Forget the parade, the President-- lonely boys away from home prefer to find their friends from Pittsburgh!
Today is the third entry in the series of remembering the brave actions of our grandpas through the words of Doyle. 90 plus years later, and the story of World War I continues to captivate.
THE GAZETTE TIMES
Dec. 17, 1918
Charles J. Doyle
Special Correspondent of The Gazette Times in France
DASHING FIGHTERS HAILING FROM ALLEGHENY CONTY SEE PRESIDENT BUT MISS OLD PALS.
Members of Three Hundred and Twentieth Infantry, Recommended for Commissions Because of Bravery in Action, Say Absence of Comrades Mars Enjoyment of Paris Festivities.
Paris, Dec. 16. – There is one bunch of Allegheny county doughboys in Paris who are disappointed, although they saw the wonderful spectacle connected with the arrival of President Wilson. They are members of the Three Hundred and Twentieth Infantry who had been detailed to an officers’ training school near here. They are disappointed because they have not yet seen their pals of the old regiment, which, they had been told, were to be detailed to Paris in connection with the President’s stay in the French capita.
The Army orders instructing the Pittsburgh boys to report at the capital did not say when they were to come or exactly what they were to do. There were no soldiers of any description in the party which escorted the President from the railroad station, although thousands of French troops were used as guards along the line of march.
The Western Pennsylvania fighters have all be given new uniforms, shoes and arm decorations and have been assiduously drilled, so they are ready for any event, no matter how pretentious. The regimental officers say they think there will be a review later and are holding the regiment in readiness.
The embryo officers in the vicinity of the city, who secured short leaves of absence to witness the big spectacle, were all up bright and early. By 6 o’clock in the morning they were out hunting for the boys with whom they fought in the severe battles for the Argonne forest. They are all members of the splendid Three Hundred and Twentieth Regiment and, following the first two drives made by that command, were recommended for admission to the training school in preparation for commissions.
I happened to meet up with a party from the training school. Shortly before they had encountered two pals from the Three Hundred and Twentieth, who were going back to join their outfits after recovering from wounds. Fine husky-looking soldiers they were, all of them, and they asked The Gazette Times to convey their wishes for a “Merry Christmas” to their friends back home.
These fellows who made me very welcome were: William Keifer, Iten street, North Side, Pittsburgh; D. C. Hill, Halsey place, North Side, Pittsburgh’ P.V. Speer, Vandergrift; Sabin Boltin, Collins avenue, East End, Pittsburgh; James Palmer, Bellevernon; Charles Ernst, Rial street, East End, Pittsburgh; William Collignan, Michigan avenue, South Hills, Pittsburgh; T. K. Brennan, Hotel Henry, Pittsburgh, and George Costello, Coltart square, Oakland, Pittsburgh.
All these men won distinction during the hard fighting immediately preceding the final actins of the war and were recommended for commissions. It was their behavior under fire that attracted the attention of their superior officers. Although all of them have finished the prescribed training, they told me they would be willing to forfeit their pending commissions if allowed to get back to “the old outfit.” They are lonesome, and want to renew the warm friendships made in the ranks of the Three Hundred and Twentieth, preferring them to military honors. Most of these men were sergeants during the time they were fighting in France.
Charles O. Mebie, a well-known Fayette county resident, whose home is near Uniontown, was one Pennsylvanian whose presence in Paris came to the notice of the public. He disregarded all parade traffic rules in his efforts to find the youthful son of Carl. L. Bemies, a member of the Three Hundred and Twentieth Regimental Band, but has had to postpone the reunion for a few days. Mr. Mebie is on his way to Russia on a special mission for the Y.M.C.A.
It is evident here that the folds back home are reading the special stories in The Gazette Times. A number of clippings have come to the boys of the Three Hundred and Nineteenth and the Three Hundred and Twentieth, and they are not only being passed around among the men, but are being read with interest by the officers.
Ahh, genealogy. Remembering our veterans is always in style- so take time to sit, reflect, and then pray for our brave warriors.
Special thanks to Lynn B for her gracious permission to have her transcriptions included here.
©2011 AS Eldredge
Ahhh, genealogy. A glimpse of the past shows of what I am made.....
Showing posts with label hill. Show all posts
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Remembering WWI- Thru the Eyes and Words of 1918 Warriors - Part 2
What men of valor our grandpas were!
The following is the second in the installment of remembering World War I through the words of Charles J Doyle, Special Gazette Times Correspondent in France.
THE GAZETTE TIMES
Nov. 3, 1918
Charles J. Doyle
Special Correspondent of The Gazette Times in France
Pick and Shovel as Well as Bayonet and Gun Help Pennsylvania Boys Win
With the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Nov. 1 – The Western Pennsylvanians of the Twenty-eighth and Eightieth Divisions are winning renown over the entire Allied front by charging the Boche with pick and shovel as well as with bayonet and gun. Skirmish after skirmish and drive after drive they have won literally with these tools as well as with their weapons. The history of their two-fold prowess at Argonne (in the wood and in the four days’ fighting beyond) has already become a classic of the war. Since July they have gone forward 20 times, and the records show that each time they have achieved their own objective.
That is 100 per cent fighting efficiency.
It is the more remarkable because these men were thrust “green” into the very heart of the most violent fighting Yankee soldiers have done in this war.
I saw 500 fellows from Pittsburgh and Allegheny county make one of those famous self-supporting drives at (name deleted by censor) near the Meuse today.
Three hundred of them carried shovels strapped to their backs. The Boche met them with a murderous machine gun fire and then, as they dashed on in spite of it, he split his front, so that half his force ran to the right and half to the left as the Pennsylvanians approached. Straight on to the knoll where his machine guns had been ran the Americans, firing right and left; then as they reached it the riflemen formed a great square about the knoll, and while they poured a merciless hail of bullets and their own machine fire into the Huns at either side, the others unlimbered that battery of picks and shovels and in one-half hour’s time the entire American raiding force had dug itself into the newly won position and was waiting for orders for another forward drive.
A French colonel, standing beside us as we watched, said simply: “That is the way to win war, M’sieu. Valor, the gun and the shovel – the three together – they are invincible.”
Incidentally the military experts have by no means left the Pennsylvanians’ achievements out of their review of the work of the First American Army. Paraphrased that review says: “In a month’s activities the long Argonne siege developed the most violent fighting the Americans have yet seen in France. And in this great drive the Pennsylvania soldiers of the Twenty-eighth and Eightieth won particular renown for their valor and initiative.”
Again in the most recent smash, continues the review, the Eightieth Division machine gunners, composed largely of Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia soldiers, fought magnificently through the dense woods in spite of the most unusually effective Hun defense.
Col. B. M. Gordon, a former Mercer (Pa.) boy with the Three Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, told me that he did not believe it lay in any many to fight with more heroism, intelligence and determination than did the lads of Mercer and Allegheny counties. “They were marvelously effective, especially with the machine guns,” he said. “In the fights where they beat off the counter-attacks of the desperate Germans their work passed beyond all praise.”
The Eighteenth has been especially commended for taking dugouts that were said to be insuperable. Some of them had been held by the Huns four years when the Pennsylvanians routed them out.
CAPTURES AND FEEDS COUSIN
Private Ernest Roeck of St. Clair Borough, a member of the Three Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment, discovered his cousin, Karl Potrafke, among the prisoners captured at the end of the third day’s drive out of Argonne. Private Roeck, who had been one of the first over the top and who had made several prisoners on his own account, was detailed at the end of the day to search and take back to the rear some 50 Heinies who had surrendered. Going through the pockets of one of them he came upon some papers that referred to a town in Germany where he knew he had relatives. Questioning disclosed the cousin’s identity. He belonged to the Thirty-second German Division. His captor gave him the first square meal he said he had had in two months.
It may now be said that the Pennsylvanians in the Eightieth Division first went to the front near the famous Dead Man’s Hill.
Ahh, genealogy. Remembering our veterans is always in style- so take time to sit, reflect, and then pray for our brave warriors.
Special thanks to Lynn B for her gracious permission to have her transcriptions included here.
©2011 AS Eldredge
The following is the second in the installment of remembering World War I through the words of Charles J Doyle, Special Gazette Times Correspondent in France.
THE GAZETTE TIMES
Nov. 3, 1918
Charles J. Doyle
Special Correspondent of The Gazette Times in France
Pick and Shovel as Well as Bayonet and Gun Help Pennsylvania Boys Win
With the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Nov. 1 – The Western Pennsylvanians of the Twenty-eighth and Eightieth Divisions are winning renown over the entire Allied front by charging the Boche with pick and shovel as well as with bayonet and gun. Skirmish after skirmish and drive after drive they have won literally with these tools as well as with their weapons. The history of their two-fold prowess at Argonne (in the wood and in the four days’ fighting beyond) has already become a classic of the war. Since July they have gone forward 20 times, and the records show that each time they have achieved their own objective.
That is 100 per cent fighting efficiency.
It is the more remarkable because these men were thrust “green” into the very heart of the most violent fighting Yankee soldiers have done in this war.
I saw 500 fellows from Pittsburgh and Allegheny county make one of those famous self-supporting drives at (name deleted by censor) near the Meuse today.
Three hundred of them carried shovels strapped to their backs. The Boche met them with a murderous machine gun fire and then, as they dashed on in spite of it, he split his front, so that half his force ran to the right and half to the left as the Pennsylvanians approached. Straight on to the knoll where his machine guns had been ran the Americans, firing right and left; then as they reached it the riflemen formed a great square about the knoll, and while they poured a merciless hail of bullets and their own machine fire into the Huns at either side, the others unlimbered that battery of picks and shovels and in one-half hour’s time the entire American raiding force had dug itself into the newly won position and was waiting for orders for another forward drive.
A French colonel, standing beside us as we watched, said simply: “That is the way to win war, M’sieu. Valor, the gun and the shovel – the three together – they are invincible.”
Incidentally the military experts have by no means left the Pennsylvanians’ achievements out of their review of the work of the First American Army. Paraphrased that review says: “In a month’s activities the long Argonne siege developed the most violent fighting the Americans have yet seen in France. And in this great drive the Pennsylvania soldiers of the Twenty-eighth and Eightieth won particular renown for their valor and initiative.”
Again in the most recent smash, continues the review, the Eightieth Division machine gunners, composed largely of Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia soldiers, fought magnificently through the dense woods in spite of the most unusually effective Hun defense.
Col. B. M. Gordon, a former Mercer (Pa.) boy with the Three Hundred and Twentieth Regiment, told me that he did not believe it lay in any many to fight with more heroism, intelligence and determination than did the lads of Mercer and Allegheny counties. “They were marvelously effective, especially with the machine guns,” he said. “In the fights where they beat off the counter-attacks of the desperate Germans their work passed beyond all praise.”
The Eighteenth has been especially commended for taking dugouts that were said to be insuperable. Some of them had been held by the Huns four years when the Pennsylvanians routed them out.
CAPTURES AND FEEDS COUSIN
Private Ernest Roeck of St. Clair Borough, a member of the Three Hundred and Nineteenth Regiment, discovered his cousin, Karl Potrafke, among the prisoners captured at the end of the third day’s drive out of Argonne. Private Roeck, who had been one of the first over the top and who had made several prisoners on his own account, was detailed at the end of the day to search and take back to the rear some 50 Heinies who had surrendered. Going through the pockets of one of them he came upon some papers that referred to a town in Germany where he knew he had relatives. Questioning disclosed the cousin’s identity. He belonged to the Thirty-second German Division. His captor gave him the first square meal he said he had had in two months.
It may now be said that the Pennsylvanians in the Eightieth Division first went to the front near the famous Dead Man’s Hill.
Ahh, genealogy. Remembering our veterans is always in style- so take time to sit, reflect, and then pray for our brave warriors.
Special thanks to Lynn B for her gracious permission to have her transcriptions included here.
©2011 AS Eldredge
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