Machine Gunner’s Notes, France 1918 [Illustrated Edition]

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Text originally published in 1920 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

A Machine Gunner’s Notes

France 1918

BY

LIEUTENANT COLONEL, CHARLES M. DUPUY U. S. INFANTRY, R. C.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

DEDICATION 5

ON RETURNING FROM FRANCE 6

311th MACHINE GUN DEDICATED TO MAJOR CHARLES M. DUPUY by PRIVATE CLARENCE GASKILL 7

PREFACE 9

PART ONE 11

CHAPTER I — THE AWAKENING 11

CHAPTER II — THE REALIZATION 14

CHAPTER III — ON SEA 27

SHIP CONSTRUCTION 28

THE TROOPS AT SEA 29

THE TRAIL OF THE CONVOY 29

SMOKING AND LIGHTS 30

LOOKOUTS 30

SHIP’S TIME 31

PART TWO 33

CHAPTER I — NEW EXPERIENCES 33

CHAPTER II — THE SECOND TRAINING AREA 41

CHAPTER III — ENTRAINING FOR AN ADVANCED POSITION 44

CHAPTER IV — TRENCH LIFE 48

CHAPTER V — THE GREAT STRUGGLE OF SEPTEMBER 26th, 1918 57

CHAPTER VI — THE TROYON SECTOR—RELIEVING THE YANKEE DIVISION 77

CHAPTER VII — THE WORK OF THE 79th DIVISION IN THE BATTLE OF THE ARGONNE 80

NOTES 97

CHAPTER VIII — GAS 97

CHAPTER IX — COURT-MARTIAL 99

CHAPTER X — LOYALTY AT HOME 101

CHAPTER XI — OVER-SEAS 104

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 110

THE AMERICANS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR ILLUSTRATION PACK 111

DEDICATION

DEDICATED TO MY OLD PAL

BENJAMIN F. HEWIT

WHO FELL ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE ON THE AFTERNOON OF SEPTEMBER 29TH, 1918 IN THE ARGONNE-MEUSE OFFENSIVE NEAR MONTFAUCON, FRANCE

ON RETURNING FROM FRANCE

Here in my quiet study-room I sit

Among the masterpieces row on row—

Poet and dramatist and sage and wit—

The ones I loved before. And yet I know

Never again their lore and song shall hold

Entranced my soul. My thoughts are o’er the sea

In France, where on the crimsoned field we rolled

A torrent ‘gainst the foe. Oh, look with me!

By day the long, long file of men along

The dusty road; by night the scarlet glare

Across the sky; and then anon the song

Of Soldiers singing by the camp-fire’s flare!

Ah, I have tasted life too deep to look

For its reflection in a dreamer’s book!

CARL HOLLIDAY.

311th MACHINE GUN DEDICATED TO MAJOR CHARLES M. DUPUY by PRIVATE CLARENCE GASKILL

Who are the Boys who shoot the Gun

That Mr. Browning made,

Prepared to go to battle,

And they’re not a bit afraid?

Who are the Boys who came to France

From far across the Sea

To lick the German Kaiser,

And to fight for Liberty?

Chorus

The Three Eleventh Machine Gun,

Will make the son-of-a-Hun run

The Three Eleventh Machine

Gun Hurray, Boys, Hurray.

Who are the Boys who go to

N. C. O. and other schools

And load the Ammunition carts

And drive the frisky mules?

Who are the Boys who do K. P.

And details by the score,

And who would like to get the Guy

Who started all this War?

Chorus

Who is the Man who likes to see

The soldiers keeping step,

And when he sets the cadence

You can bet it’s full of pep?

Who is the man who brought

The three eleventh over here?

And when we do Battalion Drill,

Whose voice is loud and clear?

Chorus

His name is Major DuPuy,

Look out! Each Fritzie and Louie

Hurray for Major DuPuy

Hurray, Boys, Hurray.

LAFAYETTE, WE ARE HERE!

JOHN J. PERSHING.

Figure 1 - CAPTAIN BEN HEWIT

PREFACE

THESE notes are dedicated to the memory of a man who was my best friend, and in writing them and recalling him there comes to mind a letter written by the late President Theodore Roosevelt in reply to a consolatory one, on the death of his son Quentin, received from General March, Chief of Staff of the United States Army. President Roosevelt laments that General March, too, had experienced the loss of a son in the Great War and in his true characteristic manner sums up his feeling in the words,—

Naturally we are both grieving over the loss of a son, but I congratulate you, as I am now congratulating myself, in that it is a privilege to have had a son who died with his face to the enemy.

The feeling that led President Roosevelt to congratulate himself and General March on the privilege of giving his son for his Country is one that belongs to those who loved Captain Hewit. He enlisted because he felt it was his duty to fight against the desire of the German people for world domination, and he served under me for over four months as Commanding Officer of Company F of the 316th Infantry. He was a man of powerful physique, standing six feet, two with a weight of about two hundred and twenty pounds. When attending college, in his foot-ball days, he had been picked as an all-American guard.

He ruled his Company as an Officer should—utterly without fear. Absolutely ignoring his own safety in fighting, he inspired the utmost courage in his men, overlooking no delinquency, strict and impartial in punishing offenders, kind and considerate to those who were doing their best, and so, always holding them under perfect control, he represented the highest type of the American officer, winning and retaining the admiration and loyalty of every man in his Company.

Big Ben, as so many called him, and I were pals{1} almost from the moment we met until that never-to-be-forgotten day in the Argonne Forest when there came to me that almost unbelievable news of his death.

His Company had been designated as one of the mopper-up Companies when, on September 26th, the Argonne Forest attack was begun. As I watched his work I realized it was complete, for not a soldier was left in a German dugout or shelter—all were either killed or taken prisoner.

On September 28th, all available reserves were needed and Company F was rushed up to augment the depleted forces of the 313th Infantry then trying to take the Bois-de-Beuge. On the afternoon of the 29th, he received his first wound, a machine-gun bullet through his arm. Refusing to leave the field, he continued to encourage his men, leading them again and again against machine-gun nests under terrific machine-gun, rifle and artillery fire. A little later in the day, he was wounded a second time, this time by a sniper’s bullet. Before he consented to be carried from the field he turned over the command of his Company to one of his officers, telling the men who were near him that he expected them to continue to do their duty. While being carried from the field to a dressing-station, he was instantly killed by a high-explosive shell, which also took the lives of the three stretcher-bearers carrying him.

Because he showed such fortitude under the most adverse conditions and lent so much physically and morally to the final success of the attack, he was posthumously given the D. S. C. (Distinguished Service Cross) now so proudly worn by his bereaved Mother.

THE GIFTS

Three gifts there be which seem to me

The best that Heaven can send;

A chosen Book and a leisure hour,

A Hearth-fire and a Friend.

When joy grows dim and earth looks grim,

And all my hopes are furled,

A chosen Book can bear me off

Into another world.

The weather-vane may twist and strain,

The winds be wild and mad,

But where the Hearth-fire blazes high

It’s always warm and glad.

Yet of the three it seems to me,

There’s one stands far apart,

For Heaven’s greatest gift—a Friend,

Can cheer and warm the heart.

PART ONE

A MACHINE GUNNER’S NOTES FRANCE 1918

CHAPTER I — THE AWAKENING

THE French Nation had waited expectantly for many months for the arrival of the advance party of the American Army, and when that first small detail finally did come, it was only natural that the French, especially the military party, should be curious to see just how the Americans would stack up.

The French Nation has always been recognized as being a peculiarly sentimental people, and General Pershing seems to have had somewhat of that tendency in his make-up, because in his first public appearance on the balcony of his new headquarters in Paris, which were appropriately draped with French and American flags, he struck this sentimental chord, when, during a great ovation from the streets below, he drew a corner of the Tricolor towards him and reverently kissed its folds. He again popularized himself when he made the simple remark, which will probably go down in history as being identified with Pershing, when accompanied by his staff and various high French officials he went to the grave of Lafayette to lay a wreath upon his tomb, and as he placed this decoration over the tomb of the man who had once done so much for our Country, he spoke the four now famous words, LAFAYETTE, WE ARE HERE.

It is unique that such a great proportion of the higher commanders, both Army and Naval, present and past, are men who bear considerable sentiment in their characters, even though they have chosen as a life work the destruction of the property and lives of enemies of their country.

The day before Memorial Day of this year, (1918), Marshal Petain wrote General Pershing, I have invited French troops stationed near American cemeteries to go and salute their brothers-in-arms fallen for the safety of their Land and the Liberty of the world. Later, when you have left Europe, rest assured that the same rites will be rendered them and with the same fervor. The remembrance of these valorous men will endure in our hearts.

The Great Marshal Foch in his victory message to the Allied soldiers, after the signing of the Armistice, wrote:

"Officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Allied Armies, after having resolutely stopped the enemy, you have for months fought him with faith and indefatigable energy without respite. You have won the greatest war in history and saved the most sacred cause, the peace of the World. Be proud. You have adorned your flag with immortal glory. Posterity preserves for you its recognition.

Recalling General Pershing’s speech in the American grave-yard at Romagne on May 30th of this year, (1919), although the diction does not resemble in any way Lincoln’s Gettysburg speech, at the same time there are many ideas which must have been similar to those which were in Lincoln’s mind on that memorable occasion.

General Pershing spoke as follows before a great gathering of American and French soldiers:

"Memorial Day this year has for us a peculiar significance. Our Nation has taken an important part in the greatest war of history. With tremendous expenditure of life and treasure, an end has come to the terrible conflict which the world has witnessed for four years. It was a war against forces of conquest that had violated every law of humanity. It was waged against a militarism and a despotism and their arbitrary extension to