General John J. Pershing resisted calls from the British and French to insert incoming American units as replacements for existing units.  Pershing and President Woodrow Wilson both wanted American units to fight as an amalgamated unit on the Western Front.  They wanted a true American army to provide a backbone for the future.  But then came the German Spring Offensives of 1918.  These offensives shook the Allied front, then threatened to push the British back to the Channel Coast and the French beyond Paris.  Considering this emergency, Pershing relented, finally allowing some of his units to fight with the French and the British.  Some of the consequences of their work with the British are in evidence here at Somme ABMC Cemetery – American Battlefields and Monuments Commission.

The politics involved bringing American forces to fight alongside British and Commonwealth units is the stuff for another post.  Today, we concentrate on the end results – the cemetery.

Somme ABMC Cemetery

Somme ABMC Cemetery is the third smallest World War One cemetery administered by the ABMC.  It is the second smallest, considering the numbers of missing in action listed here versus Suresnes ABMC Cemetery near Paris.  Like other ABMC cemeteries, not all of those buried here died in actual combats in this area. 

Over 700 cemeteries were built to hold Americans killed during the war.  Families had the offer to repatriate loved ones back to the US – 60% of families chose to do so – while the bodies left in Europe were concentrated into eight cemeteries. 

Somme ABMC Cemetery holds many who did die in the area.  These were men from the 27^th, 30^th, 33^rd and 80^th Divisions, the main American divisions fighting in this region.  There are also several soldiers who died fighting in the US 1^st Division’s fight at Cantigny, in late May 1918, the first American division-sized offensive of the war.  Of the 1838 buried here, include 42 Stars of David, four sets of brothers and three Medal of Honor winners.  There are graves for 134 soldiers whose identity is unknown. 

THE CEMETERY

Like most other ABMC World War One cemeteries, Somme takes a rectangular shape with four quadrants with a flagpole at the center.  A small memorial chapel on the south end of the cemetery includes 333 men’s names inscribed on two Walls of the Missing. Some of the missing have been found over the years and there is a rosette next to their names on the walls.  A small visitor center is located just to the west of the cemetery with a parking area.  Somme, like most ABMC cemeteries, seems a long way from nowhere.

The ABMC offered soldiers’ families the option of putting a short inscription on the back of the headstones similar to the British custom in the CWGC cemeteries.  Very few families took advantage of the opportunity, but if you look closely, ten headstones have such inscriptions.  This is by far the most in any ABMC cemetery.

MEDALS OF HONOR

William Bradford Turner

For a small cemetery, a fair number of Medal of Honor winners lie here – three.  All of the men are enlisted soldiers, one fought with the 30^th Division while two with the 27^th.  First Lieutenant William Bradford Turner was with the 105^th Regiment of the 27^th Division.  He led his men over three German defense lines while knocking out two machine gun nests.  After capturing the fourth line, his platoon was surrounded by superior numbers and Turner died.

Thomas Eugene O’Shea

Corporal Thomas Eugene O’Shea was a member of the 107^th Regiment.  The unit won the nickname of the “Silk Stocking Regiment” back in the days of the Civil War and because of the number of social elites making up the ranks of the then 7^th Regiment of the New York State Militia.  Renumbered the 107^th Regiment and made an integral part of the 27^th Division – the New York Division one of only three divisions entirely made up of the National Guard of a single state – Illinois and Pennsylvania were the other two.

O’Shea won his Medal of Honor posthumously on 29 September during the 27^th Division’s attack on the Hindenburg Line positions near the St Quentin Canal just east of the cemetery.  The two days of the assault were very costly for the 107^th Regiment.  From 1,662 men who began the battle on 29 September, 396 men died with another 753 wounded – the 63% casualty rate, the highest suffered by any American regiment for a battle during the war.  For the division 3,076 men became casualties out of a starting strength of 18,055 – one third of the casualties coming from the one regiment.

the event

In the battle, American crews manned British Mark V tanks providing more offensive power pushing forward.  One tank was disabled about thirty yards away from a group of three men taking cover in a shell hole well inside German lines – Corporal O’Shea and Sergeants John Cridland Latham and Alan Louis Eggers. 

The three men crossed the ground swept by German fire to rescue three wounded men from the tank, then taking them to a nearby trench for cover.  Eggers and Latham returned to the tank dismounting a Hotchkiss 37mm gun, afterwards taking it back to the trench.  From there, they were able to keep the enemy away all day, then bringing the gun and the wounded back to American lines that night. 

O’Shea had been mortally wounded in their initial move to the tank.  From the actions of the rescue, all three men gained the Medal of Honor – O’Shea posthumously.  Latham and Eggers, both lived for another half century before being buried in Arlington.

Robert Lester Blackwell

belonged with the 119^th Regiment of the 30^th Division.  The 30^th Division, made of men from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee originally, before additional men came in from other states in the Midwest to bring the strength up to 27,000 before the division went overseas.  North Carolina contributed the most from any state.

The division had lost about 3,000 casualties in the fighting at the end of September.  After a short rest, the division went back into the line on 5 October.  With British troops on both flanks, the 30^th pushed the Germans at Vaux-Andigny near the Le Selle River.  British cemeteries are located in both Vaux-Andigny to the south and St. Souplet to the north of where the 30^th fought.

Blackwell’s platoon pushed for six days forward. Becaming separated from the rest of the division, and almost surrounded, the platoon officer asked for volunteers to ask for help.  The first man who went out and died.  A second met the same fate.  Blackwell, the third volunteer to step forward, knew he, also, would probably die in the attempt.  As he went out, he too died. Posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, Blackwell was one of two North Carolinians to win the medal in World War One.  It is not mentioned how the other two runners were honored, if at all.  The platoon was obviously rescued, probably by men of the 27^th Division who had been slow in coming up to relieve the 30^th, but I do not find that information online, either.

LEADERS

No men from West Point lies at Somme ABMC Cemetery – three of the eight ABMC cemeteries without West Pointers. 

The Colonel

The highest-ranking officer, Colonel Raynal Cawthorne Bolling, is found on the Wall of the Missing.  He died 29 March 1918 while driving to inspect British aerodromes in anticipation of his upcoming assignment as chief of the air service for the US 2^nd Corps – 27^th and 30^th Divisions.  On the 29^th, they found the British aerodrome at Harbonnières abandoned. 

Driving further east, told the Germans were still another five kilometers beyond, they headed for a hill another couple of kilometers away. Here, they hoped they might observe the battle from.  After only a few hundred meters, they ran into an ambush with German machine guns on both sides of the road. 

The car quickly disabled and Bolling and his driver took cover in two shell holes connected by a ditch.  German soldiers approached the driver’s hole – driver unarmed. Bolling, with his pistol killed one of the soldiers before the other killed him.  The driver was eventually taken prisoner.

beginnings

Bolling was a graduate of Harvard and got his law degree from there, as well.  A corporate lawyer before the war in New York, Bolling belonged to the American Aero Club and was instrumental in organizing the 1^st Aero Company of the New York National Guard.  He participated in the first Plattsburgh officer training camp and gained an appointment as a first lieutenant in November 1915.

His company trained for service along the Mexican border – Bolling receiving his pilot’s license 12 October 1916 – but ended up staying on Long Island.  The company recognized as the Air National Guard’s oldest unit, stayed active even though they were not in federal service after November.  The company was disbanded 23 May 1917 due to lack of mechanics, but by then Bolling, now a major, was on active duty to organize what became the 26^th Aero Squadron, which contained men of the former 1^st Aero Company.

Next, Bolling headed a commission aimed at choosing aircraft types for American production and from where in Europe to initially procure them.  Following that, he joined Colonel Billy Mitchell’s aviation headquarters in Paris and on 3 September – now a colonel – made Director of Air Service Supply by General Pershing.  His main task was to establish flight training facilities for the AEF.

on the outs

17 November, he fell victim to the feud between Mitchell and General Benjamin Foulois who came to take over the Air Service AEF.  Foulois brought in his own people with Bolling’s role diminished.  In response, Bolling sought a field command and became the 2^nd Corps chief of air service.

Buried by the Germans, his remains never identified.

The Majors

There are two majors lying in rest at Somme ABMC Cemetery, Harold Watson Estey and Randolph Talcott Zane.  Estey was with the 10^th Engineers of the 26^th Division dying of the Spanish flu 28 October 1918. 

Zane was a marine with the 6^th Regiment, 2^nd Infantry Division.  His marines had occupied the village of Bouresches on 7 June, holding that town in the early stages of the operations around Belleau Wood.  He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross – DSC – for those actions.  On 26 June, the final day of battle in Belleau Wood, an artillery shell blasted Zane’s eardrum.  Taken to a hospital, but he died from the flu after being weakened from operations undertaken to restore him on 24 October.  The son of a rear admiral, he was issued both the Navy Cross and the DSC for his actions on 7 June.

A Clemson-class destroyer – DD -337 – was also named for him in 1921.  The Zane would have an active career in the Pacific in World War Two.  An officer aboard, Herman Wouk, gained enough material as a result of his experiences on the Zane to write his novel The Caine Mutiny.  His wrote his first novel Aurora Dawn on the Zane while the ship was based at Tulgai near Guadalcanal.

MEDICAL STAFF

american medical staff to the front

Four nurses and at least five doctors lie here at Somme ABMC Cemetery.  Several volunteer hospital units came over from the US becoming attached to the British area of the Western Front.  These units were actually the first Americans to reach the front ahead of the troops.  Units were comprised of doctors and nurses from one city or even one hospital complex.

These units resulted from the Balfour Mission sent over by Britain shortly after the US declaration of war.  British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour came over to engage wartime cooperation between the two new allies and to go over all of the earlier secret treaties Britain found herself involved in.  British healthcare was seriously strained by the war with over half of her doctors in uniform.  It was decided to send a thousand – though eventually nearly 1,500 would go – American medical officers would serve with the British army and many until the war’s end.  Immediately, six base hospitals with medical staff and over 100 additional medical officers voyaged off to England.

As early as February 1916, plans were formulated to use medical schools as parent institutions for future base hospitals.  33 base hospitals were authorized by the time of the US declaration of war in April 1917.   From the 33 came the six sent out to England.  in the summer of 1917.  Eventually, 1649 American physicians would serve with the British – many would transfer over to the AEF as troops began to show up in France.  Out of those doctors, 37 died with 25 dying because of front-line action, six from non-combat reasons and another six when reassigned to the AEF.  The AEF suffered 28 doctors killed in action and another 24 dying from wounds.  An additional ninety died from disease and other causes, most from the Spanish flu.

THE NURSES

with the british

Margaret Hamilton is an interesting case.  Her ABMC documentation lists as a member of the “Chicago Unit” and of the 23^rd General Hospital.  The 23^rd General Hospital was a British hospital in Etaples – American hospitals were Base Hospitals.  The Chicago Unit was a group of 48 nurses coming over from the US on a six-month contract 15 June 1915, a full year before the US was at war.  The unit closed at the end of August 1916 and most of the nurses returned to the US.  Hamilton was not among them. She died of cerebro-spinal meningitis on 22 October 1915.  Buried among the BEF officer section in the hospital cemetery, later, she was transferred here to Somme ABMC Cemetery where there appears to be the wrong date of “October 22, 1918” on her tombstone.

Similarly, Constance Sinclair, a nurse with another voluntary group, the Harvard Unit, signed on for a six month stay.  The unit was sent to the General Hospital No. 22, one of the British hospitals at Etaples.  The number of nurses needed set at 73, though that number would vary.  Because the contracts were only for six-months, there was need for constant reinforcements to keep numbers up to strength.  Sinclair, also, was diagnosed with cerebro-spinal meningitis and after eight days, she died 22 February 1917, another gravestone engraver error.

to the front

Helen Fairchild came to Europe with Base Hospital No. 10, one of the original six to come over. Base Hospital No.10 came from The Philadelphia Hospital where she had originally trained and graduated as a surgical nurse in 1913. The Base Hospital took over the running of British General Hospital No. 16 in Le Tréport, but Helen volunteered to go to the front serving at the British Casualty Clearing Station No. 4 near Langemarck just in time to help with the massive casualties from the Third Ypres – Paeschendaele. Here, repeatedly exposed to mustard gas, as a result, she developed a large gastric ulcer over time. Evacuated to the Canadian Stationary Hospital No. 3 at Doullens near Amiens, surgery was undertaken, but she died three days later helped along by the effects of the cholorform anesthetic.Buried first at Le Tréport but the body later moved here to Somme ABMC Cemetery.

too soon

Elma Irene Groves came over on the SS Megantic with 100 other nurses.   Groves first assigned – 11 October 1918 – to General Hospital No. 9, formerly British but taken over by the Base Hospital No. 4 unit from Lakeside Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.  Suffering from a cold and she could not work, however. She transferred to another hospital where sick medical staff recuperated. Her diagnosis changed to the flu on 16 October. Three days later, she died.

northwestern nurse

Mary Lucille Pepoon belonged to the Base Hospital No. 12 unit from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.    The unit took over running of the British General Hospital No. 18 near Etaples in the summer of 1917 and the Americans ran the hospital for the rest of the war.  Pepoon was the daughter of physician who became a high school science teacher in addition to being a prominent botanist.  Pepoon, a graduate of Northwestern, had been with the unit from the beginning in May 1917.  Listed as dying of septicaemia, 24 November, however death may probably was a complication of the flu.

THE PHYSICIANS

First Lieutenant Edward Leland Mooney Jr attached to the British Army was a graduate of Syracuse. Mooney died working at a forward dressing station during the first German Spring Offensive of 1918. 

First Lieutenant Abner Potts Hubert Sage, a graduate of Mississippi A & M – today Mississippi State university – with an MD from Jefferson College of Medicine in Philadelphia, died 29 May while attending wounded patients during a German air raid.

Similarly, First Lieutenant William Thomas Fitzsimons, a medical graduate of Kansas University became the first American officer killed by the Germans.  Sitting inside his tent at General Hospital Number 11 (Harvard), a bomb exploded at the foot of his tent killing him 4 September 1917.  After the war, the Army named its large medical facility in Aurora, Colorado after the young doctor.  The facility, closed by the Army in 1999, continued renamed the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus after a 91-million-dollar gift from the Anschutz family in 2006.  The original hospital still retains the Fitzsimons name.

Captain William Elvis Harwood was a surgeon with the Northwestern University medical team that came over to France.  Attached to the British, Harwood died 4 January 1918 at the age of 59, the oldest man buried at Somme ABMC Cemetery.  His father was a surgeon before him serving in the Civil War and, later, the mayor of Joliet, Illinois.

AVIATORS

Flying with the Brits

We have already touched on the best-known aviator remembered at Somme, Raynal Bolling.  Many more young aviators lie buried here or their names inscribed, remembered on the Wall of Missing, as well.  Like medical staff, many aviators found themselves flying with British groups.  Two such pilots were First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seibold and Lieutenant Theodore Rickey Hostetter Jr.  Seibold, attached to the 148^th Air Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps – RFC – died on 29 August 1918 his name listed on the Wall of Missing.

Lieutenant Hostetter came from a prominent Pittsburgh family and was inline to graduate from Harvard in 1919.  Before that, he enlisted into the RFC in 1917.  After only a couple of days with the 54^th Squadron of the RFC, he was wounded and invalided back to England.  Recovering, and returning to France, then shot down by German ace Robert Greim on 27 September in Belgium.  A monument placed by the family after the war stands near where he crashed.

Flying with the French

Second Lieutenant Ralph Matthews Noble had graduated from Stanford – mathematics – in 1912.  He was on the US National Rugby team before the war.  Serving as an aerial observer attached to the French Air Service, Noble died 1 May 1918.

Naval and Marine Corps Aviators

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Alexander Agnew McCormick Jr. had enlisted into the Navy from the Yale class of 1919 – his father was editor of the Chicago Evening Post and a city alderman.  He gained a commission in the Naval Reserve Force after training with the Aerial Coast Patrol Unit 2 – organized at Yale.  From Florida, he went to France in the summer of 1918, where he became a gunner on a Handley Page Type 0/400 bomber with the 214^th Squadron RFC.  Killed during a bombing raid near Calais, he won a posthumous Navy Cross in the process on 24 September 1918.  A destroyer named in his honor in 1920 which served until 1945.

Ensign Curtis Seaman Read was another of the Yale class of 1919.  His family was well-to-do in New York.  Read joined the Aerial Coast Patrol Unit 1, also organized at Yale.  Gaining a commission, he went to France in November 1917.  Joining a squadron in Dunkirk 24 February 1918, he died in a seaplane accident two days later.

Second Lieutenant Chapin Crawford Barr was the first Marine Corps aviator to die from enemy action on 29 September 1918.  Flying DH-4’s on a bombing mission the squadron – 1^st Marine Aviation Squadron – became a target of a large German formation of fighters.  Barr, flying in the gunner’s seat, was wounded in the thigh. His plane made it back to base, but the bullets nicked his femoral artery and due to loss of blood, he died the next morning.

Army Air Corps

Two airmen collided with each other 5 October 1918.  Both First Lieutenant Harold Goodman Shoemaker and First Lieutenant Glenn D. Wicks both lie here at Somme ABMC Cemetery.

THE MAJORITY

Here we are talking about the majority of graves here at Somme ABMC Cemetery.  The enlisted and company grade officers whose families who elected to leave these soldiers in the French soil where they died.

Sergeant Adlai E. Stevenson was a 1914 graduate of Wake Forest University in North Carolina.  Stevenson, named for the former vice president during Grover Cleveland’s second administration, died in action with the 115^th Machine Gun Battalion of the 30^th Division on 27 September during the division’s assault on the Hindenburg Line.

One day later, Corporal Arthur Briggs Church, a successful New York lawyer – graduated Harvard 1907 and Harvard Law 1909 – died 28 September 1918.  He had enlisted into the 107^th Regiment – the Silk Stockings – of the 27^th Division on 14 May 1917.  Church died near the St Quentin Canal.

Second Lieutenant Egbert William Beach, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, was with the 1^st Engineer Battalion of the 1^st Division.  He came over on the HMS Tuscania in December 1917.  The next voyage of the Tuscania sank off the Scottish island of Islay, the result of German torpedoes.  The 1^st Division posted to Cantigny in late April where Beach died in action on 27 April 1918.

Captain Arthur Francis Moseley of the 16^th Regiment of the 1^st Division fell in action 5 July 1918.  Moseley had served with the British army in South Africa during the Second Boer War and been back in time for the Spanish-American War.

OTHERS

Samuell Douthhitt Hill died 30 June 1918 as a rifleman with the 4^th Battalion of the 3^rd New Zealand Rifle Brigade. Service records note a truck ran over him.  His father was the American consular officer in Auckland, New Zealand.