TRAINING IN FRANCE
"I wish myself could talk to myself as I left 'im a year ago;
I could tell 'im a lot that would save 'im a lot in the things
that 'e ought to know.
When I think o' that ignorant barrack bird it almost makes me cry."
KIPLING.
A day or two after the Fourteenth of July review the rest of the troops
arrived and my personal fortune hung in the balance, as I was still
unattached. Colonel Duncan, afterward Major General Duncan, commander of
the Seventy-seventh and Eighty-second divisions, was then commanding the
Twenty-sixth Infantry. One of his majors had turned out to be
incompetent. He came to General Sibert and asked if he had an extra
major to whom he could give a try-out.
"Yes," replied General Sibert. "Why not try Roosevelt?"
"Send him along and I will see what he's good for," was Duncan's reply.
I went that day, took command of my battalion the day after, and never
left the Twenty-sixth Infantry, except when wounded, until just before
coming back to this country after the war.
Most of the Twenty-sixth Infantry was billeted in a town called
Demange-aux-Eaux, one of the largest in the area. By it flowed a
good-sized stream, a convenient bathtub for officers and men alike. We
started at once cleaning up places for the company kitchens, getting the
billets as comfortable as possible and selecting sites for drill
grounds.
The men, who up to this time had been bewildered by the rapid changes,
now began to find themselves and make up to the French inhabitants. I
have seen time and time again a group composed of two or three _poilus_
and two or three doughboys wandering down the street arm in arm, all
talking at once, neither nationality understanding the other and all
having a splendid time. The Americans' love for children asserted
itself and the men made fast friends with such youngsters as there were.
It is a sad fact that there are very few children in northern France. In
the evenings, after their drill was over, the men would sit in groups
with the women and children, talking and laughing. Sometimes some
particularly ambitious soldier would get a French dictionary and
laboriously endeavor to pick out, word by word, various sentences.
Others, feeling that the French had better learn our language rather
than we learn theirs, endeavored to instruct their new friends in
English.
About this time that national institution of France, _vin ordinaire_,
was introduced to our men. The two types, _vin blanc_, white wine, and
_vin rouge_, red wine, were immediately christened _vin blink_ and _vin
rough_. The fact that this wine could be bought for a very small amount
caused much interest. Champagne also came well within the reach of
everyone's purse. To most of the men, champagne, up to this time, had
been something they read about, and was connected in their minds with
Broadway and plutocracy. It represented to them untold wealth completely
surrounded by stage beauties. Here, all of a sudden, they found
champagne something which could be bought by the poorest buck private.
This, in some cases, had a temporarily disastrous effect, for under
circumstances such as these a number of men might naturally feel that
they should lay in a sufficient supply of champagne to last them in
memory, if nothing else, through the rest of their lives.
I remember particularly one of my men who dined almost exclusively on
champagne one evening and returned to his company with his sense of
honor perhaps slightly distorted and his common sense entirely lacking.
The company commander, Captain Arnold, of whom I spoke before, was
standing in front of his billet when this man appeared with his rifle on
his shoulder, saluted in the most correct military manner, and said, "I
desire the company commander's permission to shoot Private So-and-So,
who has made some very insulting remarks concerning the town in which I
lived in the United States."
Trouble of all sorts, however, was very small considering the
circumstances, and decreased with every month the troops were in France.
We always found that the new men who arrived for replacements were the
ones who were most likely to overstep the bounds, and with them it was
generally the novelty rather than anything else.
Then came the question of French money. We were all paid in francs. To
begin with, our soldiers received eight or ten times as much pay as the
average French soldier. This put them in the position of bloated
plutocrats. Then, too, none of us had very much idea of what French
money meant. Since the war the paper of which French money was made had
been of very inferior quality, and I know I personally felt that when I
could get anything concrete, such as a good dinner, in exchange for
these very dilapidated bits of paper, I had made a real bargain. The
soldiers, I am sure, were of the same opinion. Prices tripled wherever
we were in France. Indeed, I doubt if in all their existence the little
villages in our training area had ever had a tenth part of the money in
circulation that appeared just after pay day for the troops.
Of course, the French overcharged our men. It's human nature to take as
much as you can get, and the French are human. One should remember, in
blaming them for this, that our troops, before sailing for France, were
overcharged by people in this country. When the doughboy wanted eggs,
for instance, he wanted them badly, and that was all there was to it. In
every company there was generally one good "crap shooter." What the
French did not get he got, and, contrary to the usual theory of
gamblers' money, he usually saved it. One of the trials of an officer is
the men's money. Before action, before any move, the men who have any
money always come to their C. O. and ask him to keep it for them. I
remember once an old sergeant came to me and asked me to keep two or
three thousand francs for him. I did. Next day he was A. W. O. L. He
had not wanted to keep the money for fear of spending it if he got
drunk. When he came back I tried him by court-martial, reduced him to
the ranks, and gave him back his money.
During the twenty months that I spent in Europe I was serving with
troops virtually the entire time, commanding them in villages all
through the north of France, through Luxembourg and Germany, and in all
that period I never had one complaint from the inhabitants concerning
the treatment by our men of either women or children. When we went into
conquered territory we did not even consider it necessary to speak to
the men on this point, and our confidence was justified. Occasionally a
man and his wife would call on me and ask if Private "So-and-So" was
really a millionaire in America, as he had said, because, if so, they
thought it would be a good thing for him to marry their daughter. This
would, however, generally smooth itself out, as Private "So-and-So," as
a rule, had no intention of marrying their daughter, and they had no
intention of letting her marry him when they found out that the
statement concerning his family estates in America was, to put it
mildly, highly colored. Oddly enough, this is not as queer as one might
think. The company cook in one of the companies of our battalion
inherited, while in Europe, about $600,000. It never bothered him from
any standpoint. He still remained cook and cooked as well as ever.
The average day's training was divided about as follows: First call
about 6 o'clock, an hour for breakfast and policing. After that, the
troops marched out to some drill ground, where they maneuvered all day,
taking their lunch there and returning late in the afternoon. Formal
retreat was then held, then supper, and by 10 o'clock taps sounded. The
American troops experienced a certain amount of difficulty in fixing on
satisfactory meeting grounds with the corresponding French units with
whom they were training. Our battalion, however, was fortunate, but
another battalion of our regiment had at periods to turn out before
daylight in order to make the march necessary to connect.
This battalion during the early part of our training was billeted in the
same town. One day their first call sounded at somewhere around 4.15. A
good sergeant, Murphy by name, an old-timer who had been in the army
twenty-four years, had his platoon all in one billet. He heard the first
call, did not realize that it was not for him, and turned his platoon
out. By the time he had the platoon filing out he discovered his
mistake. At the same time he noticed that one of the men had not turned
out. Murphy was a strict disciplinarian and he took a squad from the
platoon and went in to find the man. The man explained that this was not
the correct call. Sergeant Murphy said that that made no difference,
that when a platoon was formed, the place for every man was with the
platoon, and, to the delight of the platoon and particularly the squad
which assisted him, escorted the recalcitrant sleeper out and dropped
him in the stream.
Sergeant Murphy was the type of man who is always an asset to a command.
On the way to Europe he had been in charge of the kitchen police on
board the transport and here had earned himself the name of "Spuds"
Murphy. He was always faithful to whatever job he was detailed. When
things were breaking badly he could always be depended on to cheer the
men up by joking with them. He was an old fellow, bent and very gray,
and he was physically unable to stand a lot of the racket, so I used to
order him to stay behind with the kitchens when we went into action. One
night, when the troops were moving up to the front line, I was standing
by the side of the road checking off the platoons as they passed. I
thought I recognized one figure silhouetted against the gray sky. A
moment later I was positive when I heard, "Sure and if you feel that way
about the Gairmans there're as good as beat."
"Sergeant Murphy?"
"Sor-r?"
"What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to stay with the kitchens?"
"But I didn't be thinkin' the Major would be wantin' me to stay coffee
coolin' all the time, so I just come up for a little visit with the
men."
The actual training consisted of practice with the hand grenade, rifle
grenade, automatic rifle, rifle, and bayonet, and in trench digging. We
had a certain amount of difficulty merging the troops in with the
French. It was really very hard for men who did not speak the same
language to get anywhere. In addition to this, the French temperament is
so different from ours. They always felt that much could be learned by
our troops watching theirs. But the soldier doesn't learn by watching.
His eye doesn't teach his muscles service. The way to train men is by
physical exercise and explanation, not by simply watching others train.
At one time an artillery demonstration was scheduled. In it we were to
see a rolling barrage illustrated and also destructive fire. The men
paid no attention at all to the bombardment. A company commander
described to me how the men lay down and rested when they got to the
maneuvers ground.
[Illustration: "CHOW"
Drawn by Captain W. J. Aylward, A. E. F., 1918]
"Whizz, Bill, hear that boy," casually remarked one, when the first
shell went over. "What was it you said?"
An interesting sidelight on our military establishment is afforded by
the fact that on our arrival in France there was no one with the command
who had ever shot an automatic rifle, thrown a hand grenade, shot a
rifle grenade, used a trench mortar or a .37-millimeter gun. These were
all modern methods of waging warfare, yet none of our military had been
trained to the least degree in any of them. To all of us they were
absolutely new. The closest any of us came to any previous knowledge was
from occasional pictures we had seen in the illustrated reviews.
The Major of the French battalion with whom we trained was named
Menacci. He was a Corsican by birth and looked like a stage pirate. He
had a long black beard, sparkling black eyes, and a great appearance of
ferocity, but was as gentle a soul as I have ever known. The topic that
interested him above all others was the question of marriage. He was
just like a young girl or boy and loved to be teased about it. A very
fine fellow called Beauclare assisted him. Beauclare was from the north
of France, tall and light-haired, and full of energy. He would strip off
his coat, throw grenades with the men, and join in the exercises with as
much enjoyment as anyone.
Curiously enough, the good fellowship of the French made things rather
hard for many of us. The Chasseurs were as kind as could be, and I never
shall cease to respect the men with whom we trained, both as soldiers
and gentlemen. We, however, were trying by incessant work to overcome
the handicap of ignorance with which we had started, while they were out
of the line for a rest and naturally wished to enjoy themselves, have
parties, and relax.
At one time we tried attaching noncommissioned officers from the French
units to ours. We hoped we could accomplish more this way. It did not
work well, however, except in one instance, in which the American
company became so fond of their French "noncom." that they did their
level best to keep him with them for the rest of the war.
Toward the end of the training period, before the French left us, we had
a sort of official party for both our troops and the French troops. It
was held on our drill grounds and everyone had chow. The men and
officers really enjoyed this affair. Later we gave another party for the
French officers, who came and lunched with us. In the athletic sports
that afternoon we experienced some difficulty with the middleweight
boxing because Sergeant Ross, of B Company, was so much the best boxer
that we could find no one to put up a good fight against him.
Among the other sports was a "salad" race, in which all the combatants
take off their shoes, piling them in the center of a circle. They line
up around the edges and, at the word "go," run forward, try to find
their own shoes, put them on, and lace them up. The man who first does
this wins. Of course, the contestants throw each other's shoes around,
which adds to the general mix-up, with the usual comic incidents. During
the meet a lieutenant rushed up to me before the tug of war was to be
staged, terribly excited, explaining that the best men in his company's
team for a tug of war were just going on guard. I hurried off to try to
change this and succeeded in mixing the guard up to such an extent that
it took the better part of a day to get it straightened out again.
The French noncoms came over also and dined with our men, and one day
all of us went over to the French village and saw their sports, mule
races, pole vaulting, etc. Their officers' messes are very picturesque.
Every action is surrounded by custom. They rise in their snappy blue
uniforms and sing songs of previous battles and victories, and drink
toasts to long-dead leaders.
It was at this time we developed our policy concerning punishment. Under
circumstances such as we were up against it was necessary to be severe,
for the good of all. No outfit but had the same percentage of offenders;
the draft took all alike, and any man who says he had no punishments in
his command is either a fool or a liar. We always considered, however,
that as far as possible, in minor offenses, it was better to avoid
court-martial. The summary court if much used indicates a poor or lazy
commander. Where possible we always handled situations as follows:
Private Blank is ordered to take his full pack on maneuvers, and does
not. His C. O. notices it at a halt. No charges are put in against him
for disobedience of orders. His pack is opened then and there and nice,
well-selected rocks are put in to take the place of the missing blankets
and shelter half. He resumes the march with these on his back and has to
keep up.
One cold day the buglers, who are supposed to be having a liaison drill
while the rest of the brigade are maneuvering, decide to sneak off and
build a fire. They are discovered, and then and there are ordered to
climb to the top of a pine tree, where they are made to bugle in a cold
wind during the rest of the morning.
These punishments serve two purposes--first, they check the offender, at
the moment he has committed the breach of discipline, and not only make
it very unpleasant for him, but also make him ridiculous in the eyes of
the other men. Second, they leave no stain on his record and let him
keep his money.
It must not be taken from the above that I do not believe court-martial
necessary, for I most emphatically do in many cases. You often cannot
reach constant offenders by any other method. Also such offenses as
"theft," desertion, and serious insubordination can be dealt with
suitably by no other method. I believe in keeping all cases away from
the court when possible, but I also believe, when you do take them into
the courts, you should punish stringently.
In addition to the numerous incidents where too severe penalties have
been imposed, there are many instances of unjustifiable leniency. This
is resented by all alike. I remember the comment which was caused among
all ranks by the pardoning of men convicted of having slept on their
posts. This pardoning sounds pretty and humane to those who have not
been in the fighting line, but where the lives of all depend on the
vigilance of that sentry, it is "a gray horse of another color."