World War I

His Majesty, King George V, smiled broadly with approval as the gallant men marched spiritedly through the streets of London. The cheering crowd tossed flowers and cigarettes at the marching men and shouted “God bless you!”

The date was May 11, 1918. England fighting with her allies against Germany for 3 ½ years-was wildly applauding the arrival of the 325th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army’s 82d Division. Less than a year earlier-on August 25, 1917, the 82d had been activated at Camp Gordon, Georgia, where raw recruits and draftees learned basic infantry tactics. World War I combat that awaited them, the 82d’s resolute courage proved to be as important as their intensive training.

On the day in May, the 82d Soldiers were in route to the bloody trenches and foxholes of “No Man’s land.” They were headed for the western front in France to join the “doughboys” of other U.S. Army division. They were going there, as the London Times wrote, “…to crush forever the evil spirit of Prussian Militarism.”

Prophetically, the English press wrote of the parade: “In the tread of these men has to be heard the football of fate.” Just six months later, on November 11, 1918, the war ended after a humbled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany fled to Holland.

In those combat-filled six months, the 82d fought campaigns of unparalleled passion through the poisonous gas, the skin slashing wire, and the machine gun nests of Lorraine, St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. When all was finally quiet on the western front, the 82d’s 3254th, 326th, 327th, and 328th Infantry Regiment and other attached units had paid bravely but dearly for victory: nearly one-fourth of the division’s 28,000 men had been killed or injured in the fight to protect their allies’ freedom.

The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917, after the sinking of American merchant ships and indications that Germany hoped to entice Mexico into its campaign of colonial conquest. Those actions promoted U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to ask the nation to “… make the world safe for democracy.”

Kaiser Wilhelm II was unimpressed. He predicted, “America is a democracy whose people are incapable of the iron discipline necessary to win victory in the battlefield.”

Four months after America declared war, the 82d-one of the U.S. divisions, which would riddle the Kaiser’s theory with bullets-was busy training at Camp Gordon near Atlanta under the command of Major General Eben Swift.

Soon after the 82d was formed on, August 25, 1917-it was discovered the division members hailed from all 48states. This led to the 82d’s fabled nickname of the “All America,” still proudly carried today on the division’s red, white and blue “AA” patches.

Under the tutelage of American, British, and French officers at Camp Gordon, the All American-from Oregon lumbermen to southern cotton growers-received thorough instruction in the tenacious trench warfare that waited ahead. Slowly but surely, the team spirit needed to rout the emerged.

On April 25, 1918-exactly eight months after the 82d was formed the first of the division’s men sailed from New York. Brigadier General William P. Burnham, the division’s third commander, who had succeeded Brigadier General James B. Erwin, led them.

Behind the lines in France, the 82d continued to train with hand grenades and a variety of small arms. Bayonet warfare training received special attention; the soldiers attacked targets shouting, “In-Out-On Guard!” On May 30, General Pershing inspected their training.

Early in June, small groups of 82d officers and noncommissioned officers went on details to the British front lines near Albert and Amiens. While straining barbed wire with British troops, Captain Jewett Williams, 326th Infantry, became the first 82d member to give his life in combat. German machine gunners killed Captain Williams, From Athens, Georgia, on the night of June 9, 1918.

On June 25, the 82d received its first combat orders, directing one battalion from each regiment to the Lagny Sector, where they relieved the 26th U.S. Division. Through August 10, the 82d doughboys learned about life in and between the trenches of the Lorraine region, which Captain William Sirmon, 326th Infantry, described in his diary:

“It was my night to tour the trenches.
In The middle of the night, I leaned over the
Parapet and gazed into the darkness that
Shrouded that mysterious waste-No Man’s
Land. . . Out there the spirits of heroic
Souls, whose brave flesh perished for the
Cause of freedom, in the high grass and wire,
With eyes strained in the gloom for a glimpse
Or sound of the enemy.”

In Lorraine, the 82d soldiers maintained and advanced their ground. During daring nighttime “over-the- top” forays deep into the German lines, they inflicted numerous enemy casualties. However, those stealthy raids took a grim toll: 44 All American dead and 327 wounded.

On September 12, the St. Mihiel offensive began the AEF’s first big operation. The 82d, forming the right flank of the AEF, pushed forward at 0500-zero hour-to make contact with the enemy. They were successful in their mission. They found the enemy, inflicted many casualties, and gained valuable information about the Germans’ supporting troops.

Before the St. Mihiel offensive ended, an 82d officer-Lieutenant Colonel Emory J. Pike earned the division’s first Medal of Honor. During the 328th Infantry’s taking of Vandieres, divisional machine gun officer Pike had been on frontline reconnaissance. When enemy shellfire disorganized advancing infantrymen, he reorganized the men -at great risk to himself- and secured their position. However, he was not finished. He then dashed to the aid of a wounded infantryman at an outpost. There, a shell struck Lieutenant Colonel Pike, suffering fatal injuries. Lieutenant Colonel Pike, in his daring deed of September 15, was not alone in that ultimate sacrifice. The 82d’s key role in the bloody drive of St. Mihiel offensive from September 11 through the 20th left 950 of their men dead or injured.

On September 30, division records showed the embattled All American’s numbers 25,489 men, including members of support units. The division’s final major mission-the Meuse-Argonne Campaign from September 29 through October 30 would claim the lives of many of those brave men.

Two days into their ferocious attack on the eastern edge of the Argonne Forest, the division had suffered 1,782 casualties. In all, the campaign produced 6,009 divisional casualties and claimed the lives of 903 gallant men. Nevertheless, under newly named commander, Major General George B. Duncan, the drive into the Argonne Forest, through Marcq, across the Aire River and into St. Juvin broke the supply lines-and the will of the enemy.

A brief October 7 communication between a company officer and his battalion headquarters reflected the 82d’s ever-growing success in the Argonne: “Going good, captured 39 prisoners and three machine guns. No casualties yet.” Elsewhere, the enemy began to “fall like ten pins,” as an 82d officer later described the furious action.

A day later, one of the many 82d soldiers who fought gloriously in the Meuse-Argonne performed what General Pershing later called the greatest individual feat performed by an American fighting man in World War I. His name was Alvin Cullum York, a tall corporal in Company G, 328th Infantry, known for an expert shooting eye honed from Turkey hunting near his home in Mountainous Fentress County, Tennessee.

On October 8, Corporal York was the point man in the 17-man patrol that ventured into enemy territory near Chatel-Chenery in a perilous attempt to silence machine gunners who had cut many other All Americans to ribbons. Mimicking the Tennessee woodsman’s nearly silent passage into the forest, the men miraculously advanced 400 yards without drawing gunfire. Suddenly, they saw two German soldiers and gave chase. Within a short distance, the chase ended when they stumbled onto a behind-the-line German command post. The startled Germans dropped their weapons. However, in another moment, machine gunners spewed a torrent of bullets at the All American cutting down ten of York’s fellow soldiers. Only seven privates and one corporal-Alvin C. York were not wounded or killed. Two of the privates scurried behind a tree, three hurled themselves into the bush and two dropped behind the prisoners and held them at gunpoint. Corporal York also dove for the ground but refused to yield his position. Using his German captive as a shield, the sharp shooting corporal killed 18 machine gunners as they popped their heads up to get a clear view of him. But just as the machine gun fire began to stop, six German soldiers and an Officer, who were crouching in a gun pit 20 yards away rushed Corporal York. He killed those men with unerring blasts from his pistol.

According to the American soldiers who witnessed the stunning feat, a German officer on the ground then asked Corporal York,"What are you? "I'm an American,” was the corporal’s blunt response along with a firm order for the officer to blow a retreat whistle to draw remaining Germans from the woods.

Holding a pistol to the German Officer's head, Corporal York ordered the Germans to carry the All Americans wounded. York then led his captive, a German Major, three lieutenants, and 128 German soldiers back to American lines.

It was a deed that stood up to the scrutiny of scores of disbelieving U.S. Army officers and journalists: An American soldier, nearly single handedly, had dismantled a German camp and machine gun battalion, captured 132 men and killing about 25 foes in the process. This deed earned Corporal York the Medal of Honor.

Alvin York's heroic action foreshadowed the end of the German Army in France. On November 11th -12 days after the end of the decision Argonne captain Sirmon’s diary entry for that long awaited day ends with this sentence: thank God for this night that the world rests again in peace!

After their triumphant trip home, the 82d was inactivated at Camp Mills, New York, on May 27, 1919. The All Americans had earned 2 Medals of Honor, 3 Distinguished Service Medals and 85 Distinguished Service Crosses. Nevertheless, the casualty count read 1,035 killed and 6,387 wounded.