Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2021 To win the awful fight: The manhood of an American doughboy. John James Rochford Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Recommended Citation Rochford, John James, "To win the awful fight: The manhood of an American doughboy." (2021). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 18600. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/18600 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To win the awful fight: The manhood of an American doughboy. by John James Rochford A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: History Program of Study Committee: Timothy Wolters, Major Professor Lawrence McDonnell Kathleen Hilliard The student author, whose presentation of the scholarship herein was approved by the program of study committee, is solely responsible for the content of this thesis. The Graduate College will ensure this thesis is globally accessible and will not permit alterations after a degree is conferred. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2021 Copyright © John James Rochford, 2021. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................ iv CHAPTER 1—NO, LET THEM HAVE IT .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 2—YOUR CHANCE WILL COME: INITIAL MOTIVATION............................................................. 8 CHAPTER 3—TALENTS TO BE CULTIVATED: SUSTAINING MOTIVATION ............................................. 17 CHAPTER 4—C’EST LA GUERRE: SUSTAINING MOTIVATION ................................................................... 21 CHAPTER 5—WORSE THAN USELESS: COMBAT MOTIVATION ................................................................ 28 CHAPTER 6—THE GREATNESS OF MEN CAN BE SAFELY GAUGED BY THEIR SYMPATHIES: COMBAT MOTIVATION ..................................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 7—THE DOUGHBOY’S BIT ............................................................................................................. 38 CHAPTER 8—I WILL DO NOTHING HALF-HEARTEDLY .............................................................................. 39 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................................. 42 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................................ 44 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair Professor Timothy Wolters, along with committee members Professors Lawerence McDonnell and Kathleen Hilliard, for their intellectual guidance and many insights in the development of this thesis. Michael Vogt and the staff at the Gold Star Museum deserve no less high thanks, for without them allowing me to conduct research in the museum archives during the museum’s closure due to the pandemic, this thesis would not have been possible in the most literal way. I would also like to thank my friends, family, and graduate student cohort for their support and assistance in providing edits and intellectual questions for me to consider. A special thank is in order to my fiancé Deanna Lensing for her patience, support, and willingness to read my many drafts. Without her, arriving at this point of thesis submission would have been immensely more difficult. iv ABSTRACT Every major American conflict includes studies examining the experience of the common soldier. Within those many experiences, notions of manhood often provided the impetus for a soldier to enlist, fight, and continue to endure the brutal realities of combat and war. Additionally, the primary documents left behind from the soldiers themselves in the form of letters, diaries, memoirs, and regimental histories offer historians and the general public glimpses into both the wartime experiences and the important but often nebulous centrality of manhood within those individual experiences. Using the incredible document-rich source-base of World War One soldier Corporal Francis Webster, housed in the Gold Star Museum in Johnston, Iowa, this thesis seeks to distill the dynamics of a soldier’s understanding of his own manhood and masculinity from the larger collective experiences of men in war. Since the Francis Webster papers are so extensive, and the man himself a candid documenter and highly introspective, Webster’s struggle to define his masculinity and manhood are fully apparent and seemingly resolved during his wartime service. More importantly, however, Webster also clearly recorded his manly struggles in the years before he put on the uniform. The results of such documentation allow this thesis to narratively explore Webster the man first, and the soldier second. Ultimately, the Webster story provides readers a stronger sense of how manhood and masculinity related to a soldier’s motivations during war, while also shedding light on the ubiquitous “testing”of mahood that war offered those soldiers who fought. 1 CHAPTER 1—NO, LET THEM HAVE IT As dawn broke on October 14, the moment of h-hour drew nearer. The weather was again cold, as a steady rain chilled the weary soldiers of the 42nd “Rainbow” Division and churned the ground into a muddy sludge. Despite the conditions, these men had an important role to play in the coming battle. The division’s objective was to seize the heights to their front and breach the Kriemhilde Stellung, the German defensive line long thought to be impenetrable. There was good reason to believe in the strength of the line. Four years of war had devastated the Argonne Forest, adding to an already challenging terrain now composed of thick woods, tangled underbrush, flattened trees, deep ravines, and gaping craters. The Germans took advantage of the landscape, buttressing the natural defense with skillfully designed trench systems, barbed wire, pillboxes, and machine-gun nests. Artillery and mortars on the high ground's crest stood ready to wreak havoc on those who would try to conquer the strong position. As battle often presented, the task before the division would be a monumental test of American mettle.1 One of the many Rainbows, Corporal Francis Hiram Webster, had already many times faced the crucible of battle and withstood the gruesome test. He was a soldier in the 168th Infantry, a regiment composed mainly of Iowans, and served in the Machine Gun Company. As the dampened and freezing men looked ahead on the rainy morning, their objective was to storm the hills to their front; first, a steep climb up the fortified slope of Hill 288, and then another, the Côte De Châtillon. With every passing minute, the tension mounted. In the main line, the infantrymen gripped their rifles tightly, hearts thumping as they peered through the misty air 1 John H. Taber, The Story of the 168th Iowa Infantry, volume 2 (Iowa City: The State Historical Society of Iowa, 1925), 160.; Edward Lengel, To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), 58. 2 toward their hidden enemy, waiting for the moment. Webster and his fellow machine-gunners set up to support the impending charge.2 At 7:30 a.m., American mortars launched a small pre-assault bombardment. Shortly after, the whistles blew, and the Iowa doughboys went over the top with a furious yell, the pent-up strain finally released by the flush of action. The concealed Teutons immediately replied with the crack-crack-cracking of machine-guns, rifles, and the thunderous roar of artillery. Missiles found their targets, smacking body and bone with grisly “thwacks,” sending many of the attacking Iowans stumbling back dead or wounded as they struggled up the hill. Webster and his gunners could not see the Germans, but from a valley at the foot of the hill, they fired up into the forest, urgently providing cover for their comrades’ painstaking advance up the tangled, wooded slope. The Iowa gunners reeled off a rapid-fire for ten minutes, but somehow, the Boche shells falling on the hill began to crash among the Machine Gun Company. Through the smoke, Webster could see enemy “flyers” gliding through the air. The enemy pilots had spotted the annoying American machine-gunners and signaled their position to the German artillery. The concentrated barrage became too much to stand. The 168th’s machine gunners fell back to their protective fox pits that they had constructed the night before. Webster and two of his friends, William Kelso Jr. and Sergeant Frank Bonder, grabbed their machine gun and quickly sped through the barrage, making their way back to their fox pits. Arriving at their protections, the veteran men found their holes curiously occupied by green replacements.