War time France; the story of an American commission abroad

Dedication

To my Comrades of the Veteran Corps of Artillery and the

Ninth Coast Artillery Corps of the New York Guard,

nmth vihom have been some of my happiest associations.

Introduction

Back and forth across the Atlantic, ever since the entrance of America into the war, there has been a continuous procession of representative citizens from all the Allied countries, soldiers, statesmen, technical experts, and business men, who are forging the chain of knowledge and understanding which will bind us together in a solid fellowship of efficiency and good-will for many years to come. The following story is the personal narrative of one such commission. It is not in any sense a military report, nor does it touch upon anything which can be regarded as a military secret. It is the intimate, informal story of the adventures and the day by day happenings of an American Commission abroad.

This Commission is, to the best of my belief, unique in the annals of the Militia of the United States. It is the only time that a Board of Officers belonging to a militia organ-

vii viii INTRODUCTION

ization has been sent with credentials from the Federal government to obtain important military information.

The adventures of the Commission were many. Captain Wilder was gassed on the Aisne front at Chemin des Dames, the first man in the uniform of an American officer to receive that unpleasant distinction. The report presented by Major Stoddard to the Government of the United States on behalf of the Commission has been the principal document on the subject in the possession of the War Department. The services of Lieutenant Cabot Ward were of such value that he was persuaded to remain in France and was made a Lieutenant-Colonel in the National Army.

As the Commanding Officer of the Ninth Coast Artillery, N. Y. G., I feel particular satisfaction writing this introduction, and take this occasion to say a few words about the circumstances which led to the sending of this unusual mission and about the regiment which accomplished such results.

What would happen if, in some ingenious way, Germany should succeed in sending a fleet of aircraft to bombard our seacoast cities? We sincerely hope that no such event will ever

INTRODUCTION ix

occur. But it is a possibility and wars are not won by hopes. They are won by those nations who prepare in advance against every contingency, even what Aristotle calls "the improbable possibility." It had occurred to a number of persons in this country as early as the summer of 1916, that, in case of trouble with Germany or any great foreign power, the coast cities of the United States might be raided by aircraft and attacked in such a way that they could not be defended by the existing coast artillery.

In the fall of that year, after conferences with Major General Leonard Wood, U.S.A., then commanding the Department of the East, and foreign officers who had had experience with the anti-aircraft artillery, those of us who were the active officers of the Society of the War of 1812-Veteran Corps of Artillery, came to the conclusion that such defenses were necessary and should be provided for the seacoast cities of the United States.

We began a campaign of recruiting and organization which has culminated in the formation of the Ninth Coast Artillery Corps, New York Guard, and the sending of this important commission abroad. Early in 1917 we began

X INTRODUCTION

recruiting a regiment made up of men, many of whom for one reason or another were not available for service abroad but who were willing to perform the patriotic duty of filling the place of the old National Guard which had been called to the Federal service. Two batteries were organized as early as March 27th, 1917, and by the end of July there were 1400 men enlisted and organized into twelve Provisional Batteries. We not only recruited the men, but we provided our own equipment, rifles, ammunition and machine guns and, with the consent of the War Department, we contracted for a three-inch anti-aircraft gun for drill purposes. Later most of the personnel of these batteries became the Ninth Coast Artillery Corps of the New York Guard.

During this time the ofl5cers of the regiment were busily engaged in the study and investigation of all matters relating to ordnance and anti-aircraft artillery, as far as such information could be obtained in this country. But we soon became convinced that anti-aircraft fighting was such a new branch of warfare that the only reliable information was obtainable through foreign sources. Although the War Department and the United States

INTRODUCTION xi

Navy offered us every assistance and gave us access to their confidential documents, it became very clear that if we wanted complete information on how to defend our coast cities against German aircraft it would be necessary to send and get it from abroad.

At the request of Major General J. Franklin Bell, U.S.A., the Governor of New York State directed that three oflicers selected by me from the regiment go to France and England, to make a study of anti-aircraft artillery, and bring back a report. I chose the best men I could find for the work. The Senior Officer, the author of this book, was Major Francis R. Stoddard, Jr., who was then in command of the Second Battalion of the regiment, having served in the United States Artillery during the war with Spain and on the Mexican border. The others were Captain Robert H. Wilder, a distinguished engineer and a specialist in shells and fuses, and Lieutenant Cabot Ward, Adjutant of the Second Battalion, a man of the widest diplomatic experience, having been Secretary of State for Porto Rico, President of the Senate and Acting Governor of Porto Rico, and Minister and Special Repxii INTRODUCTION

resentative of the United States to various South American Republics.

Through the kindly assistance of Captain George W. Burleigh, later Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, many preliminary difficulties were overcome, and the Commission sailed on August 29th, beginning a journey which the personal reminiscences in this book recount.

The Commission brought back a report which is the principal authority now in use in the United States on the materiel and conduct of anti-aircraft artillery. It is a most difficult form of gunnery, as it involves the destruction of targets moving with incredible speed and rapidly changing position in three dimensions of space at high altitudes.

The personnel of the Board has not disappointed my choice. Major Stoddard, as Commanding Officer, performed his duties with unusual ability. Captain Wilder, with his engineering experience and technical skill, obtained in a very short time exactly the information desired, data which it would ordinarily have taken a much longer time to collect. Lieut. Cabot Ward with skill and tact overcame difficulties and obstructions which without his aid would have been insurmountable

INTRODUCTION xiii

and in all probability would have defeated the purpose of the mission.

John Ross Delafield, Colonel, Ninth Coast Artillery Corps, New York Guard.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER PAGB

I We are Off 1

II Passengers and Submarines ... 11

Chapter I We Are Off

It was midnight and the great port was buried in darkness, when at last the bells sounded for departure and we said good-bye to those few of our friends who, after four days of delay and uncertainty, had come down to bid us farewell once more, and to see us safely on our way to France. The mountainous piles of cargo had been stowed aboard. A varied group of military men and civilians was gathered at the rail when the great ship, casting its moorings, slipped out in silence and in darkness to begin the perilous voyage through the lurking submarine danger of the wartime Atlantic.

There were three of us in the party, Captain Wilder, Captain Ward and myself. We were on our way to Europe to gather information on the defence of American cities against enemy aircraft. What has happened to England can well be an object lesson to the United States; and fortunately for America, there are

Army officers who are taking no chances. It is thus that we received our opportunity to render what service we could to our country in the expedition upon which we were setting forth. Our ship swung down the harbor. I looked back at the towers and pinnacles of Manhattan, silhouetted against the starry sky, and offered up a prayer that our trip might add one more stone to the wall of safety that we are building around so dear and beautiful a land.

We were sailing directly for France, and our chances of being submarined were not great. The line on which we were sailing had, up to that time, been comparatively immune from attack. There were many speculations as to this immunity. Some said that the German Emperor owned a large amount of stock in the company. Some said that it was the Pope who owned the stock, and still others believed that Germany had used this line for sending her spies back and forth across the Atlantic. Whatever the reason may have been, the idea was comforting.

As it was midnight when we sailed, we retired promptly to our cabins to arrange for the voyage. Captain Wilder is a skeptic, and before he had unpacked his belongings he produced a tape-measure from one of his pockets and carefully measured the port hole to see whether, in case we were submarined, we could escape by that route. He decided that we could not, and while I am not a nervous man, I confess to a qualm of misgiving at the picture which he so vividly suggested of a listed boat, sinking rapidly, a jammed door and a porthole through which there could be no escape. We had brought with us, at the urgence of our friends, some very complete and adequate life-preservers, but when morning came and we realized how many women were on the passenger-list, we saw little chance of wearing them in case of disaster.

That passenger-list was the most amazing that I have ever seen on any ocean voyage. There were uniforms of every hue and rank. There were civilians, both men and women, of every nationality and walk of life. No one is allowed a passport in wartime, unless he has an errand of great importance, and most of the passengers were on some mission connected with the war. Many of the civilians appeared after the boat had sailed in the uniforms of Red Cross officers of high rank. We took them at first to be British officers. One in the uniform of a Lieutenant-Colonel, I embarrassed greatly by saluting. I thought at the time that it was inadvisable to give military rank to Red Cross officers, but when we arrived on the other side and I saw the amount of '*red tape" that a uniform can obviate, I appreciated the wisdom of so doing.

There were on board officers of several of our Allied countries. There were some Americans on special missions to the front. There were women in the neat dark uniforms of the canteen worker, and there were a number of men in the uniform of British privates, who turned out to be American Ambulance drivers. These men surprised us very much at first by not saluting, but the mystery . was solved on the second day out when one of their number approached me, apologizing fpr the unintentional discourtesy, and explained that it was because none of them knew hpw to salute. They asked me if I would be willing to give them instruction, so, from two until three-thirty every day, I drilled them in the school of soldier, squad, and company, close order. The life of these Ambulance men isras by no means a bed of roses. There has been a time when the American Ambulance drivers have been criticized because they had spent too much time in the bar, but there could be no complaint of the conduct of the men on our boat. From nine until ten-thirty they studied French, from two until three-thirty I drilled them, at eight o'clock in the evening a Red Cross surgeon lectured to them on surgical dressings, bandages and first aid. By bedtime they were ready for sleep.

These American Ambulance Service men have been among the best men sent over by us during this war. At first there were young college men who did not wish to give up their citizenship by joining the army of another nation, but who, nevertheless, felt called by the wrongs of suffering humanity to do their "bit" in the war. When we entered the war against Germany most men of this type went to the Officers' Training Camps, but there were some who continued to enter the Ambulance Service. Those on our boat were mostly men wbo had been registered by the Army as physically unfit, or married men, with families, who did not feel that they could offer their services for more than six months. Some of them hoped later to enter the French military service where the physical standard is not as high as in our own army, and where they can become officers.

I am sorry to say that the experience of many of these men, after their arrival in France, was most unpleasant. The American Ambulance service had advertised during the summer for volunteers for service and enlistments for six months. Many men with their families dependent upon them for support had arranged their business so they could be absent for that time, but when they arrived in France they were told that they must enter as privates in the United States Medical Corps for the duration of the war. Some did this, but others preferred to return to America and try again to enter a training camp, as not being medical men, they would have little chance for advancement if they remained in that service.

As on every ocean voyage and in spite of the submarine menace, there was much to entertain and divert us. In order to raise money for the wounded soldiers, a noted Italian painter offered to do a portrait of the most beautiful lady on board. It was decided to take a vote of the passengers as to which lady should be asked to sit for the picture. There was a very charming young woman, a moving-picture actress, on her way to fill an engagement in Italy. Although she had been very retiring and had avoided making promiscuous acquaintances, it got rumored about that she was going to try to win the prize. For a tin>2 the first cabin seethed with excitement. Friends would not speak to each other as they passed on deck. Factions sprang up for and against the young woman. It was the sort of situation that almost always arises when strangers are kept together incommunicado for some time. Of course the young lady withdrew from the contest. But even so, the wrath of the other passengers was not abated until the ballots were counted and it was found that she had received no votes whatever. The winner of the contest was a negro nursemaid. It added greatly to the gaiety of the rest of the trip to watch the struggles of the poor artist as he manfully tried to paint the ebony features of "the most beautiful lady on board." This same painter we found most intelligent.. What he had to say about America and the Americans interested us all very much. "Were I not an Italian," he said, "I would like to be an American. I believe that the United States will become eventually the greatest power in the world, and history shows that such will be the case. Power has gone constantly through the ages to the new nations whose populations come from mixed stocks to the west of what was the old civilized world. For instance, Greece was a new nation. Foreign stock came to her, and from the mixture was evolved a virile type of men who eventually dominated the world. Then Italy was a new country to the west. Greeks and men from all nations went there and settled, and Rome conquered the world. The mixture of races in Italy evolved a virile type of men who brought about the Renaissance that awoke the world in the Middle Ages. When Rome was in power Iberia was a new country to the west. She was conquered and re-conquered and alien races came, mixed and remained; and in the Middle Ages, Spain was the greatest power in the world. And now to the west of Europe, the present center of the civilized world, is the new western country, the United States, settled by men of many races whose blood is being mixed in their descendants, and now that she is being awakened to the fact that she can become a world power, it is only a question of time when she will dominate the earth."

Exactly opposite opinions were expressed by a French Lieutenant who sat with us at the Captain's table, where Captain Ward had arranged the seats for us. He delighted in condemning the United States and everything American, and was particularly scathing on the subject of American women. He insisted that they had the worst manners in the world because he had often seen them put salt and pepper in soup without first tasting the soup. This same Lieutenant used to appear at breakfast in an entrancing pair of purple pajamas, and his anger against American women was not at all abated because some of the ladies on ^ board asked hini to wear at least a bathrobe, which he refused to do. Imagine our distress upon arriving at the port, to discover that ^ thie poor man was an invalid suffering severely from shell shock and that his curious behavior, at which we had laughed all the way over, was , a manifestation of his mental trouble. That is war : comedy and tragedy crowding each other - side by side, some of the saddest situations • ; being also some of the funniest.

Chapter II Passengers And Submarines

To SAY that we were not afraid of submarines would be untrue and indeed unnatural. Courage is not absence of fear, but the overcoming of fear. It is a common saying in the Army that there is something seriously wrong with a soldier who is not frightened during his first engagement. In a much lesser degree this is also true of an ocean passage through the submarine zone. We have all heard of the atrocities committed by Germans against merchant and passenger vessels. Before our trip I discounted most of these tales ; after our stay abroad I believed them all, and was ready to believe yet more. Each one of the passengers wondered whether his stateroom was the most likely to be first struck and what the sensation would be when the torpedo arrived. We soon found from old ocean travellers the secret of not being worried about submarines ; it was just to forget all about them. And yet one could not forget all about them, for evidences of expected attack were all about. The life boats, loaded with casks of water and provisions, swung out from their davits ready to be lowered at a moment's notice. Each passenger was assigned to a boat and boat drills in life preservers were held. At night, all ports were closed and dark cloths prevented the light from companionways being seen from without. The lighting of matches and smoking on the decks was forbidden. During the last two nights passengers were requested not to remove their clothes. Many passengers slept all night on deck in their chairs with life preservers next them. The gun crews were ready by their uncovered guns.

The third day out a lookout reported that he saw a periscope and the ship started away in the other direction, taking a zig-zag course. Later a vessel passed in the distance but no signals were exchanged. One day the smoke of a vessel, going veryiast, was seen. Some passengers said they could see firing through their glasses. It was probably merely a submarine chaser on its rou^qids.

We were told that at night came the most danger; then the submarine comes to the sur-

WAR TIME FRANCE IS

face and watches for its victim. When the victim is located, the submarine submerges and, going towards it, sinks it during the dim hours of the early morning. In the submarine zone^ however, all hours seem dangerous. The captain of the boat did not have much sympathy for nervous people, however. To one anxious lady who inquired whether he thought that the vessel would be torpedoed by a submarine, he answered, "Madame, I have a presentment that we shall never reach port safely, and my presentments always come true."

The most unpopular passenger on board for a time was a moving-picture operator whose specialty was to crawl out under fire and take scenes of actual fighting on the battle field. It was rumored among the passengers that he had said he hoped the boat would be torpedoed and sunk in order that he might get a picture of it going down. He later denied that he wished the boat would be sunk, but I found that when he made his denial he had found that he could not get his camera and film from the hold. Whatever may be the true facts of the case, his denial restored him to the favor of the other passengers.

For excitement and the pleasure of the other passengers, the moving-picture actress and I agreed to fall overboard on arrival in port, with our patent life preservers, but alas! for our dramatic plans, — the Captain refused to allow it, giving as his reasons, first, that the current would carry us out to sea ; second, that the place was full of sharks, and, third, that the boat would go away and leave us. One of the ship's officers dryly suggested that the lady and I test our life preservers in the bath tub.

There are three ways used by vessels to avoid submarines; convoys, speed and faith. The vessel upon which we were, trusted mainly to the latter, for certainly speed was not one of its qualities. Most of the passengers agreed towards the end of the voyage that no convoy was needed, for the Germans, out of respect for old age, would certainly never waste a torpedo on such an antiquated boat.

Few vessels going across the ocean take a straight course. Some start as if they were going on an Arctic expedition, while others aim for the equatorial climes; most combine both trips during the voyage. It is no wonder that the journey that formerly took an ocean liner five days, is now strung out to anywhere from nine to sixteen or more days. The submarine menace is real, and ship captains appreciate it.

During the last days, no men in uniform were permitted on deck. When two days from our destination, a full-rigged sailing vessel with three masts passed, going in the opposite direction, and the hearts of all were glad that she had found the way clear. Soon the exultation subsided, for we began to pass wreckage and a life buoy. Late in the afternoon a war vessel approached and cheers rang out as she raised the French flag at her stern. After signalling vigorously, she kept on to sea in pursuit of a distant freighter. On the morning of the last day, while most of the passengers were writing letters telling that they had arrived safely, our real trouble began.

It seems that three submarines had made their way into a certain harbor and had sunk two fishing vessels of the fishing fleet before being driven to submerge by the submarine chasers. Soon all the instrumentalities used for locating and fighting submarines were in action, and into the midst of the excitement our venerable vessel calmly steamed. All about our ship were submarine chasers watching here, there and everywhere for the vanished submarine. On the distant horizon other chasers could be seen dimly. Overhead aei^oplanes were whirling round and round, as a submarine can sometimes be seen very high in the air when it cannot be seen from the Surface of the water. High in the air at One side wis a great dirigible balloon. When at last we arrived in the harbor we learned that two vessels just preceding us had been suhk, and ■ the one just behind.

Chapter III The Spy Barrier

The French system for guarding against spies is extraordinarily efficient. I sincerely trust that our own country has by this time developed as good a one. No one is allowed to land in France without a properly vised passport, and no one is allowed to leave the country without an equally careful checking up of credentials. As we were carrying diplomatic passports, and as in dealing with government officials Captain Ward is one of the cleverest men I have ever met, we had little difficulty ourselves. Not so the other passengers, some of whom were not as discreet as they should have been.

Once in the boat and during the trip, one is apt to forget passports and their necessity. Once during the voyage a woman wha claimed to be American, entered into a violent: tirade in my presence against Britain and the* British. I suggested to her that Germany^ might have attacked the United States long before, were it not for fear of Britain's interference. "Nonsense," she cried, "Germany never intended to attack us." I told her that I disagreed with her, and thereupon changed the subject. I thought no more of this incident until we arrived in port.

Before the boat docked, officials boarded and it was announced that passports would be vised on the upper deck. It happened that we were waiting our turn in line when the anti- British lady presented her passport. It was retained by one of the officials who told her to sit down and wait. Later we learned that she was made to disrobe in her stateroom and everything she had was searched before she was permitted to leave for her destination. It was a good lesson to travellers whose loyalty is not above reproach.

It is quite true that women make the most dangerous spies, because they are hard to detect in their work, and the United States, as well as France and Britain, is undoubtedly filled with women spies. It is a little hard to understand the distinction that prevents the Anglo-Saxon countries from executing women spies. The French have no such scruples. On all trains in the subways and in all public gathering places all over France, there is prominently displayed a sign

TAISSEZ VOUS.

MEFIEZ VOUS.

LES OREILLES ENEMI

VOUS ACCOUTENT.

Which means : "Take care, and look out. The ears of the enemy hear you." It is a good sign and a good rule, and might well be imitated in America.

Our little friend, the moving-picture actress, nearly came to grief, because although she was scheduled to go to Italy, she decided that she would accept the invitation of friends to spend a few days in Paris ; but when she announced her intentions at the port, her passport was seized, and had she not promptly reconsidered, the circumstances might have been serious.

Everyone has heard the story of the English family with a German nurse of many years standing. One day the police called and said they wished to search the nurse and her effects. The family felt insulted and demanded that such an outrage be not perpetrated. The police persisted, and found in the nurse's trunk, plans of all the neighboring forts, and other information of military value. I have heard this story again and again. An Englishman told me that it happened in his brother's family.

A rather amusing incident was related to me in England. A wealthy young American civilian of an old New York family, but with a name that sounded German, arrived from the United States, and visited some British artillery officers in England. As he was about to go to Paris, they asked him if he would convey certain military papers to an American general stationed there. He, of course, consented, and started for France with the papers. Because of his name and the fact that he was a civilian, he was at once an object of suspicion wherever he went. When trying to take a channel boat, he and his effects were searched and the military papers found. It required a lot of explaining and verifying to prevent his incarceration as a spy, and the result was the reprimanding of the British officers, for entrusting military papers to a civilian.

There is no possibility of remaining long in France without the proper credentials. All aliens must be registered; and if they are civilians, must obtain permission from the

Chief of Police, to live in any given place, and must report themselves to the authorities at least once a month. And one cannot move from one town to another without permission. This is also true in England. An American lady living outside of London, told me that when she wished to go to London to shop she had first to register in her own village, then register in London, and then once more in her own village after she had returned.

The United States has a very good passport system, but its system of keeping track of aliens and especially of alien enemies needs development. A French officer told me at the front, that formerly hardly a movement was made by the French troops but that the Germans knew of it in advance. In France, a spy caught at the front does not have to wait long to learn his fate. Long before this war began Germany had her spies in every rival country, who worked to undermine the allegiance of the people to their own government, and to spread German propaganda. It is now believed by those who know, that the distrust for the United States planted in Mexico and Japan was done by German spies and propagandists. This country will go a long way towards handling the spy question, when it gives them the fair but short trial and quick punishment meted out by France.