Brodhead's Tribute to her Men of the Service

1914-1918

Compiled by The Civics Club

©1921 Brodhead, Wisconsin (Cantwell Printing Co., Madison, Wis.)

With the Boys

WITH HEADQUARTERS COMPANY.

355th Infantry, 89th Division.

Rockwell Barnes.

(pp. 46-48)

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I entered Camp Grant April 1, 1918. After four weeks of intensive training, our Brigade received orders to move. We

boarded trains and after riding twenty-four hours, found ourselves at Camp Funston, Kansas, the home of the 89th Division and Major General Wood.

I was assigned immediately to the Signal Platoon of the Headquarters Company, 355th Infantry.

 

Enroute for France.

On May 21, 1918, the first units of the regiment left Camp Funston for the east. It was a typical day at the Kansas camp,

windy and thick with dust. The second allotment of troops left on May 22, wading through mud and water sometimes knee deep. Many of the new men had just come from the detention camps. More than half of them had no drill of any kind and had only just felt of a rifle without knowing the user of bayonet or grenades or any of the other weapons used by the infantry. Most of them had been in the service either two or four weeks.

The regiment reached New York on May 24-25 and was encamped at Camp Mills on Long Island. The three days' trip

had taken the men on the various roads through the states, but in all cases it had been through a long succession of cheering towns and cities.

At this time General Wood was relieved of his command of the division and Brigadier General Frank L. Winn was

placed in charge of the same for the trip overseas.

On June 3rd, the regiment entrained from Camp Mills and boarded two White Star liners at Hoboken, the "Baltic" and

the "Adriatic." The first battalion with other troops were on the "Adriatic" and the other parts of the regiment with numerous other troops and several hundred nurses, were on the "Baltic."

The convoy containing a dozen transports, sailed from New York on June 4th, shortly after the German submarine

appeared off that coast. the convoy headed north from the regular line of crossing, accompanied for a time by destroyers and air craft of all descriptions. Zig-zagging to the north-east for thirteen days, the convoy neared the frigid zone and came upon its guiding and guarding fleet of "chasers" north of the coast of Ireland.

Memories of the journey overseas contain mostly thoughts of seasickness, drills and alarms, and the increasingly early

hour at which reveille came as the ships headed west. "Chest protectors," meaning life preservers and "Australian Hare," unsavory dishes, bring back a flood of recollections. The "Hole," dining room for the men who herded in and out like cattle, the narrow bunks, the constant alarms of submarines and the continual whistling and signaling by day and night. To add to the interest of the trip there was the "Mystery Ship," the English jackie with his picturesque vocabulary and the hills always ahead and the staggered wake behind the twisting ship.

 

The Regiment of England.

On the early morning of June 16, 1918, the convoy with its flotilla of chasers and destroyers passed through the channel

between Ireland and Scotland, the graveyard of many vessels during the war. For two hours while the line of transports headed through the narrows, the men stood on deck ready for the ever expected warning to make ready for the worst.

Nothing happened however and the convoy speeded south into daylight with no disturbance of the water except the

constant nosing about of the smaller protecting ships. That afternoon the ships docked in the Liverpool harbor waiting for the daylight on the 17th to unload.

Through Liverpool in a drizzling rain and out again by way of special trains with only a glimpse of the first English city and

the welcoming letter from King George given to all Americans arriving in England. Again as in America the course of the train was like a triumphal journey with hundreds of people along the right of way through the almost continuous cities and towns, women and children only, waving greetings to the newcomers.

The trains were routed to Romsey, Eng., and the regiment was marched to an American rest camp under English

direction, known as Camp Woodley and located on a portion of the famous Salisbury Plains. Here the regiment trained for a week, drilling and marching along the country lanes and narrow roads, dodging the left handed driving of the English people and the many bicycle riders.

 

Arrival in France.

On June 24, 1918, the regiment minus only companies F, H and K marched to Southampton and took passage that

night on a small steamer to Le Havre, France. The three remaining companies left Romsey eight days later and followed the regiment into the training area of France. The night on ship, crossing to Le Havre, is another trip that will live in the memory of those who were there. Piled two and three deep on the lower deck after the chill of the channel had made sleep impossible and uncomfortable, asleep in, under and on top of piled equipment, land never looked better than the French shore did the morning of June 25th.

At Le Havre the regiment waited only one day, high on the bluffs above the city. An English bath, combination of sweat

and cold shower and the first warning of airplane raids were memorable events there. The afternoon of June 26th, the regiment marched through Le Havre city proper, to the station where it entrained for the Vosges, training area of the division. That was the first experience the men of the regiment had in the famous "8 horse, 40 men" cars of the French railway system and the experience was not altogether pleasant. The night of June 27th, the first units of the regiment arrived at Liffol le Grande and were billeted over night. The following morning the march to the interior training area began, the regiment finally settling in the three towns, Allianville, Brechainville and Grand. The town of Grand was regimental headquarters for the month of training there.

This location was within sight of the "Toul" front, first sector used for training troops by both the French and Americans.

During the stay in these three towns the regiment and divisions were put through final polishing processes, given intensive training under actual war conditions as near as was possible and were made ready for active participation in the struggle ahead.

 

The First Engagement.

The first battalion of the 355th Infantry was the first unit to take over any of the active front for the division. On August

4th, it relieved the 327th Infantry of the position near Beaumont, coming from Trondes by narrow gauge railway to arrive in time. The remainder of the regiment and the division as well was placed by August 10th, but three days before that the 355th Infantry in company with the 354th Infantry had suffered its first severe casualties and had had its baptism of fire.

For six hours, during the relief from 10 P.M. to 4 A.M. on the night of August 7-8, the front trenches east of Beaumont

and in the vicinity of the Jury woods, was subjected to a severe gas shell bombardment. It was the first experience under fire for the men of the first battalion and the auxiliary troops. It took a toll of 57 killed and 273 wounded, some of the latter dying in hospitals, from the regiment and more than as many from the other regiment. The initiation was severe and costly but in no wise diminished the morale of the troops and the conduct of the new men during the trying time was not unnoticed nor unmentioned by the officers of the American or French armies.

The first battalion had suffered so greatly from the first engagement in an area which it was not necessary to occupy, but

which they had been told to hold at all costs, that the lines were withdrawn to more favorable positions where gas would work less damage. The regiment or any part of it was never again subjected to such a concentrated gas attack. Gas discipline was observed and no blame was ever given to any one for the casualties of the early engagement. The long period in the gassed area, made necessary before relief could be affected, increased the number of casualties very greatly.

At the time the division was serving under the 32nd French Army Corps. Later it was taken over by the 4th American

Army corps and still later by the First American Army. The regiment continued in the front lines with various battalions, conducting raids, patrolling the enemy wire, gathering information to be used later in the St. Mihiel offensive and capturing a number of prisoners who gave valuable information to headquarters.

Beaumont was once subjected to an intense barrage by the Germans for an hour, after which the Americans prepared to

meet a charge which never developed. Training, so far as possible under the conditions, was continued in the towns where troops were billeted back of the front line positions.

 

The War Record of our Regiment.

FIGURES.

Final count registered the following figures for the 355th Infantry regiment, according to the preliminary divisional history,

	Officers	Enlisted Men
Gassed	15	404
Slight Wounds	11	290
Severe Wounds	15	400
Wounded (degree unknown)	1	400
Killed and died of wounds	8	248
Died	1	7
Missing	1	19
Total Casualties	52	1416

The Division Captured,

Officers	Men	Large Guns	Machine Guns
192	4869	127	455

Advanced 48 kilometers in the front line during 90 days of front line occupation.

 

Decorations.

Preliminary orders following the armistice indicated that the regiment would accompany the First, Second and Forty-

second divisions in the first wave of the march in Germany toward the Rhine river. General Frank L. Winn had resumed command of the division on Nov. 12th, the 355th Infantry being sent a short distance back from the Meuse river to Barricourt and small towns in that vicinity for a period of rest and training. There they remained during the trying time of uncertainty as to the next move and hundreds of rumors misquoting plans and information. While there the division received its first citations and decorations. According to the divisional record the following honors were bestowed upon the division, during its stay in Europe:

Congressional Medals of Honor	8
Distinguished Service Cross	115
Distinguished Service Medals	2
Croix de Guerre	67
Belgian Cross Le Ordre Leopold	1
Belgian Croix de Guerre	2
Legion d'honueur	3
Military Medal (French)	3

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