Text : Christian Defrance 11

Americans, from La Fayette to Lorette

ONG LIVE America! On 13 June 1917, around two hundred tains. War is declared in Europe. Whilst on leave, it was American soldiers and civilians disembarked in Boulogne- The Rockwell brothers, Paul and discovered that Hall Lsur-Mer. At their head was General Pershing, commander-in- Kiffin, buoyed by a spirit of “liberty, was American, which chief of the American Expeditionary Force. America was ready to equality and fraternity”, write resulted in his demo- “finish the job in Europe”, and its participation in the Great War to the French consul general in bilisation. This sol- would be one of the keys to the Allied victory. On 11 November New Orleans in order for them “to dier-author was quick 1918, a total of two million “Doughboys” or “Sammies” – pay their share of the debt to to relate his terrible nicknames for soldiers from the U.S.A. – were in France, a million Lafayette and Rochambeau”. experiences in a book, of whom had already seen combat; and Foch, Pétain and Pershing They didn’t wait for the reply which “Kitchener’s Mob”. already had plans for the involvement of four and a half million was a long time coming and took He returned to France men in 1919. By the end of the war, more than 100,000 the first available ship, to as part of the Lafayette Americans had lost their lives, and 200,000 had Liverpool, on 3 August squadron and covered been wounded, in places such as Saint-Mihiel, 1914. From here they himself with glory as a Château-Thierry, the Argonne, Marne and Meuse. travelled to Le Havre captain in the U.S. Air This “official story” has somewhat eclipsed the and Paris, and quickly Force, receiving the participation of American volunteers in the conflict on to the French Legion Légion d’Honneur. In well before the U.S.A.’s official entry into the war in on 30 August. Training 1920, James Norman the spring of 1917. followed in Rouen, Hall and his friend Toulouse and the Mailly left A “Doughboy” with a determined look. In August 1914, a few days after given that the camp, before they were for Tahiti, embarking Photo: Hugues Chevalier documentary collection the German attack on Belgium, United States was “plunged” into the on one of the most 43 young Americans started their not yet at war with trenches. Wounded at famous collaborations in American From Massachusetts training with the famous Foreign the German Empire. the Chemin des Dames, literature as the authors of the Far from the somewhat romantic Legion. Their motivation? Quite These volunteers Paul left active service “” trilogy. image of the “American colony in simply, their love of France, and the would see action in and became the war cor- Paris”, many U.S. citizens signed defence of their beloved freedom... some of the bloodiest respondent for the Chicago Weeks up with British or Canadian regi- plus, of course, a taste for adven- battles of the Great War, including Daily News. In 1925, he fought mother and son ments prior to 1917, often using ture! These Americans, the majo- the French offensive which began in the Rif War and served in the Kenneth Weeks was born in a pseudonym and recruited via rity of whom were either intellec- on 9 May 1915 (Neuville-Saint- American army during the Second Chestnut Hill, a suburb of , Canadian and British missions. This tuals, students or artists (such as Vaast, Carency, La Targette, Les World War. Born in 1892, Kiffin on 30 December 1889. He was edu- is how, for example, W. Chadwick the poets Alan Seeger and Henry Ouvrages Blancs) and culminated was wounded for the first time in cated at the Massachusetts Institute from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Farnsworth), found themselves in the capture of the Notre-Dame- December 1914. Having recovered of Technology then the Beaux-Arts Welsh Fusiliers, killed in action alongside Spanish, Greek and de-Lorette hill. from his injuries, he joined up with in Paris, and planned to make a on 15 September 1918, came to be Swiss (including the writer Blaise the Moroccan Division and was career in architecture. Kenneth buried in the Five Points Cemetery Cendrars) volunteers. Why the The Rockwell wounded a second time, this time loved writing, Paris and France; on in Léchelle. He was just 15 years Foreign Legion? This was the only brothers in the leg, during the charge on La 21 August 1914, he enlisted in the old. Fifteen! Research has unco- option that would ensure that they Asheville, North Carolina, in a Targette on 9 May 1915. Six weeks Foreign Legion, spending the winter vered the identity of this “teenage kept their American citizenship, valley in the Appalachian moun- of convalescence followed. Kiffin of 1914 in the trenches. On 17 June soldier”, who was William Hesford, was transferred to air duties and, 1915, the American was reported born in Massachusetts, and wit- Kiffin Rockwell, on the left, and fellow legionnaires in the trenches. along with his compatriots Thaw, missing near Souchez, and his body hout doubt the youngest American Photo: www.scuttlebuttsmallchow.com Cowdin, McDonnell, Prince, Hall was recovered on 25 November and soldier to die in the Great War. and others, he became part of the buried in the cemetery in Écoivres, Several hundred soldiers from famous “Lafayette squadron”. near Mont-Saint-Éloi. His mother, Massachusetts have also been iden- On 18 May 1916, he shot down his Alice Standish Weeks, lived in Paris tified. first German plane over Alsace. from 1915 onwards, providing a Kiffin Rockwell was to become “the lodging in her home for volunteers Metcalf from Maine king of the skies” as a result of his on leave, and writing to them on In August 1914, the mother of 141 successful combat missions, a very regular basis. Some of this 20-year-old William Metcalf learnt which earned him the Military correspondence from “Maman that he had left Waite, in Maine, Medal and the Croix de Guerre. Légionnaire” (Mother of the and crossed the nearby Canadian On 23 September, he was killed Legion”), as she was affectionately border in order to enlist in the by an explosive bullet during an known, was subsequently published. army. She immediately contacted aerial duel near the place where he the authorities for them “to return enjoyed his first victory. In a letter her son”. Upon disembarking in to his brother, Kiffin wrote: “If England, William was called by the France should lose, I feel that I American ambassador. Are you the should no longer want to live”. young man whose mother is waiting for you at home in Maine? “I’m not From Loos that man”, William replied. “I’m to the Bounty from New Brunswick!” – a sta- An adventurer, soldier, fighter tement confirmed by his colonel. pilot and writer who lived in Iowa, The ambassador was powerless to London, Loos-en-Gohelle and do anything. Four years later, on 2 Tahiti: this is the incredible life September 1918, William Henry story of James Norman Hall, born Metcalf, one of the heroes of the in Colfax, Iowa, in 1887. In August Battle of the Drocourt-Quéant 1914, he found himself in London, Line, was awarded the presti- where he passed himself off as gious Victoria Cross. Following a Canadian in order to enlist as the Armistice, he returned to his one of Lord Kitchener’s very first native Maine, where he embarked volunteers. In September 1915, James Norman Hall, from the Battle on a career as a mechanic. He died he took part in the Battle of Loos, of Loos to the Mutiny on the Bounty. in South Portland on 8 August where his company was decimated. Photo: D.R. 1968.