HISTORY
of
THE 308th INFANTRY
By
L. Wardlaw Miles
Chapter 3
With The British
CHAPTER III
With the British
I
MANY supposed that the Regiment would spend five weeks in
England training at Winchester, but at Liverpool orders
were received to proceed immediately to France. Great was
the speculation which ensued, and rumor raged as
intensely as during the last weeks at Upton. A short
march through the streets of Liverpool, with a brief
glimpse here and there of unfamiliar advertisements on
the hoardings, of a strange. variety of tram cars, or of
a helmeted policeman, and then the companies lined up
beside the waiting trains. Here also lined up stood
Australian troops, big fellows straight and easy in their
carriage, with looped-nup hats and informal manners,
which put us on good terms at once. Soon however we left
them, and with the cheerful slogan "Dover and
Over" boarded our trains.
The unfamiliar
English compartment trains called forth much humorous
comment, which diminished, however when it was discovered
that the cars were heatless and all but lightless. Speed
nevertheless they had, and only fleeting glimpses were
possible of the beautiful English country, its fields and
hedgerows now verdant with early April. At Rugby a halt
was made for refreshments, and the scarcity of food in
England became evident. A cup, of weak, sugarless tea and
a fish sandwich provided poor satisfaction for a healthy
doughboy 's appetite.
In the late afternoon we passed around the outskirts of
London. Our identity was easily recognized by the many
small American flags waved from the car windows. in
answer to these, the population of girls, old women, and
boys crowded into their small back yards and gave us
fervent acclamation. One gesture in particular prevailed,
the sweeping of the arms, and hands in the direction in
which we were going, and which eloquently expressed the
unspoken words: " Hurry on before it is too
late." The sight of these people into whose souls
the iron had entered for almost four years of war was
very touching.
Arrival at Dover
was late. In an ominous darkness due to the frequent air
raids, and in a silence which seemed a necessary part of
the precaution, men detrained, gathered together their
equipment, and marched across railway tracks and through
the narrow winding streets of the darkened town, hobnails
resounding on the stone pavements with a hollow ring. The
hill leading to the camp on the cliffs above the town
would have been a severe test for a hardened hiker, not
to mention men who had not had time to lose their sea
legs. A weary and footsore lot of soldiers turned in that
night to enjoy the comforts of the "Rest Camp."
Sunday, April 21st,
proved a beautiful day. The gulls flying high above, the
glint of the waters of the Channel far below, the keen
salt winds, the quaint town at the foot of the chalk
cliffs, English soldiers marching to church to the quick
step of a band, all these left indelible impressions. A
part of the Regiment crossed that day, and a part on the
next. As our troops marched away to the docks, the
populace turned out en masse to see the "bloomin'
Yanks," the first Americans to pass through England
in considerable numbers and the first members of any
National Army Division. The pier at Dover was a temporary
hospital as a number of boats, carrying British wounded
and gassed, arrived on the morning of the 21st. Naturally
the impression made on the officers and men of the 308th
was a vivid one. No time was lost in boarding the small
craft which constantly bore the wounded back to "
blighty " and the troops to France. Two destroyers
from the famous Dover Patrol guarded each transport while
a great dirigible flew protectingly ahead.
In less than an
hour Calais was reached, its sandy shores and red-roofed
houses sparkling in the sunlight. Gathered on the quay,
curiously watching the arrival of the Americans were
soldiers of all the Allied nations. Not the least
conspicuous were the Chinese coolies, resplendent in
heterogeneous uniforms of every conceivable pattern.
Later we found a large camp of these Orientals, who did
much of the labor behind the lines, situated near our
own. Signs in Chinese characters were frequent.
Cheerfully grinning coolies would approach the Yankees
and confide the assurance, "Melicans tres bon,"
to be rewarded with a much coveted American cigarette,
which they proudly showed to envious comrades.
In France at last!
As the Regiment marched through Calais the fact that we
had now stepped upon the stage of the Great Drama became
evident. An air raid had taken place the night before,
and several buildings lay in ruins to prove the nearness
of the enemy. But we had not come as sightseers and there
was little time for observation before we were hurried to
the Calais Rest Camp. On the very next day the familiar
Springfields were exchanged for British Enfield rifles
and gas masks, and steel helmets were distributed.
"Why British
rifles? "
"The Boche
have broken through and the 77th is to be thrown into the
gap at once."
Many such questions
and answers were repeated in that dark hour of the
Allies' cause which followed the last successful German
drive, and which was to precede the dawn of Allied
victory.

With the British in Flanders. A
"Tommy" instructor in the bayonet
It was on the first
night at the Calais Rest Camp when, after a good meal,
the men had turned in to sleep soundly on the board
floors of the marquees that they were awakened about 10
o'clock by the howl and whine of a great siren. The
Americans at once rushed out to see the fun. Immediately
the penciled rays of huge hidden searchlights played here
and there across the sky like long fingers feeling for
the approaching planes. From far overhead came the
characteristic fluctuating drone which later became so
familiar as the warning of an enemy machine. Then the
hoarse barking of the Archies; sputtering of machine
guns; and bright flares bursting overhead. In defiance of
all this, the insistent drone of the planes grew louder
and louder. The searching rays flashed back and forth,
for an instant catching a plane and converging upon it,
then losing it again. Above all the noise sounded the
deep and unmistakable detonation of a bomb which had
elsewhere descended. Almost as suddenly as it had begun
the noise ceased, and the lights went out. In an hour it
was all over, and the rest of the night left for a
discussion of the first air raid.
2
Leaving the camp
behind, the Regiment entrained during the next two days
for Audruicq, the Division Railhead, midway between
Calais and St. Omer. Now was obtained the first sight of
the gray-clad Germans-prisoners working like the coolies
quietly along the railway. At the railhead, battalions
were separated into companies and marched to the towns in
which they were to be billeted. Division Headquarters had
been placed at Eper-lecques. Regimental Headquarters were
established in the beautiful Chateau Cocove near
Zutkerque, the remainder of the Regiment being scattered
in the towns Of Helbrucq, Bayenghem, Nortleulinghem,
Nortkerque, Recques, and Grasse Payle.

Machine Gun
lessons under the British
Each of these
little Flemish towns possessed its square, its estaminet,
and its church. From the latter constantly soup-led the
bells, sometimes somewhat harsh and jangled but rarely
without plaintive sweetness. There was the inevitable
churchyard with its graves marked with wax immortelles
under glass covers. The cure, venerable, benign, and
courteous, proved an excellent object upon whom to try
one's French. The peasants, for the most part little
children and old men and women, spoke a patois that would
have presented difficulties for better French scholars
than were to be found in the 308th. Nevertheless one
learned somehow of sons and husbands and fathers from
each family fighting at the front or already killed, and
on Sundays and Saints' Days the black dresses and crape
veils of the women bore further mute yet eloquent
testimony. Moreover now for the first time came the sound
of the guns at the front-a far off muffled, ominous sound
like the slamming of great subterranean doors. In spite
of spring blossoms, peaceful fields of green, and the
poplar-lined roads of Northern France, leading from one
little red-roofed town to an-other, the Real Thing was
drawing nearer. And in the wistful long-drawn twilights
of early summer, these white roads stretched dimly away
into a future of wildly-surmised adventure, while the
bells chimed softly from far-off steeples, and the
billets smelled strongly near at hand, and men thought
thoughts alone, or foregathered in estaminets to drink
red wine and sing " Mademoiselle from Armenti6res,
parlez-vous! "
The men were
billeted in barns where straw took the place of the
spring cots of Upton. Washing facilities of a French
barnyard are restricted, and the constant intrusion of
poultry and rats and the imminence of the manure pile
proved unattractive features. All was borne with fine
good nature. The British ration caused considerable
dissatisfaction. Tea, jam (apple or plum), and cheese
appeared with wearisome regularity at every meal;
hardtack seemed a poor exchange for the good and
generously supplied bread of the American ration. Local
estaminets became very popular. Here one could obtain a
meal of pommes de terre, oeufs, coffee and bread for a
few francs. Soon, however, the shrewd peasant discovered
the large pay and the small thriftiness of the American
soldier, and prices soared proportionately,
Training which had
been suspended perforce during our travels was resumed as
soon as the troops were in billets. Under the tutelage of
the British 39th Division, American methods were largely
abandoned. Somewhat later those who attended British
schools of instruction heard such unfamiliar commands as
"About me, in two ranks, fall in!", which
sounded very strange in ears accustomed to the I. D. R.
Greater power was now given to the N. C. O.'s, and they
amply justified the wisdom of a policy in which the
drilling was for the most part done by them while the
officers exercised general supervision. Two or more men
would be selected from each platoon to receive
instruction from the British in the Lewis automatic
rifle, the Enfield rifle, bayonet and hand grenades.
These men would later become themselves instructors to
the platoon gathered in a circle about them. Some days
were devoted to shooting on miniature ranges with
cartridges of reduced charge. Lectures for both men and
officers were delivered by British officers, some of whom
had been in the war from the start.
The British and
American officers fraternized in the actual meaning of
the word. With the men the relations were less cordial
for a number of reasons. Chief among these possibly was
the already mentioned British ration. If, as Napoleon
said, an army moves upon its stomach, it was but natural
that our troops should wish to move upon their own
stomachs-and stand upon their own legs. Another reason
was the large number of Irish among us. It was hardly to
be expected that the lads who had on their way over cast
wistful glances towards the old country would be
enthusiastic over English methods and English
instructors. When, however, one considers the striking
differences of tradition and experience belonging to the
two armies, the relations between the two were on the
whole remarkably friendly.
Along with the new
rations and equipment a number of new expressions became
adopted: "Carry on!", " cheerio! ",
" wind up, " " blighty, " "
washout, " "bloody, " "the
Show." Also one learned to designate the enemy
either as " Jerry " or by the impersonal but
always understood "he." A random but vivid
memory recalls some long distance shelling in a little
town near Sombrin, and the tones of intense bitterness
with which a Tommy, working on the road, straightened his
back to remark, "E's a bloody barstard! That's what
'e is!"
It is interesting to see how our troops looked to others.
That acute observer, Sir Philip Gibbs, has written:
Physically they were splendid-those boys of the 27th and
77th Divisions whom we saw first of all. They were
taller," than any of our regiments, apart from the
Guards, and they had a fine easy swing of body as they
came marching along., They were better dressed than our
Tommies, whose rough khaki was rather shapeless. There
was a dandy cut about this American uniform, and their
cloth was of good quality, so that, arriving fresh, they
looked wonderfully spruce and neat compared with our
weather-worn, battle-battered lads.
And again:
I was struck by the exceptionally high level of
individual intelligence among the rank and file, and by
the general gravity among them. The American private
soldier seemed to me less repressed by discipline than
our men. He had more original points of view, expressed
himself with more independence of thought, and had a
greater sense of his own personal value and dignity.'
Not all these observations agree with those of the
present writer. Perhaps it was because the British troops
we saw were in a back area, but to him they seemed to
have much more swank and swagger and their uniforms to be
far neater than those of our men. The British salute was
particularly a marvel of ceremonial and click. The "
gravity" is a matter of opinion. "Every land
has its laugh." Certainly there passed cheerful
evenings at the Officers' Club at Calais and in many
estaminets when gravity seemed the least noticeable
characteristic of either nation. Sir Philip is, however,
probably right in regard to the non-repression by
discipline and the independence of thought. It is to be
questioned whether time was not lost in attempting to
impose certain forms of British discipline on our men
whose genius, from the whole nature of their
civilization, was more akin to the less formal and more
elastic methods of the French.
Mention has been
made of the schools of instruction. The Commanding
Officers of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Battalions attended a
profitable two weeks' course for Field Officers at the
British 2nd Army Central School at Wis-ques, Colonel
Gilbert Hamilton of the Grenadier Guards, Commandant.
Here, as at other schools for musketry, automatic rifle
and bayonet instruction, it was impressive to note how
English neatness, comfort, and good form had invaded an
alien territory. Every officer got his bath in the
morning, a thing for which many of the American officers
had often longed in vain. The difference between a batman
and a striker was characteristic. Indeed the servant
problem, so well solved in English life and so perplexing
in America, was unexpectedly reflected in the Army, as
were so many contrasting problems of the two
civilizations. The standing to drink the healths of King
and of President at an Officers' Mess was only one of a
hundred things which made us feel that we were younger
brothers in an older and more orderly house than our own.
Perhaps nothing so touched the imaginations of some of us
as the bagpipes. Whether, as at the mess of the Highland
Light Infantry, they were played marching around the
table when the port was served, or whether as elsewhere
we marched behind them to the rifle range, to hear them
was a thrilling experience. Such moments did not suggest
mud, poison gas, and high explosives, but rather
"the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious
war," touched in more innocent times by the light of
romance itself.
But certain
selected officers and noncommissioned officers now had
the chance to see actual modern war. In small groups,
dubbed "Cook's Tours," they visited the British
front for brief but very instructive trips of
observation. One of them, Lieutenant Knight, returned
slightly wounded. The prestige enjoyed by these men and
the fusillade of questions to which they were subjected
may be imagined. They seemed chiefly impressed by the
vast amount of shelling and the relatively small results,
as well as the great importance of the gas mask
Those officers and men who visited the Canadian felt very
much at home, the atmosphere being not unlike that of one
of our best National Guard Divisions. With these troops
opportunity was afforded to watch raids, and in some
cases to participate in them and take prisoners. The
Battalion Officers received a most valuable lesson in
going through the Relief by a battalion in the support
line of a battalion in the front line. Those officers who
visited the Guards were much impressed with the
discipline and smartness of that organization in most
trying circumstances.
3
Once established
with the British, Brigadier Evan M. Johnson, who brought
the Division overseas, returned to his former command of
the 154th Brigade, Major General George B. Duncan
succeeding him as Division Commander, in the chateau at
Eperlecques. Motorcycle couriers speeding with messages
from town to town now became a usual sight. A few
officers who had never straddled leather before were
struggling daily to learn to ride the splendid mounts
received from the British. The Colonel looked as happy as
only a cavalry man can who finds himself again in the
saddle. Astride a spirited white charger, he was
continually riding over the wide regimental area.
The transportation
equipment received from the British was different from
anything ever used by the American army, and replaced our
escort wagons, mules, and field ranges with limbers,
caissons, horses both riding and draft, and rolling
kitchens. The excellent condition of all these, after
four years of service, was remarkable. Captain Popham,
the Divisional Red Cross Officer, having no Red Cross
work at Headquarters, moved over to the Regiment and was
made Regimental Transport Officer, an office till then
unheard of in our forces. His fine work, based on
thorough knowledge and love of horses, was made evident
at a horse and transport show held near Sombrin. The
Inspector General of the Army, who happened to be
present, expressed high praise.
On May 13th, the
154th Brigade consisting of the 308th and its sister
Regiment the 307th, started from their Eperlecques
training area, north of St. Omer, to proceed to a new
area nearer the front and west of Arras. The rest of the
Division remained behind in the original training area.
This marked the end of our first phase of training with
the British. When the 77th Division arrived as the first
draft division during the dark days of April, it was used
as a hurried reinforcement of the badly broken English
forces with the idea that it might help if the Germans
broke through. But the German offensive did not continue,
and other National Army divisions arrived. So far no
definite decision had been made as to the disposal of
American troops. Both French and English needed men and
would have been glad to incorporate our troops with their
own. Indeed it was with this idea in view that the 154th
Brigade was now to be shipped to the Arras front, and the
77th Division to be temporarily broken up. A little later
it will be seen how all units of the Division came very
near losing their identity and being absorbed with the
British.
The 308th entrained
at Audruicq. At Doullens a trainload of the Regiment
experienced an organized air raid on that city. The train
crews made a hasty retreat to a few nearby dugouts, but
there was nothing for the troops to do but to remain in
the unprotected cars. Fortunately there were no
casualties, most of the bombs landing near the hospital,
which was a considerable distance from the railroad.
This trip was for
most of the Regiment an introduction to that traveling in
France of which so much was to follow. Now for the first
time men crowded themselves and their equipment into the
small French box cars marked "Hommes 40-Chevaux
8," and began a slow and interminable journey. The
officers fared more comfortably in passenger coaches, but
it was not luxurious travel for anyone. Nevertheless it
was not without fun and interest for all in spite of
cramped quarters and meager rations. At Mondicourt in
silence and intense darkness, relieved here and there by
an electric torch, men woke late in the night to detrain
stiff and weary. The muffled muttering from the front had
now grown louder, and when we marched from the station
and lined up in the road outside the town, one could see
the low clouds-it was a warm wettish night with a
sprinkle of rain-lit constantly with flickering artillery
fire and with Very lights, bright colored stars which
rose lazily on the horizon and hung there a few moments
spreading a baleful glare. There far off in the night was
The Thing Itself which we had step by step so long been
nearing.
The hike which
followed was long and bitter. At the head of some of the
troops marched British drums and fifes, playing gay tunes
in odd contrast to the anguish of weary men staggering on
with blistered feet under their rifles and eighty-pound
packs. Yet even while the men cursed the music, it helped
them. Many, however, had to be left by the way in spite
of the threats and exhortations of their officers. The
pluck and endurance shown on this and many later hikes
was worthy of all praise.
At last at early
dawn the assigned billets in the different small towns,
some ten kilometers from the front line, were reached. On
this occasion-the only one of such known to the present
writer-hot tea and rum was issued as the worn-out troops
arrived. It was unspeakably elcome. The 2nd Battalion got
theirs at Mondicourt Pas, and a Highland band drawn up in
a circle played while the men drank tea and ate bread and
jam.
The 1st, 2nd, and
3rd Battalions were respectively quartered in Sombrin,
Warluzel, and La Bazique Farm. The new training area was
inferior to the old and some-what handicapped for space.
That the new sector was a more active one became obvious.
The 308th was now actually a part of the British defense
scheme. It was attached to the 2nd British Division and
had become temporarily a part of the same. An American
Regiment corresponded to a British Brigade, but instead
of the 308th acting as a unit, its three Battalions were
each attached to a separate British Brigade, and thus the
identities of American Brigade and Regiment were
temporarily lost no less than the identity of the
Division itself.
Training was
resumed largely along the English methods with a grateful
lack of interference from their higher command. At this
time the 2nd Battalion underwent the rather unique
distinction of being inspected by the Inspector-Generals
of both the B. E. F. and A. E. F., Generals Lawrence and
Brewster. The activity of the sector and its nearness to
the front were evidenced by shelling from the long-range
guns which searched out the busy Arras road and the
adjacent towns, causing the Regiment's first casualties,
Private Stanley Belen, killed, and Private George
Schiesser, wounded, both of Company I, at La Bazique Farm
on May 21st. Regimental General Orders NO. 2 recorded
this fact and expressed the sympathy of the Regiment to
Belen's family.
Now many men had the unforgetable experience of being
under shellfire for the first time. Whenever it might
occur and whatever experiences might follow, it is safe
to say no one forgot that first crashing detonation, at
once so sharp and loud, and the great geyser of earth and
d6bris which spouted up into a gigantic mushroom of smoke
and then drifted slowly off, while a man always asked
himself: "Where will the next come?" At night
the air raids, which had already begun in our earlier
position, became more numerous. The French populace
rushed into such abris and cellars as were available. The
Americans generally waited where they were with a
fatalism which indicated no lack of interest in the
outcome.
On June 4th, came
the order for the 2nd British Division to leave its
support position and take over the front line just south
of Arras. In simple form these directions were received
at the 308th Regimental Headquarters. Captain Whittlesey,
then Operations Officer, drew up the orders for the
different Battalions, giving the information as to place,
time, and manner of relief of the front line troops. When
this order reached the Battalions, they learned that they
were to be broken up and lose their identity as such.
Even the companies were to be taken from their captains.
The platoons of the companies were to be attached to
British companies, and thus the platoons only were to
preserve their identity.
Everything was
ready to accomplish the disposal of the American troops
just described, when only a little more than twenty-four
hours before the relief, everything was countermanded. So
close did the 308th come to being merged into the British
Army, when, in the sudden dramatic manner described, its
identity was saved by the memorable and history-making
decision of General Pershing to use American troops under
American command.
And so on the
afternoon of June 6th, with the order to go into the
front line under British command suddenly rescinded, the
Brigades started hiking in another direction. Lewis guns
had been returned, Enfields re-exchanged for the original
Springfields, when with a final "Cheerio" to
our British friends, we left them behind.
Good-by-eel Don't cry-ee!
Wipe the fear, baby dear, from your eye-ee!
Though it's hard to part, I know,
I'll be tickled to death to go.
Don't cry-ee! Don't sigh-ee!
There's a silver lining in the sky-ee!
Bon soir, Old Thing! Cheerio! Chin, chin!
Na pooh:" Toodledy-oo-Good-by-ee!