A WWI Signal Corps Man in No-Mans-Land A Diary of Pvt. Elwood...

A WWI Signal Corps Man in No-Mans-Land

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A Diary of Pvt. Elwood Kunkle

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Weatherly, Pennsylvania

1894 - 1978

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With Foreword by Edwin Kunkel

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Published and edited by John L. Nuss and Susan M. Nuss,Granddaughter of Private Kunkle

December 2002

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A WWI Signal Corps Man - Diary of Elwood Kunkle

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FOREWORD

Many years ago, Mom asked me to type Daddy's WWI diary to make it morepermanent. Although I promised to do this, time and motivation escaped me until ayear ago. After reading Tom Brokaw's and Steven Ambrose's accounts of WWII inEurope, I read a passage by Murray and Millett in "A War To Be Won" thatrecognized the contributions of WWI to our success in WWII. Among these was thecoordination of information gained on land with strategy to be planned for airattacks. I concluded - Daddy was a significant pioneer as a telegrapher sendinginformation to Headquarters for use by the artillery and the airplanes. I personallyfind it bone-chilling to be in no-mans-land between your own forces and those of theenemy with artillery from both flying over head facing the specter of being gassedwhile doing my job as a telegrapher.

This was all the motivation I needed.

However, as is often said - success is largely attributed to luck. It was my lucky daywhen I discovered that Daddy's granddaughter, Susan Hinkle Nuss, was interestedin this diary. Furthermore, Susan's husband, John, had the kind of 21st centurycommunication skills to present this in the most meaningful manner that I couldhave imagined when I promised Mom that I would type Daddy's diary for others toread. I have no guilt pangs for the delay in delivering because the wait for thisdelivery was worth it.

John and Susan Nuss have delivered a valuable family treasure. Many thanks aredue to them for all their effort in all its respects from constructing the map ofDaddy's maneuvers to adding meaningful footnotes.

APPLAUSE

Edwin Kunkel, son of Pvt. Elwood KunkleDecember 18, 2002


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Elwood Kunkle's account of his experiences as a member of theAmerican Expeditionary Force to Europe in World War I.


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LEGEND

Ports

Towns Mentioned

Cities

German Lines: 1918 Furthermost Advance (June 1918)

100 Miles

100 KM

JLN 2002


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Enlistment

Joined the armySeptember 18, 1917.Left Mauch Chunk1for Camp Meade,Maryland at 11 A.M.Had a fine trip butdidn't know what waswaiting for us in thearmy. Arrived atcamp at 7 P.M. Thefirst thing we knewwe were filling ourstraw bags. The nextwas supper (Slum).By the time we gotdone eating our newhome looked like apigpen. Well, wetalked army all thatnight and next daybegan with inspectionand inoculation, and athousand differentthings, but sooncaught on to the armygame and then begandrilling, etc., and thathas no end I supposesome are still at it.Good luck BOYS.

I was now a privatein the 311th FieldArtillery, Battery C.

1 Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania - Later renamed as Jim Thorpe. He left there for Maryland via theLehigh Valley Railroad.


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Embarkation for Europe

April 22, 1918, Monday. Went onboardthe Mauritania. The driving gear wasfound broken. Wednesday we weretransferred to an Indian trading ship,the Diaramala. Left New York docksThursday morning April 25. Fineweather the first three days and met thecruiser, our escort, and rough seas. Lotsof seasickness. Trip slow. Ship packedlike sardines.

May 3rd. Reached the sub2 zone,everybody on alert, life belts fixed.

May 4th. We met our convoy of subdestroyers. Our cruiser left us with twostandard oil tankers for Glasgow, Scotlandand sinking a sub soon after leaving us.Also ran into one ourselves. This one wasalso sunk. Some excitement.

Came via the north coast of Ireland andwest coast of Scotland. Very prettyscenery. Just before entering the river toLiverpool we saw hull of ship sunk by substicking above water. Arrived at Liverpool,England May 6th.

2 Sub zone. Area where risk of German submarine attack began.


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England

Left ship the 7th, marched three miles tostation called Walton on the Kill. Tooktrain for Winchester, arrived there May 8that camp called Winnel Down at Morn Hillwhere English soldiers are trained forservice.

May 11th. Took train for London. Saw finesights. Were entertained by The BlackWatch, the crack English regiment.

Arrival in France

May 13th. Left for Southampton. Took boatacross English Channel. Landed in [Le]

Harve, France.Next morning marched five miles to campon the hill - camp of tents - in heavy rain.A two-hour rest and marched six miles andback to get gas masks. Saw lots of Germanprisoners. Took the gas test and returnedto camp wet, tired, and hungry as lions.

At this camp we left our barracks bags andpersonal belongings, taking only what wasreally necessary. May 15th. A five-mile hiketo station. Left at 6 P.M. Arrived at stationcalled (E U6) next morning and went to atown called [St.] Blimont - 15 miles. Foundall billets filled. Hiked three miles more to


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village of Abberville3. Saw big air raid onElincourt. Here we took baths in the lake.Saw Chinese laborers in pay of Englishgovernment.

May 26th. Went to signal school with theBritish. Good time but no eats buthardtack and bullybeef4 for three weeks.

June 13th. Left for Harceleines5, a 12-mile hike.

June 14th. Three-mile hike for Americanrifles as we were leaving the British.

To the Front

June 15th. Left Harceleines at 11 P.M.hiked 9 miles to (E U6) where we startedfor the American front at 4 A.M. June 16,riding till Monday night 17th.

3 Probably Abbeville4 Hardtack and bully beef - Dry bread biscuits and English canned corned beef. During this periodthe first American offensive of the war took place at Castigny about 30 kilometers from his locationand American forces also drove the Germans out of Belleau Wood taking 10,000 casualties about 150km to the southeast.5 Harceleines? - Location not determined.6 EU - Embarkation Unit?


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We landed at Toul, hiked four miles to acamp called Maron, one of the biggestFrench camps, where the Moroccans aretrained. They look like American Negroesto us.

June 22nd. Started on hike for supportcamp. Rested in wood till dark on accountof enemy observation balloons. Seenenemy shelling village and road a shortdistance ahead. We halt one hour andthen went on without further shelling.Night was spent on ground. Some movedin[to] dugouts7, some in[to] barracks. Lotsof rats.

Under Fire

July 1. We got our baptism of shells. Allhands to the dugouts. Four injured. Bigguns all around. Lots of noise.

July 3rd. On our way to the front lines [I]was sent out as operator with Company L.Lots of aeroplane battles, etc. Germanpatrol was sighted. All were called out butmyself. Our lieutenant was [shot] by guardfirst night. It was my first message.8 Dayspass with usual slight actions.

7 Dug-outs - Rough living spaces made in the trenches.8 First message - i.e., This was the first signal he sent at the front.


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July 12. Reported at BattalionHeadquarters. Loaded equipment onrailroad handcar and moved back to restcamp. Good place here. Five in dugout -Summerhalder, Cokran, Walkerman,Velander, and myself. Lots of fun duckingshells. Big guns all around us. Go to townduring the day and war lectures at night.Our mascot is a young hawk. Little wrenfeeds it.

July 15. The fifth big German drive isstarted with no advance. Allies takeprisoners and advance 25 miles on 50-mile

front. Take 20 villages. Fishing in riverwith grenades for pike. First shot: [We got]27 [fish] from 8 inches to 2 feet.

Back to the Front near Manonville

July 24th. We pack up for the front linessecond time with the usual activities.Lieutenant shot by scouts

{July 23rd. With French artillery assignaler. Heavy shelling all night. Slightactions 24th. Shelling 26th to 28th.}


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Go to support July 31st. A trench mortarshell explodes at 1 P.M. Gee! I thought itwas a shell.9

We leave Manonville August 3rd.

Hike two kilos to R.R.10 Some ride tenmiles in 3 hours and had to get out andpush three times. We lose six cars andhad to pull them up, got to Tagny11 andafter the usual stampede we wait fordaylight to find a bunk. We findgrapevines as far as we could see. We

were here for a rest but companies wentout drilling. Left this village on train, butas it was nearly all up hill we took turn[s]on pushing. Well we got to our station at 7A.M. Pretty tired but enjoyed the trip.Also had to stop two times and carry waterfor the engine. Then we had a three milehike and stopped at a small camp, took abath, and waited for night and moved outat 8:30 and got to our destination, whichwas a big wood (August 16) Sleep in woodon pine needle bed till 21st. It rains, wemove in dugout, water half filled our newhome. A fine place maybe.

9 Probably he is explaining that one of his unit's own mortar shells accidentally exploded causinghim to believe they were being shelled by the enemy.10 Two kilometers to railroad.11 Tagny? - Possibly Dagny or Pagny?


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[Several pages of the original notebook have been torn out here,possibly including part of the diary.]

Third Posting to the Front - Heavy Action

Air raids daily on Nancy and Metz. Ourown artillery arrived. We get more SIG[signal] instructions. Lieutenant Russelgoes [back to] U.S. We get Lt. Cook. Againwe move to the front (August 25)12.

First day is [quiet]. We eat dog biscuitsagain.13 Can see enemy in fields. We arebusy making rings from old coins14 andpicking blackberries in no-mans-land.Company L [loses] another lieutenant,making the third for that company.

12 At about this time the French handed over command of this sector to the US.13 Dog biscuits. He is probably referring to hardtack biscuits.14 Rings from coins. According to Stephen Ambrose in Band of Brothers - during WWII GIs maderings from European coins to pass the time. A hole was drilled through the coin and the edge of thecoin was rubbed repeatedly with a spoon or other tool until the coin eventually was flattened into aring. Apparently they did the same thing in WWI.


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We go to M.G.15 Company. Two [machineguns] in our station furnish us withmusic at night. Our relief comes in. Westart back and get the wrong road andstrike no-mans-land, but are luckyenough to find battalion headquartersand bunked there till daylight and startagain at one P.M. and reach regimentheadquarters at 5 P.M. September 3.

Next day we went for a cootie bath16, a 4-mile hike. Planes galore. The rainy

season starts. A few experiments puttingup [field telephone] lines and sham battles[training exercises]. We move to support inheavy rain. We get there at 5 P.M. and nobunk. We put up a tarpaper roof and hunt.[We] bunk laying in woods, but at 12 P.M.a lieutenant comes and claims our bunksand we passed one more night S.O.L.17 Thenext few days we watched some hot planebattles and burning of balloons. The newdrive is started successfully on September1218.

15 M.G. - Machine Gun.16 Cootie bath - De-lousing.17 S.O.L. - Shit Out of Luck.18 On September 12 American troops recaptured the Saint-Mihiele salient which had been held bythe Germans since 1914.


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Some mixed gas. Our arty19 puts over finebarrage. Also SAVES division on our leftflank from being cut off.

13th. We have 84 gas casualties. 72 hourbarrage. On this front 45,000 Frenchwere killed in one day and held Saint-Mihiel 7 minutes in 1915. We seenGermans leaving village when our artyfeeds them gas. We get relieved by theFrench (500th).

Life in the Rear

We only had eight miles to camp but gotthe wrong road and walked seven milesextra. A heavy rain made it fine walking in12 inches of mud and hills. We got to ourstamping grounds at 2 A.M. wet packs,blankets and all. We pitched tents andtried to sleep. REAL ARMY LIFE.

Next morning we got busy drying ourequipment. Also got our pay. We are out ofshell range, but plenty of planes at nightas we are near a big railroad centre ofPompay near Nancy.

19 Arty - Artillery.


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We leave Pompay the 23rd. The divisionmoves by truck, 20 on a truck, had an all-day ride. After this we had a six-mile hiketo a woods and pitched tents. No eats orwater for 38 hours.20 This is on theVerdun front where the British lost130,000 men. All open ground. Drivestarted the 25th September at 12 A.M.gaining 12 kilos and 18,000 prisoners.21We are in reserve for first army corps. On

the alert day and night. We moved toBrigade Headquarters but all barracks areoccupied so me and Williams build our ownbarracks, carrying stones, etc. for threedays and when all was O.K., we got ordersto move.

20 During this period the center of the American attack was moved from Saint-Mihiel north toVerdun. 220,000 French troops holding the line where replaced by 600,000 Americans. This wasdone in secrecy to prevent German detection, necessitating the nighttime movement.21 This was the ultimate allied offensive of the war and resulted in the German surrender.


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The German Trenches

Friday 4 September. We had a ten milehike and pitched tents in woods startingagain Saturday morning. 11-mile hikepassing the old French front and signs ofheavy shelling. Pitched tents on the oldGerman fronts on the 5th of September andtook a little trip through some dugouts,which were quite interesting. Theatres andmoving pictures and all homeconveniences. Pianos, electric lights,running water, etc. They were living ahappy life before the drive. We went to thelines the 5th of October and over the top22.

Caught in ambush in Fleville. There werequite a few souvenirs picked up. But theysoon got tired of that and decided that theydidn't want any.

We sleep in shell holes full of water forthree days at a time. Half a cup of coffee,one piece of bread a day, plenty of gas, andall kinds of fun running lines out in no-mans-land. Got relieved on the 3rd ofNovember and there never was a happierbunch than the 82nd. Three officers left inthe third battalion.

22 Over the top - Crossing the ground between the Allied and German trenches.


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France after the Armistice

We left the front on trucks. Went toPagny23. Stopped here a few days. LeftPagny on trucks again and stopped atBlanche-Côte24, which is fortified withforts on hill. We leave here and hike 24kilos to Neuf-Chateau and we got haltedon the road by General Croner (sp?) andgot the news of the armistice in theevening.

Bishop, Hennings, and I went to town andtook in the celebration and had a finetime. Also got supper at the YM25. Started

again next morning. Hiked 20 kilos,arrived at _______________, and stoppedfor the night. Hiked again. Stopped atBourmont for one day. Joined our companyand hiked three days more.

Here the signalmen got orders to take partin a demonstration. We made the trip toLangres by truck.

23 Probably Pagny sur Moselle, north of Nancy.24 Probably Pagny la Blanche-Côte.25 YM - Possibly YMCA.


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Here we took part in a big maneuver,more for the benefit of some high officersthan ourselves. Stayed here a week andhiked back to our company on Sunday,November 24 and got a little more drillingand got checked up every day for our fullequipment and maneuvers daily.

On Sunday we went to Voulx and afterlooking over the whole town for arestaurant to get a meal, but were S.O.L.So Massery bought a loaf of bread for 1franc. I got a small can of jam for 7 francs,Sommerbalder 6 cans of lobster, and Andygot the vin rouge26. Ha! Ha!

On Monday I was on guard and December3, Tuesday I got a job on the switchboardat Regiment HQ.

26 Vin rouge - red wine


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Saturday [November] 8. All the new menget the[ir] name taken for a little extraduty and have to carry a full packbetween drill hours for not having a fullpack on the field [when] the Generalcame out and caught them. Wall,Velander and I went to the café and had alittle coniac27 and went out to fix the linebut didn't find no trouble. Ha! Ha!

I got a job on the regiment switchboard, afine job if the lines are good, but it is afine thing to go out [and check] over thelines at night - and [it] rains every night.Our station is in the guardhouse and it is

a pretty lively place at night as theygenerally bring in a few rummy dopes28.

27 "Coniac" - Cognac - brandy.28 Rummy dopes - drunks.


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We have a little snow on the 28th ofDecember. We have a division signal raceon radio and telephones in which 325[st]won. Also foot races and boxing, etc.Company A won boxing bouts and our HQCompany won the wrestling. Had a prettygood time on Christmas, but was onswitchboard duty in the forenoon. And onNew Years I was on from 12 to 4 in themorn and in the afternoon all the officersmet at our headquarters for a feast. Alsohad band concerts, ball games, etc.Companies drill 5 hours. Most of the timeis spent in ball games and suchmaneuvers.

The evenings are spent with games or atthe Hancy-Consey29 Club, and plenty of vinrouge. We get four inches of snow on the27th of January. Plenty of rabbit and wildboar tracks. We are reviewed by GeneralPershing February 11, full Division.

29 Hancy-Consey (sp?) Club?


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Preparing to Go Home

Our Captain shot a boar, and after thatthe company went out and chased themfor the exercise. We shake hands with theold French men on the 26th of Februaryand left Chvilliy30 at 11 P.M. the 27th.

Went to Vaux31 on trucks and waited fortrain till 7 A.M. Friday 28. We lived oniron rations32 The slow train throughArkansas33 has nothing on these trains.We landed at Cerons near Bordeaux at 12A.M. Sunday March 2.

30 Chvilliy (sp?) - Possibly Chevilly near Orleans?31 Vaux - There are many Vaux in France, most likely postal code 89290 southwest of Troyes.32 Iron rations - Canned emergency rations - See http://collections.ic.gc.ca/regiment/chp6d.htm33 Slow Arkansas train - One of the most famous publications that helped to give Arkansas a negativeimage was Thomas W. Jackson’s On A Slow Train Through Arkansas. Published in 1903, this bookcontained many descriptions about life in the state, including a pitiful account about a traveler who"stopped at a place where there was one doctor, two shoe makers, and a blacksmith. The doctor killeda man. They didn’t want to be without a doctor, so they hung one of the shoe makers." Jackson’s bookhelped to convince many readers that people in Arkansas wore no shoes. - from Arkansas: A DifferentState by David W. Krueger - http://lfa.atu.edu/ssphil/publications/OccasionalPapers/krueger.htmFrom the map the reader can see that it is a long train journey from Vaux to Cerons. During the warthere were never enough trains available to meet all the transport requirements.


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April 20, Easter Day. Myself, Velander,and Keyes went to Cadillac34 andcelebrated for the last time in France andsure had a good time.

Left Cerons April 22 at 7 A.M. and hiked22 kilos and camped in a chateau nearVillenave. Our kitchen was in Cadashack35about three kilos [away]. This meant asix-kilo hike or no chow. Started out againnext morning and hiked 19 more andarrived at Bordeaux Emb.36 Camp No. 2at 2 P.M.

Well this is some camp andwere glad to get out nextafternoon at five P.M. April24 and got to camp No. 1about 6 P.M. This camp isalright but too much detail37.

34 Cadillac - Near Cerons, outside of Bordeaux.35 Cadashack - Probably Cadarsac, near Bordeaux36 Embarkation37 Too much detail - Assigned too many details, i.e., make work jobs, to do.


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Well we went through themill the first night and nextday was spent in generalclean up and on the 26ththey picked a detail out ofour company and I was oneof them. I was on duty asinspector in the mill, andnext day was Sunday and onMonday the 28, seven of uswere on special duty in theJewish Welfare Buildingand had a good time.


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Homeward Bound

And next morning, the29[th], we packed up andwere bound for the good oldUSA. Hiked six miles to thedocks at Bordeaux. We wentup the gangplank at 12:30and were then on a Frenchsteamer HUDSON. Therewere only about 600 troopson the ship. We pulled out at3 P.M., but we had to pull inagain on account of thefiremen38 having a fight.Pulled out again at six P.M.and stopped at the mouth ofthe river till morning.

38 Firemen - Boilermen who tended the fires in the boilers of steam ships.


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Started again next morningand struck rough weatherand had bad weather tillMay the 12th from then onwe had fine weather. Wecontinued on with the goodwork and sighted land atone o'clock, Friday May 16th,and steamed up the[Hudson] river and took onthe new pilot, also theinspector, and docked at sixo'clock P.M. [May] 16th, andlanded and had a fine mealfrom the Y.

Took the ferry across theriver and then the LIRR39 toCamp Upton. Got in at 2A.M. 16th.

39 LIRR - Long Island Rail Road


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At 8 o'clock we went throughthe mill again. We got ourbest mess here we ever had.No drilling, but have tohang around all day onaccount of calls.

Nothing important till the23rd [when] our HQCompany was split up andall were sent to our nearestcamp.40 I was sent to CampDix, N.J. Arrived here at 4P.M. the 23rd. All ourequipment was taken, butwhat we were to keep. Ifound this to be the worstcamp of all. Can't go out atall on account of calls for thefinal examination and pay,etc.

The End.

40 Nearest camp - The nearest military installation to each man's hometown.


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Editor's Notes

Diary Images - The scanned images of the original diary pages on the previouspages are shown approximately 17% smaller than life size. This is to allow forroughly even progression of printed and handwritten text through this document.Full sized digital images of the original diary pages have been also been preserved.

Kunkle / Kunkel - Elwood Kunkle was born on November 21, 1894 and diedJanuary 6, 1978. Social Security and birth and death certificates record hissurname as being spelled Kunkel, but he chose to spell it Kunkle. Edwin Kunkel'sresearch has determined that the original family spelling is, in fact, Kunkel.

Bibliography

Black Jack Pershing - by Richard O'Connor, Doubleday, 1961

A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War - Williamson Murray, Allan R.Millett, Harvard Univ Pr; ISBN: 067400163X; (May 6, 2000)

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy toHitler's Eagle's Nest - Stephen Ambrose, Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 0743216385;(June 2001)

Webography

Trenches on the Web - Map Room - http://www.worldwar1.com/maproom.htm

Maporama - Searchable European Map - http://www.maporama.com/share/Map.asp

First World War.com - Memoirs & Diaries - http://www.firstworldwar.com/diaries/

The First World War - http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWW.htm

BBC - Schools Online World War One - http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/worldwarone/

Interactive Tour of World War One - http://www.libertymemorialmuseum.org/TheWar.htm

First World War Stories Page by Tony Jacobs - http://tony.jacobs.net/ww1/index.htm


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A WWI Signal Corps Man in No-Mans-LandA Diary of Pvt. Elwood Kunkle

A WWI Signal Corps Manin No-Mans-Land

—A Diary of

Pvt. Elwood Kunkle

A WWI Signal Corps Man in No-Mans-Land A Diary of Pvt. Elwood...

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