Back to the front - Death Valley

Solomon Wraight, my Great Uncle, was serving as a private with the Machine Gun Company of the 315th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army. After taking part in the Meuse-Argonne offensive he had been deployed in the defensive Troyon sector.

Solomon Wraight 315th Infantry USA

Solomon had emigrated to America in August 1915 and made a new home in Philadelphia, working as a carpenter and after joining the army in 1917 he had been in France since August 1918.

On the 28th October 1918 Solomon’s regiment received orders to move back up to the front in the Grand Montagne sector.

The Official History of the 315th Infantry United States Army describes the conditions for the troops.

The evening of the 28th we again started out and hiked to the Forges Woods. About 5pm October 29th we set out on a heart-breaking march, which lasted until after day break on the 30th, at which time we arrived in the Grande Montagne Sector, recently captured from the Boche.

In that sector, we relieved the 29th Division on the site known as Death Valley, and we were to see the name justified very shortly. The carts were unloaded and sent back to Brabant. The first Platoon was on the right of our sector, the Second Platoon in the center, and the Third on the left. 

We remained there until the 8th, simply holding on, while the enemy let us have everything he had in the way of shells and bullets. The great difficulty was in getting up rations, as everything had to be brought across Death Valley, and the Germans bombarded this place continuously and mercilessly. All this time it rained incessantly, and the mud was terrible.

Meuse-Argonne : America's great offensive

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was a major part of the final Allied offensive of the First World War. It was fought from September 26, 1918 until the Armistice on November 11th, a total of 47 days.

On the 26th August 1918, 100 years ago, Private Solomon Wraight (my Great Uncle) was serving overseas in the machine gun company of the 315th infantry regiment of the United States Army.

Private Solomon Wraight 315th Battalion

Solomon had been born in Lambeth, Surrey on the 22nd May 1895, the eldest child of Solomon and Alice Wraight (nee Uden). The family, originally from Kent moved to Wandsworth, Surrey in 1894/95 and by 1911 the Wraight family were living in Battersea, Middlesex with both Solomon and his father working as carpenters / joiners.

In August 1915, Solomon emigrated to the USA, and found employment as a carpenter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming a naturalised American citizen in May 1917 and enlisting in the United States Army in October 1917.

The Official History of the 315th Battalion tells the story

On the 23rd, orders were received that the attack would be made on September 26th and that 79th Division would form part of the attacking line as a shock division. The 313 & 314th Infantries, were to initiate the attack. The 315th and 316th were to act as a support. The 315th following the 314th at a distance of 1,000 meters, advancing with two battalions in line and one in support.

The bombardment

At eleven o’ clock on the night of September 25th a deep boom far behind heralded the beginning of the six Hour allied barrage. It was the most terrific bombardment ever delivered upon a front of similar extent. None, whose privilege it was to witness it, will ever forget the indescribable grandeur of the artillery barrage which preceded the great Meuse-Argonne offensive.

Over the top

At 5.30am on the morning of September 26th, the first waves of infantry swept forward, and the American Army, with nine divisions on a 25 Mile front, began the mighty offensive which ended only with the Armistice.

On the right of the camp Meade division was the 4th regular army division and on the left the 37th national guard division

The 315th infantry started its advance across no mans land when the last elements of the 314th had passed a thousand meters beyond the jumping off point. The 315th machine gun company supported the first battalion. Scarcely had the leading units of the regiment cleared their own wire. When they plunged into a dense smoke barrage which had been laid prior to the advance of the front line.

About 8 o’ clock, the put-put-put of the German machine guns could be heard in the mist ahead.
The objective of Malancourt was quickly mopped up despite the continuous fire of snipers and from the German trenches. By six o’clock that evening the first wave of the 315th Infantry had crawled up the hill slopes into the Hindenberg trench. During the day, the regiment had lost 3 officers and 9 men killed and 31 men wounded. A total of 61 German prisoners had been captured.

The advance was practically uninterrupted for the first day, the machine gun company stopped for the night just west of Malancourt having advanced about 5 kilos.

The advance continued on the 27th. In the afternoon word came that the Germans were counter attacking and the guns were mounted and everything put in readiness, but the Boche never came. It was here that we suffered our first casualties. Lt. Wallace was seriously wounded in both legs, being hit by shell fragments. The advance was continued until darkness and heavy shellfire rendered further progress impossible. We then dug in about a kilometre beyond Mountfaucon, where we spent a terrible night, under punishing fire of gas, shrapnel and high explosives.

The next day we again advanced, this time with the first battalion acting as an assaulting unit and assisted in the capture of Nantillois. We continued on to the Madeline Farm, where we were met by a terrific concentration of artillery fire, which no living thing could go through and were forced to retire a short distance to hill 274, where the infantry reorganised and pushed forward again under the support of our overhead fire, a fire as intense as we could make it. We dug in and spent the night of the 28th on hill 274 and on the 29th, with intense artillery fire still coming over, we reorganised and took up outpost positions along the road beyond Nantillois. It was here that Capt. Duncan was killed and Lt, Delany mortally wounded by a high explosive shell.

The morning of the 30th brought the news that we were to be relived by the 3rd Division. That afternoon we withdrew. We hiked until dark, spending the night in the open. On the morning of October 1st, we marched back to sector 304, where we occupied the old trenches for two days, during which time we got a few hot meals and removed our week-old beards.

315th Battalion Machine Gunners in action during Meuse - Argonne

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive was the largest in United States military history, involving 1.2 million American soldiers. The battle cost 28,000 German lives, 26,277 American lives and an unknown number of French lives.

It was the largest and bloodiest operation of World War I for the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), which was commanded by General John Pershing.

U.S. losses were exacerbated by the inexperience of many of the troops and the tactics used during the early phases of the operation. Meuse-Argonne was the principal engagement of the AEF during World War I. For Solomon Wraight, who only swore the Oath of Allegiance just over a year before, it would have been a baptism of fire.

References

The Official History of the 315th Infantry USA.

Joining Philadelphia's Own

On the 6^th October 1917, 100 years ago my Great Uncle Solomon Charles Wraight enlisted in the United States Army.

Solomon had been born in Lambeth, Surrey on the 22^nd May 1895, the eldest child of Solomon and Alice Wraight (nee Uden). The family, originally from Kent moved to Wandsworth, Surrey in 1894/95 and by 1911 the Wraight family were living in Battersea, Middlesex with both Solomon and his father working as carpenters / joiners.

In August 1915, Solomon emigrated to the USA, and found employment as a carpenter in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, eventually becoming a naturalised American citizen in May 1917. His younger brother William, also a carpenter by trade, had joined the Royal Navy Air Service in March 1917.

America had declared war on Germany on the 6^th April 1917 and had immediately set about the task of training it’s men to face the harsh realities of the battle fields on the Western Front.

Solomon Charles Wraight USA Army - Camp Meade 1917

Solomon enlisted in the 315^th Infantry regiment was based at Camp Meade, Maryland. He had been living at 150 North – 12^th Street, Philadelphia. The first recruits for the regiment had starting arriving on the 21^st September and by the 15^th October the regiment had a full strength of 2,731 men, all from the Philadelphia area. The Regiment adopting the name by which it has always been known “Philadelphia’s Own”. All new recruits were lined up and were integrated as to their history, each experienced a shot in the arm and the rigours of an army medical exam (Source: The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA).

Much of the early weeks involved building Camp Meade, clearing land, erecting barracks etc. as well as rifle practice and drilling.

Solomon was part of the machine gun company, which as the official history of the regiment explains was selected in the following way.

“The machine Gun Company, better known as the Suicide Club, was formed in the dark and stormy days of September 1917, just like any other company in the regiment i.e. by marching a bunch of cheerful young nuts holding the lucky (?) numbers in Uncle Sam’s lottery into a big, bare, pine barracks. After the usual inspections, the boys were given a hat and shirt. Then each one was asked which branch of the service he preferred. If he were a mechanic, that was just exactly what the machine gun company needed. The same thing applied to bartenders, hotel clerks, milk men and chauffeurs (on account of their knowledge of mules) etc.”

One can only assume the same suitability applied in Solomon’s case to carpenters!

The Official History continues – 

“The company trained for quite a while as a rifle company, but after some time they received Colt machine guns and wooden models of the Vickers, and the company had very strenuous drill in the art of quick mounting and dismounting of the gun, replacing casualties in the gun team, camouflaging gun positions and so forth. Finally, these make shift guns were all turned in and we received the Browning machine guns, which eventually the company would use in France.”

Solomon's journey during the Great War years had taken him from Battersea across the Atlantic Ocean to a new life in America and now as a naturalised US citizen he joined the Army which in all probability would likely take him back to Europe.

Sources : The Official History of the 315 Regiment USA.