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| 1st Lt. Vivian Roberts, Prisoner of War, WWI, Georgia Army National Guard. Roberts photo courtesy of Tonie Maxwell. Recognition Day photo by Maj. William Carraway |
The United States observes National Prisoner of War / Missing
in Action Recognition Day on the third Friday in September. On this day, Americans
remember those who have been held as prisoners of war during our nation’s conflicts
and those listed as missing in action. This year’s observance falls within the
Georgia National Guard’s centennial of overseas service, which prompts the
question: Were any Georgia National Guardsmen captured and held as prisoners of
war during World War I? Are any still missing in action?
In the course of compiling the history of the 151st Machine
Gun Battalion, the Georgia National Guard History Office reviewed the service records of the Georgia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the 151st - the only unit of the
Ga. ARNG to enter combat as an organic unit. Review of the records finds that of all of the Georgia Guard Soldiers mobilized for war in France only 1st
Lt. Vivian Roberts of Macon, Ga. was captured and held as a prisoner of war.
Prelude
Vivian Hill Roberts Sr. was born September 29, 1888 in
Jackson Ga. He enlisted in the Macon Hussars, then Company F of the 2nd Georgia
Infantry Regiment as a private July 26, 1906. Roberts served in every enlisted
rank, culminating in a stint as first sergeant of Company F. before accepting a
commission as a second lieutenant March 1, 1915. He was working as a bookkeeper
for Benson Clothing Company in Macon when the Georgia Guard was deployed to the
Mexican Border in August 1916.[i][ii]
Returning with his regiment in 1917, Roberts company was redesignated Company
A, 151st Machine Gun Battalion and assigned to the 42nd Division which sailed
to France in October 1917.
As a platoon leader, Roberts led his machine gun sections
from the Baccarat Sector near the southern terminus of the Western Front
through the fiery Champagne Marne Defensive. He was promoted to first
lieutenant May 15, 1918[iii].
On July 28, 1918, Roberts’ Company was heavily engaged while supporting
infantry assaults on German positions near Sergy France. The men of the 151st
MGB were ordered to move forward with the Infantry Regiments of the 84th
Brigade, 42nd Division.[iv]
As the machine gunners were already overly burdened with heavy machine guns and
ammunition, Roberts ordered the men to remove unnecessary gear – including
packs and canteens. In the assault, the men would only carry ammunition and gas
masks.
 |
| Sergy France and Hill 212, near the site where 1st Lt. Roberts was captured Photo by Maj. William Carraway |
Capture
Roberts recalled moving forward with four machine guns and
establishing firing positions for his sections. Unable to proceed due to the presence
of enemy machine guns positioned near the crest of the hill upon which he was
advancing, Roberts requested infantry support which came in the form of a
company from the 167th under command of Capt. Wyatt. Roberts recalls what
happened next.
"As we reached the crest of the hill, instead of the five or
six Germans I had been firing upon, a solid line of Germans arose stretching
all across the hill. Machine guns opened up on us from the woods on the right
and from the church steeple and buildings from the little village of La Ferte
on our left, pouring a terrific fire into our ranks. Hearing a groan at my side
I turned and saw little F. H. Dent from Macon, his shirt on fire; a bullet had
struck a clip of cartridges in his belt, exploding them, setting his shirt on
fire as well as badly wounding him. I put the fire out, gave him first aid and
sending him to the rear took his rifle… A German plane swooped down over our
line strafing, mowing down it seemed about every sixth man in our line. A
bullet struck me in my right thigh breaking the bone and passing on through the
leg and lodging in the lower leg… I asked two infantrymen to carry me back.
They tried to do it but as my right leg was dangling giving me so much pain and
bullets were singing all around us I asked them to put me in a shell hole and
make their escape."[v]
Roberts was found by German Soldiers. One gave him a blanket
and told Roberts that they would come back for him that evening. When they
returned it was only to leave Roberts once more with the knowledge that the
Germans anticipated an American attack to come in the morning. Roberts remained
in the shell hole for 30 hours without food or water and with three exposed
wounds before a German NCO and three Red Cross men found him and bore him into
German lines in a shelter half. His wounds were dressed, and he was taken via
stretcher to a horse-drawn ambulance while American artillery shells crashed
all around. Roberts grimly recalled the
ambulance ride.
“As my leg had not been put into a splint you can imagine the
condition I was in after about a two hours’ ride. We arrived at what I took to
be Fismes[vi];
here we were taken to a German Field Hospital. And my leg was set and put in a
splint. As the hospital was being evacuated that night due to the advance of
the Americans I was soon put into an automobile ambulance with three wounded
Germans We travelled all night arriving early in the morning at what I took to
be Laon."[vii][viii]
In Laon, Roberts along with wounded
French and German Soldiers were loaded onto freight rail cars on pallets of
blood-soaked straw and blankets for transport to Formies, France near the
Belgian border. Here he was asked by an English-speaking nurse when his wound
had last been dressed. As jarring as this was, Roberts soon discovered that he
was one of 800 wounded Soldiers being treated at the hospital by one doctor and
two nurses.
 |
| August 25, 1918 edition of the Atlanta Constitution |
On August 25, 1918, The Atlanta Constitution reported Roberts
as missing in action. Roberts’ family endured weeks of uncertainty, then on
September 13, the Macon Telegraph reported that the 151st MGB had listed
Roberts as killed in action. It was not until the November 1 edition of the
Atlanta Constitution that Roberts’ family learned that Lt. Roberts was indeed
alive and being held in a prison at Langensalza Thuringen, Germany.
Roberts' Return
Roberts would remain at Langensalza until December 21, 1918
when he began his journey home. Arriving at American Base Hospital Number 45
December 24, 1918, Roberts realized his earnest wish to be free by Christmas.
He did not return to the United States until February 25, 1919. Roberts would
remain hospitalized due to the effects of his wound until December 22, 1922
when he was released from federal service.[ix] While
still a patient at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Roberts married Antoinette
Lipgens. For more than 20 years Roberts served as the Clerk of Bibb County
Superior Court. He died August 24, 1946 at the age of 57 and is buried in Riverside
Cemetery, Macon, Ga.
Missing in
Action
While Lieutenant Roberts ultimately returned home to Macon,
Ga. two of his comrades from the 151st Machine Gun Battalion were not so
fortunate.
Pfc. James Mason, of Company B, 151st Machine Gun Battalion
is listed among the names of American Soldiers missing in action at the chapel
of the Aisne Marne Cemetery in Belleau, France. Mason enlisted July 20, 1916 in
Company B, 2nd Georgia Infantry Regiment at the age of 20. He was killed in
action July 29, 1918 during actions near Sergy, France.
 |
| The name of Pfc. James Mason, of Company B, 151st Machine Gun Battalion is recorded among the names of American Soldiers missing in action at the chapel of the Aisne Marne Cemetery in Belleau, France. Photo by Maj. William Carraway |
Also listed among Soldiers missing in action at the chapel of
the Aisne Marne Cemetery is Pfc. Jack Taylor of Company A, 151st Machine Gun.
Taylor was killed in action July 30, 1918 during actions near Sergy, France.
 |
| The name of Pfc. Jack Taylor, of Company A, 151st Machine Gun Battalion is recorded among the names of American Soldiers missing in action at the chapel of the Aisne Marne Cemetery in Belleau, France. Photo by Maj. William Carraway |
[i]
[ii] Carraway,
William M. "‘Loaded Down with Glory’: Robert Gober Burton and the 151st
Machine Gun Battalion." History of the Georgia National Guard. March 23,
2017. Accessed September 21, 2018.
http://www.georgiaguardhistory.com/2017/02/loadeddown-with-glory-introduction-to.html.
[iii]
Roberts, Vivian H. Ancestry.com. Georgia, World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919
[database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA:
[iv]
Roberts’ Company A and Company B moved out in support of the 167th Infantry
Regiment, Alabama National Guard while Company C and D supported the Iowa
National Guard’s 168th Infantry Regiment.
[v] Henry
J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer
Printing Co., 1936, 437
[vi]
Fismes is a village located on the Vesle river approximately 20 kilometers
north of Sergy where Roberts was captured.
[vii]
Laon is 35 kilometers by road north of Fismes.
[viii]
Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J.
Heer Printing Co., 1936, 440
[ix] Henry
J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer
Printing Co., 1936, 442
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