Chronology and memoirs of A. E. Strain’s Service during WW I.
Corporal Allen E. Strain - Service No. 44838
By James A. Strain, Copyright © 2005
Among the memoirs of my grandfather are short synopsis events related to his service. I feel certain that he intended to write much more complete versions of his experiences in the Great War, but passed away before he could complete them. In preparation for his stories, he made the following three outlines (order unknown) detailing events he planned to include as he wrote. A. E. Strain's writings appear in italics throughout this page, as transcribed by my father and by me, and are generally unedited.
First Outline
-- My Army Service –
(My leaving school to Join Army in another place)
(a) Corporal & charge of train –How this happened.
(b) My training at troop center.
(c) My work was at first Company Clerk
(d) & later as clerk in Sergeant Majors office.
(e) Trouble with feet.
(f) At my request sent to join a patrol of 100 men & before blast off Sergeant
Major came and carried me back to his office and my living quarters.
(g) Sergeant Major explains to C.O.
(h) Patrol did not return.
(i) This was at height of WW No. I.
(a) My work became heavier and heavier.
(b) I was in charge of orderlies and communication to frontline.
(c) We lived in dugouts that had been put there by Germans.
(d) Unless we were completely over run we were safe except from lice etc.
All during the night we would pull off out shirts & read them (pick lice off of them.)
Second Outline
Notes
1. Room mate (war service)
2. Teaching in First Div. Academy – Germany
3. Chaplain – my attendance
4. After the armistice – dwelling in German home
5. Gambling – clinkers – my first and last.
6. My feet ailment – then and now
7. Crawling to cor. & sleep part of time, officers are meeting at same room.
8. My room or tent mate.
9. Enjoyed Marching when Band was playing
10.Boy with epileptic fit. Officer gets after me about getting water
11. My letters home – not cut up. I helped do the censoring.
12. I send a few dollars home each mo. My stepmother saves all of it for me, after I return to U.S.
13. First report of Armistice made – while I was in Hospital – all of us that could move went down in streets to celebrate – then found it to be a false alarm. We went back to Hospital rooms disappointed. Then several hours later the real thing.
14. Reports to my folks & Uncle Joe – and later to my Co. Commander that I was AWOL had spread. Co. Comdr said everything is O.K. “you are where you ought to be.” My folks said they were not worried as they were writing to me & receiving letters from me all the time.
15. (My Guard Duty) May be a repeat.
16. My experience with young German lad & his family.
17. >>
Third outline
1. At Dug out near door.
2. Return from front line—tripped by telephone line
3. Jumping over Haystack on top of two other refugees from bullets.
4. Crawling on my stomach back from front
5. Machine gun bullets clipping weeds above back.
6. My Promise to God.
7. Life in dugouts.
8. Reading our shirts.
9. I was head of orderlies
10. They carried messages
11. They fixed telephone lines
12. Many times I would take messages
13. My encounter with a Colonel.
14. We worked in pairs when possible
15. No man’s land.
16. Always bombed – top side our dug out to front line
17. Telephone lines had to be fixed and no one left but myself.
18. C.O. & others tried to get me to wait.
19. I hit one hole just as large bomb hit the one I was trying to reach.
20. My leaving school to join army.
21. I was corporal in charge of car
22. How this happened.
23. Trouble with feet
24. My training at troop Center.
25. Work as company clerk.
26. Later in Regimental Hdq. & clerk under Sergeant Major.
27. At my request sent to join a 100-man patrol.
28. Sergeant Major comes and gets me out just before it leaves.
29. I overhear him explaining to C.O.
30. Members of patrol did not come back.
31. Sg. Major was an old man and had only a few days to serve.
32. He was killed day before he was to leave
33. We lived in Dugouts.
34. Had plenty of lice and rodents to live with
35. School band to see me off.
36. Many others were there.
37. Fort Jefferson and El Paso.
38. My trouble on passenger car. – 40 soldiers (one full page here) in train car.
39. My Co. Chaplin – I attended meetings and did religious work.
40. Carrying epileptic to hospital
41. Trouble with feet. – even now
In addition to the three outlines, his memoirs contain the following miscellaneous notes list, related to WWI and to WWII:
Notes Miscellaneous
1.While in rest area, we were attacked by several German airplanes. We were all ordered out with rifles to fire on the airplanes. They dug a large hole in our campsite. This was large enough to contain a large house.
2. Epileptic
3. Taught math in 1st Div School.
4. My first Gambling—French clanckers.
5.My thought of playing slot machine at 1 town—onto country school for speech--where Ex GI was to speak.
6. The main work of myself and about 8000 boys and young men was in the war effort—WW2—in getting together old machinery & paper & other material for war effort—our state excelled in this.
7. I tried to enlist in Army WW2 but it was found I was a diabetic—eyesight failing and a victim of arthritis and also over 50 yrs old. I was turned down on all counts.
His story begins in the spring of 1917 with a desire to support the war effort by enlisting, and on 14 May 1917, Allen Elmo Strain, 21 ½ years old, voluntarily enlists in the Army, which would later be designated the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). When he departs, he states that he was surprised at the station by the many people who turned out to see him off, including the high school band. I am not sure where he departed from to join the service. It could have been Eupora, MS, where he was teaching, or perhaps Pittsboro, MS, his hometown. It could also have been his fifth year of teaching, and not his fourth. (See the page on his teaching career.)
He writes:
This was my 4th year to teach and every day I read in papers about war and I wanted to join. I tried to get school trustees to give me permission to join but they would not. They said that school was in good shape and they wanted me to continue until school was out—about 6 weeks to go. So I arranged to get off as soon as I could the last day of school. To my great surprise our school band was at the station to see me off. Many others were there too. Besides students—there were merchants, bankers, etc. I went to Fort Jefferson and wound up in El Paso, Texas.
It appears that his initial enlistment takes place at Little Rock, AR, whereby he is sent to Jefferson Barracks, MO, for brief training, and then to Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX) with the 1st Division Army. As a volunteer, he had his choice of what branch to join. He states "Entering the Army, asked what branch of army I wanted to apply for—I did not know so they put me in the Infantry." He is assigned to Headquarters Company, 16th Infantry. The 1st Division, at Fort Bliss under the command of General Pershing, had just recently been engaged in fighting Pancho Villa south of the border of the Rio Grande.
After a brief time at Fort Bliss, he apparently becomes restless when he realizes that others are being sent to NJ in preparation to go overseas, and makes a decision to speak to his commanding officer (C. O.). He writes:
A few old soldiers were being called out of ranks each day for over seas duty. I joined the army to help do the fighting. I began to get very restless and decided to do something about it, so I found the commanding officer’s tent and went to it. The C.O. heard me enter and without looking up from his work said, “What in the hell do you want?” This surprised me for I did not use bad language. I told him I joined the army to join the fighting and I wanted to go over seas. He asked me a few questions, pulled my service card out of his file, and dismissed me. A day or two later my name was called and I was told to pack up and get ready to leave.
A. E. Strain is then shipped by train to Hoboken, NJ, where he departs for France with one of the first shipments of soldiers. I’ve been unable, so far, to document what transport he was first sent on. However, the point becomes a moot one, when, three days out to sea, he develops a severe case of the measles, is removed from the ship, and sent back to NY. He apparently then needed an operation on his ear, and was given the option to either have the operation and stay in the service, or to return home. Having the desire to fight for his country, he states he “preferred to stay in Army.”
While in the hospital, he writes that the nurses are good to him, and evidently writes home to his step-mother, Edna Smith Strain, something that he did with regularity during his entire tour of duty. The following article appears in the Calhoun Monitor, Vol. 18 No. 30, Pittsboro, Thursday July 20, 1917, p. 6:
Mrs. Edna Strain has received a letter from her son Allen to the effect that he is in the hospital at New York. He was put on board a transport for France, but developed a severe case of measles and was left behind on that account.
General Pershing arrived in Europe with his preliminary force of 167 soldiers and civilians on 13 June 1917. From this date, one can see that A. E. Strain must have originally been sent in the first few weeks, if he was able to return from the transport (six days travel at sea), arrive at the hospital, write a letter home, and have it published in the paper by July 20.
After several weeks in the hospital and a successful recuperation from his ear surgery, he becomes anxious to join his Regiment. He writes:
I was finally getting better and put in convalescence ward. My regiment and company had by now landed in Europe and I was asking every day why I could not go? Before long a group of us were carried to the docks to help load some ships. While there I saw a long line of soldiers going aboard ships. I just got in line and went on with them. It was several days before I was detected and found myself in front of the ship commander and told him about the same story I have narrated here. He seemed OK and promised me that as soon as we landed he would see to it that I joined my company. Of course this made me enjoy the rest of the trip. We were attacked by submarines and many other things occurred.
His service card dates his departure for overseas as 5 Aug 1917, and Company rosters for this time state that he is AWOL – Missing from the Catholic Hospital in NY City.
Another letter from the Calhoun Monitor, Pittsboro, Sept 20, 1917 informs his family and friends of his progress in both health and location for the war:
Friends of Allan E. Strain will be interested to learn that he has entirely recovered from his very severe illness that prevented his going to France with Gen. Pershing’s first American Expeditionary Force and that he is now in France with his former company.
Having joined his Company in France, he resumes his original job as a Clerk for the Headquarters Co., 16th Infantry, where he is in charge of the orderlies, as well as various other duties associated with his position, such as censoring letters home by the enlisted men. He states that he served first as Company clerk then as the clerk to the Sergeant Major. Allen Strain was apparently quite close to his Sergeant Major, and mentions him several times in his outlines for his memoirs. Of significance is that he includes the fact that his “Sg. Major was an old man and had only a few days to serve. He was killed day before he was to leave.” Only one person having the rank of Sergeant Major is shown in the records of the Headquarters Co., 16th Infantry, as being a fatality: _____
Most of A. E. Strain’s memoirs fail to provide any specific dates or locations during his service. His official discharge papers and citations to wear the Victory Medal, Battle Clasps, and bronze stars, confirm that he was present at the battles of:
Montdidier-Noyon – (9-13 Jun 1918)
Aisne-Marne – (15-18 Jul 1918)
St. Mihiel –
(12-16 Sep 1918)
Meuse-Argonne – (26 Sep-11 Nov 1918)
He clearly states that he was wounded twice, and in the hospital about six weeks each time, however there is only documentary evidence of his being wounded once -- on 3 Oct 1918.
On this date, he is gassed just prior to the beginning of the Argonne Offensive. He remains on duty for another 24 hours or so, where he must remove his gas mask in order to call out commands to the orderlies under his supervision. This results in his breathing the mustard gas, and having a raspy voice, I am told, the remainder of his life. [Note his letter home detailing this battle and subsequent gassing.]
As this is near the end of the war, and he is shown to be absent from his company’s rosters until the time of the occupation of Germany, most of his related battle experiences from his memoirs would have happened prior to this date.
Below are several reminisces of his service during war times.
A few non-specific items he mentions are:
--I had been taught that it was wrong to use God’s name in vain or to smoke cigarettes or to do many other things that soldiers did.
--In God’s name help the dead & dying.
--We had a company Chaplain that I worked with. [This Chaplain wrote a history of the 16th Infantry.]
--It was my lot most of the time to work in Regimental Hdq. This was a hard job but not quite so dangerous.
Then he continues with longer stories:
My experience with chow.
We lived in dugouts and were bombed often. Each day about noon (only once a day)—a kitchen came up as close as it could with cooked chow for us. Each day one soldier from each dugout would get to chow as soon as it arrived. I had a large bowl picked up from discarded French. Stood in line for the kitchen that was parked along side a brick wall. I was being given my chow when the shell hit our kitchen and many who were standing alongside the kitchen.
The next I remember I was standing in a pile of brick all around me, and holding on to my stew, my bowl was full. This I knew was welcome to my crew—all of us were hungry.
Also I saw men, dead and near dead all around me. I got to my dug out as soon as I could—Our concern was with the men who needed help. I helped get the wounded to the hospital and then we gathered around the stew. The man in charge dipped it out in tin plates. The first dip he hit brick bats. We were all disappointed—I had brought back a load of brickbats.
His job as clerk was to send messages and maintain the telephone lines, which were strung on the ground. In describing his duties, he first writes in somewhat broken thoughts, then includes a few full paragraphs about specific events.
It was my job to pick out and send orderlies when necessary. I would try to do this fairly – except many times I went out myself. Here I will mention a few personal experiences
The topside between our dugouts & front line dugouts was always being bombed.
One of our biggest jobs was to keep all telephone lines repaired (these lines were on ground).
Most all the time we worked in pairs unless the demand exceeded the supply.
One of these times no one but myself was left and an emergency orders were to be sent – I started up the steps to outside – An officer met me and said “Corporal—you need not make this trip wait until some of orderlies get back.” Anyway I started out with my messages—
As I was crossing the hay field I noticed that the shells were getting closer & closer to me. I started running toward the Haystack and jumped over it to the other side – arriving just in time for shell to miss me and for me to plant my hobnail shoes on top of 2 guys crouching there. One of them wanted to get mad but the other fellow told him – “this guy was just as scared as we were.”
After the shelling ceased I delivered my messages and started back. This time instead of shells the Germans tried to get me with Tommy Guns. I was crawling on my stomach and the machinegun bullets were clipping off the weeds and grass just above my back. I thought my time had come—I promised God that I would preach the gospel if he wanted me to do so. I think God preferred my being a schoolteacher.
As I proceeded to my dug out the shells were about to call my number. Officers and men in my dug out were watching me to get home. There was a big shell hole a few yards from door on top of dug out. Encouraged by shouts from my soldier mates I decided to make a dash for this bomb hole—just at this moment my foot tangled with the telephone line and I fell flat several feet short of the large bomb hole—just as a big shell burst in the hole I was trying to reach. I made it to dugout O.K.
A. E. Strain then rewrites the above event, in a condensed version on another page.
On path from office to front line I had a message to send—suppose to send by an orderly—at door going out Lt. told me I did need to go—but to wait for an orderly—I went and soon found that the Germans were shelling me—Each shell in the path & getting closer each shot –I ran to a large stack of hay and jumped over it—landing on 2 other soldiers—one of them wanted to get mad but other boy cooled him. Several dead soldier’s body were close to the haystack. I delivered my message to returned to office in large dugout. In front of entrance were several large holes made by bombs. Several were in doorway—I heard shell coming & started to run to make it to the large hole in front of dugout. I tripped on telephone line and fell just as shell fell in hole I was trying to get to. My tripping on tel. line (on ground) saved my life as haystack had saved it on my way out.
He also includes a one sentence event related to the telephone lines. "Out fixing tel. lines a bomb sat beside me but due to soft dirt where another bomb had exploded this one did not explode."
Company reports show that A. E. Strain was promoted to Corporal on 9 Aug 1918. He relates the following story about how he was promoted.
And now, I want to explain how I received my two stripes. In camp before going abroad, the YMCA or Salvation Army would come to headquarters with many boxes of cigarettes. As I did not smoke, I would not take any cigarettes. The Sergeant Major told me to take cigarettes and give to him. In a few days I was a corporal.
[This doesn’t seem to correlate exactly with his dates for transport overseas and his official service card, but as records are so scarce, I can only present the facts as I find them, and the stories he left behind.]
Many soldiers of WWI relate their experience of traveling by train from points of enlistment to transport overseas, or while in Europe. A. E. Strain relates one that provided him both a challenge, and a learning experience.
Our traveling was done in passenger cars—40 or more men to a car. For some reason I was put in charge of our car. I had to see that car was cleaned, etc., after every meal. For a while I had two men do this after every meal. I had a few old time soldiers in the car.
They decided to test me out and refused to take their turn cleaning. I did the job myself. After that I had to do a big part of the cleaning. One day while I had a broom and was using it, one of the big brass came into my car, and nobody stood so he in a good strong voice said, “Who is in charge of this car?” No answer so he made the demand for an answer and one of the old soldiers said, “There he is sir, the soldier using the broom.”
He came to me and jerked the broom out of my hand and bawled me out as strong as he could and told me not to put my hands on the broom again. (He saw corporal stripes on my shirt.) As soon as he was out, I was mad. I advanced to the two old soldiers who had previously said no. I said get up out of that and clean up this car. I had no more trouble.
Although A. E. Strain served as a combat soldier, he was apparently called upon to use his teaching skills on more than one occasion. In his outline, he mentions that he taught Math at the 1st Division School. In researching this, I believe this probably took place after the Armistice, and while he was part of the Occupational Forces in Germany. However, he also mentions that he was selected to give a series of lectures on the History of the USA for all the companies as follows, clearly stating it was while the war was in progress:
The top brass decided that our troops did not know what they ought to about our Country (History). Forms were filled out by all of those who had experience teaching, I was chosen for the job. I was given my instructions, a motorcycle with sidecar, and an orderly who knew much about motorcycles, and companies were notified about time I would be at each Co. Hdq.
My lecture lasted about one hour. Each Co. was to be assembled at a certain time. Everything (nearly) went very smooth. Except at one place the Co. Commander had sent his Co. out for field practice and did not want to call them in. I made no argument just thanked him and told him my report would be made according—He told Sergeant “Go get the men.” He talked very nice.
All this teaching was done in rest areas for the troops while the war was in progress. Many near tragedy occurred as we traveled over big shell holes. My driver was a fine young man and knew his job, and was anxious to help me.
While most of us are familiar with motorcycles and sidecars, they are generally thought of as the type one might see during WW II, not WW I. I thought it would be interesting to see what one looked like, to better understand how he traveled from company to company, avoiding shell holes.
The history of education and the 1st Division Schools has not been fully researched, and I’ve not found any publication that discusses them. I have checked all of the general orders and surviving papers of the First Division in the National Archives, but have not made a detailed study to date. One of the few documents I have been able to find documenting my grandfather’s story is G. O. ___ which shows him as one of four men selected from the 16th Infantry as a public speaker.
Concluding events:
1 Jun 1919 – Cited for Gallantry in Action (but not warranting any decoration), in Section Two, Paragraph __, General Order No. 5, First Infantry Brigade. This citation is for participation in four offensive battles.
3 Sep 1919 - He returns from France, arriving in NJ where he participates in the Victory Parade in NY City on 10 Sept 1919.
17 Sept 1919 - He travels by train to Washington DC, where he participates in the Victory Parade in the Nation’s Capital.
26 Sep 1919 - He is honorably discharged at Jackson Barracks, MS.
As a post-script to his WW I service, it should be mentioned that he attempted to enlist for service when WW II began, but was denied because of his health (diabetes). He would have been nearly 50 at this time, another reason he could not serve. Instead, he spearheaded a massive campaign of over 8000 high school students through his position at the FFA in Mississippi to gather recyclable materials such as rubber and steel.
As a result of his gassing during the battle of the Argonne, A. E. Strain suffered from not only a hoarse voice, but also severe trouble with his feet. They were inflamed between the toes and up on his lower legs as diagnosed in several medical reports with conflicting opinions. Some say it was clearly from the gassing and time spent in the trenches, and others say they are merely irritated from excessive humidity and scratching.
A diagnosis that is not disputed in any of the medical reports is that he suffered from what we know now to be “shell shock” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)” from his exposure to numerous bombings at close proximity. His medical papers after his return from the war continually state his symptoms as having difficulty sleeping, often awaking in a sweat, and being frightened of loud noises, with a general nervousness.
For now, the story of my grandfather, A. E. Strain, during the Great War must end here. In time, I will add scans and digital images of his papers, rosters, and detailed information about his life as a soldier based on my study of WW I. If you would like to learn more about the 1st Division of the AEF in the Great War, I would suggest that you start at the Doughboy Center http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/ghq1arm.htm
Further events to document with a date, location, documents, etc:
Evacuated to Ambulance Corps #1, then immediately transferred to Hospital # ?.
He was in the hospital when the armistice was announced.
He becomes part of the Occupational Force at Coblens, Germany, where he is assigned to the Regimental Headquarters as a clerk.
He taught in the 1st Div. Academy in Germany (Math at 1st Div. School).