World War I – It begins
The French and British were excitedly awaiting the arrival of American engineers. When they arrived they went to work building slips for troop ships to unload. They built 82 slips in four cities on the northern coast of France. The railroad engineers laid almost a thousand miles of track connecting the ports, and another thousand of narrow gauge rail of switch tracks to move supplies. Forestry engineers cut millions of board feet of lumber for trenches at the front and cross ties for the railroads. German spies were shocked, they couldn’t believe what they were seeing, and their reports back to their supervisors were ignored.
American troops and supplies were pouring into France at an astonishing rate. Two engineers at the front were wounded by artillery fire and became the first American casualties of the War. But it would be Oct. 21 near Nancy, France, that the American 1st Division would fire the first American shot of the war. Cpl. Robert Bralet, 6th Artillery, fired the shot from a French 75mm gun into a German trench a half mile away.
For an Army that started with a total of 100,000 men, over two million would see combat in Europe. They fought with the French and British at the Western front, and with the Italians against the Austrians at the Southern front. A total of 116,000 American servicemen would die during WWI, over 50,000 combat deaths.
Back in Georgia things were topsy turvy. Newspapers in the state had been adamant in their writing against the war. Now, with the declaration the Selective Service enacted and troops pouring into the state for training, the newspapers shifted gears. They began to warn of German spies, especially along the coast, and the loyalty of many was questioned.
Poor farmers, especially those with Populist leanings, were forced to buy war bonds. They would drape an American flag around their plows while working. The state school superintendent encouraged all Georgia school teachers to take a loyalty oath, and most stopped teaching German history, art and literature.
Over 100,000 Georgians served in WWI. Three thousand of that number died either in combat or from disease. One strange incident was the Otronto tragedy.
The Otronto was a British liner that had been converted into a troop ship. On Sept. 25, 1918, she was one day from port when a gale force storm came up. Another converted troop ship, the Kashmir, rammed the Otronto, cutting a large hole in her side. Taking on water, she lost all power and was washed into the rocky coast of an Irish island. She sank quickly, claiming the lives of 370 American servicemen, of which 130 were Georgians. Among the dead was Lindale’s Marvin J. Stansell.
Floyd County lost 34 men in WWI. It was about half and half between combat deaths and disease, with stateside training accidents claiming two. Later in the 1920’s the United Daughters of the Confederacy planted 34 magnolia trees at Myrtle Hill cemetery in honor of the 34 that paid the ultimate price.
Some of those from Floyd County were Sgt. Raymond Lee Johnson, Robert McClain, George Franklin McGinnis (from Cave Spring, buried in the American cemetery outside of Paris), Pvt. Addis E. Moore, Yeoman Julius Clyde Price, Cpl. Michael Satterfield, Lt. Almeron Walton Shanklin, Sgt. Pennie Spann, Pvt. Lonzo Stager ( from Lindale, killed in action July 22, 1918), Pvt. Ragland Bergwall, Lt. Lofton Stamp (from Rome, killed in an aeroplane accident), Cpl. Marvin Stansell, Sgt. Clifford Washington and Pvt. James Weems (Cave Spring, died from pneumonia).
The American Expeditionary Force was engaged in 13 campaigns in 1917-1918: Battle of Cambrai, Somme defensive, Battle of Lys, Battle of Cantigny, Montdidier-Noyon, Champagne-Marne, Aisne-Mame, Somme offensive, Oise-Aisne, Ypres-Lys, St. Mihiel (this was the largest force of Americans ever assembled for a single battle, Pershing had 500,000 troops with him at St. Mihiel), Meuse-Argonne and Vittorio Veneto.
One battle that has to be mentioned is the Battle of Belleau Wood, during the Marine campaign in June of 1918. Out of the American forces involved was a Marine division. This Marine Corps had been reconstructed from Civil War days and was untested in a foreign war. It remains the standard by which Marines have conducted themselves since, from the famous battles in the south Pacific, the Chosen reservoir, Vietnam, and Fallujah.
Soon after the Marines arrived at the front, a French officer ordered a retreat. Marine Capt. Lloyd Williams answered “Retreat Hell! We just got here.” Germans said later the Marines fought like “Devil Dogs,” they had none of the French live and let live in them. They climbed trees to get better shots at German soldiers, and fired upon them as they ran between the trenches. He said they only had one thing on their mind, and that was to kill Germans. Capt. Williams would be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously.
It had taken four years, but with the arrival of seemingly unlimited men and supplies from the United States, with the huge industrial power now unleashed, the stalemate that was WWI seemed to be shifting to the allied countries.
Russia was out of the war. The Czars had abdicated the throne, and the country was in chaos. Russia had been the oldest and most authoritarian of any of the competing powers, and had disintegrated. They were only the first.
In Africa, where all the European combatants were colonial powers, they tried to enforce a “no combat’ truce among themselves in order to maintain their interests. It failed, and over a million died in Africa.
Just when it seemed nothing could get worse ... here came the Spanish Flu.