Memoir of
1stLt Robert M. Montague USMC,
Headquarters Detachment,
6th Machine Gun Battalion.
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NOTE: The original of retired Brigadier General F.M. Montague’s memoir resides in the Marine Corps Personal Papers Collection, Marine Corps Historical Center, Old Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. My thanks to and to the Historical Center staff who assisted him, for obtaining a copy.
Brigadier General Montague recorded his memoirs at age 87, at his home in Quantico, Virginia. He refered to no written sources, apparently working entirely or largely from memory. While he followed chronology generally in his memoir, there are a number of instances where he digressed at length, casting either forward or backward in time, thus confusing the sequence of events. In preparing his manuscript for its appearance here, I have, for the sake of keeping the narrative straight-forward, restored events to their proper chronology.
In addition, a number of incidents are first described early on in the memoir, and then, after a number of pages, described a second time in a slightly different context. I have in all cases chosen the first version of each twice-described incident, but have occasionally borrowed a word or phrase from the second version where such an insertion helps to clarify a point. In no instance did I find any factual inconsistencies between his first and second versions, but only minor variations in wording. or, on occasion, minor details mentioned in one but not both versions.
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ORDERS FROM MARINE CORPS HEADQUARTERS,
AND A SLOW TRAIN FROM IDAHO TO VIRGINIA
In the spring of 1917 the Army captain in charge of military instruction at the University of Idaho, which I attended, recommended me for a second lieutenant's commission in the United States Marine Corps. And shortly thereafter I received orders from Marine Corps Headquarters to report to the Commanding Officer of the Marine Barracks, Bremerton, Washington for an esxamination, which consisted solely of a physical examination and the signing of some papers.
An unusual incident happened just as the U.S. Naval Ferry which was carrying a large number of workers and me from Seattle was starting to tie up at the dock at Bremerton. A powerful explosion near by, which rocked the earth, blew all the glass out of the windows on the port side of the ferry, showered corrugated iron roofing and other building materials onto the ferry and dock and into the bay. And last but not least several women fainted; one of them falling in my arms. And upon coming to apologized and asked me to forgive her. And being at the age of maximum impudence I remember asking her if she knew when and where there would be another explosion.
Later I learned the cause of the explosion was a powder magazine blowing up. Said to be an act of sabatage.
After my return from the Bremerton Navy Yard I waited several days for graduation exercises to take place, received my dploma and left for the Marine Barracks, San Diego, California.
Here I waited around a week for a troop train to be made up to carry fifty second lieutenants and four hundred and fifty enlisted men to Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia.
At the end of that time the troop train fwas made up, the designated officers and men boarded it and we started for Quantico over the Southern Pacific railroad.
The weather over Texas was hot, dry and sultry. The coaches were without fans or any other means of air conditioning, so, we had to perspire it out all the way across the state. Other these unpleasantries the trip across this state was without incident. But that was not to say there were not to be any, for after crossing the state line into Louisiana and were but a few miles from New Orleans, there was a sudden heavy bumping of coaches and the train came to a sudden stop.
We in the two rear coaches rushed out and saw some of the coaches ahead of us on their sides and others off the track but upright.
The cry suddenly went up, "Two men are buried under one of the coaches". There being no tools on the train I ran about a quarter of a mile to a small building, which turned out to be a small shanty. Here I found a shovel and a pickmattock which had seen better days. I rushed back to the troop train as fast as I could. And with them we dug the two men out from under the coach. Both were dead.
One of these two men, who were standing on the platform matching for nickels when the wreck occurred, was still clutching a nickel in his hand.
A train of cars was sent out from New Orleans to the scene of the wreck to pick up the officers and men and take them to New Orleans where another passenger train, including cook cars, was made up on which we proceeded without incident to Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia.
QUANTICO: ASSIGNMENT TO THE FIRST MACHINE GUN BATTALION
Upon arrival at Quantico I was assigned to a school made up of four companies of second lieutenants. Here we concentrated on close, extended order drill and hikes and to proving we were so well disciplined we could let a horse fly or any other equally obnoxious creature of the insect world gnaw on our anatomies without raising a hand to knock it off.
Because I had had national guard training and belonged to the university cadet corps during the four years I attended the University of Idaho, I was transferred to the First Machine Gun Battalion which Major Edward Ball Cole commanded and was training preparatory to going to France to become part of the American Expeditionary Force. Two of the companies of the battalion ~ the Fifteenth and the Twenty-third ~ were already in France, so, that Major Cole had only two companies ~ the Seventy-seventh and the Eighty-first ~ under his immediate command.
(Montague was assigned to 77th Company).
The First Machine Gun Battalion, less the two companies
already in France, trained from the time it was organized,
around the first of August, to around the middle of November
when the battalion left for Norfolk, Virginia, where it
embarked in the German cruiser Prince Eitel Friedrich, which
was in one of our harbors when the United States declared war
on Germany. It was renamed the DeKalb. In convoy with several
other ships, she set out for Farnce, zigzagging after some
days to baffle the German submarines, that were waging
ruthless warfare.
IN CONVOY TO FRANCE
We lieutenants were required to stand four-hour watches in the crow's nest, a lookout near the masthead of the ship. I was standing the 8-12 morning watch, the morning of Thanksgiving, searching the horizon with y binoculars and was within seconds of being relieved when suddenly an object appeared in the distance on the horizon. I passed the word to the watch offcer and fring took up immediately. After many rounds had been fired by my ship (cruiser) and our destroyer escort, it was decided the object was a spar or other floating object and the firing was stopped. This was the last and only incident that occurred on the trip and we continued to zigzag into Saint Nazair, France, where the following morning my battalion embarked and went inland by rail, where the battalion was joined by the Fifteenth and Twenty-third companies.
TRAINING WITH THE FRENCH, BOTH BEHIND AND IN THE LINE
Here the number of the battalion was changed from the first to the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion and the battalion was issued Hotchkiss (French) machine guns in place of the Lewis air-colled machine guns, which were turned over to aviation.
The battalion trained in this inland area until, I believe, around the middle of March 1918 when the Second Division, to which the sixth Machine Gun Battalion belonged, was ordered to move into the Verdun trench sector for additional training. Here we remained about two months.
Verdun the Second Division moved to the rear (making their way gradually, with two several-day bivouacs for training , to the Montjavoult sector northwest of Paris), especially for training in open warfare.
We trained in this area a short time ~ possibly a month ~ when the word was passed that the Division was to move to another defensive sector. In fact the movement became so certain I was sent with my battalion billeting detail to find out ffrom Division Headquarters what towns my battalion was to be billeted in at night during the march to the defensive sector the Second Division was to occupy.
I reported with my billeting detail to the division supply officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Matthews, ~ later Quartermaster General of the Marine Corps and an excellent one. I reported to him by saying, "Sir, I am reporting with my billeting detail to billet the sixth Machine Gun Battalion as the Second Division moves up to its new defensive sector." To which he replied, "No you are not lieutenant; you are going up to help stop the Boche. They are on the march."
OUT IN FRONT OF THE COLUMN, FIRST MARINE TO SPOT THE ENEMY
With my detail I returned to my battalion. Around four in the afternoon our battalion adjutant, Captain T.J. Curtis, received a message from Division Headquarters informing him I had been selected to accompany a French intelligence officer to reconnoiter ahead of the Division truck column in its movement toward the enemy.
The next morning early I reported to the Division, met the French intelligence officer I was to accompany. We left in a French Renault car, with a French driver, probably around twenty minutes or more before the Division took up the march toward the enemy, on the Paris-Soissons Road.
As we moved toward the enemy we would stop at intervals and the French officer would get out of the car and interrogate the many French inhabitants who stood on the side of the road in obvious great apprehension. He would ask them such questions as: "Have you seen any enemy patrols, raiding or foraging parties?" In all cases they answered in the negative.
We continued in this manner until we came to a long gradual hill which we began to ascend. And when we were within between three and four hundred yards of the top, we all of a sudden saw the head and shoulders of a German soldier [visible] just over the brow of the hill in the middle of the road with his rifle held horizontally above his head, indicating "enemy in sight".
Our chauffeur steered our car to the right of the road, then backed it up until it was back on the road with the rear facing toward the enemy and we were off. I have never seen a car turned one hundred and eighty degrees so fast before or since in my life. This is a true example of when time was of the essence. Not a shot was fired by either side.
BACK WITH THE COLUMN
Meeting the enemy ended the need for further reconnoitering. When I got even with the lead trucks that were carrying the sixth Machine Gun Battalion, I got out of the automobile I was riding in and immediately reported to my commanding officer, Major Cole.
Because the Corps Commander and the Division Commander wanted to learn where the enemy was going to make its main thrust the division with its camions were kept in instant readiness to move.
Major Cole, commanding the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion, issued a verbal order that all officers and men, except when answering the call of nature, should remain in their camions. This was not easy to do since we were packed in as close as we could sit. However, the following day I realized the wisdom of his order, when I saw men of the Fifth and Sixth Regiments marching up to take their positions in the firing line without rifles, bayonets, ammunition, or anything else a soldier going into battle is expected to have. The largest tears they ever shed flowed down their cheeks as they staggered hazily along. The only encouragement these men received was when one of their comrades would say, "Cheer up Buddy, maybe you will be able to pick up a rifle and some ammunition later."
This situation developed because of the failure of battalion commanders to properly command their organizations. They should have realized, as the late Major Cole did, that with cellars stocked with wine, as they were in France, and with the owners having fled, certain individuals would drink without restraint. And that is exactly what certain individuals did do. Major Cole was very much disliked by many field officers of the Fourth Brigade, but he was always in command of his organization. They were jealous of his intelligence and ability. General Pershing said he considered Major Cole to be the ablest machine gun officer in the American Expeditionary Force. Personally I feel proud I had the privilege of serving in his command.
The start of World War I in 1914 to June 1918 Germany was generally on the offensive. But in Belleau Woods the situation was changed for them. For not only were they stopped, but they were from then to the end of the war on the defensive.
At this point I want to call your attention to the fact that as a consequence of making the reconnaissance ahead of my division I was the first member of the American Expeditionary Force to meet the German Army. Not only was I the first member of this force to go through the Belleau wood area, and approximately fifteen kilometers beyond it, but I did so around twenty-eight hours before my division deployed in front of the German Army. This is the first time I have ever written about this incident and I have not spoken about more than a half dozen times and then only casually. I dislike publicity.
FIRST NIGHT ON THE LINE: PROVISIONING THE BRIGADE
After Major Cole finished inspecting each of the forty-eight machine gun sites and emplacements of his battalion, we ment at his command post and he said to me, "Montague, I want you to get the rations for this battalion. I don't know how you are going to do it, but do it." As our mule-drawn transportation was moving up at the rate of about three miles an hour on the road and had to rest at night, it could not be expected to arrive short of three days. Hence I had a real problem to obtain transportation to haul the rations. So, I decided to walk to the ration dump, draw rations and try to get hold of transportion there. I asked the lieutenant in charge of the trucks which delivered therations to theration dump for two trucks to haul my rations. He gaive me a cock and bull story why he could not let me have them. I think he was plain "yellow".
After trying in vain to get transportation and as it was around midnight, I decided to go directly to the Division Chief of Staff to see what he could do for me.
I must have been desperate as I found myself repeating, “Montague, you must keep going until you succeed.” With this thought running through my mind I walked into Division Headquarters and said, “I want to see the Chief of Staff.” I don’t know what their reactions were, but three field officers jumped to their feet to show me to the door of the Chief of Staff. When I got in his office I said to him, “Sir, my commanding officer, Major Cole, ordered me to get rations for the battalion. I have them at the ration dump, but I have been unable to obtain transportation to haul them. Without helitation he said to me, “You go to the commanding officer of the Fourth Machine Gun Battalion ~ it was the division machine gun battalion and was motorized ~ and tell him he is to give you all the transportation you need to haul your rations.” A more welcome message I never received before or since.
Armed with this verbal message I hastened to find the commanding officer of the fourth Machine Gun Battalion, which I did. And when I relayed the Chief of Staff’s message to him, he reacted by saying, “By God, if Preston C. Brown, Chief of Staff of the Second Division says you are to be given all the transportation you need to haul your rations, By God you are going to get it.”
He asked me how much transportation I needed and I replied, “All you have.” It was just as easy to “all” as “ten”.
I left with around fifty Ford pick-up trucks, headed for the Division ration dump. Here we loaded our little trucks with all they could hold and drove back behind where the Fourth Brigade was deployed and into a slight swale in the ground. Here we started to unload our rations.
As all headlights were kept turned off, the enemy must have detected our movement by the noise of our moving vehicles, for it opened a barrage of 77s on us. Their azimuth was perfect, but fortunately for us they had possibly a couple mils too much elevation, so, their shells went over our heads and explodedharmlessly farther down the swale. Had those gunners lowered their sights a couple of mils it would have been just too bad for us and the little trucks, but as it turned out, I was able to turn the drivers and their trucks over to the senior noncommissioned officer unharmed for return to the Commanding Officer of the fourth Machine Gun Battalion.
At this time I want to point out I do not believe an officer from the brigade commander down to the battalion commanders, with the exception of the battalion commander of the Third battalion of the Sixth Regiment, Major hughes, ever knew who was responsible for getting rations up to the Fourth Brigade at this critical period. The enlisted personnel found out at once and that was the important thing. Of course after the brigade animal-drawn transportation arrived this problem ceased to exist, and rations for the troops were brought up at night with complete regularity.
BELLEAU WOOD
Our casualties in Belleau Wood were very heavy, especially when limited attacks, pushes, were made against the enemy; then it was necessary for us to move into the enemy’s rifle and machine gun fire. But some casualties were brought about through lack of experience. For example after Major Cole was mortally wounded in one of the limited attacks and died in either Field Hospital Fourteen or Twenty-one. Captain Harlen E. Major became battalion commander of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion. He was a distinguished marksman. And each day he would pick out a suitable spot where he could see the individuals of the enemy and pick them off one by one.
Well! Captain Major’s orderly, wanting to be nice to his captain, brought a white colored bed tick he found in one of the few buildings in the area. He brought it in broad daylight to Captain Major’s command post. The enemy did not do a thing then but train a battery of seventy-sevens on that spot and wait for night fall. The next morning Captain Major, God bless him, was buried by shovel fulls.
Near the end of the stay of the fourth Brigade in Belleau Woods, the Seventh Infantry was sent in to relieve the Marines. Unfortunately no sooner than it took over than it began to lose ground. General Harbord, U.S.A., who was in command of the Marine Brigade and a good one, sent the colonel commanding the Seventh Infantry a message which read, “Your regiment has been Belleau Woods two days and each day you have lost ground. If you lose any more ground I am going to have to withdraw you.” But notwithstanding General Harbord’s message, the Seventh Infantry lost more ground and was relieved and the Marines had to go back in. On the evening of the relief the Seventh filed out in single column and the Marines filed in likewise. Of course there was no love lost. One member of the Seventh called over to the Marines, “What organization?” A Marine hollered back, “YMCA Replacement Battalion, who in the hell wants to know?”
SOISSONS
Shortly before the Second Division was scheduled to be pulled out of Belleau Wood word was passed [that] the Division was going to the rear for rest and training. But that was not true as the Division was loaded in camions and transported to the Soissons Area where it immediately went into action against the enemy in Soissons, pushing it back with heavy casualties.
Another case of carelessness, and of course there were many, happened in the Soissons drive. I was riding in a motorcycle side car with a Sergeant Roberts as chauffeur. We rode down into a valley in the road and just started to ascend on the other side of it when suddenly an Austrian eighty-eight swished past us and exploded harmlessly in the valley below. I remember saying to Sergeant Roberts, “Sergeant, if that shell had come a little closer it might have scraped your hands.”
Just as we started up the other side of the ravine there came walking toward us a hospital corpsman named Avery. He was walking on the outside of the road not taking advantage of the high bank on the other side of the road. I said to him, “Avery, who don’t you walk on the other side of the road and take advantage of the protection that high bank will give you?” His reply was, “Oh! Captain, they won’t hurt me.” He moved over to get the protection of the bank but only to please me.
ST MIHIEL
From here I will jump ahead ... to the Saint Mihiel drive. It was the practice when the Second Division made a drive for one man in a squad to carry the machine gun, one to carry the gun mount, two men to lead the two mules of the squad and for the remaining men of the squad to each carry two boxes of ammunition (2400 rounds). Them men carrying the guns, mounts and ammunition were to march at the side of the road, except when it was not being used for the movement of artillery and artillery ammunition turcks forward. This same rule applied to the infantry.
For this, the Saint Mihiel, drive I was assigned the task of ghetting carts forward as soon as possible. Major Waller, in assigning this task, said, “Monty I hate to assign all of these tasks to you, but I know that if I do they well be done.”
I decided not to use the road but to parallel it, which meant that several trenches had to be filled so the mules and carts could pass.
To provide men to fill the trenches where they were to be passed over, all the carts (96 of them) were divided into sections of four to a section, with one mule leader to each section who was to lead the leading mule of each section, with the other three mules tied to the cart in front of it. This made seventy-two men available to fill trenches. These men were divided into groups and, supplied with shovels, were sent ahead to fill the trenches as fast as possible.
The carrying out of this plan made it possible for the carts and extra ammunition to arrive at the jump-off line about the same time the main parts of the companies arrived.
ARMY OF OCCUPATION
This, the Saint Mihiel, drive was completely successful. But after it the divisions which were to provide the Army of Occupation had to wait approximately a week before starting to march to the line of occupation in Germany. (Obviously Montague here has forgotten the seven or so weeks between St Mihiel and the Armistice, including the fight for Blanc Mont and the crossing of the Meuse).
During this wait the machine gun organizations exchanged the Hotchkiss machine guns, which they used during their participation in World War I, for Browning, water cooled, machine guns.
My duty while the Second Division was making the march to the Line of Occupation, was to precede the advance guard each day and billet the companies of the Sixth Machine Gun Batalion in the towns designated by the Division.
On several occasions my billeting party entered one end of a village when the German soldiers were leaving the other end; many of them carrying red flags. Unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to talk to any of them. But it was quite obvious that this reverse march they were making was completely antithetical to the “Deutchland uber alles, uber alles in dem welt,” they had been taught all their lives. The previoujs arrogance, especially that of requiring German civilians to get off the sidewalk when the officers passed, was not in evidence.
Upon the arrival of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion in the Army of Occupation, I, because I could speak German, was detailed to be the battalion interpreter for the area the battalion occupied. I had some title which I can not recall. Fortunately I happened to get along very well with the civilians, but that was not true of the all the areas of the Army of Occupation. For example, I believe it was in Coblenz, the magistrar was extremely uncooperative in spite of efforts to get him to see the light. I think he thought he could not be touched. The commanding officer of the area appointed a court to try him. It sentenced him to take a plunge in the Rhine
River each morning until he became cooperative. Also, the punishment, [which was] awarded this magistrar, had a very salutary effect on all the other magistrars in the Army of Occupation Area. It gave them an opportunity to see first hand what Yankee ingenuity was like.
I remained in the Army of Occupation until sometime in March 1919 when I was ordered back to the United States.
IMPRESSION OF MAJOR COLE
I was extremely favorably impressed by Major Cole from the instant I met him. His mind was constantly active. When I was the officer of the guard I had to pass his office when making my rounds of I spection, and as late as two in athe morning I used to see him siting behind his desk syudying machine gunnery and machine gun tactics. Me reaction was that when he attended Harvard University he was an excellent student.
AFTERWORD
After the war, Montague saw further service with the Mail Guard Detachment and the Haitian Gendarmerie, as well as at several of the more legendary outposts: Shanghai, Cavite, Guadalcanal, & Bougainville. He retired a Brigadier General.
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