1 Dyer County: Rural Americans Enter the Great War Denton Davolt
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Dyer County: Rural Americans Enter the Great War Denton Davolt History 499: Senior Seminar March 18, 2017 1 The Great War or World War I was a war of attrition and one of the most destructive wars the world has ever been fought. Over 40,000,000 people across the world became casualties in the war. The United States alone lost 116,516 service members.1 The Allied European nations suffered an estimated 22,570,830 casualties, which includes civilian causalities. The Central Powers suffered about 17,093,069 casualties. The Great War was chaotic and there are few told stories about those from rural areas that served and fewer stories about the rural home fronts. Most Americans are familiar with men like Sergeant Alvin C. York who captured over one hundred enemy combatants and earned the Medal of Honor, but not much has been told about the brave souls from Dyer County in Tennessee. The men and in some cases boys that went overseas were instrumental in helping to bring about the close of the Great War. Without those fresh American troops, the war could have lasted much longer. The American citizens at home also helped by rationing food and material goods to provide much needed materials and supplies for the war. During the war, 6,345 men from Dyer County registered for selective service also known as the draft. Dyer County had three drafts during the war. The first was on June 5th, 1917 and 2,515 registered. The second occurred between the months of June and August 1918 and 286 registered. The third was on September 12th, 1918 and 3,544 registered. 6,345 males registered for the draft. 889 were accepted at training camps. In addition to the draftees who were inducted into the Army, 360 men enlisted in the Army, National Guard, Navy, and Marines. Another 23 commissioned as officers in the Army and 4 earned commissions in the Navy. Dyer County provided 1,276 service members for the war. During the war, 78 were wounded and 53 died.2 In 1910 the population for Dyer County was 27,729 and the estimated population was 30,000 in 1917. By 1918, twenty-two percent of the total population was 2 registered for the draft and four percent of the population was serving in a branch of the military. Most served in the Army or National Guard which were sometimes combined because they received the same training. Normally, they served separately. Many enlisted in the National Guard to be able to get to fight in the Great War more quickly. When the Great War broke out, Dyer County did not have its own National Guard Unit. Tennessee formed the 2nd Tennessee Infantry and Dyer Countians joined Company K. After joining, some were transferred to the 117th Infantry, the 118th Infantry, and the 119th Infantry. These units became a part of the 30th Infantry Division. The 30th Infantry Division was formed at Camp Sevier, Greenville, South Carolina and included National Guard units from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. It also had men from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. 3 The 30th Infantry Division was nicknamed “Old Hickory” in honor of President Andrew Jackson.4 In the War of 1812, Jackson was a Tennessee statesman and led troops from Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. The 30th Division trained in Camp Sevier and then was split up into individual regiments for travel to France. Company K of the 119th Infantry had a majority of men from Dyer County. The 119th Infantry split even further for transportation over seas. The regiment split into four detachments so some officers and noncommissioned officers could receive extra training. A train to Camp Merritt, New Jersey transported all four detachments. They arrived on May 1st, 1918 and the noncommissioned officers were prepared for service overseas. The Advance School Detachment, which consisted of the some of the officers and NCOs, left on May 7th, 1918 to go to Hoboken, New Jersey and boarded three ships that had once been German. They were the George Washington, the America, and the Dekalb. The officers and NCOs left on May 8th, 1918 and were accompanied by seven destroyers. They 3 arrived in Brest, France ten days later. They trained until June 24th, 1918 and rejoined the division on June 27th, 1918. 5 The first detachment contained Regimental Headquarters, Headquarters Company, Machine Gun Company, Supply Company, and Companies A, B, and C. They boarded the British Ascania at Hoboken, New Jersey. The second detachment, which included 2nd Battalion headquarters, and Companies E, F, G, and H, traveled by train to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 10th. The next day they boarded the British steamship the Haverford. The third detachment included 3rd Battalion Headquarters and Companies D, I, K, L, and M. They traveled by rail to Boston, Massachusetts and boarded another British steamship the Laomadon on May 11th, 1918. The Ascania, the Haverford, and the Laomadon met at Halifax, Nova Scotia on May 15th, 1918 and sailed for Liverpool, England. They arrived on May 28th, 1918 and stayed three days to gather equipment, such as gas masks and ammunition. They also exchanged their American rifles for British ones because they were supposed to serve with the British.6 At the time, the United States was issuing the M1903 Springfield Bolt-action Service Rifle and Great Britain was issuing the Short Magazine British Lee-Enfield Mark III. Both were incredibly reliable rifles so the 30th Division complied with the weapons exchange. In the Great War, trench warfare dominated, and the trench systems were large and complex. The trench systems were composed of front trenches, reserve trenches, and support trenches. All these trenches ran parallel to each other and were normally connected by a communications trench. In some cases, there were only two lines of trenches. Where the 119th Infantry was stationed, there were five trench lines. The trench lines included the Yellow Line, Green Line, Brown Line, General Headquarters (G.H.Q.) 1, and G.H.Q. 2. The Yellow Line, also called the Regimental Reserve Line, was a reserve trench in the Canal 4 sector. The Green Line was also a reserve trench. The Brown Line was a support trench. G.H.Q. 1 was the front line, and G.H.Q. 2 was the close support trench. On May 31st, they landed in Calais, France and headed to Audruicq for more training under the British. The 30th Division had British and French officers and noncommissioned officers with them most of the time. Some had been with them since the division was in the United States. In Audruicq the 39th British Division oversaw the training of the 30th Division. The training had two phases A and B. Phase A was four weeks long and consisted of March Discipline and Trench Warfare. Phase B had American companies integrate with British ones and work in the Blue Line, a reserve position along the front. First, one British and one American soldier were paired up and worked together. After the British were confident of the Americans’ abilities, Americans and British formed separate platoons along the reserve lines alternating between British and American platoons. Once the British were totally confident, they would pull back to the Yellow Line reserves or Regimental Reserve Line. An American company would hold the Blue Line until another American company came to relieve them and the on-the-job training continued. The Blue Line was a reserve trench and just east of Poperinge. In Poperinge, the American troops went through Phase B of training. The training that the 119th Infantry went through was potentially dangerous because attacks were expected around Poperinge, Belgium. Ypres, Belgium was 10 miles to the east of Poperinge and was the site of uninterrupted battles from 1914-1918. This was normally a quiet area along the line because it was a reserve line well behind the front line in Ypres, which made it beneficial for training new troops, but when the 119th Infantry was present, they had to worry about an enemy assault. If there were an assault, the enemy would have to go through the 25th British Division on the front lines before reaching the Americans on the Blue Line so that the fresh 5 men from the 30th Division were not yet directly in harms way. During this training period, the soldiers from Dyer County and those that were a part of Company K were stationed in regions known as the Scottish Wood, the Domino Trench, and the Ravine. All these regions were in Flanders in the Canal sector, which included the immediate area southwest of Ypres to Heuvelland. On August 31st, the 119th Infantry received intelligence that the Germans were pulling back from Mont Kemmel, also know as Kemmel Hill or Kemmelberg, and that the British were moving forward to occupy the position. Mont Kemmel was a strategic position in Flanders that was about a kilometer from the village of Kemmel in Heuvelland, Belgium that was higher than the rest of the surrounding area and allowed for the observation of the surrounding area. The Allies had to camouflage the roads in the area to keep the Germans from observing troop movements in the area from Mont Kemmel. August 31st was the end of training for the 119th as they advanced toward the German lines along the town of Voormezeele and got their first taste of combat. They fought and made a general advance from about 1030 (10:30 AM) until about 1800 (6:00 PM), but there was sporadic fighting and advances were made into the next morning.