by Maj. William Carraway
Historian,
Georgia Army National Guard
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| Final resting place of Pvt. Madie Ware, Company B, Macon Volunteers, 151st MGB. Photo by Maj. William Carraway |
On August 13, 1918, one week after
their unit had been pulled from front line service near Sergy, France, Soldiers
of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion received their first opportunity for leave
since arriving in France in October 1917. While the battalion rested and
trained in the Bourmont Training Area near Champigny, ten percent of the battalion’s
Soldiers rotated to Paris on 48-hour leaves of absence.[i]
On August 17, elements of the 151st
MGB began movement from La Ferte sur Marne by rail and by road march to
Sauville, a commune in the Ardennes Department in northern France. Here, the battalion
began what was expected to be five-weeks of training. Rather than their
customary field camp locations, the men were comfortably billeted and provided
with the opportunity to clean clothing and equipment. The Soldiers fully
expected that they would receive the customary seven-day leaves authorized for
units that had spent more than four months in France.[ii]
Meanwhile, the Soldiers conducted a series of battle drills in which the
battalion prepared to provide fire support for infantry assaults.
While his comrades in arms were
training in the Ardennes, Cpl. Robert Gober Burton was still recovering from
the wound he received July 30, near Sergy. Writing to his mother, Burton
expressed optimism for the war’s prospects.
France August 25, 1918
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| Cpl. R. G. Burton's letter of August 25, 1918. Georgia Guard Archives |
Dearest mother,
I am well and getting along fine now.
The weather here is about as hot as it is at home at this time of the year, so
we are not doing much these days.
It certainly does look as if your
prayers have been answered when you consider my miraculous escape. You know I
even have the bullet that hit me in the arm. I also have the testament and I
shall try and keep them. The first chance I get I will send both of these home.
None of the other boys from home have
been hurt so far as I know. I certainly do hope that they haven’t.
The war isn’t going to last much
longer if I can tell anything about it at all. For Fritz is being pushed back
in every quarter and the US is bringing in fresh troops by the thousands every
week to keep him on the go. Germany can’t hold out much longer. German power is
on the decline while ours is in the ascension all the time. German prisoners
even now admit that they are defeated but claim that they shall carry the war
till all her men have gone but they won’t do that. They are too cowardly and
yellow.
Well mother dear, will write you
another letter in a day or so.
Your devoted son,
Gober[iii]
On August 29, just two weeks into the
expected five-week training period, the 151st MGB received orders to move out
that evening. After scrambling to assemble men and equipment for transport the
battalion departed Sauville at 9:30 P.M. in a driving rain. Arriving in
Gironcourt September 3, the 151st received more than 200 replacement Soldiers.[iv]
After a series of movements., the
battalion arrived in concealed positions in forested terrain near the village
of Siecheprey approximately 22 kilometers east of Saint Mihiel. Here, on
September 9, battalion leadership received and disseminated orders for the
offensive which was scheduled to commence on September 12. In the coming
engagement, the 151st would be employed as a battalion under its own command
rather than as attachments to the attacking infantry units.
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| 42nd Division in the St. Mihiel Offensive. Americans All: The Rainbow at War |
The attack in which the 151st MGB
would participate was the first great offensive of the 1st U.S. Army. The
attack would fall upon the Saint Mihiel Salient, a protrusion of the Western
Front which was created by successful German advances during the Battle of
Flirey in the fall of 1914. In the four years since the creation of the
salient, German troops had fortified their positions, emplacing trenches and
barbed wire. French assaults in the Saint Mihiel salient had for four years
failed to dislodge the Germans from their positions. From the first days they
entered the trenches in the Lorraine Sector in March 1918, the Soldiers of the
151st MGB had heard stories of the salient from French Soldiers who had served
there.[v]
The Americans would attack the salient
with three corps while a French corps would help to fix German forces near the
town of Saint Mihiel. The Fourth Corps, consisting of the 42nd, 89th, 1st and
3rd Divisions would attack the center of the salient with the First Corps, and
its 2nd, 5th, 90th and 82nd Divisions to its right. Attacking the western
portion of the salient was the Fifth Corps consisting of the 4th and 26th
Divisions along with the French 15th Colonial Division.[vi]
These corps would attempt to attack the salient in a pincher maneuver to pierce
the salient and trap any German Forces remaining near Saint. Mihiel.
The order for the attack was fifty
pages and was augmented by ten annexes covering the use of artillery, tanks,
air corps and other combined arms assets.[vii]
On September 10, 1918, Maj. Cooper
Winn and his four company commanders moved forward to conduct a leader’s
reconnaissance and select firing positions to provide an overhead barrage in
support of the 167th and 168th Infantry Regiments of the 84th Infantry Brigade.
During a heavy rain on September 11, the battalion moved into the trench
positions at the jump-off point for the assault arriving just before midnight.[viii]
About this time Cpl. Robert Burton returned to the battalion from his hospital
convalescence. He would not reach his battalion until after they had “gone over
the top.”[ix]
 |
| Cpl. Frank Cramblett |
The German defenders were largely
surprised by the assault. Although they expected an attack would be made, they
did not expect it to happen until later in the month. Thus, the initial wave
caught many unprepared as recalled by Pvt. J. Ambler of Company D, 150th
Machine Gun Battalion.
“The day the battle of Saint Mihiel
started our division was advancing very rapidly. On the advance we passed
thousands of prisoners, many of them wounded and gassed. One of the Germans was
crawling towards us with his heel shot off when a doughboy rushed at him with a
fixed bayonet. He was about to run him
through when I yelled at the top of my voice ‘You damn fool, give him a chance,
he’s wounded.’ The young fellow then felt ashamed of himself and walked
away. I stopped and gave the Hun a drink
of water and a few ‘hard tacks.’ He certainly had appreciated what I had done
for him, for he said a lot, but his German was Greek to me.”[xi]
By the end of September 12, the
Americans had achieved all of the objectives established for the first and
second day of the attack.[xii] The
assault continued the following day. During the fighting three Soldiers of the
Macon Volunteers, Pvt. Madie Ware of Abbeville, Ga; Pvt. Rich Gussie of Union,
Ky. and Pvt. Otis Cook of Griffin, Ga. were killed in action.
 |
| Final resting place of Pvt. Otis Cook in the St. Mihiel American Cemetery. Photo by Maj. William Carraway |
The 42nd Division resumed the attack
at 6:00 am September 13. By noon, the assault had reached its terminus with all
objectives gained. The 151st and its supported infantry regiments took up
positions in the vicinity of Saint Benoit en Woevre. On September 14, Field
Order No. 24 issued by the 42nd Division ordered the units to “promptly
organize this sector for defense.”[xiii]
This order served as the de facto end of the Saint Mihiel Offensive.
 |
| View from Saint Benoit en Woevre looking southeast towards the 42nd Division's axis of approach. Photo by Maj. William Carraway |
Whereas the 151st MGB had suffered
terribly while moving with assaulting infantry units at Croix Rouge Farm and
Hill 212 in July, the massed fire concept employed by Maj. Winn greatly reduced
the casualties suffered by the battalion while vastly improving its combat
effectiveness. In addition to the five Soldiers killed the battalion suffered
nine wounded.
The battalion remained in defensive
positions in what came to be called the Essey-Pannes Sector. During the
deliberate defensive operations that followed, the Soldiers worked to improve
their positions and provided supporting fire for raids conducted by 84th
Brigade’s infantry regiments. German gas attacks wounded five on September 14
and 15 and a German artillery barrage on September 22 wounded five members of
Company A and B. Pvt Thomas Whitaker of Company B, the Macon Volunteers was
killed the next day.
On September 27, the 151st MGB and
infantry regiments of the 84th Brigade were relieved by the 83rd Brigade. Three
days later, the entire 42nd Division was relieved by the 89th Division.[xiv] They would have but a few days rest before entering the Meuse Argonne
offensives.
Next Chapter: Cote de Chatillon
[i] Peavy,
Arthur and Miller, White, The 151st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow)
Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to
April 26, 1919. J. W. Burke Co., 1919, 13.
[ii]
Ibid, 13
[iii] Robert
G. Burton to Mrs. R. F. Burton. August 25, 1918
[iv]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 228A
Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 570
[v]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 228A
Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 539
[vi]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 228A
Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 542
[vii]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 228A
Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 544
[viii]
Peavy, Arthur and Miller, White, The 151st Machine Gun Battalion 42d (Rainbow)
Division: A Battalion History and Citations of the Rainbow August 13, 1917 to
April 26, 1919. J. W. Burke Co., 1919, 14
[ix] Robert
G. Burton to Frank Burton. December 18, 1918
[x] 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, 121
[xi]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 228A
Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 571
[xii] American
Battle Monuments Commission. 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World
War. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944, 42.
[xiii]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 228A
Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 575
[xiv] American
Battle Monuments Commission. 42D Division Summary of Operations in the World
War. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1944, 47.
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