventure but never of the true horrors of the war.

Decades of growing up and “finding” myself followed, which included my own brief stint in my great-uncle's and father’s Marine Corps, leading ultimately to a career studying, among other things, the two World Wars of the 20th century.  This career included visiting France and her battlefields and cemeteries and being moved by the enormous emotional power of walking the ground where so many suffered.  Nothing experienced before, however, brought the sheer, raw pain as Omanson’s poem, The Tower at the Edge of the Woods.  Probably all readers will be moved by it, but for those who have seen that look he describes in the eyes of a wife, friend, or student it will be overwhelming.

As for the other books in the collection, students of the Great War will not be disappointed. The facsimile reprints are all quite good, and of course as primary source descriptions they provide both official and unofficial actual wartime experiences. 

First there is Three Early Booklets About the Battle of Belleau Wood.  This is a group of contemporary accounts of that battle.  It includes “When the Tide Turned: The American Attack at Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood in the First Week of June, 1918,” by Otto H. Kahn.  Kahn was an eyewitness to the battle and combined his experiences with official accounts.  “Bois-Belleau, Chateau Thierry: Remembrance from France; 24 Cartes Détachables by Marcel Delboy of Bordeaux,” is a set of remarkable photographs from the battlefield.  Last is “Belleau Wood and the American Army: The 2nd and 26th Divisions (June and July 1918) by Captain R. Andriot of the French Army.”  This is the work of a French officer describing the American participation in the battle with great admiration and respect.  Three Early Booklets also includes an addendum of photographs of the American cemetery at Aisne-Marne, taken during the 1920s, as well as maps of the area.

The second book in Omanson’s collection is Seventy-eighth Company, Sixth Marines, Fourth Brigade of Marines, Second Division, AEF Army of Occupation.  This is a reprint of a pamphlet written by George H. Donaldson in order to “furnish a reference to which members of the Seventy-eighth Company can turn, in the years to come, to freshen the memory of their experiences during the war, and their comrades in the Company.”  None of the men for which it was written are still alive, but it today provides a glimpse into the actions of a company of Marines who fought in the Great War.

Finally, and perhaps most impressive of the three, is A History of the 20th Company, Fifth Marines, 4th Brigade of Marines, 2nd Division (Regular) AEF.  This was also written shortly after the events it describes, by a Marine officer while the company was still in Germany after the end of the war.  Omanson not only provides an excellent reprint of the original, but he also added maps, field messages, operational reports and his own annotations and explanations to help a modern reader understand the context of the story.

Taken together, these works provide excellent descriptions, not just of the narrow actions of some of the American Marines who fought in France but a better understanding of the Great War itself.  Scholars and students and indeed anyone wanting to learn about the First World War should not miss the opportunities Omanson and his Monongahela Press provides with these books.

These works can be ordered at the website of Monongahela Press HERE.

Reviewed by James Thomas

The War Poetry of John Allan Wyeth

This Man's Army: A War in Fifty-Odd Sonnets by John Allan Wyeth.  The University of South Carolina Press, 2008.  First published in 1928.

Before the Clangor of the Gun: The First World War Poetry of John Allan Wyeth by BJ Omanson. Monongahela Press, 2019.

Reviewed by David F. Beer

Wyeth's 33rd Division in the Line During the Argonne Offensive

We rarely come across a volume of World War One poetry that hasn’t seen the light of day for 80 years, but this is the case of John Wyeth’s This Man’s Army: A War in Fifty-Odd Sonnets. 

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These poems were unearthed by military historian BJ Omanson and reprinted in 2008 by Matthew Bruccoli, in his University of South Carolina Press Great War Series. BJ Omanson’s own book on Wyeth, Before the Clangor of the Gun, adds interesting information on Wyeth’s life and poetry. The two books are all you’ll need for an excellent background and appreciation of this little-known poet.

Wyeth’s work consists of 55 sonnets and we suspect his use of "odd" in his title has a double meaning: "more-or-less fifty" plus a hint that his sonnets are not "normal" ones. A traditional sonnet is 14 lines that follow a ten-beat meter (iambic pentameter) and has a consistent rhyme scheme. Numerous poets over the centuries have used the form and it’s still quite popular. A perfect example of a WWI sonnet (in my opinion) is Charles Sorley’s “When you see millions of the mouthless dead/Across your dreams in pale battalions go…”

Many poets have taken liberties with the traditional sonnet form. Wyeth frequently breaks his up to include conversation in English or French, as in number 42 where he relates his fruitless attempts to deliver some maps

A dusty sunset in a smoky sky,
And soldiers idling over the dry terrain.
“Stop here—they’re somewhere out by Harbonnières,
Give me the maps.”
          A rush of foaming flanks,
Australian caissons rattling, galloping by… (Sonnet 42)

These lines also reveal the poet’s tone and subject matter. His entire collection documents his personal experiences while serving in the AEF, from training to eventually joining the headquarters staff of the 33rd Division. He was never in combat but was at times quite close, and each poem describes a specific experience without any further analysis. We’re simply given very concrete vignettes:

Our sidecar jolted and rocked, twisting between
craters, lunging at every rack and wrench.
Through Bayonvillers—her dusty wreckage stank
of rotten flesh, a dead street overcast
with a half-sweet, fetid, cloying fog of stench. (Sonnet 41)

Another example of a "conversational" sonnet is number 30, where the confusion of divisional maneuvers is recounted:

“How’s the liaison, Major?”
         “Not so warm—
The General’s been ringin’ me up all day—‘G-2?
Hello!—Well Major, are you functioning?”
‘Yes sir, I’m functionig’—and here I set
All dolled up in my brand new uniform
And not one goddam message going through!” (Sonnet 30)

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An introduction to This Man’s Army by poet and scholar Dana Gioia, who served as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts between 2003 and 2009, gives interesting information on Wyeth’s life and poetry while annotations to the text by BJ Omanson helpfully describe the background situation of each poem. As mentioned above, Omanson’s own book on Wyeth adds additional insight into this long-neglected poet and his work. A citation from Before the Clangor of the Gun gets right to the point:

Wyeth is above all an astute witness—whether of natural phenomena, the peripheries of battle, or the idiosyncrasies of soldiers. His description of everything from the sound of gas shells hurtling overhead, to the reckless banter of enlisted men playing craps, to the drifting perfume of dead men in a ruined village, are as precise and revealing as any in the literature of war. They are his distinguishing feature and what chiefly sets him apart from every other major poet of 1914–1918 (p. 70).

Days before the end of the war Wyeth found himself in an evacuation hospital in Souilly, diagnosed with influenza. This didn’t kill him, however, and he went on to live a long but sparsely recorded life. We do know he lost interest in poetry and took up painting, spending a lot of time in Europe. His penultimate poem (54) gives us a glimpse of his hospital experience:

Fever, and crowds—and light that cuts your eyes—
Men waiting in a long slow-shuffling line 
with silent private faces, white and bleak.
Long rows of lumpy stretchers on the floor.
My helmet drops—a head jerks up and cries
wide-eyed and settles in a quivering whine.
The air is rank with touching human reek.
A troop of Germans clatters through the door.
They cross our line and something in me dies.
Sullen, detached, obtuse—men into swine—
and hurt unhappy things that walk apart.
Their rancid bodies trail a languid streak
so curious that hate breaks down before
the dull and cruel laughter in my heart. (number 54)

If you’re interested in the unique rhyme scheme Wyeth employs you can easily determine it from this sonnet. If you’re not interested in poetical technicalities, that’s OK too. We can all enjoy reading these poems and short books to gain insight into the mind and experiences of a WWI poet who has been happily rediscovered after lying in obscurity for so many years.

David F. Beer




.

When the U.S. Marines Crossed the Pond

A Selection from 

Muleskinner with the Marine Brigade, 

1917–1919, Vol. 1

The Story of Corporal Alpheus Appenheimer, USMC

By His Grandson B.J. Omanson

Pvt. Appenheimer in
Heavy Marching Order

Editor's Introduction:

World War I historian B.J. Omanson has been a valuable contributor to Roads to the Great War over the years.  A list of his earlier articles can be found HERE. Today, I'm honored to present, as the opening article in our week-long series on the U.S. Marines in the Great War, a selection from the first of B.J.'s two volumes honoring his grandfather's service in France. 

Alpheus Appenheimer served with Headquarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, 4th Brigade of Marines, 2nd Division, AEF in France during 1918–1919. He was decorated for valor under fire at Belleau Wood and Blanc Mont.

By supplementing Alpheus Appenheimer's story with numerous official and news accounts and the recollections of his fellow battalion members, B.J. has created not only a biography of his ancestor but a vivid chnoicle of what every Marine, experienced "Over There." This piece describes what it was like for Alpheus and his buddies to depart home and cross an ocean patrolled by enemy U-boats. MH

____________________________

Getting the Word

On 6 December 1917, orders were received by the 1st Machine Gun Battalion (later re-designated 6th Machine Gun Battalion) at Quantico to “hold itself in readiness” for a departure in two days. The Marines were not caught flat-footed. Credible rumors of an imminent departure had been circulating for about three days: the drawing of uniforms and equipment up to full strength was already underway, and the actual packing had commenced the day before. Even the postcards announcing their safe arrival in France had been issued for each man to prepare ahead of time. The crating of the battalion’s Lewis machine guns was completed on the 6th, and the loading of all equipment onto railroad freight cars on the 7th.

BJ Omanson, Introduction

Marines of 81st Company Crating Machine Gun Carts in Preparation for Shipping Out

Alpheus Lets His Mother Know He's on the Way

Quantico, Va.

Dec 6

Dear Mother

I expect when you get this that I will be on my way. We have every thing packed and have had our last inspection. I think we leave some time tomorrow night.

It’s now after chow, and the order was read for us to turn in our sheets and pillow cases, the first thing in the morning, and to pack our sea bags.

America is going to come and stay with you, as soon as she finishes with her visit. She is now at Buchanan’s, the people who kept her till Doc was married. 

We each wrote a postal card and they will be kept at the HeadQuarters in Washington and as soon as we land in France, or where ever we go, they will cablegram back, and then our postal cards will be mailed. That way you get news that I am safe across 3 or 4 weeks quicker than if I wrote from the other side. . .

Good bye, your loving Son, Al

Pvt. Alpheus Appenheimer, Headquarters Detachment

“Going for sure now . . .”

Dec 5: For the past two days we have been fully equipped and fitted out in good uniforms. 77th Co. started to pack today. Everything shows indications of us leaving for France. Was allowed to make out card stating that we had landed in France safely and could not even state our rank.

Dec 6: Packed our machine guns today.  Everybody turned to.

Dec 7: Still packing and getting ready. Going for sure now. Packed all our equipment and things on freight cars today.

Dec 8: Reveille at 3:45 this morning. Rolled our packs with O.D. shirt, 3 pr sox, 1 suit underwear. Train started at 6:30 from Quantico Va. for Newport News . . . 

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

USS DeKalb

Getting Underway

Dec 9th – Coaled ship, the U.S. DeKalb, at the mouth of James River.

H.F. Davidson, 81st Company

At 4 p.m. on December 11th, the USS DeKalb sailed from Newport News, Virginia, for New York, NY, arriving there at 6:00 a.m. December 12th, and anchored off Staten Island. 

Sixth MG Battl. History

Dec 14: Woke up surrounded by transports. At 8:30 p.m. when walking the decks we started to move and every ship in the same vicinity also with all lights out. We were on our way to France.

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

 

A Funny Thing about the USS DeKalb

Strange as it seems, on the strength of a pounding crankshaft sawed four-fifths through by German saboteurs, hung the fate of thousands of American soldiers who crossed the Atlantic on the USS DeKalb during the world war.

Formerly the North German Lloyd line, Prince Eitel Frederich, built in 1904, 15,000 gross tons, the DeKalb was one of 120 German ships interned to the United States at the outbreak of the war with Germany.

Strange as it seems, a complete going over of the DeKalb refused to disclose anything wrong with her, so she was placed into transport service and made eleven successful crossings to France, carrying thousands of ‘doughboys’ to the Big War.

Confident that all was well, men and officers alike were blissfully unaware that the pounding, vibrating crankshaft that drove them through the ocean waters was ready to shear off at any moment.

1938 Newspaper Article

U.S. Navy Officer and Crew on the USS DeKalb

Life Aboard Ship

“ We were wedded to our life preservers . . .  ”

Then finally we pulled out with the other ships and a cruiser, the North Carolina. We had a mighty good trip in all. This is a good ship, has a fine captain, Captain Geraghty, formerly Naval Attache at Berlin. We were wedded to our life preservers after a day out, sleeping and eating in them. Everything went fine, Marines pretty nervous after we passed 20 degrees West, the limit of the U.S. war zone. Then one day seven U.S. destroyers showed up and everyone felt brave. 

Pvt. Walter Tigan, 81st Company

Our duties aboard ship were minimal—a short attempt at platoon formations—we land lubbers had not acquired our sea legs and the platoon lines which were supposed to stand at attention and steady in place would break and surge forward and back with every roll of the ship. So formations etc did not last long. 

We chowed late morning and late afternoon. The ship was blacked out from dark to daylight so we sacked in from later afternoon to morning. During the day we watched the ocean and the horizon. Occasionally we would see a whale spout but not much else but waves and sea roll. 

Pvt. W.B. Jackson, 77th Company

“ . . . there was not a spare inch anywhere on the ship . . .  ”

There was much excitement on the first day out at sea. Long into the end of the day the boys gathered for entertainment, singing the songs that were popular at that time. Most of the boys singing those songs were later blown to pieces in France. On the side of the ship where I was placed there was a canteen where one could buy crackers and candies but there were so many men on board that it was difficult to get served. However, there were men lining up at the canteen and getting the tidbits, and reselling them to us at high prices. We were glad to get them, no matter what we had to pay. At a given time the ‘pipe down’ signal was given, which meant that every one must retire for the evening. When I came to retire I discovered that there was not a spare inch anywhere on the ship where I could rest my weary bones.  I spent my first night sitting on a ladder, and was glad to get that space. Thereafter I teamed up with another lad, and when the time came for piping down, he would contrive to fill up the space for the two of us until I could get to him. We slept on the hard deck, using as matresses the life preservers which we were all obliged to wear. 

       I remember one night as I made my rounds as a corporal of the guard, I found one of the boys in distress. I suggested a remedy. He said if his mother was there she could fix him up all right. All I could say to him was,  ‘My boy, you are a soldier: you cannot depend on Mother now.’ “

Cpl Daniel Morgan, 77th Company

 

An American Troop Convoy Crossing the Pond

Alpheus Gets Sick

I had a headache and fever and went to the Sick Bay for some CC pills, and the Dr. said I had the measles. There were several cases on board and they put me in Quarenteen with the rest of the measles cases. I was all right in a day or two and I don’t believe I had the measles, but I got a good state room out of it and my meals brot to me the rest of the trip. So it wasn’t so bad after all.

Pvt. Alpheus Appenheimer, Headquarters Detachment

Land Ho!

About that time word went around that land was sighted dead ahead. We were almost to France. In a little while we sailed past Belle Island and dropped anchor in the outer harbor of St. Nazaire. . . 

Pvt W.B. Jackson, 77th Company

A U-boat Arrives with Christmas Dinner

While lined up for Xmas dinner [2 days late]  of roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mince pie, vanilla cake, coffee, nuts, celery, bread and cigars, the cyrene blew. A submarine periscope being sighted off our port bow. We fired 3 shots with the for’d 6 in. & 3 & 5 starboard & port stern. It still remained on the surface. The minute the cyrene blew the torpedo boat destroyer #42 steamed up and when we stopped firing it went around us and dropped 2 depth bombs and fired several shots. On its return it sent signals which seemed to have said that she sunk it. We returned and enjoyed a hearty meal. At the same time the sub was sighted we also sighted land. Dropped anchor at 3:30. Weighed anchor and moved into the harbor as it was very dangerous where we were. 

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

We never did learn if there was actually a U-boat there. 

Pvt W.B. Jackson, 77th Company

St. Nazaire Docks

Dec 28:  Land[ed] at St. Nazaire. Carried into France on a stretcher.

Pvt Herschel Lane 77th Company

Dear Mother — we are lying at anchor in the mouth of the Loire River, a large and peaceful moon shining across the bay, the lights of other ships and some of our destroyers here and there about the basin. A half mile to the shore are the lights of St. Nazaire, a mighty pretty little French seaside resort, converted into a landing port of overseas expeditionary forces. We are in Western Central France, south, about half way between Brest and Bordeaux. ~~~ We came into the harbor to-day and from what I can hear we will disembark to-morrow. I am writing this so I can give it to a man who will carry it back to the States and mail it there. It will not be censored so I will trust you to censor all information I give you . . . 

Pvt Walter Tigan 81st Company

Marines Disembarking USS DeKalb on an Earlier Trip

Dec 29:  Weighed anchor at 2:45 and went thru the locks—many interesting things happened. In the evening the first one I saw was Sgt. Neate (O.N.M.) (N.Y.)

Dec 30:  Unloading all our cargo all night. Issued blanket, sox, and A.F.G. Blouse. French people selling chocolate for 1 fr. Stepped on French soil for the first time at 2:15

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

A Little Later, Back Home

A  postcard, postmarked Jan. 4, 1918, arrived in Toulon, Illinois

Mrs. A.R. Appenheimer

I have arrived safe in France.

Alphus R. Appenheimer

____________________________

To Order Volume I

From Before the War to the Eve of Belleau Wood

Click HERE to Order

Vol. II From Belleau Wood to Armistice & After is in preparation.

Muleskinner with the Marine Brigade, 1917-1919

Cpl. Alpheus Appenheimer, U.S.M.C.

Sixth Machine Gun Battalion, 4th Brigade of Marines, 2nd Division, AEF

(Volume 1: April 1917–May 1918)

by BJ Omanson, 2024

Reviewed by Carolyn Cole Kingston

Marine Machine Gun Platoon Training in France

This large-format volume of nearly 400-pages is an amazingly detailed view of Marine Corps training at Paris Island and Quantico in the United States and the subsequent training in France in the foothills of the Vosges Mountains and the trenches southeast of Verdun, during the months leading up to the Battle of Belleau Wood. My grandfather, Major Edward B. Cole, and BJ Omanson’s grandfather Cpl. Alpheus Appenheimer fought together in that conflict as part of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion of the Marine Brigade, Second Division, AEF.

The personal story of Alpheus (Al) Appenheimer, through his letters home and those written to him from his wife and mother, is the thread that lends unity to the huge scope of the material covered.

For historians, those whose ancestor served with the Marine Brigade, or anyone interested in America’s participation in WWI, this book is an invaluable resource. The life and times of those who fought as part of that brigade is vividly shown through letters home, and accounts of everyday life for the average Marine—told for the most part through their own words, from descriptions of the makeshift plumbing at Paris Island, to the primitive barn accommodations in the French villages, to descriptions of individual villagers, to irregular measures taken by certain resourceful Marines to augment supplies of food and firewood. Detailed descriptions and diagrams of escort wagons, ammunition caissons and ration carts, harnesses and other equipment used by the muleskinners, anecdotes of individual mules are also provided, as well as extensive accounts of machine gun training and trench warfare training under the French.

Another aspect of Muleskinner with the Marine Brigade is its generous use of period maps showing the routes followed by 6th MGB and 2d Division across France, both by rail and by road, supplemented by precise schedules, timetables, and multi-page orders detailing how wagons and mules are to be loaded aboard train-cars, how much feed, hay and water is to be provided per animal, how much straw should be spread on the car floors, how many men should be assigned to each car, and so forth. These sections—which show many individual camps and make use of photographs and personal accounts—will enable readers to trace their ancestor’s path across France, and to visualize the conditions under which they traveled.

Another important feature of this comprehensive book is the layout of each page, making use of photographs, diagrams and background information in discreet boxes alongside the main text, which make the material accessible, interesting, and easy on the eyes.

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I highly recommend Muleskinner with the Marine Brigade to anyone seeking a broader and more intimate look into the war as it was experienced by those who were there.

Carolyn Cole Kingston is the granddaughter of Major Edward B. Cole, U.S.M.C., Commander of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion during the war.

Burial Detail, Belleau Wood — An Old-Timer Is Laid to Rest

 

By BJ Omanson

Among the wartime effects of Cpl. Frank W. Dunham of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, are several photographs which were taken sometime during the fighting at Belleau Wood in June 1918 by 1st Lieutenant Victor Bleasdale, an officer of 15th Company. Dunham and Bleasdale, despite their difference in rank, were old campaign chums, having originally served together as privates in Haiti. Dunham was sent back to the States after being wounded at Blanc Mont, and Bleasdale, who was still serving with 15th Company in 1919 as part of the Army of Occupation, sent several letters and the photographs to Dunham from Germany.

One of the photographs shows four Marines carrying a body toward a stand of trees. On the back of the photo, the scrawled caption in pencil reads: “1st Sgt Hunter carted to the grave. Belleau Wood.”

First Sergeant Daniel Amos Hunter, USMC, known to his men as “Pop,” was a crusty old-timer who had served four enlistments in the regular Army, fought in the Spanish-American War, and was on his third hitch with the Marines. He had served in Santo Domingo, Mexico, Cuba, aboard various ships, and, as a seasoned veteran of four courts martial, had seen the inside of more than his share of brigs.

At shortly after 3 a.m. on 6 June, Marines of the 49th and 67th Companies, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, lay hidden in position on either side of Hill 142 southwest of Belleau Wood. According to the original plan, two additional companies, the 17th and 66th, should have been in position to join the assault but had not yet been relieved by the French and so were still deployed near Les Mares Farm. The assault was also to have been supported by barrage fire from two companies of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, but one of their companies was tied up elsewhere, also awaiting relief from the French, which meant that the two companies of the 1st Battalion were supported by just ten guns of 15th Company dug in behind them, between Champillon and Bois St. Martin. Among these ten machine gun crews was Cpl. Dunham.

At first light, 3:45, 1st Sgt Hunter—as described by George Clark—“…strode out before his line, checked right and left, then, with a whistle to his mouth, blew it once. Forward, over his head, and downward went his cane, pointing toward the company’s objective, straight ahead…” The two companies set off down the slopes of Hill 142 and out into the open, moving northward across wheat fields still softened with nighttime mist toward the village of Torcy. According to Lt. John W. Thomason of 49th Company, the wheat was wet with dew and festooned with poppies and the immense red sun was just a hand's breadth above the horizon. It was pleasantly cool and the blue woods ahead looked inviting…, and it was just then that hell fell out of the heavens, with artillery and machine gun fire hitting the Marines simultaneously.

Much of the devastating fire was from Maxim machine guns manned by three companies of the German 460th Infantry Regiment, barricaded in a wooded copse just to the northwest, with a clear view of the advancing Marines. The Germans were taking barrage fire from the guns of 15th Company, but it was not enough to silence them. 67th Company, advancing through the wheat, was completely cut to pieces. “Pop” Hunter was hit, got back on his feet, was hit again and again rose—all the while shouting to his men to keep moving—and then was hit a third time, in the head, and this time he lay where he fell.

Some days later the dead were gathered up and laid to a proper rest by burial parties of Marines. Much of the grisly work was done by new replacements, led by a few seasoned veterans. One of the newcomers to 67th Company, detailed to burial duty that day, was Pvt. Elton E. Mackin, who had only been with the company about a week. A trench had been dug by a squad of Engineers and a corporal of the 67th, “Tugboat” Wilson, was working down in the trench, taking the bodies one at a time, laying them out in position and covering them with earth. As the bodies were being handed down, an “old-timer” stopped to observe the proceedings. Occasionally, when one of the bodies was an officer, the old-timer would silently flick off a salute. What happened then is best described in Mackin’s own words:

“After a time, as the work progressed, a body was handed down dressed in forest greens with a top-cutter’s chevrons above hashmarks denoting seven enlistments. A whistle dangled loosely from a cord about the sergeant’s neck, and the flap of his holster flopped about untidily. The old-timer, still watching, made a sharp salute. Turning to a boot he said, “Get a blanket, soldier. Wrap him up proper. That’s ‘Pop’ Hunter.”

1st Sergeant Hunter would posthumously be awarded both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy Cross for his actions that morning. His citation would read: “For extraordinary heroism in action. He fearlessly exposed himself and encouraged all men near him, although he himself was wounded three times.” 1st Sgt. Hunter was also a recipient of the Silver Star Citation. 

____________________

I would like to express my gratitude to Paul Higgins, whose wife is the great-grandniece of Frank W. Dunham, for permission to use this remarkable photograph of 1st Sgt Hunter’s field burial.

BJ Omanson

Recommended: Sentimental Poilu Postcards

From Bradley Omanson's: 
History & Lore of the Old World War: Artifacts & Odd Bits from 1914–1918

Each country had its own distinctive postcards, of course, including the Germany, but French postcards stand out from all the others and were especially popular. Given the miserable and unrelenting drabness of life at the front, these inexpensive trifles of charm and color, easily available in estaminets and stationary shops behind the lines, may well have seemed irresistible to soldiers just out of the trenches.

It is hardly necessary to point out the immeasurable distance between the fantasized image of the Poilus in these cards— with their scrubbed male models wearing immaculately laundered and pressed uniforms against picturesque battlefield backdrops in pleasing pastels—and the actual mud-encrusted, lice-infested Poilus they supposedly portrayed. These cards were fantasy, pure and simple. . . 

Read the complete article here:

http://oldworldwar.com/page/2/

Recommended: The War Poetry of John Allan Wyeth

Last month, in a posting about war poems that have stuck with me over the years, I included a sonnet titled "Harbonnières to Bayonvillers: Picnic" by the forgotten John Allan Wyeth of the 33rd Division AEF. It is included in a collection of Wyeth's work,  This Man’s Army: A War in Fifty-Odd Sonnets. A longtime friend and correspondent, Bradley (B.J.) Omanson, who contributed the annotations for This Man's Army, contacted me afterward to alert me to his blog on Wyeth. Naturally, I took a look and discovered that B.J. is doing some amazing things at his site.

He posts articles that make the case that Wyeth was the best American poet of WWI, that show how respected he was among literary insiders like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edmund Wilson, and that "document," visually and with telling details, the accuracy of the descriptions  presented in the 52 sonnets. 

Shown here are  parts of B.J.'s commentary on the tenth sonnet in the cycle, "Oisemont: Place de la Maire." 

Visit the War Poetry of John Allan Wyeth at:

http://johnallanwyeth.blogspot.com/

Recommended: The Scrapbook of an American Army Nurse in the First World War

 

Nurse Edith MacDonald at Cape May, New Jersey,
two months before shipping out for France
with Base Hospital 115

By B.J.  Omanson
Presented in History and Lore of the Old World War

When Edith Lois MacDonald returned to her home in Columbus, Ohio, in the summer of 1919, after a ten-month stint of overseas service as a U.S. Army nurse with Base Hospital 115 in Vichy, France, she brought with her a sizeable collection of photographs ranging in size from 9 × 7" enlargements to tiny shots just 1.5 x 2.5". In addition, there was the usual stack of individual souvenir postcards and postcard booklets from Vichy and neighboring towns (Dijon, Digne, Monte Carlo, Nice), and an assortment of other paper ephemera acquired during her overseas service: a handwritten and signed note from King George to “Soldiers of the United States” welcoming them on their way through the British Isles to “…take your stand beside the armies of many nations now fighting in the Old World the great battle for human freedom…”; a formatted postcard sent by the A.E.F. to the folks back home, informing them that their daughter has arrived safe in France; a Special Order on onionskin paper granting Nurse MacDonald and her traveling companion, Nurse Elizabeth Payne, permission to visit Nice and the nearby Alps for one week in February of 1919; a foot-long itemized and illustrated receipt from Hotel Westminster in Nice, filled out on both sides; and a French Transport Order permitting Nurse Edith MacDonald to travel by train from Tour to Bordeaux (probably the first leg of her journey back to the States).

Hotel Ruhl in Vichy, home of Base Hospital 115

Upon arrival at Vichy it was found that the hospital was to be a part of what was known as a Hospital Center, which was the usual manner in which the hospitalization of the A. E. F. was handled. There were in Vichy when No. 115 arrived, two Base Hospitals, No. 1, from Bellevue Hospital, New York City, under the command of Major McKee, and No. 19, from Rochester, New York, under the command of Major, afterwards Lieutenant Colonel, John M. Swan. . . . .

Eye Clinic, Base Hospital 115

No. 115 was assigned to the Hotel Ruhl, a magnificent concrete building nine stories high, said to be the tallest building in France. The maximum capacity of this building was 1657 beds, and it was said to be one of the largest hospitals under one roof in the world. It had been occupied as a hospital by the French since August, 1914,, but was closed for a while, and had been reopened by Base Hospital No. 1 a short time before the arrival of No. 115. The building was in charge of Captain Thomas Atkins, of Base Hospital No. 1, and he remained in that capacity till No. 115 was ready to take charge, giving valuable and much appreciated assistance, and helping greatly in all matters concerning the transfer. The building was taken over by No. 115 on September 11th, with 822 patients in the wards.

By the opening of the Battle of the Argonne, the carrying capacity of Hotel Ruhl had been more than doubled, to a total of 1657 beds.

Army Nurses Lottie M. Mumbauer and
Lorena S. Ingraham

Continue exploring Nurse MacDonald's Scrapbook 

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