In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Seven • • Tactics On August 5, Colonel G. C. Barnhardt (W.P. 1892), a classmate of General Summerall’s, came to my headquarters and relieved me from the command of my fine regiment. It was a bitter blow. In the division telegram asking that I be relieved, it was recommended that I be transferred to another division. Fortunately for me, a good friend and classmate of mine, Brigadier General Robert C. Davis, was the adjutant general of the AEF. Writing him a long letter explaining the events that culminated in my relief from command, I asked him to get me another regimental command: that, if necessary, I was prepared to ask for a court of inquiry in order to prove every word of the statements I had written him. This letter I sent by motorcycle messenger to Chaumont. Almost immediately a telegram came ordering me to the Eighty-ninth Division. A real friend is a jewel without price. 1 Headquarters of the Eighty-ninth Division was at Lagney in the province of Meurthe et Moselle four miles north of Toul when I reported on August 7, 1918, but moved to Lucey, a mile south, a few days later. The division commander was Brigadier General Frank L. Winn (W.P. 1886). Colonel James E. Reeves (W.P. 1892) was the assigned commanding officer of the 353rd Infantry but, at this time, was in temporary command of the 177th Infantry Brigade while the assigned commander of that brigade 107 108 Reminiscences of Conrad S. Babcock (Winn) was commanding the division. I was assigned as temporary commander of Reeves’s regiment. The Eighty-ninth Division, one of the new National Army divisions, had been organized and trained at Camp Funston near Fort Riley, Kansas, under Major General Leonard Wood, from September, 1917, to June, 1918. By the middle of June, the Eighty-ninth was in camp near the cathedral city of Winchester, England. A few days later the division reached France via Cherbourg and Le Havre. Thereafter the division went through the training curriculum. Camps and their metropolitan equivalents, forts, were named after deceased officers; Major General Funston, the former colonel of the 20th Nebraska National Guard Regiment, promoted to general because of his capture of Aguinaldo, died in February, 1917. Each infantry company was equipped with 16 French Chauchat automatic rifles, machine gun companies with 16 Vickers guns each; hobnailed field shoes replaced the garrison russet shoe, the little overseas cap and steel helmet the felt campaign hat, and the gas mask became almost as much a part of the uniform as the blouse; wrapped cloth leggings were substituted for the canvas leggings. The blouse, worn by all officers and soldiers at this time, had a standing collar about an inch high, closed at the neck with two hook and eye fasteners and buttoned down the front with five dark (bronze, so called) buttons, also four outside bronze buttoned pockets. The dismounted breeches were worn, and the olive drab colored flannel shirt. In the trenches or when going into action, officers no longer wore the leather Sam Browne belt, which had proved itself to be a dangerously distinguishing mark. All officers, up to and including battalion commanders, carried the rifle. Neither of these simple devices to reduce casualties was in force in the First Division up to the time I left. At Soissons all officers wore the Sam Browne belt either with one or two leather cross belts and no rifles were carried. Well do I remember the pathetic sight of a tall slim kid second lieutenant lying dead near the narrow path in the Missy-aux-Bois ravine, his face covered with a handkerchief , his brand new light leather Sam Browne belt, possibly the target that drew the enemy bullet, buckled snugly around his waist and right shoulder. 8.118.195.162] Project MUSE (2024-04-19 05:53 GMT) 109 Tactics The belt was a requirement of General Pershing for all officers in the AEF, to distinguish them from officers in the United States. Browne was an officer of the British Indian Army who invented the belt to distinguish an officer, assist with averdupois, and hang equipment of sorts. The wartime U.S. Army chief of staff in the War Department in Washington, General Peyton C. March, considered the belt an affectation and forbade its wearing in the United States. The 353rd Infantry was a well organized, well disciplined regiment. I had never seen a more intelligent and finer appearing lot...

Share