The Georgia National Guard’s 151st MGB Withstands German Onslaught May 27, 1918.

 By Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia National Guard

 

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

As dawn broke on May 26, 1918, more than two months had passed since the Georgia National Guard’s 151st Machine Gun Battalion had suffered a casualty. The Soldiers in front line positions in the Baccarat sector of the Western Front 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 near Badonviller. 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.[1]

 

Badonviller, France. Photo by Maj. William Carraway.

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 the168th Infantry Regiment were bombarded with nearly 1,000 cannisters 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. Many of the Soldiers were asleep and had to fumble in the darkness for their gas masks. German artillery also fired explosive shells behind the American fighting positions to prevent the troops 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.

 

Targets of projector gas attacks. Vol. 17,
U.S. Army Chemical Corps Historical
Office, 1960, 13-14.

By the end of May 27, the 168th Infantry had suffered 270 wounded and 35 killed.[2] First Lt. N. P. Parkinson, an officer in Company D, 151^st MGB, reported that the commander of the 168th Machine Gun Company had been killed in the engagement. Second Lt. John Noxon, 1st Sgt. Russel Dudley and Pvt. Charles Anderson of Company D, 151st MGB were treated for gas effects. Parkinson also recalled that 2nd Lt. Louis Sola of Company C, 151st was gassed but would return to duty.[3]

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

 

Soldiers of Company A and B, 151^st MGB were not hit by the gas attacks but were similarly pinned down by artillery fire in their trench positions in Neuviller west of Ville Negre. As ambulances shuttled wounded from the trenches to aid stations at Pexonne and Baccarat, Corporal Robert G. Burton of Company A, 151^st, wrote home to his family in Monroe, Ga. Despite the ferocity of the attacks, Burton suggested the German offensive revealed desperation and expressed the belief that “the war will be ended by the first of 1919.” [4]

 

Soldiers of Company A and B, 151st MGB were entrenched near Neuviller Les Badonviller. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

On June 11, 1918, the citizens of Macon received the grim news from the War 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 but returned to the battalion.  He was mortally wounded October 18, 1918 and died the next day. 

Cpl. Jarvis Moore.

 

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[1] 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.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.

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