Please oh please go here and visit my friend in Belgium this Veteran’s Day! What a beautiful blog post!
This is the 10th Chaper of a story I wrote about my Dearly Loved Grandfather—-Chapter 10
Off to War!
1914-1918
His temper was mild as a beautiful spring day, and his eyes seemed to twinkle, even in photographs. He had a youthful face, some say, a baby face, and wore overalls, or denims, and was known to wear his hat pushed back a bit on his head. He lied about his age and went to war.
Willy Thomas was 14 when the Archduke of Austria Hungary, Franz, was assassinated by the Bosnian Nationalists on June 28th 1914. On Willy’s birthday, July 12, 1914, when he turned 15, Russia and Germany were at odds with each other over the assassination.
Then nations began falling like dominos stacked in a row.
- When the Russians were attacked by Germany, France was obligated to declare war on Germany as a result of a treaty she had signed with Russia.
- The Germans attacked France by marching through Belgium.
- The Belgians, who did not give Germany permission to do this, now were in a state of war with Germany as well. The most important byproduct of this was the fact that England had a treaty with Belgium!
- Now England was obligated to declare war on Germany as well.
- Italy, which had a treaty with Germany, switched sides so that she might gain territory from Austria/ Hungary (A gamble that more or less worked) and
- The Ottoman Empire entered the war on behalf to the Austro Hungarians (they wanted to gain territory from the Russians and gain control in the Balkan region).
Now most of Europe was engulfed in war.
Most Americans favored staying out of the conflict and President Wilson publicly and formally stated that the United States would follow a policy of neutrality. In three short years, however, the United States would find itself in the middle of what later became known as the First World War.
As the war in Europe raged on America sympathies were clearly on the side of the allies. American propaganda posters urged citizens to buy war bonds and support the allies. The Kaiser and Germans were painted as the aggressors in the war. True or not Americans came to see Germany as vicious and blood thirsty.
Besides being culturally similar England and France were our trade partners. From 1914 to 1916 trade with the Allies grew from 82.5 million dollars to 3.2 billion dollars. If the Allies were to lose the war our trade would be threatened. American increasingly saw Germany as the enemy. Germany was a dictatorship fighting against the great democracies of the world and America as a democratic nation felt an obligation to support them.
As America became increasingly less neutral, the British government intercepted a message from the German ambassador Zimmerman to the Mexican government. This message termed the “Zimmerman Note” asked Mexico to attack the United States if war broke out between the U.S. and Germany.
The note was turned over to American government a short time later and eventually published in the newspapers. Americans were outraged.
President Woodrow Wilson had campaigned for office promising to protect freedom of the seas and now it seemed he had little choice. He had to ask Congress to declare war. Many Americans still wanted to stay out of “Europe’s war” and there was much debate in Congress. Wilson closed his speech to Congress by saying “it is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war… But the right is more precious then peace and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried in our hearts.”
On April 6, 1917, by a vote of 82 to 6 in the Senate and 373 to 50 in the House of Representatives, the United States of America declared war on Germany.
By the time American joined the war in Europe, Willy was 17. All of his living brothers, Mal, Herbert, and Monroe had enlisted in the great fight; he wanted to join them over seas. He wanted to see the world, and he wanted to save those who needed saving, he believed in the dream of setting others free.
May 19, 1917
PRESIDENT CALLS THE NATION TO ARMS;
REGULARS UNDER PERSHING TO GO TO FRANCE
So Herbert, Mal, Monroe and Willie became part of the First American Troops to Land in France and the last to go home. These troops were the first to shoot at Germans, to attack the Germans, to conduct a raid and to be raided and to first to capture prisoners and suffer casualties. They were in the front line 220 days; they captured 163 officers and 6,304 men, 119 pieces of field artillery, 62 trench mortars and 413 machine guns.
This group of men has 21,612 casualties and 356 won Distinguished Service awards. William H. Thomas was one of these distinguished men.
William H. Thomas Cook
Enlisted on May 8, 1917 in Amarillo, Texas and was honorably discharged
Veterans Administration File Number: C 1676195
William Hobson Thomas Off to War
Granddad would tell the story that when he came to the killing fields he was a juvenile soldier, just an ordinary guy, and that night he was assigned to guard duty. The night was dark and he was young and afraid. All along the path he was guarding, he would see something glowing in the trees, sometimes the lights would flash on something glowing on the ground. As the day gradually faded the night, he saw it was bones. Bones from those who had died and were placed in the trees or under the bushes to protect them some, bones glowing in the dark.
It was the Christmas season which encouraged Will Thomas to sign on as a cook. He said it was cold and the snow was coming, the trenches were deep, with water and frozen to their feet. The night was silent with big white flakes floating down through the sky to land silently on the ground. The guys were lonesome and homesick; missing the folks back home, when one of the men started singing Silent Night, pretty soon others were joining in until there were many voices singing (quietly) carols to the Lord.
When they ran out of songs, in the dead of the night, with snow flakes piling up all around them, they heard off in the distance in German, the same carols.
Willy knew from that moment on he did want to shoot another human being; they were just like him, cherishing the same types of things he cherished. As soon as possible he asked for the position of cook, it wouldn’t keep him from having to fight, but it would help keep him from having to fight as much!
- Cambrai 20 November-4 December 1917
- Somme Defensive 21 March-6 April 1918
- Lys 9-27 April 1918
- Aisne 27 May-5 June 1918
- Montdidier-Noyon 9-13 June 1918
- Champagne-Marne 15-18 July 1918
- Aisne-Marne 18 July-6 August 1918
- Somme Offensive 8 August-11 November 1918
- Oise-Aisne 18 August-11 November 1918
- Ypres-Lys 19 August-11 November 1918
- St. Mihiel 12-16 September 1918
- Meuse-Argonne 26 September-11 November 1918
- Vittoria Veneto 24 October-4 November 1918
Headquarter First Machine Gun Battalion,
American Expeditionary Forces
The following officers and enlisted men having participated in the
Montdidier-Noyon Offensive,
St. Mihiel Offensive,
Meuse-Argonne Offensive
And are entitled to the Victory Medal and four battle clasps as authorized in General Order #75
***************************
PVT.1/cl. Ervin G. Prosser, 104864
PVT.1/cl. James H. Putnam, 104963
PVT.1/cl. Paul Rackowski, 104965
PVT.1/cl. Clyde E. Roanbaugh, 10496
PCT.1/cl. William H. Thomas, 104979
Pvt.1/cl. Perry Turner, 104866
J.H. Harrison
Major Infantry
Headquarter First Machine Gun Battalion,
American Expeditionary Forces
The Battalion Commander cites as a group for their gallantry in action and devotion to duty under most difficulty circumstances, the officers and enlisted men who participated in the Offensive near Exermont between the Argonne and Meuse as follows:
Headquarters Detachment
Company A,
Company B,
Medical Detachment
The following officers and enlisted men are personally cited for their especially meritorious conduct during the operations mentioned above:
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Theodore S. Eich, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. William H. Thomas, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Oscar Plunkett, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Luther Landrum, Company A.
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Constant Possebon, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Andrew M. Bjorsvick, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Fred L. Brannen, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Herbert Whitaker, Company A
Loader ( Pvt. 1/Cl. Thomas Nanista, Company A
Each of these individuals loaded his *machine gun continuously under enemy shell and machine gun fire for forty minutes and by his fearlessness in an unsheltered position aided in instilling a spirit of courage in the remaining members of his squad.
G. M. Gilet, Jr.Captain Cavalry, Commanding
I have 2 wonderful photos of this time of Granddad as a cook, he is laughing, with his head stuck out the tent or shack door, a white apron tied on his waist, standing in camp with buddies a big smile on his face. He wasn’t killing now; he was feeding, giving life to those around him.
But the war continued and Granddad still had to fight for he received one more award:
Headquarter *First Machine Gun Battalion,
American Expeditionary Forces
The following men having participated in a Defensive-Secto are entitled to one battle clasp as authorized:
Cpl. Duke M. Throop, R1682
Cpl. Homer White, R104667
Cpl. George W. Wilson, K104854
Cpl. Gilbert M. Burge, 104835
Cook, Clarence S. Chance, 1978566
Cook, William H. Thomas, 104979\
H. M. Youell
Major Infantry Commanding
When everything was said and done, when it was time to come home, John J. Pershing, Commander in Chief, wrote to each man under his command a letter of thanks and devotion to which my Grandfather, William Hobson Thomas, kept in his personal papers and to which my brother has the original and I have a copy.
I Thank each and everyone of you for keeping me and those I love free!
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
