July 29-August 6 1918: “I Have Been Wounded”

by Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard 

Envelope received by Cpl. Burton's mother informing her that her son had been wounded in action.  Georgia Guard Archives

After suffering severe casualties during the July 28, 1918 assault on Hill 212, the 151st Machine Gun Battalion continued to support infantry assaults to dislodge German positions on July 29 and 30. Rather than employing the machine guns in support by fire positions, the Soldiers of the 151st MGB were compelled to move forward with the onrushing infantry, a situation lamented by Maj. Cooper Winn, commander of the 151st MGB and machine gun officer of the 84th Brigade.

“In our attack on this hill above Sergy we overlooked again an ideal opportunity to effectively use concentrated machine gun fire.”[i]

 In this Signal Corps image, Maj. Cooper Winn, commander of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion stands
second from the left with officers of the 84th Brigade and 42nd Infantry Division. - Georgia Guard Archives

Winn had the opportunity to personally explain the advantage of concentrated fire positions utilizing the favorable terrain to Col. Douglas MacArthur, chief of staff of the 42nd Division who had moved forward to personally inspect the terrain. As Winn noted further:

“As it was, during the five days we were fighting on the Ourcq River, the only used made of a machine gun was in the defense of the line against counter-attacks attempted by the Germans… It greatly aggravated me not to have been able to take advantage of such a perfect opportunity to employ machine guns with decisive effect.  All the more so when the guns of the battalion actually accomplished so little, we suffered a loss of 27 men killed, five died of wounds, 23 gassed and 147 wounded by machine gun fire or shell fire.”[ii]

Top Left: Cpl. Clarence Fordham, Company C, 151st MGB of Dublin Ga.  Killed July 30, 1918
Top Right: Pvt James Mason, Company B, 151st MGB of Dublin Ga. Killed July 29, 1918.
Bottom Left: Sgt. Bernard Green, Company A, 151st MGB of  Gray, Ga. Killed July 29, 1918.
Bottom Right: Pvt. Jesse Bridges, Company A, 151st MGB of Sylvester, Ga. Killed July 30, 1918.

The casualties of July 29, 1918 are as follows:

·       Pfc. Wiley Aids, Company A, wounded
·       Bugler William M. Cleveland, Company A, wounded
·       Pvt. Robert D. Collins, Company A, killed
·       Pvt. Herman K. Davis, Company A, killed
·       Pvt. Henry W. Dickerson, Company A, slightly wounded
·       Cpl. Frank Enters, Company A, killed
·       Pfc. Wesley Johnson, Company A, wounded
·       Pvt. Clifford Phillips, Company A, killed
·       Cpl. Calvin C. Climer, Company B, killed
·       Pvt. Emmett L. Martin, Company B killed
·       Pvt. James G. Mason, Company C, killed
·       Pfc. Joe Phillips, Company C, slightly wounded
·       Pfc. William C. Pope, Company C, slightly wounded
·       Pfc. Ira A. Wilkinson, Company C, killed
·       Pvt. John T. Williams, Company C, slightly wounded
·       Pvt. John Harkcom, Company D, killed

Cpl. Robert Gober Burton, Company A,
151st MGB.  Georgia Guard Archives

On July 30, Cpl. Robert Burton was leading his squad forward in the vicinity of Sergy. It had been nearly a month since his last letter home to his brother Frank after arriving in the defensive sector near Suippes, France. Fate finally availed Burton of the opportunity of writing home.

August 2, 1918

Mother Dearest,

I know that you have been worried because you haven’t heard from me, but Mother I have been a pretty busy man the last month and a half. But I am still in one piece.

Now listen, I have been wounded but not seriously, so when you see my name in the casualty list don’t think anything about it for I am all OK. I am in the hospital now and well cared for and well fed and am not feeling the least bit bad.

Listen and I will tell you all about it. We were over the top and I was advancing my squad and I was just going to advance again when something picked me up and sat me down about 3 feet from where I was. I didn’t feel any special pain right at the time, so I advanced my squad about 150 yards farther along. I then began to feel a sharp pain in my right arm, but I looked down and I didn’t see any blood and then I began to feel, and I found a hole in my coat sleeve and looking inside my coat I saw a bullet sticking about halfway through my coat. It had gone through the fleshy part of my arm and thru the bible that Auntie sent me and had stopped there. The bible was all that kept it from going all the way thru. No mama, don’t you worry the least bit about me for I shall be ready to go back to the company in a few days. Just keep sending my mail to the old address.

The testament of Cpl. Robert Gober Burton. Burton's Bible absorbed the impact of a German bullet July 30, 1918.

This is just a note to let you know that I am OK and for you not to worry.

I don’t know how the other boys from home are. I haven’t seen any of them in two or three days. I think tho that they are OK. Write often.

Your devoted son,

Gober[iii]

Burton had been wounded in action while moving in support of the 167th Infantry Regiment during an advance near Sergy, France. Eleven other Soldiers of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion became casualties on the same day:

Pfc. James Guerry, killed in action July 31,
1918. Georgia Guard Archives

·       W. G. Crapps, Company A, wounded
·       William Ira Pittman, Company A, wounded
·       Jesse D. Bridges, Company A, killed
·       Charles Ernest, Company A, slightly wounded
·       Bernard F. Greene, Company A, killed
·       Raleigh Poole, Company A, slightly wounded
·       Robert Foster, Company B, slightly wounded
·       Boyce Miller, Company B, wounded
·       Daniel Dunwoody, Company C, slightly wounded
·       Cecil Joiner, Company C, slightly wounded
·       James H. Wooden, Company C, slightly wounded

While Burton chafed in a hospital writing of his desire to return to the 151st, his comrades continued to press the attack. As they did so, they were unable to receive food and resupply through their battalion supply chains as they were dependent upon their supported infantry units. Nevertheless, Pfc. James Guerry heroically volunteered to deliver food to Soldiers at the front lines. While engaged in one such resupply trip on July 31, 1918, Guerry was killed.

Other casualties of July 31, 1918:

·       Pvt. Edgar Bateman, Company A slightly wounded
·       Cpl. Robert H, Farkas, Company A, slightly wounded
·       Pvt. Thomas Hollis, Company A, killed
·       Pfc. John Tinker, Company. A wounded
·       Cpl. James T. Whittlesey, Company A, slightly wounded
·       Pvt. Fred Ligon, Company C, wounded
·       Pfc. William A. Marion, Company A, slightly wounded

Casualties of August 1, 1918:

·       Pfc. John T. Ozburn, Company A, slightly wounded.
·       Capt. James Palmer, Company A, wounded (gassed)
·       Pvt. Hoke S. Palmer, Company A, slightly wounded
·       Cpl. James C. Dismuke, Company C, slightly wounded

Casualties of August 3, 1918:

·       Sgt. Willie G. Dickson, Company C, wounded

In addition to Pvt. Harkcom and Soldiers killed on July 28, 1918, Company D of the 151st MGB reported 33 Soldiers wounded in action.[iv]

Hill 212 and the 13th-century Church of Saint Brice dominate the landscape near Sergy, France. These hills and environs encompassed nearly one week of desperate combat in July and August 1918. Georgia National Guard photo by Maj. William Carraway 

As Burton’s letter was making its way from the hospital to his anxious family in Monroe, the 151st was pulled out of front-line positions for the first time in nearly a week of constant combat. On August 6, 1918, Col. Douglas MacArthur was given command of the 84th Brigade becoming the youngest general officer in the army. In the coming campaign he would heed Winn’s advice and deploy the 151st MGB as a battalion rather than parceling them off to individual infantry battalions. Winn’s theories would be put to the test during the St. Mihiel offensive.

Next Chapter:  St. Mihiel

---

[i] 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., 433-434

[ii] 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., 434-435

[iii] Robert G. Burton to Mrs. R. F. Burton. August 2, 1918

[iv] 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, 104

July 27-28 1918: “Kill or Be Killed” – Crossing the Ourcq

by Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

This Signal Corps image of Marines of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, 2nd Division offers an example of how a squad of the Georgia National Guard’s
151st Machine Gun Battalion would have looked after emplacing one of their Hotchkiss Machine Guns. 

Following ferocious combat to secure the Croix Rouge Farm, German forces withdrew north to prepared defenses on the north bank of the Ourcq River. The companies of the 151st Machine Gun Battalion, moving with their supported infantry units followed, encountering little resistance along the way. Moving north through the wooded terrain of the Bois de Fer, the Soldiers reached Villers sur Fere about one kilometer south of the Ourcq River which meandered in a southeasterly direction.

If you were to stand on the northern outskirts of Villers sur Fere and look to the east you would behold a view very similar to that which confronted a Soldier of the 151st MGB one hundred years ago. Open fields of freshly-harvested wheat extend perhaps 1,500 meters to the northeast before a southeasterly running row of trees betrays the location of the Ourcq. The river itself is not imposing, at places not much more than a trickling stream. To the north and east, the terrain begins gentle rise over a distance of two kilometers. Halfway between the River and the heights dominating its crossing is the village of Sergy, a village of perhaps 300 residents. Rising beyond Sergy, the terrain culminates at a bowl-shaped prominence. Hill 212, as the high ground was designated, rose a full 200 feet above the Ourcq River crossing site. This heavily defended German strong point would pose a deadly challenge to the attacking American Soldiers.

Southern view from the crest of Hill 212. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

The 42nd Division commenced the crossing of the Ourcq River at daylight on July 28th. Cpl. Robert Gober Burton, writing after the war, described the assault.

Pfc. Paul Hearn, Macon, Ga. killed in action
July 28 1918.  

Long before dawn word was passed to be up and ready to move. So, everyone was up and ready to go about his job of kill or be killed. When the first faint streaks of light lit the sky, we moved forward to the attack.

The first thing we did was discard all blankets and equipment except your reserve rations.

This done, we moved out close on the flanks of the attacking wave. On the banks of the Ourcq the fighting became pretty hot and the Infantry went to it with the bayonet. Slowly but surely the Dutch gave up their precious crossing of the Ourcq to the reckless bravery of the American doughboys. It was here that we lost our first men in action during the whole of the five months that we had been in the line we had not lost a man killed.

Corp. Frank Enters and gunner Paul Hearn, two of the best men in the Battalion were the first to go.[i]

First Lt. Vivian Roberts, a platoon leader in Company A, 151st MGB recalled the attack.

At daylight, July 28th we learn from a patrol which had been out, that the enemy had fallen back during the night. We leap frog the battalion then in line and advance by platoons in formation against heavy infantry fire. It was during this advance that a “whiz bang” killed Corporal Enters and Private Paul Hearn Jr. and seriously wounded Private Anderson.[ii]

The final resting place of Cpl. Frank Enters of Company A, 151st Machine Gun Battalion in the Oise Aisne Cemetery, Seringes-et-Nesles, France. 

Pvt. Herman K. Davis, Zebulon, Ga. killed
in action, July 28, 1918

Moving forward under the same barrage of enemy artillery fire was Pvt. Kenneth Cross of Company C, 151st MGB. In a post-war application for disability, Cross recalled:

Just beyond the east bank of the (Ourcq) River, while advancing, a high explosive hit twenty-five feet to my right hurling a lump of solid earth against my right knee.[iii]

Cross stated that he had refused medical treatment for his injury.

Owing to heavy loss in our company I would have been terribly criticized for running away when men with flesh wounds were staying.[iv]

Despite enemy resistance, the men of the 151st MGB were able to establish firing positions. Cpl. Walter Binford of Company B, who had been wounded in the engagement at Croix Rouge Farm recalled the advance.

Overlooking Sergy was a hill, known as 212. We captured the hill and attacked the town.  After desperate street fighting, we drove the enemy out, but before he could organize, a counter attack drove us out and the enemy retook the town.  During the day this happened nine times.  About the fourth attempt the Germans counter attacked and were coming up Hill 292 and I caught a company with my machine gun and forced them to stop their advance.[v]

Pvt. Thomas Blissitt, Juliette, Ga.
Killed in action July 28, 1918

Moving forward with Binford’s Company B in support of the 167th Infantry Regiment was Company A of the 151st MGB. Roberts continues his narrative:

I was then ordered to take my platoon forward and drive back the machine guns that were holding up our advance. We realized that many of us would not return so we stripped down as light as possible leaving our packs and canteens and only carrying our gas masks, arms and ammunition.  I then went forward with the first two guns and crawled to the right front and sent Sgt. Grant forward to the left front with the other two guns.[vi]

During the confusion of the advance, the units of Company A and B intermingled as related by Binford:

While firing on (a German) company back of the hedge row, an officer and a platoon of (Company A) came up and wanted me to go down back of the hedge row and fire on the town in preparation of the next attack. I told him that the Germans were back of the hedge row, but he would not believe me and took his platoon down there.[vii]

Roberts relates further the actions of his platoon.

Pvt. Thomas Otis Knight, Macon, Ga. Killed in action
July 28, 1918.

About 200 yards away were five or six Germans who seemed to have a machine gun; several of them raised their rifles and took a pot shot at me. I ducked and heard the bullets singing over my head. I was standing near one of the nests they had previously occupied. It consisted of three square holes about three feet deep neatly camouflaged by wheat straw… 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.[viii]

While Roberts had been delivered to the relative safety of a shell hole, Binford continued to advance.

I was standing, talking to a friend by the name of Little, when a shell burst right over the gun, hit me twice in the right arm, severely wounding Little and killing two men directly behind me.  As I struggled to get up, another shell burst right over me, killing Little and severely wounding me with a piece in my lung. The tide of battle swept over me, part of the time I was surrounded by the enemy and part by the Americans.[ix]

As the day wore on, Roberts found himself surrounded by the enemy.

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

I was in such pain and hearing footsteps on the edge of the shell hole I looked up and found four Germans looking down at me.  One of them spoke to me in French asking me if I was badly wounded.  He sat down on the edge of the shell hole and began to talk to me, the other three going on further down the hill to snipe on our boys… Just about dark, it began to drizzle rain and the German who had been talking to me came back and taking his blanket from his pack, tucked it around me, telling me he would be back at ten o’clock that night to take me back.[x]

Roberts would spend the rest of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Germany. Meanwhile, Binford’s fortunes were somewhat better.

Finally, the stretcher bearers got to me and started carrying me off the field. As I was being carried off, a German aviator flying up and down our lines, spraying us with his machine gun, waved to me. When I got to the field dressing station they gave me anti-tetanus serum and put four of us in an ambulance to the evacuation hospital. Two died on the way. After a nightmare of a ride, we arrived at the evacuation hospital. There they operated on me and took out the bullets. When I came out of the ether, the bullets were tied in a little bag at my wrist, which I intended to keep as a souvenir. The next afternoon I was put on a hospital train and started to the base hospital to be nursed back to health.[xi]

With Roberts and Binford out of action, Burton resumes the narrative:

Time after time, six to be exact, the doughboys hurled themselves on an unbroken line of machine guns. The little village of Sergy changed hands six times in that one short day. The seventh time it was taken at the point of the bayonet and held.

During all the while an aeroplane had been circling overhead and raking us with machine guns. The most demoralizing thing in the world.

Advancing as far as was possible and to a terrace on Hill (212) we dug in and prepared to beat off counter attacks.

During the night, all men stood-too ready for the expected counter attack but it never came. With nothing to eat and water that came from the river which was choked with dead men and horses and the sun beating down it was rather an uncomfortable place.

With the coming of the dawn it was up and over again but those machine guns could not be moved by mere human bravery and again we were held.

A check was made to determine our strength. We had lost 16 men killed and seventy wounded.[xii]

The Soldiers of the 151st MGB killed or mortally wounded in action on July 28, 1918:

The final resting place of Pvt. Martin S. Cover
of Company D, 151st Machine Gun Battalion
in the Oise Aisne Cemetery, Seringes-et-Nesles,
France. Photo by Maj. William Carraway

Pfc. Martin Cover, Company D

Pvt. David Davis, Company D

Pvt Carroll Fanus, Company D

Pfc Paul Hearn, Company A

Pvt. Aaron Jenkins, Company D

Pvt. Thomas Otis Knight, Company A

Pvt. James G. Mason, Company B.

Pvt. Ernest P. McWilliams, Company A

Cpl. Martin L. Moore, Company D.

Pvt George Smith, Company D

Pvt Jack Taylor, Company A

Pfc. John G. Walter, Company D

Pvt. Fred White, Company D

Pvt. Melvin Wilson, Company A

Pvt Harry Wright, Company D

Also killed in action was Pfc. Robert McClain, a Georgia National Guard Soldier who served in the 150th Machine Gun Battalion, 42nd Division. 

 

Next Chapter: “I Have Been Wounded”

---

[i] Robert G. Burton to Mrs. R. F. Burton. June 27, 1919

[ii] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 436

[iii] Kenneth Cross, Disability affidavit, n.d

[iv] Ibid

[v] Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 12

[vi] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 436

[vii] Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 12

[viii] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 437

[ix] Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 13

[x] Henry J. Reilly, Brig. Gen., O.R.C., Americans All: The Rainbow at War. F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1936, 43

[xi] Walter Binford Diary, n.d., 13

[xii] Robert G. Burton to Mrs. R. F. Burton. June 27, 1919

Operation Deathless: The Georgia Guard's 1958 Labor Day Mission

by Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

For more than 120 years, Georgia National Guard Citizen Soldiers, operating out of armories across the state, have partnered with state and local responders in times of emergency. But in September 1958, the Georgia Guard and Georgia State Patrol combined forces in unique emergency mission.

ELBERTON, Ga. September 1958 - Georgia Army National Guard Lt. Col. John P. Wallis identifies 

a roadblock position on a map for Georgia Guard Soldiers of the Elberton-based 950th Antiaircraft 

Artillery Battalion.  This Operation Deathless patrol was composed of Specialist 3 Lavasque, 

Sgt. Maxwell, Master Sgt. Cordell and Capt. John Shirreffs, all of Headquarters Company.  

- Georgia Guard Archives

At the direction of the Governor of Georgia, Maj. Gen. Charlie Camp, Adjutant General of the Georgia National Guard ordered more than 600 Guardsmen to state active duty over the Labor Day weekend for an unprecedented mission of public safety. The Guardsmen, representing more than 30 units from across the state took to the roads and skies in partnership with the Georgia State Patrol to spread a message of traffic safety and to prevent traffic accidents and deaths associated with increased holiday traffic.

A 12 by 18 inch placard used during Operation Deathless. Georgia Guard Archives

Operation Deathless, as it was called, was conceived by the Governor as a means to prevent 14 predicted traffic fatalities over the holiday weekend. On the ground, more than 100 National Guard Jeeps, prominently adorned with the 12 by 18-inch Operation Deathless sign with two skull and cross-bones logos were positioned to deter and assist motorists. Guardsmen in radio-equipped jeeps maintained road blocks and observation points at key intersections and highways. Though Guardsmen had no arresting authority they provided back up to law enforcement, detained intoxicated drivers and stopped cars with defective headlights. Georgia Guardsmen also delivered 20,000 letters from the Governor on motor safety most notably to motorists entering Georgia from neighboring states. The Guardsmen also rendered aid to stranded motorists with flat tires, stalled vehicles and other minor problems. 

TOCCOA, Ga. September 1958 - Georgia State Troopers and National Guard Soldiers distribute a letter from Governor Marvin Griffin urging motorists 

to drive safely over the Labor Day weekend during Operation Deathless. More than 600 Georgia Guardsmen and 500 state troopers participated 

in the four-day event designed to reduce motor vehicle fatalities.  Georgia Guard Archives

In addition to the robust ground effort, twenty Georgia National Guard helicopter and fixed wing aircraft also took to the air to advise Georgia State Patrol of reckless drivers. One pilot reported an incident in which a motorist was exceeding the speed of his Cessna L-19 which had a top speed of 100 miles per hour.

ATLANTA, September 1958 – Georgia Army National Guard Col. W. R. Robinette, Lt. Col Emmett. Plunkett and Capt. Robert Sprayberry plan aerial surveillance
of highways near Atlanta during Operation Deathless, an information campaign created by Governor Marvin Griffin to reduce traffic fatalities over the
Labor Day Weekend. – Georgia Guard Archives

Operating 24 hours a day from 6:00 pm Friday to Midnight on Monday, The Georgia Guardsmen worked with State and local law enforcement officials to spread the word about highway safety and to respond to those in need. As a result of their combined efforts traffic fatalities fell well below the predicted level of 14 with only eight lives lost over the long travel weekend.

Source:

"Operation Deathless Holds Ga. Fatalities to 8 as Guard Patrols Hwys. Labor Day." Georgia Guardsman Magazine, 8-9.

July 19-26, 1918: "A hurricane of fire, small arms, machine guns and artillery."

by Maj. William Carraway

Historian, Georgia Army National Guard

The 42nd Division Monument at the Croix Rouge Farm, Fere en Tardenois, France.  Photo by Maj. William Carraway

With the German offensive in the Champagne region blunted, Marshall Ferdinand Foch was at last able to launch a counter offensive to reduce the Marne salient. Accordingly, attacks by the French and 1st American Division to the west had pushed German forces and isolated those forces along the Marne River where the American 4th and 26 Divisions were also vigorously pressing forward with French divisions. By July 23, the Germans had begun to retire to a new line of defense along the Ourcq River[i] leaving behind enemy machine gun squads and rear-guard units tasked with protecting the German redeployment and harassing the advancing Allies.