The Mexican Border War: The Third Battle of Ciudad Juarez. June 15-16, 1919 Part 3.

The Juarez racetrack on June 16, 1919.  The large hole in the cupola was caused by it being hit by American artillery.

And with this, the story of the United States and the Mexican Revolution, which we started following nearly daily with the 1916 Columbus Raid, and which became as story which bled into World War One, while not definitively over, is significantly over.

As we saw first on June 14, the Villistas launched their anticipated attack on Juarez very late in the night of June 14.  That attack first met with success, but by morning the Villistas had been pushed back.  American forces that had moved up in anticipation of crossing the Rio Grande accordingly went back into Ft. Bliss.

Those troops were soon back out.  Villa's renewed attack was proving successful and the troops reassembled to cross the Rio Grande.  This time they also brought up two armored gun trucks, the first time they'd been used by the U.S. Army in this locality.  Searchlights were also deployed to illuminate Juarez's streets and buildings in the night.

As the battle raged in Juarez shots inevitably began landing in El Paso, wounding and killing American civilians.  At first the Americans held their fire, but ultimately after taking a few casualties the U.S. Army intervened.  The final blow for the U.S. Army was when Pvt. Salvatore Fusco was killed by Villista sniper fire and Pvt. Burchard F. Casey was wounded.  With that, the American troops were ordered across the border to restore order.  The armored gun trucks crossed the Santa Fe Bridge followed by the 24th Infantry Regiment.  The 5th and 7th Cavalry, under Col. Tommy Tomkins, crossed the Rio Grande directly and moved to the western part of the city with the goal of creating a pincer movement in which Villa would be caught.  Near the Juarez racetrack the infantry encountered withdrawing Constitutionalist who informed them that the Villistas were dug in at the racetrack, which the 82nd Artillery then shelled.  Cavalry advanced from the east on the racetrack but encountered no Villista forces.

 Pvt. Salvatore Fusco.

At daybreak, the Cavalry returned to the river to water their horses and then moved south into Mexico in hopes of assaulting Villa's base.

They did in fact locate it, shell it and then assault it.  However, the Villistas, while at first surprised while eating breakfast, rapidly abandoned the camp, leaving their wounded as well as horses, mules and equipment.

The American infantry remained in Juarez itself while this was going on and received a protest from the Constitutionalist forces for entering the country without invitation, which was ironic under the situation as they were outnumbered and well on their way to defeat at the time that the Americans intervened.  Indeed, they speant the rest of the battle in their barracks.  The Americans soon  nonetheless withdrew, deeming their mission accomplished.   Three Americans were killed in the battle, Pvt. Fusco, Pvt. Anthony Cunningham of the 24th Infantry and Sgt. Pete Chigas of the 7th Cavalry.

Col. Tommy Tomkins in Juarez, whose brother Frank Tomkins had led American cavalry across the border following the Columbus Raid, and who lead the U.S. Cavalry contingent across the border in the Battle of Juarez. The Tomkins effectively bookended the Border War.

The battle was not only the last battle of the Border War, it was the last battle to be fought by Pancho Villa.  He did not retire thereafter, but instead actually conducted areal warfare through an air corps formed in his service. Although he remained very resentful against the US intervention in the battle, as well as of course earlier American intervention in the Mexican Revolution, he never participated in another battle against American troops and he was not really capable of doing so after the Battle of Juarez.  Villistas may have raided in Arizona as late as 1920, when some Mexican forces attacked Ruby Arizona, but the loyalty of those troops is not known.

Funeral procession for Pvt. Fusco.

While the battle didn't result in Villa's capture and it didn't fully end his activities, for all practical purposes he was done for.  So in a way, the 1919 battle achieved what the 1916 intervention had not.  Villa was effectively destroyed as a force in the field.  Once again, the U.S. Army was frustrated in a desire to capture Villa, but it didn't really matter.  Villa, while sufficiently resurgent to have mounted such a campaign, was not the force he had been earlier in the Mexican Revolution even if the Constituionalist forces in Juarez proved inadequate to contest him.  The American reaction to his presence in Juarez, justified by American troops being in harm's way, ended his career as a serious contender in the Mexican Revolution.

May 21, 1919. The birth of Wyoming's cavalry.

Bundling newspapers, May 21, 1919.

The Casper paper reported on this day in 1919 that Wyoming's National Guard would become cavalry now that the Great War was over.

And it was correct.

One of the popular myths of history is that "World War One was the end of the cavalry".  It wasn't. We dealt with that old saw previously here in a couple of posts, those being:

The Horsey World War One Edition

 U.S. Remounts, World War One.

It's commonly stated that the First World War demonstrated what any competent observer should have been able to know by simple deduction, that being that the age of the horse in war, or more particularly cavalry in war, was over.  This appears again and again in everything from films to serious academic histories.It's also complete bunk.In reality, cavalry served effectively on every front during the war and the Army that acted to keep its cavalry fully separate to the extent it could, rather than folding cavalry elements into infantry divisions, had the most effective cavalry, that being the British.  There are numerous examples of cavalry deployments from every front in the war in every year of the war, with some being very effective deployments indeed. Generally, properly deployed, cavalry proved to be not only still viable, but extremely effective.  And it was also shown that not only did the machinegun not render cavalry obsolete, but cavalry was less impeded by machineguns than infantry, and it was more effective at deploying light machineguns defensively than infantry was.

And

Persistent Myths XI: The World War Two Horsey Edition.

The World War Two Horsey Edition.Following on item VI above, its also commonly believed that the retention of horse cavalry in any army, or horses in general, during World War Two was just romantic naivete.Actually, it wasn't.  Every single army in World War Two had some mounted forces they used in combat. Every single one.  There are no exceptions whatsoever.  The simple reason was that there were certain roles that still could be preformed in no other way.One of the major combatants, the Germans, attempted to eliminate independent cavalry formations while retaining organic formations in infantry units and found the need so pressing that it ended up rebuilding its independent cavalry formations and incorporating irregular ones.  The United States and the United Kingdom both ended up creating "provisional" mounted formations in Italy, as they couldn't fill the reconnaissance role there in any other fashion.  One army, the Red Army, had huge numbers of cavalrymen throughout the war.The last mounted combat by the United States, prior to Afghanistan, actually took place in the context, with a mounted charge of sorts being done in late 1944 or early 1945 by a mounted unit of the 10th Mountain Division. The last German charge was in the closing weeks of 1945, when a German cavalry unit charged across an American armored unit, in part of their (successful) effort to flea the advancing Red Army. When the last Soviet charge was I do not know, but the USSR kept mounted cavalry until 1953.In terms of transportation, the Germans in fact were more dependent upon transport draft horses in World War Two than in World War One, which is also true for artillery horses.  Germany, the USSR, China, Japan, France, and Italy (at least) all still used horse drawn artillery to varying extents during the war.

As I've noted elsewhere on this blog, the reestablishment of National Guard unis after the Great War was very badly handled, as the Federal Government simply discharged all of the men in Guard units and didn't actually return them to state control.  This left the Guard having to rebuild without its existing structure intact.  Some states handled it better and more quickly than others.

But something else that did occur, and which was more structured, is that the Federal Government played a greater role on what the post war Guard units would be, thereby making them more useful upon mobilization.  In the case of Wyoming the Guard had been infantry when mobilized for the Punitive Expedition and then infantry again when first mobilized for World War One, but it soon became artillery and transport during the Great War.  

After World War One, and apparently as early as 1919, the decision was made to make the post war Wyoming National Guard cavalry.  That unit became the 115th Cavalry Regiment at some point after its introduction in the early 1920s.  It remained that until it became the 115th Cavalry (Horse Mech), a horse mechanized cavalry unit, shortly before World War Two.  Horse Mech was an experimental cavalry organization which featured both horses and vehicles and which was supposed to combine both types of transportation.  That's what the 115th was upon mobilization in 1940 for World War Two, but the use of the unit for cadre purposes meant that it did not deploy until late in the war, by which time it was the more conventional mechanized cavalry of the post 1943 pattern.

The Wyoming Army National Guard, which it became after the creation of the Air Force, retained cavalry into the 1950s, but by that time artillery units were being reintroduced to the Wyoming Guard.  Cavalry, by which we'd mean armored cavalry at that point, was phased out of the Wyoming Army National Guard at some point after the Korean War.

But from the 20s up until some point during World War Two, it was a horse featuring unit.  While it certainly could be disputed and probably should be, to some extent, that was its glory years.

Monday, April 14, 1919. Nothing to return to in France, returning to U.S. from Italy, temporary housing.

Where Cantigny had been, April 14, 1919.

The 332nd Infantry on the Duca d'Acosta returning from their World War One service in Italy.  They arrived in New York on this day in 1919.

On this same day, the Red Cross photographed its set of instructions for temporary housing, a critical need at the time.  I don't know if they published it on this day as well, but it must have been close to this day.

March 27, 1919. New York's 27th Division receives a parade, Wyoming veterans reported on way home.

American Red Cross Volunteer Motor Corps transporting wounded veterans of the 27th Division in a parade held on this day in New York City, 1919.

A huge parade was held on this day in New York City where the 27th Division, which had been formed from New York National Guardsmen, marched.

West Point cadet receiving hot chocolate from a Red Cross volunteer.

 Wounded and nurse viewing from an open window on Millionaires' Row.

Camp Dix, March 25, 1919.

Probably more than a few of those soldiers had come through Camp Dix at some point.

Closer to home. .  or not, Wyomingites read that 147 Wyomingites in the 264th Infantry were on the way home.

Post Armistice Training, November 11,1918 to March 11, 1919, 93rd Division

Canadian Special Operations Forces troops and American Rangers on parade. How are you going to tell them apart? Berets everywhere.

An odd thought occurred to me yesterday after posting this item, for which I've reset out the photograph below.

But Wait Once Again, the Canadian Special Operations Forces Pink & Green service uniform. Was Lex Anteinternet: But wait, Captain Crabby, maybe you've missed the ...

 Canadian soldiers of the Canadian Special Operations Forces marching past sailors and airmen of the Canadian Navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force.  This Canadian Army photo is about the only one available to illustrate the new service uniform of the unit which is distinctly different from the Canadian Army's in cut and color.  It's odd to realize the extent to which an American uniform is adopted here by a military that really doesn't like to be confused with American services as everything about the uniform except for the beret and the insignia recalls an American World War Two item. It's also interesting to note the extent to which World War Two uniform items have been either retained or brought back into use by various armies. . . indeed nearly every army that fought in World War Two.

Now that the U.S. Army, in late 2018, did what the Canadian Special Operations Force did in 2017, how are you going to tell who is who when they're in their pink & green uniform?

It won't be easy, at a distance.  And headgear has a lot to do with that.

Now, with the American uniform, troops are authorized to wear the wheelhouse cap or the garrison cap, but they're also authorized to wear the beret.

Now, as I've commented on it from time to time, I'll be frank on what everyone already knows.  I hate berets. They're just silly headgear. But I will concede that they look sharp in some military applications. And those applications, in my view, are in other armies, not the American Army.  Americans don't know how to wear berets and they look weird when they do.

But they've come into U.S. use and they don't seem to be leaving anytime soon, unfortunately.  In fact, beret coloration is expanding.

While I know that I've posted on it before, I'll briefly recap here, so that my comments above make sense.  The U.S. Army first used berets in 1956 when the Special Forces started wearing them in a green coloration that soon came to identify them. That first use was unauthorized but it soon came to be approved.

Special Forces troops in 1956 before the wearing of the beret was authorized.  These were obviously private purchase and lacked the stiffner that later U.S. berets featured.

The color was "Rifle Green" which is a color the British also had used for awhile, but not for commandos.  It was really close, however, to the British "Commando Green" which was worn by the Special Boat Service, one of several British special forces units created during World War Two, albeit one that was part of the British Marines.

The similar coloration was no doubt intentional as the British really brought their style of beret, which is generally what the U.S. and Canada both use, into military use when it adopted berets early in World War Two. The French had been wearing a differently pattern for a long time for their mountain troops, the Chasseurs Alpine, but that pattern is both huge and distinct.  By going with the British style beret and the dark green color, the Special Forces were intentionally adopting the British coloration and use.  That other British units use green berets of other shades was apparently not noticed or, because there was no intent to adopt berets for general use at the time, simply not worried about.

It's odd, however, that tan or khaki wasn't chosen, as we'll see.

Special Forces Warrant Officer in blue dress uniform wearing the Special Forces Rifle Green colored beret.  Note the crossed arrows that are the symbol of this branch.

Canada, it might be noted, also has a green beret in a dark shade, that being Canadian Forces Green.  It's issued to every soldier in the Army who doesn't wear a different shade, in keeping with the post World War Two effort of the Canadian Army to have a distinct looking uniform.  In their current dress uniform, therefore, they look just like U.S. Army members of the Special Forces back when the U.S. Army Class A uniform was the Army Green Uniform.

Oops.

Anyhow, the U.S. Army adopted the black beret for general use when berets went Army wide.  We've discussed this before but this upset Rangers who had worn it unofficially in Vietnam, as had tankers in the 1970s.  The tanker use actually also relied upon the prior British use going back to the 1920s, which was ironically copied soon thereafter by German tankers, in adopting black berets, something that probably reflected the grime present in armored vehicles.  Canadian tankers also wear black berets, leaning on the British pattern.

German Panzerjaeger in 1989 wearing a black beret of the British pattern.

Indeed, British tankers were the first to wear the type of beret that has spread to general military use.  It came about due to British tankers being exposed to French Chasseurs Alpine during World War One and deciding that their headgear would be handy for use in tanks.  The British didn't like the giant French beret however, and redesigned the modern beret based on its style but using the Basque beret size, for a new pattern.  The resulting beret is smaller and closer fitting than the American and Canadian ones.

The U.S. Army beret is in fact really close to the Canadian one but we never quite got the shape and size right.  Some American troops, for that reason, buy the Canadian ones aftermarket, as they look better.

U.S. Army private shortly after the black beret was first authorized.  The cut of the American beret has never been quite right.

This, therefore, meant that there was also a time when Canadian tankers in dress uniform looked identical to American regular soldiers of all branches, save the Special Forces and the Airborne, in dress uniform.

The Airborne of both nations, we'd note, was different as the United States also went with the British maroon beret for airborne, after the black beret came in, which the Canadians had been doing ever since World War Two when their troops served with the British airborne, who had adopted that color in one of the worst choices for military headgear of all time.  It was particularly bad as red stands out and the British airborne had a very strange practice of wearing their berets in combat, which was very ill conceived.  Canada doesn't have many paratroopers however so confusion would be unlikely, and the British beret looks quite a bit different when worn by a British soldier.

Brigadier General of the 82nd Airborne when the Army Combat Uniform was in use.  It's photographs like this which show why the Army had adopted the pinks and greens as use of a combat uniform for a portrait shows that your dress uniform is really disliked.

All of this really upset Rangers who had unofficially had a beret at one time only to have the color co-opted by the Army for everyone.  To rectify that situation, the Army adopted the tank beret.

Ranger Colonel in the ACU uniform with the tan beret.

And that's where we get back to our point.

The tan beret, like the green beret, went back to World War Two British commandos for inspiration, in this case the Special Air Service, the commando branch of the World War Two British Army (well. . one of them anyhow).  They use that color and have since World War Two.

So does the Canadian Special Operations Forces, for obvious reasons.  So does the Australian SAS.  So did the Rhodesian SAS.  In other words, everyone inspired by the British, have done the same.

Which means that American Rangers in the new Army Green Uniform will look just like the Canadian Special Operations Forces commandos in theirs.

Odd.

Well not quite identical.  Or maybe not.

The Army is authorizing Airborne units to wear World War Two style russet paratrooper boots with their pinks & greens. The Canadian Special Operations Forces did the same in 2017.  Will that extend to Rangers?

I don't know.  But if it does, and I think it likely, that has to be a bit aggravating to the Canadians who got there first.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Postscript

As we've discussed every other sort of beret in use by the U.S. Army we ought to mention the new Security Forces Assistance Brigade, which is a military advisory group.

They wear brown.  It's supposed to symbolize mud, i.e., "boots on the ground".

This is also the color, fwiw, worn by British cavalry units, or at least a couple of them, so there's obviously no intent to follow the British here.  However, it was also the color used by Rhodesian Selous Scouts, which is a bit awkward.

One thing we noted here is that the Canadian Special Operations Forces are not a branch of the Canadian Army, but a separate force made up of members of other branches of the Canadian Forces.  We also noted that the Canadian Forces in general have a beret and that originally the troops of the Special Operations Forces at one time wore the beret and insignia of the units they were drawn from, much like European mercenaries once did (oops).  This same practice, we'd note, is sort of done now by the U.S. Security Forces Assistance Brigade in reverse.  It includes members of the Air Force who wear that beret when serving with it.

French Chasseurs Alpine wearing their distinctive enormous blue beret.  They also have a dress white giant beret.  Blue is the same color worn by French air commandos.

Indeed, the Air Force has its own set of berets, some of which lean on the Army's colors.  Air Force pararescue men wear maroon berets, which recalls the British Airborne's use of them and which is also done by the U.S. Army's airborne.  They also use a scarlet beret for combat controllers for some reason, which is odd.  That same color is the traditional color of the British military police who have worn a scarlet cap for eons and who now wear a scarlet beret.  Canadian military police also wear a scarlet beret. In spite of that, the USAF policemen wear a dark blue beret.  Oh well. The Boy Scouts at one time also wore a scarlet beret.  Dark blue in British use is now the general issue beret, like the American black, for everybody who isn't otherwise issued one of the many colors they issue, replacing the khaki colored (OD) beret of World War Two in that use.

French Marine paratroopers (its complicated) wearing British style maroon berets.  French Legionnaires wear green berets in all uses.  French soldiers often wear remarkably inconsistent uniforms and this is an example.  The soldier on the left is carrying a French pattern bayonet and wears combat boots that are based on the old U.S. M1943 type.  The soldier on the right is carrying a bayonet of a different pattern that resembles one for a Soviet AKM.  His combat boots are also two buckle boots but are of a different pattern.

Bizarrely, USAF Special Operations Weather Technicians have their own beret, and it's pewter grey.  And Survival Operations and Escape specialist wear a sage green one.

USAF Survival and Escape specialist wearing a sage green, British style, beret.  Note how closer fitting it is compared to the typical U.S. Army beret.

And their Survival Escape and evasion specialists wear a sage green beret for some reason.

Navy Seal, Vietnam War.  The Seals have never had an official beret, but obviously at least a few of them wore them unofficially back in the day.

All of which is more than a little confusing.

74th U.S. Infantry, 12th Division. December 20, 1918.

74th U.S. Infantry, 12th Division.  December 20, 1918.

Crossing borders, November 20, 1918.

Advance guard of the 18th Infantry crossing the border line of France and Luxembourg near Aumetz Lux, Lorraine, November 20, 1918.  The 18th was part of the 1st Division and had been in action from the start of American combat participation until the end of the war.  Note that this group of soldiers is entirely equipped with garrison caps and that one of the soldiers is carrying a Chauchat automatic rifle.

Arrival of the first American troops in Belgium, Arlon, Belgium, November 20, 1918.  This street scene is interesting, among other reasons, in that a couple of the men are wearing the type of fedora you'll occasionally see claimed to have not existed until the 1920s. This type shows up in other photos earlier than this, but this photograph gives a good example of them.

Monuments that didn't happen. November 17, 1918.

American infantrymen crossing the Armistice Line at Etain, March 17, 1918..

American troops were marching into Germany while some were denying that a prostrate Germany was prostrate.  And at the same time a proposal was made to erect a monument to the Great War dead from Natrona County in front of the courthouse.

That courthouse is now gone.  Maybe that monument was erected and is gone now, but as far as I'm aware, the only outdoor memorial to Natrona County's World War One veterans came up in the 2000s, although there were early memorials of other types, those being a trench mortar in Veteran's Park, Caissons at Washington Park, and a swimming pool named in memory of a lost soldier of World War One at the same park.

Company B, 27th Infantry, at Khabarofsk. November 15, 1918.

Soldiers of Company B of the Twenty-seventh Infantry waiting to unload supplies from Russian box cars at the railroad yards at Khabarovsk, Siberia, during the Allied Siberian Expedition on November 15, 1918.

Issuing Red Cross sweaters at Fort Oglethrope, GA to men of the 6th U.S. Infantry. September 9, 1918.

This photo really says something about how short on resources the US really was. The Army had an official pattern sweater. . . but it was relying on charity here to equip the men for the oncoming cold months.

Back on the Border: Battle of Ambos Nogales. August 27, 1918

 Nogales in 1899.

On this day elements of the 35th Infantry Regiment and the 10th Cavalry Regiment engaged Mexican Mexican forces at Nogales on the Mexican border.

The entire thing came about basically by accident, and ongoing border tension.

On this day at about 4:10 in the afternoon Mexican carpenter Zeferino Gil Lamadrid attempted to cross the border back into the Mexican side of Ambos Nogales.  The town was, and is, on both sides of the border in Arizona and Sonora respectively.  He was carrying a bulky parcel and was stopped ordered to stop for inspection.  A Mexican customs agent countermanded the order as he had actually crossed into Mexico by that time.  Gil Lamadrid became confused by the competing orders and the ensuing argument. 

 Border guards.  U.S. soldiers on left, well armed but poorly outfitted Mexican soldier on the right.

At this point, a Pvt. William Klint of the 35th U.S. Infantry attempted to cause Gil Lamadrid to return to the U.S. side of the border by brandishing his rifle which he then fired for an unknown reason.  Gil Lamadrid dropped to the ground for protection and Mexican Customs officer Francisco Gallegos returned fire killing Klint.  U.S. Customs Inspector Arthur G. Barber then drew his revolver and opned up, killing Gallegos and Mexican Customs Officer Andres Cecena.  Gil Lamadrid fled in the confusion (he'd be killed in a bar altercation many years later).

Mexican civilians, alerted to something going on due to the gunfire, armed themselves and rushed to join Mexican soldiers who likewise had started engaging under the assumption something was going on.  Perhaps fortunately most of the Mexican Federal soldiers (i.e., the soldiers of the now officially recognized Carranza government) were out of the town at the time fighting rebel soldiers loyal to the governor of Sonora, Plutarco Calles, who would later rise to the be Mexican president himself, and found the PRI Party, and whose hostility to Mexican Catholicism resulted in the Cristero War.  Calles rather obviously was always a controversial figure and that was already proving to be the case in Sonora.

For this reason, the majority of the Mexican combatants were civilians.  On the U.S. side, however, the combatants were soldiers, first of the 35th Infantry and then of the 10th Cavalry.

Soon thereafter Mexican forces joined in the gunfight, on the probable assumption that a battle was up and rolling.  The 35th Infantry at the start of the battle called on the 10th Cavalry for assistance which shortly arrived under the command of Lt. Col. Frederick Herman, who ordered an assault across the border to seize hills overlooking the town.  Those hills were the site of trenches and machinegun emplacements which had been put in several weeks earlier and Herman wanted to occupy them before Mexican forces did.  Mexican combatants in turn rushed the home of Gen. Alvaro Obergon, the Mexican revolutionary hero, who was absent, but whose house made a good fortress due to its stone walls.  In an irony typical of this battle his terrified family was escorted to the safety of the U.S. side by the U.S. Consul in Nogales.

Following this, and under fire, U.S. infantry and dismounted cavalry fought through the town with the 10th Cavalry, a regular U.S. unit comprised of all black enlisted soldiers, taking the red light district of the town where, in another irony, they were met with relief on the part of the town's Mexican working girls who soon went to work as impromptu nurses.  They were joined by American civilians in the same effort with both attending the wounded of both sides.  American civilians also became involved in the combat by firing from houses on the American side of Nogales which proved to be a hindrance to the U.S. Army.

A cease fire was upon when the Mayor of Nogales, Sonora, Felix B. Peñaloza, took a white handkerchief, tied it to his cane and ran into the streets of his city in a brave effort to stop the fighting.  He was in turn shot by a round fired from the American side, and did thirty minutes later.   This panicked, justifiably, Mexican town officials and the Mexican Consul in the American Nogales who caused a white flag to be raised over the custom house.  Snipers on both sides continued to fire for some time, but the battle basically concluded at that point.  Mexican civilians began to evacuate the town out of a fear of further violence.  The border remained closed the following day.

Both governments dispatched representatives to learn what happened.  Calles represented the Mexican government and Gen. DeRosey Cabell, a veteran of the Punitive Expedition, represented the U.S.   Both government expressed regrets about the incident.  Sniper fire continued to come from the Mexican side for some days during this process with the Mexican government maintained that they could not control, but the Mexican government did make an effort to seize civilian arms in Nogales.  The border reopened, but one further American soldier was killed by rifle fire from the Mexican side and a Mexican soldier killed by an American soldier in reprisal before the violence ceased.  By the time this occurred, four U.S. soldiers had died and twelve American civilians, while about thirty Mexican soldiers and one-hundred Mexican civilians had lost their lives.

American participants in the battle persistently maintained that German military men, in uniform, were present at the battle, but there is little evidence of that.  Their insistence was based on first hand observation, so it cannot be entirely discounted, and it is correct that a German officer was in fact killed in an earlier battle skirmish of this type.  However, while it is not impossible, this battle featured a lopsided proportion of Mexican civilians on the Mexican side, which partially explains why the Mexican causalities were predominantly civilians and why the Mexican effort fared fairly poorly in spite of being dedicated in nature.

In a final irony, Gen. Cabell recommended that a border fence be placed on the border through the town and for a distance of two miles.  His recommendation was followed and it was the first such border fence placed on the U.S-Mexican border.  A fence remains in place in the town today.

So, oddly, this forgotten battle is not only a tragedy, overshadowed by the greater tragedy of World War One, it remains oddly contemporary. 

Bells of Balangiga to depart

Gen. Jacob Smith inspects the ruins of Balangiga a few weeks after the battle there.

The Bells of Balangiga, war trophies from the Spanish American War, are going back to the Philippines, according to a government press release.

The bells have long been a matter of contention between the United States and the Philippines.  The 9th Infantry, which took the bells, maintained that it was ambushed in the locality, where it was garrisoned, and the bells symbolized its defense of itself from a surprise treacherous attack.  The Philippines have asserted the battle represented an uprising of the indigenous population against occupation and that the conclusion of the battle featured the killing of villagers without justification.  Both versions of the event may be correct in that it was a surprise attack on a unit stationed in the town and, by that point in the war, 1901, it had begun to take on a gruesome character at times.

Whatever the case may be, the bells, from three Catholic Churches, have long been sought to be returned.  Two of the bells are at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, which which the 9th Infantry had later been stationed at when it was Ft. D. A. Russell, and a third has been kept in Alaska.  It would appear that they're now going to go back to the churches from which they came in the Philippines, almost certainly accompanied by at least some vocal protestations from Wyoming's representation in Congress, I suspect.  As the current Wyoming connection with the 9th Infantry, let alone the Philippine Insurrection, is pretty think, it's unlikely that the average Wyomingite, however, will care much.  Indeed, while it caused its own controversy, a former head of a veteran's position in the state came out for returning the bells the last time this controversy rolled around a few years ago.

The Big Picture: Headquarters and officers, 45th Inf., July 30, 1918. Camp Sheridan, Alabama

The 1st Division in World War One.

 

I've oddly, I suppose, posted on the 2nd Division and the 3d Division, but not the 1st Division.   We seek to correct that omission here.

Rather obviously, the 1st Division was one of the very first U.S. Army divisions to be formed as the United States sought to build an Army to send to France.  Like the 2nd and the 3d, it was a Regular Army division made up of units of the standing U.S. Army.

The 1st Division is the oldest continually serving division on the U.S. Army.  Most sources will indicate that the division was formed on May 24, 1917, just after the American declaration of war, but like the 2nd Division and the 3d Division, it has a Civil War antecedent and a case can be made that the 1st Division first existing during that conflict.  At any rate, it's been serving continually as the 1st Division ever since May 24, 1917 and its seen action in every major American conflict since that time.  It's arguably the most famous U.S. division, although that could be contested I suppose.  It's the only US division to have its nickname, The Big Red One, used for the title of a movie, which says something.

The 1sts was the first U.S. division to fire an artillery mission during World War one and the first to sustain casualties.  It was also the first to launch an offensive operation, Cantigny.

It's make up was typical for an American "square division" for the war:

• Headquarters, 1st Division
• 1st Infantry Brigade
  • 16th Infantry Regiment
  • 18th Infantry Regiment
  • 2nd Machine Gun Battalion
• 2nd Infantry Brigade
  • 26th Infantry Regiment
  • 28th Infantry Regiment
  • 3rd Machine Gun Battalion
• 1st Field Artillery Brigade
  • 5th Field Artillery Regiment (155 mm)
  • 6th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
  • 7th Field Artillery Regiment (75 mm)
  • 1st Trench Mortar Battery
• 1st Machine Gun Battalion
• 1st Engineer Regiment
• 2nd Field Signal Battalion
• Headquarters Troop, 1st Division
• 1st Train Headquarters and Military Police
  • 1st Ammunition Train
  • 1st Supply Train
  • 1st Engineer Train
  • 1st Sanitary Train
    • 2nd, 3rd, 12th, and 13th Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals.

Battle of Hamel, July 4, 1918

British soldiers depicted in Hamel in March 1918, prior to their withdraw from the town in the German 1918 Spring Offensive.

On this day in 1918 Australian and American soldiers jointly attacked and took the French village of Le Hamel in northern France.

The attack was a meticulously planned combined arms attack featuring the innovative use of the fast (for the time) British Mark V tank and air support from the RAF.  It was also a joint operation, under the command of Australian General Sir John Monash, featuring primarily Australian infantry but heavily augmented by units of the American 33d Division and supported by a creeping barrage using British and French artillery.

The attack was well planned by the experienced General Monash and provided an learning example of new combined arms tactics.  It was not without its problems, however, in that the American troops were somewhat reluctantly supplied and when supplied were directly attached to Australian units at the small unit level, something the American Army did not approve of.  The American Army had approved the use of troops of the 33d Division for a raid, not an outright assault.  Indeed, fewer troops of the U.S. 33d Division were supplied at first than initially promised and when the Australians were further supplied with U.S. troops prior to the battle some were withdrawn upon General Pershing learning that they were being assigned out to Australian formations at the company level.  The augmentation was partially needed by the Australians due to the thinning of their ranks by the Spanish Flu.

The assault technically commenced at 22:30 on July 3 when British and French artillery opened up simply to mask the noise of the deploying tanks.  A harassing artillery barrage commenced again at 03:02 which caused the defending Germans to anticipate a gas attack, for which they accordingly masked.  The RAF went immediately into action at that time and deployed fighters as light bombers, with each assigned pilot flying at least three extremely dangerous pre dawn flights.  The infantry assault commenced at 03:14 with American units showing their inexperience by advancing into the allied creeping barrage.

Allied objectives were calculated by Monash to require 90 minutes and in fact took just 93.  The Australians began to resupply the successful units with tanks and the Royal Australian Flying Corps immediately commenced areal photography in order to produce new maps.  The RAF, for its part, participated in resupply operations by dropping some supplies by parachute in a brand new technology which was, of course, necessarily limited by the nature of the aircraft of the time.

The Germans reattacked, using storm troopers, at 22:00 and were initially successful.  A flanking Australian attack, deploying grenades and clubs, reversed that and the shocked Germans retreated.

The battle was significant for a number of reasons.  For one thing, it was the first signficant use of an American division, partially, that was made up of National Guardsmen, in the case Guardsmen from Illinois, which was what formed the 33d Division.  Beyond that, it was a spectacular example of clear thinking in a meticulously planned combined arms attack using every new and old arm in the Allied arsenal successfully and also using forces from four different armies.  Beyond that, it showed that Allies had not only withstood four months of German assaults but were more than capable of going into at least limited offensive operations at this time, tactics which sucked up German storm troops, upon which their success now depended, who were shown to be capable of being beaten. Indeed, Australian troops in the action showed an offensive spirit so pronounced that they were willing to resort to the most primitive of weapons.

The US Second Division

We looked at the 3d Division a bit earlier, as they were showing up in large form in the Press at that time due to Chateau-Thierry.  

The 3d, however, was only one of three U.S. Divisions that saw heavy combat, as U.S. Divisions, in the 1918 Spring Offensive of the Germans.  The 1st and the 2nd also did. 

Here we look at the 2nd, as it was the Division that won the Battle of Belleau Wood.  Moreover, it was the most unique of the three for a reason we'll explore a bit in a second post.  

The 2d Division was also made of up regular U.S. troops.  I.e., it wasn't a National Guard Division nor was it made up of conscripts (although it would soon have them in the form of replacements).  Here's the makeup of the WWI 2nd Division:

One thing that was really unique about this division is that it include a Marine Brigade. As noted, we'll explore that in greater depth soon, but the Marines entered their modern form, or started to, in the 2nd Division.  They also saw significant combat with the 2nd Division, forming the bulk of the troops that fought at Belleau Wood while the rest of the 2nd Division was engaged nearby.  Indeed, the Marine Corps was so associated with the 2nd Division that it was in fact twice commanded by Marine Corps general officers.

Charles A. Doyen, U.S.M.C. who commanded the 2nd Division during October and November, 1917, before returning to the United States.  He was a victim of the 1918 Flu Pandemic and died in October 1918.

The 2nd Division saw heavy combat all trough the rest of the war and has gone on to be one of the stalwart standing US Infantry Divisions, having been long stationed in the Republic of Korea.  It hasn't included Marines in its ranks, however, since 1919. 

Headquarters

• 3d Infantry Brigade
• 9th Infantry Regiment
• 23d Infantry Regiment
• 5th Machine Gun Battalion

 

John A. Lejeune, who commanded the 2nd Division from July 28, 1918 until August 1919.  He later became Commandant of the Marine Corps.

• 4th Marine Brigade:  This will be further addressed in a later post, but as noted, the inclusion of a Marine Brigade in the 2nd Division shows how tight US forces really were early in the war. As will be explored later, Marines simply weren't regarded as regular ground troops until World War One and this was their first real use, large-scale, in this role. 
• 5th Marine Regiment
• 6th Marine Regiment
• 6th Machine Gun Battalion

• 2nd Field Artillery Brigade
• 12 Field Artillery Rgt. 
• 15th Field Artillery Rgt
• 17th Field Artillery Rgt
• 2nd Trench Mortar Battery

• 4th Machine Gun Battalion
• 2nd Engineer Regt
• 1st Field Signal Battalion
• Headquarters Troop.  As previously noted, this was a cavalry troop drawn from a regular cavalry regiment, although I've forgotten what regiment it was drawn from in this instance.
• 2nd Train Headquarters and Military Police
• 2nd Ammunition Train
• 2nd Supply Train
•  2nd Engineer Train
• 1st, 15th, 16th and 23d Ambulance Companies and Field Hospitals.