Lt. F.L. Cline, Sgt. J.H. Bowles Relate Activities of Co. A, 105th Engineers, Feb. 12, 1919

From the Hickory Daily Record, Feb. 12, 1919

Short History of Hickory Company

The following information in regard to Co. A, 105^th engineers, was prepared for the Record by First Lt. Frank Laurence Cline and First. Sergt. James Homer Bowles and will be interesting to hundreds of the paper’s readers.

Now that the war is over and we have a little time to think of something other than fighting and dodging shells and bullets, I will take this opportunity to write you a few lines and try to tell you something of our experiences since we came to France. No doubt you have heard and read quite a lot of the bull that some of the chaps have spread, either by letter or verbal, nevertheless I expect there are a few things that have been left unsaid and the following is a brief sketch of the doings of the boys of this organization.

The scene, a train leaving Camp Mills, N.Y., destination, somewhere, first stop, Montreal, Canada. Act One. Loading on transport Talythybius. Act Two, everybody on deck and make ready the lift boats. There is not very much response, however, as the majority of the boys are unable to get out of their hammocks, and as one private remarked, “had just as soon die by drowning as from seasickness.” The submarine presented itself, but owing to the fact that the submarine chasers made it so hot for him that there was very little damage done, one boat was hit by a torpedo, but made port and everybody aboard O.K. The following day the sun shining and the sea as still as a mill pond, very few sick and everybody happy.

The balance of the journey is of little importance, as everything went well and the boat docked at Liverpool, England, P.M. June 12, 1918, entrained in less time than nothing as all the officers that wear buzzards and leaves were very much excited and wanted us to march a mile, get aboard the train and be ready to leave in two minutes, we finally succeeded in getting everybody on the train, after having had the good wishes and assurance of our being welcome to the great country of England, and having heard a noted English band play a number of popular airs, such as the Double Eagle March, Dixie and a few others too numerous to mention, the train pulled out as the national anthem was being played and everybody in the car was standing at attention. Our journey through England was made at night, so naturally we can tell very little of the country through which we traveled.

The scene changes: We receive orders to detrain. It is dark as a pocket and everybody is scrambling to get his belongings and to try to get off as quickly as possible. Everybody off, the march commences; we are marched for about an hour up hill and a very steep one at that, and finally reach our place of abode, which is a castle situated in the suburbs of Dover, England; here we are served with beer—just think of it, an American soldier being served beer—and with the beer were served sandwiches, and with the sandwiches we were told what we might expect down the line. The next morning was a beautiful one and we were allowed to visit Dover for a certain number of hours. Everybody that had the pleasure of visiting this beautiful place, situated along the coast and overlooking the English channel, had quite a nice time, drinking Scotch high-balls and flirting with the Waac’s (War auxiliary ambulance corps), “mostly pretty English girls.” After our visit to Dover we returned to our quarters, where we received orders that we would leave there the following day. Seven o’clock the following morning found everybody cleaned up and ready to move. We took a boat and started across the English channel. This, as you know, was very dangerous at this time. Our trip over was very pleasant, however, and we met with no accident, arriving at Calais, France, 11:30 a.m. June 14, 1918. After unloading the boat we were carried to a rest camp where we were told to make ourselves as comfortable as possible, which was a  pretty hard thing to do, trying to sleep in a sand hole with no cots and nothing between you and the ground except your shelter half and two blankets. We got settled and everything was moving along fine until 9:30 p.m., we received a signal that Jerry was going to pay us a visit. He came over in a flock and believe me, the excitement and the noise that he and some of the rest of us made was awful. Scared, well, I don’t know whether I was scared or insane, as I was unable to tell for the time being whether I was in England, France or the good old U.S.A. His visit, I am glad to say, did not last very long, and everybody was soon quieted down and asleep. The balance of our stay in Calais was of very little importance and we left there on the 17^th of June by train for some place we knew not where but we arrived at billet No. 1, Hocquinghen, 3 p.m. the same day and here we received all of our equipment and got everything ready to make our first appearance on the line. We left this place June 28, and arrived at Oxelaere, France, on July 1. Here we saw “boucoup” (beacoup) aerial battles and bombing parties; we remained here for about 10 days, which was very pleasantly spent by all the organization. We left Oxelaere on the 10^th and arrived at Proven, Belgium, that day.

This place is where we had all of our bad luck, losing Supply Sergeant John D. Huffman and Private Albert T. Corpening, Private Corpening being severely wounded and afterwards dying in Burgess hospital, France. On the same night Mess Sergeant Clarence R. Sudderth, Master Engineer Walter E. Allen, Private Herbert C. Champion and Corporal Fred M. Hildebrand were wounded; it was all caused by a bomb dropped form an enemy aeroplane. The bomb also killed five horses and wounded seven others. This knocked the pep out of the whole bunch, but in a few days we recovered ourselves and were once more ready to meet anything that might present itself. I will say right here that these were the only casualties that we have had since our arrival in France. This all happened on July 16, 1918, about 11 p.m.

We left Proven Aug. 17, arrived at Harrison camp, which was quite near the line at 9:40 a.m. Aug. 17. On the 20^th, this organization was divided into two parts and the second half going to Hamhoek Standings which was near and quite close to the line, they remained there until August 20, when they joined us again at Harrison camp, which was quite near to Poperinghe, Belgium. We left Camp Harrison on the 7^th of September, arriving at Bryas, France, the same day we left Bryas and arrived at Talmas, France on the 9^th. We left Talmas September 21, traveling by the way of Bray and Bernes, we left Bernes September 28, arriving at Hervilly same date, this place being only a mile behind the front line trenches.

On the morning of the 29^th, the 30^th division made an attack on what was supposed to be the impregnable Hindenburg line. The attack started a.m. 5:30, our division having the canal to take, proceeded and accomplished same by 9 a.m. Sept. 29, which was Sunday, and proceeded to advance far beyond their objectives, when we were relieved by Australians. This procedure did not slacken until we had reached Premont. Here we were relieved by the British and our infantry came out and proceeded to back area, where they were supposed to rest for several days. Owing to a change of order the infantry was called back on or about Oct. 5 and from this date we proceeded to keep Jerry on the move until October 17. At this time the 105^th engineer train was at Busigny, having passed through Albert, Peronne, Montbrehain, Estres, Premont and Busigny. Here we were stopped, owing to the fact that the infantry hung up about one mile east of Busginy, on the La Salle river. This hang up did not last very long and we proceeded to push Jerry from his strong position, to another canal east of the La Salle river. From here we were ordered to La Houssoye, and it was here that we received word that the armistice had been signed and we had finished our part of the war.

From La Houssoye we were ordered to go back u the line to Maretz to assist in building roads and railroads which was accomplished with great success. We left Maretz on November 16, arriving at Houssoye again on Nov. 22, where we remained a few days and then came to Danguel where we have been ever since.

Our travels over France, as you can see, have been between St. Quentin and Cambrai. It was here in this section that we lost all our best officers and men. The number I am unable to tell, but as the records show amounted to more than any of us would imagine, owing to the fact that the fighting was most severe and the resistance was very stubborn. The Germans did not want to give up this territory as he had already made his winter preparations and had intended staying here until spring when he expected to make another drive. This of course is the game of war and once we got him out of his rendezvous we did not let him stop until he was willing to sign an armistice, or a peace treaty.

The sights we have seen in our sojourn in and through the towns mentioned above are beyond my description, as I have seen things that I never believed could have happened to a civilized nation. It has been my pleasure to have had the opportunity of visiting some of the towns that have been completely wrecked by the German soldier and his artillery. I have seen some very touching things in some of the places and I wish I had the time to tell you of them as they really were, but as I must hurry on, I will leave this for another time. On one occasion we entered a town 24 hours after the Germans had been run out and we received the most royal welcome from the French civilians, who by the way were all old people and had been prisoners under German rule for the past three years. The young people were very scarce, having been sent either to Germany or far in the rear, as they were not wanted too near the front. These old people were forced to work in the fields, raising crops for the benefit of the German army.

On or about the 25^th of September, 1918, we received orders to proceed to Hervilly, which was about two miles behind the lines. Here we took up camp and made ourselves as comfortable as possible, ready to take anything that might happen. On September 28^th I got wind of the big drive that was going to start on the morning of September 29^th, 1918. I put all the boys wise and told them what I had heard and what I thought they might expect. Promptly at 5:50 a.m., September 29 the barrage opened, and lasted until about 9:30 a.m. There were about—well, I am unable to say how many guns—but I can say that they were placed hub to hub, for a distance of about 3,000 yards, this of course was the guns covering our divisional front alone, the 27^th division being on our right, with an equal number of guns, and the barrage started on all three sectors at one time. You can imagine something of the noise and din that was made. The smoke from the smoke screens and from the artillery was blown back into the place that we occupied and it was so dense for a while that we could hardly recognize any one 10 yards away. We were all very much excited and wondered how far the doughboys were faring, as we had been told that this was one of the strongest point son the whole Hindenburg line. We all waited with anxiety the returning of the messenger who might give us some dope as to how things were progressing at the front. We did not have long to wait, however, as the runner came by and informed us that the Sammy was giving the Hun Hell, and that we had reached our objective O.K. Here the Australians were to relieve us and carry on the attack. These boys were on the job at the time specified and kept the Hun on the move. I want to say right here, as for fighters, I don’t believe there were any better men in the allied army than the Australians. I think Jerry realized this and he wondered what was coming next.

About 4 o’clock the prisoners began to come streaming back, and our boys had quite some time in looking at them and collecting souvenirs. About 6 o’clock I visited our prisoner cage and found at this time that about 1,500 prisoners had gone through our cage. We were all in the best of spirits and wondered what would be our next move. We did not have long to wait, however, as on the night of the 30^th we received orders to proceed to Nouroy, which was about half a mile east of Bellicourt; here we made camp and all of us had the pleasure of spending the night in the famous Hindenburg line, which at this time was blown to pieces by our artillery. We were visited here on the night of our arrival by one or more of Jerry’s aeroplanes and I can truthfully say that it was very uncomfortable when he would put out his flares and light up the country for a radius of half a mile and try to cover the whole territory with bombs. This part of the game was very unpleasant as we did not know what minute one bomb might drop in our company and put us all out of business. It was some experience and excitement, looking through the Hindenburg line and the concrete dug outs that were very numerous in this particular sector. Souvenirs were very plentiful but I am sorry to say that the most of us secured very few, as we thought we would wait until we were farther up the line and get better ones and more of them.

By this time we were all accustomed to the scenes of the battle field having seen quite a lot of the damage done that could be done, we paid very little attention to our surroundings. From here we were ordered to proceed to Premont.

On our way we saw things that were unbelievable to people who had never seen anything of this way. History will not doubt tell of all this procedure and I would like to, but would rather not, as it is contrary to orders. From Premont, which was very quiet, except form the shelling, we proceeded to Busigny which was at this time about 6,000 yards behind the line. We remained here over night, and had to make our get away, owning to the fact that it was too warm to be comfortable. From here we proceeded back to Premont, where we remained for one day and then proceeded to the rear or back area. From here we were ordered back to Busigny where we remained for several days and were it was too warm to be comfortable. It was here that we had the most of our work, and I am glad to say that we carried it on with great success. Several of my boys have been cited in order for deeds they did in this area. From here we were ordered out of the line to proceed to a rest area which was Houssonye again, and here we remained for several days and were then ordered back to the front to assist in building railroads, our destination being Maretz. On our way up we were told that the armistice had been signed.

We were all very much elated over this news, and we proceeded in high spirits, reaching our destination about noon the same day. We remained here for about a week and then proceeded back of La Houssoye where we stayed several days when we received orders to entrain tat Corby, for the LeMans area where we have been ever since.

We are stationed at Dangel at this time and I feel that I should say something in regard to the French people with whom we are associated. We are the first American soldiers they have seen, and it seems that there is nothing that they would not do for us, of course they are conservative when it comes to francs and personal property, but when any of us are sick or needing anything they are only too willing and ready to help us out. This is something that we all appreciate very much and we all try to treat them the very best we know how.

There is one peculiarity about these people which strikes us as beyond very funny. First, they do not drink water, second, with their meals they either drink wine or coffee and cognac. It is customary when you go visiting that the hostess serve you with coffee and cognac, the latter being a very palatable drink. Third, the sleeping apartments and barns are all together. In other words, your room may be directly over the stables. This of course did not appeal to us at first, but now we have become accustomed to it and it does not bother us any more. There are lots of things that I could mention that would seem strange to you and look strange in a newspaper, but I will wait and tell you of these things as it is too long to tell you in writing.