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History of
Buffalo and Eric County, 1914-1919
Daniel J. Sweeney
Ed. Buffalo 4 julllet 1919
CHAPTER LVII
HOUSE WARMING PARTY FOR 77th DIVISION AT BACCARAT
While the Marines with the
Second Division were pressing north through Belleau Wood, and it
became apparent that American courage and driving power was
taxing the military skill of the enemy, a very extended movement
of the American troops on the Continent began. Five of the ten
divisions then training in the British area were withdrawn.
Among these was the 77th Division which, during the month of May
and early in June, had been within earshot of the heavy
artillery duel at Ypres and Mount Kemmel. They were subjected
nightly to Boche bombing raids, and had suffered some casualties.
The Buffalo boys had absorbed British combat methods but balked
at British "chow." Jam and tea and lime juice, with meat for
dinner and cheese for supper day in and day out was not entirely
to their liking. Later on, when they were battling through the
Argonne it would have looked like a banquet.
The 42d Division had held a front line trench at Baccarat in the
Lorraine Sector for some weeks. And they held it well. It was a
quiet sector, apparently by mutual consent, but in a quiet
sector the raiding parties, the night prowlers, always establish
for one side or the other a conviction of superiority. It is
related of the 42d Division that during their period on the
Lorraine front they "held the edge" to such an extent that the
American doughboys were able to "hang their wash on the barbed
wire entanglements" in No-Man's Land.* That may not be entirely
accurate, but it serves to indicate that the 42d Division was
not playing the subordinate part in No-Man's Land in Lorraine.
When the 77th Division was withdrawn from its training area, it
was sent to the Lorraine front to relieve the 42d Division. The
42d had suffered some casualties and those places were filled
with men from the 77th Division.
On June 19th the change was begun and by the 26th the new
Division had moved into place. The Rainbow Division was gone,
and the 77th had established the historic fact of being the
first draft division to take over a part
An Abandoned German Machine Gun
of the front line. The
Rainbow Division pulled out, and went into reserve, presently to
take up a position east of Rheims.
Apparently the Germans had knowledge of the lack of training in
the new division. If the 42d Division had been masters of
No-Man's Land in the Baccarat sector, the Boche apparently saw
no immediate necessity of having the dose repeated with the
newcomers. They welcomed the 77th at 4.00 A. M. on the 24th of
June with a shower of gas, mixing phosgene and mustard with fine
discrimination, showing a special favoritism for the densely
billeted villages of Migneville, St. Maurice, Neuviller and
Badonviller. The front line was not overlooked. If the 77th had
anticipated a quiet time in that quiet sector they got over the
notion quickly. Their housewarming party was not entirely of the
sort they would have chosen if the matter had been left to them,
but yet they made no grumble. They were new at the war business
and not disposed to be critical about front line ethics. They
put their gas masks on with great speed and thereby saved
themselves much inconvenience and suffering and many casualties.
The Baccarat sector, a portion of which was held by French
troops, was between Luneville and St. Die, southwest of Nancy.
The 77th was given the portion of the front extending from
Herbeviller on the left to a point east of Badonviller on the
right. This territory was divided into four sub-sections which
were held by the 305th, 306th, 307th, 308th Infantry
respectively; a battalion front of each subdivision with a
battalion in reserve. Each week or so, the battalions would
alternate in the front line. The 77th remained in Baccarat
sector from June 26th to August 4th. About the middle of July
when the drive was started at Soissons to break through the
Marne salient, the nose of which the Marines and Regulars had
turned up at Belleau Wood, the French Division, the 61st, which
had shared the Baccarat sector with the 77th was withdrawn,
leaving the New York drafted men in charge of the entire front.
The New York artillery came into support, and the Baccarat zone
had then become for the first time in the war an all-American
affair, with nearly 2,000 Buffalo and Erie County boys doing
their bit there.
Watching the Enemy from an Old Stone Outhouse
* Yesterday in broad
daylight some Alabama troops on our right walked over to the
German trenches unmolested and unchallenged. They found a German
officer and three men in a dugout. The Alabama party was only
five. They killed all four Germans and upon their return found
one of their own party missing. They went back and found him
caught in the German wire. While rescuing him they heard
footsteps on the German duckboard. Lying in wait they caught two
other Boche, killed them and stripped all of their victims
bringing their clothes back. Their only worry was the dirty
socks of the last Hun they caught. The Alabama crowd are the
greatest crowd I have ever seen. They wander all over the
landscape shooting at everything. - From a letter written by
Major William J. Donovan, 165th Regiment (42d Division), to his
wife, March 10, 1918.
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