May 26-June 23, 1918: “The war will be ended by the first of 1919.”

by Captain William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

As dawn broke on May 26, 1918, more than two months had passed since the 151st Machine Gun Battalion had suffered a casualty. The Soldiers in front line positions looked forward to relief. Company A and B remained in position in the front lines with the 167th Infantry Regiment at Neuviller while Company C and D remained on duty with the 168th at Ville Negre. The men of Company D were rotating out of front line positions that evening and would be replaced in the line by the machine gun company of the 168th Infantry Regiment after a front-line tour of more than two weeks. Just days before Companies C and D had repelled German probing attacks and dodged strafing fire from a low flying German plane.[i]

Map of the Baccarat Sector. Americans All: The Rainbow at War., F. J. Heer Printing Company, 1936, 228A

Targets of projector gas attacks in Center of Resistance Village Negre May 27-28,
1918. Cochrane, Rexmond C. U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Studies Gas
Warfare in World War I: The 42nd Division before Landres Et St. Georges
Oct 1918 Vol. 17, U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Office, 1960, 13-14.

German artillery fire delayed the relief of Company D, but the men were able to leave the trenches shortly after midnight on the morning of May 27. One hour later the Germans launched a massive gas projector and artillery attack on the American lines in the vicinity of Ville Negre. The lines of the 168th were deluged with nearly 1,000 canisters of phosgene gas which had been fired electronically to synchronize their delivery. The gas fell so fast that there was no time to sound the alarm, and as many of the men were sleeping, they were defenseless. German artillery also fired explosive shells behind the American fighting positions to prevent the Americans from evacuating the trenches, thus keeping them in the deadly cloud of gas. Throughout the night, German shells rained down on the Ville Negre Sector, but by dawn, the fire slackened and the men emerged from the trenches to take stock of the damage and treat their wounded.

By the end of May 27, the 168th Infantry had suffered 270 wounded and 35 killed.[ii] First Lt. N. P. Parkinson, an officer in Company D, 151st reported that the commander of the 168th Machine Gun Company had been killed in the engagement. 2nd Lt. Noxon, 1st Sgt. Russel Dudley and Pvt. Charles Anderson of Company D, 151st Infantry were treated for gas effects. Parkinson also recalled that, 2nd Lt. Louis Sola of Company C, 151st was gassed but would return to duty.[iii]  

May 28th brought more gas and more probing infantry raids but no additional casualties to the 151st.

Corporal Robert Burton and the Soldiers of Company A and B were not hit by the gas attacks but were similarly pinned down by artillery fire in their trench positions west of Ville Negre. As ambulances shuttled wounded from the trenches to aid stations at Pexonne and Baccarat, Burton wrote to his brother Frank and told him “the war will be ended by the first of 1919.”

Somewhere in France (Neuviller, Baccarat Sector)

May 27, 1918

The people in the states are working up to the fact that the United States is in the War. When casualty lists begin to come in perhaps they will begin to wake up. The U.S. with what troops she has over here is playing a pretty big part in this war as perhaps you have seen in the papers. Before the year is out she will be playing an even greater role than she is.

You stay over there and do all that you can. I can do all the fighting that has to be done for this family.

You hear about peace plans, but we don’t want any peace plans till we have whipped the Germans till they don’t want to fight anybody else or they won’t want any more world domination.

Sincerely, your brother,

Gober[iv]

On June 11, 1918, the citizens of Macon received the grim news from the War

Corporal Jarvis Moore. Georgia Guard
Archives

Department that four Macon Soldiers of Company C, 151st, in addition to 2nd Lt. Sola, were casualties of the May 27, 1918 gas attack. Second Lt. John Cutler had been treated for gas effects but would return to the battalion. Private 1st Class William Pope also recovered and rejoined company C. He would be wounded two months later during the Second Battle of the Marne. Private 1st Class Melbourne Smith suffered more severe effects from the gas and would ultimately be discharged with fifty percent service connected disability. Corporal Jarvis Moore, a 20-year-old veteran of the 1916 Mexican Border expedition was severely wounded by gas. For months he battled the suffocating effects of phosgene gas poisoning before succumbing on October 19, 1918. In total, the 151st MGB suffered eight casualties during the action of May 27, 1918.

By mid-June 1918 Company C was rotating one platoon at a time to cover their battalion sector of fire for the 168th as preparations were made for the 42nd division to redeploy to another front. General Pierre Duport, commander of the French 6th Army Corps issued General Orders No. 50 commending the 42nd Division for their three months service on the Lorraine front.

Before the 42nd Division could complete its relief, Company D was again subjected to an extended gas projector attack and sustained 22 casualties, including 1st Lt. Monroe Means, the company commander.[v] This attack occurred June 19 as Company D was relieved from their positions by Soldiers of the 77th Division.

GO 50 issued June 15, 1918 by
Gen. Pierre Duport

The final casualty of the battalion’s tour in the Baccarat section was 21-year-old Norman Hawkinson of Company A. The Vienna, Ga. native died of sepsis June 22, 1918.

The next day, the 151st assembled at Thaon where they boarded separate trains bound for The Esperance Souain Sector in the Champagne region. 

Next Chapter: The Champagne Marne Defensive

---

[i] N. P. Parkinson and Joel R. Parkinson, Commanding Fire: An Officers Life in the 151st Machine Gun Battalion, 42nd Rainbow Division during World War I (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2013), 52.

[ii] Cochrane, Rexmond C. U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Studies Gas Warfare in World War I: The 42nd Division before Landres Et St. Georges October 1918. Vol. 17, U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical Office, 1960, 13-14.

[iii] Parkinson, N. P., and Joel R. Parkinson. Commanding Fire: An Officers Life in the 151st Machine Gun Battalion, 42nd Rainbow Division during World War I. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2013, 53-55 and 248.

[iv] Robert G. Burton to Frank Burton. May 27, 1918

[v] N. P. Parkinson and Joel R. Parkinson, Commanding Fire: An Officers Life in the 151st Machine Gun Battalion, 42nd Rainbow Division during World War I (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2013), 248-249.