US Soldier/POW Story...

[observer]

In Dublin, New Hampshire USA is published a magazine called "Yankee Magazine" In 1979 they published a book called "The World Wars remembered"  stories/articles from the Magazine.

One was written by World  War I Soldier Ex Pow called "Eyewitness To the Great War" By Enoch  H Doble [p.16-27] and being a POW "A World War I POW" [pp.130-137] and that after the war he saw a photograph of himself among POWS April 20,1918

I was able to confirm his account  in this regard and would like to share my research:

pp.56-57 Pictures of US POWS

ref: The American Legion Monthly [Volume 3, No. 1 (July 1927)]

 

“THE foregoing is one of many such letters received by the Company Clerk showing the interest of the Then and Now gang in unofficial pictures of service. These letters, together with the visual evidence in this department, show that the gang is beginning to dig into its archives for interesting and unusual service pictures. We would like also to get similar pictures of incidents and events in camps on this side of the big pond during the war — our gallery is not confined merely to overseas pictures.

The two pictures of Americans who were taken prisoner, reproduced on pages 56 and 57 in the July Monthly, aroused particular interest. When these pictures were submitted, knowledge of the time and place the pictures were taken and identity of the men who were in the groups had not been established. The July number had hardly been distributed before responses arrived. The first to make report was Legionnaire Enoch Hall Doble of Quincy, Massachusetts. He tells us:

"The picture on page 56 in the July Monthly was taken about S a. m. on the morning of April 20, 1918. All of the prisoners pictured were captured that morning at Seicheprey. A total of 187 altogether was taken that day. They were mostly of the 102d Infantry, 26th Division, with a few of the I02d Machine Gun Battalion.

"I am in the picture just below the last window on the right of the building in the back. I have on a steel helmet, wear a mustache, and if you look closely you will see I have on hip rubber boots, which had not yet been taken from me.

Those in front had their shoes and socks taken and were given burlap bags to wrap around their bare feet. Some preferred to walk in their bare feet, as you may see.

"We moved back of the German lines to a church where we were collected, then went by train to Conflans and were billeted over a German moving picture hall. I was of the Sanitary Detachment, i02d Machine Gun Battalion." As Doble was the first to make his identification, the original print which Legionnaire George 0. Lucas, of Key West, Florida, had obtained in Coblence, Germany, was sent to him. Efforts will be made to obtain additional prints of this picture to meet the requests for them. Second under the wire was P. S. Barnes of West Haven, Connecticut, substantiating Doble 's identification of the picture and giving this additional information:

"The party of prisoners pictured is part of a group of men taken in the enemy raid on Seicheprey early in the morning of April 20, 1918. They comprise members of Companies C and D of the i02d Infantry. There are also members of the artillery supporting the regiment in the group, and a few members of the Medical Detachments.

"The men in the group whom I recognize are James Maynard of West Haven, 'Doc' Dolan of New Haven, and myself. I am next to the German officer on the right flank of the column. The surrounding country as I recall it is between Mont Sec and Essey, through which we marched to entrain for Thiaucourt and finally Conflans, where we remained two weeks. From there we were sent to the Darmstadt, Germany, Gefangenenlager (prison camp), in the province of Hesse, Germany. There the bunch was separated and sent to different camps, factories, farms, mines, etc. I think that the picture on page 57, in which some of the same gang are included, was taken at Rastatt, Germany."

VERY seldom a non-Legionnaire breaks into print in these columns, but we have a letter from George E. Newton, of Hartford, Connecticut, which will make him eligible for membership in the Then and Now gang as soon as he joins up with the Legion. He says:

 

"Several friends brought The American Legion magazine to my home and asked me if I was in the picture you had published. They all claimed it was I. After looking it over, I feel positive that I am the second man from the left in the first row of fours.

"It was in the enemy raid on Seicheprey, April 19-20, 1918, I was taken prisoner while serving as a battalion sniper from Company B. 10 2d Infantry. The companies engaged were of the First Battalion, 102d Infantry, — Companies C and D being in the front line.

"We were taken around back of Mont Sec where the Germans took our shoes away from us. The background of the picture looks like the rear of Mont Sec.

"My right leg was cut with small pieces of a hand grenade and you will notice my right hand is pressed on the spots. The soldier in back of me is Norman Elliot, who was captured from Battery B, 102d Field Artillery."

These ex- Yankee Division men seem to have remained close to home since getting back from the war, but one did get as far outside the limits of New England as Elmsford, New York. From Legionnaire Fred W. Chitty of that town, we learn the following:

"The prisoners in the picture in Then and Now in the July Monthly were men of the 26th Division taken in the battle of Seicheprey in the Toul sector. While I can not positively identify myself, I remember plainly, nine years later, the same Germans on horses with their long spear-like implement, presumably used to nudge a lagging prisoner, the same barren, hopeless hills about us, the same Germans along the road, curious to see the American prisoners, and I have often wondered whether I would ever come across one of the photos taken of us by numerous German soldiers along the road we were forced to walk.

"You say in part, 'It was a long, long trail for these American soldiers taken prisoner by the enemy according to the footgear.' Right you are! When I was taken prisoner I had rubber boots on and was stripped of them immediately and walked in my socks over . barbed wire, through trenches, shell holes, etc., to a town in back of the lines where we were given burlap to wrap about our feet.

"I recognize one other fellow who was in my company from, I believe, Middletown, Connecticut.

"The picture on page 57 I have seen before. I can not say where it was taken, but it seems to me it might have been taken in Rastatt, Germany, where was located a prison camp for Americans. I can recognize several of the faces in the picture but after nine years, names are dim. Of one I am sure. The sixth from the right with the German hat on is a fellow named Miller who was in Company D, i02d Infantry, 26th Division, whose home was in New Haven, Connecticut.

"These pictures are very interesting and I hope to see more of the same type.”

  As Comrade Barnes in his letter stated that he recognized James Maynard in the group, we were particularly interested in getting the following letter from C. A. Maynard. living in West Haven. Connecticut, the father of James Maynard:

"The picture on page 56 of The American Legion Monthly was taken in Germany, place to me unknown. My son, James A. Maynard. is in the group. He was a private in Company D. 102d Infantry. Captain Freeland. the commanding officer, went west soon after being captured, of wounds received in the battle.

"My son is serving now on the Coast Guard cutter Wainwright at Boston. I have a small print of this same picture here at home. I have sent the July Monthly to my son so that he will get it when he arrives in port."

SEVERAL other Legionnaires wrote to us offering their identifications of the men in the group. Alwin Reiners of Clarendon, Virginia, was of the opinion that the picture was taken in the Marne sector between July 15 and 18, 1918, and that he was in the group. He served as a sergeant with the iSth Field Artillery. Third Division, and had been taken prisoner. C. F. Branther of Saint Paul, Minnesota, suggested that the men in the picture were from the Fourth Division and that the picture was taken somewhere along the Rhine. He thought he recognized one of the men as Bill Joyce of Dunedin, Florida. The photograph looked familiar also to C. D. Dermody of Lebanon, Illinois, who reported that he had been captured on October 9, 1918, and that the picture was probably snapped somewhere between the Meuse River and Montmedy, while Clifford H. Ogle of Idaville, Indiana, thought that the men shown were from Company F, 16th Infantry, First Division, who were captured on November 2, 191 7, when the first American prisoners were taken by the enemy. L. E. Nussbaum of Weissport, Pennsylvania, also wrote reminding us that he had submitted a print of the same picture away back in February. 1924, for use in Then and Now. At that time, however, Then and Now had suffered an almost total eclipse due to the space situation in the old Weekly and his picture wasn't used.

As the identity of the outfit from which the prisoners came — the 26th Division — has been definitely established, let us turn now to the locality in which the picture was taken. Legionnaire Harry T. Lewis of Payette, Idaho, former commander of the Fifth Machine Gun Battalion. Second Division, reports:

"The picture you published on page 56 of the July Monthly was taken on the road just out of Thiaucourt and the building in the background is the pump house that supplies water to the town. On September 13, 1918, I went down to this pumping station with Captain  Sergeant of the Second Engineers and when I first saw this picture in Coblence, Germany, I recognized the location."

And from Walter D. Stroud of Oshkosh, Nebraska, formerly a private with Company B, 24th Engineers, we get this substantiation of Comrade Lewis' report :

"I can not identify the men nor do I know when the picture was taken, but I know where it was taken because Corporal Cheeseman and I operated a pumping station in the building with the large smoke stack in the background. The original French plant was steamdriven but when the Jerries took it early in the war, they installed electricity and after it was recaptured by the Americans, a gasoline engine which we operated was installed.

"The prisoners are marching toward Thiaucourt, which is just a short way ahead of them. The road runs between the buildings in the background. The building across the road from the pumping station sets on the bank of the Rupt de Mad and was used by the Jerries as a delousing station. We slept in this building. The road in the background along the edge of the hill leads to Boullionville about two or three kilos away."

A HINT has been given in the foregoing paragraphs as to where the picture which appeared on page 57 of the July Monthly was taken. The Company Clerk is glad to report that from letters received, it is definitely known the picture was snapped in the prison camp for American soldiers at Rastatt, Germany. While the varied garb of the prisoners misled him to believe that the men shown represented most of the Allied forces, all of them are Americans. This fact was made known by Legionnaire Charles W. Knowlton of Philadelphia, formerly of Company D. 165th Infantry, 42d Division, who is in the group.

John J. (Jack) Payne, a member of Capitol Post, Topeka, Kansas, who fought with Company K, 18th Infantry. First Division, was also with this bunch of Americans. But most surprising of all, we got a letter from Charles Morris of Chicago, who is the colored soldier in the center of the picture. Morris was a private first class with Company B, 370th Infantry, 93d Division, and was taken prisoner on August 8, 1018, in the Argonne.

More detailed information regarding this picture will appear in Then and Now in the October Monthly.”

Ref: The American Legion Monthly [Volume 3, No. 3 (September 1927)] “Then and Now”pp.58-61

 

Referring to the picture of American prisoners on page 57 in the July Monthly," says Legionnaire Charles W. Knowlton of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in his letter to the Company Clerk, "will say that I can identify and explain the picture as I am a member of the group.

"The picture was taken at Camp Rastatt in Germany by a German army photographer. The camp contained about one thousand American prisoners at the time. All of the men in the picture are Americans even though the clothes they wear might indicate otherwise. The occasion for the picture and the grins on the men are accounted for as follows:

 

"A German staff officer was making an inspection of the American prison camps and pictures were being taken to be distributed as propaganda. While talking to the group in the picture, the officer spied the tall colored American soldier and started to question him on various subjects. He asked him how he liked the German gas at the front and what effect it had on him, and the American replied, 'It didn't bother me any, sah, but it rusted all the buttons on my coat!' Hence the laughter in the group.

 

"The greater portion of the men in the group were from the Yankee Division, (26th of New England), who were captured at Seicheprey, a couple were engineers taken at Cantigny, a few Marines, and the two at the extreme left were American aviators. I served with Company D, 165th Infantry, (old 69th National Guard of New York), of the Rainbow (43d) Division, and was taken prisoner in the Baccarat sector in Lorraine on May 6, 1918. I was returned to France in December, 1918.

 

"A few months after this picture was taken, the Red Cross sent us new clothes and food and we made quite a different appearance. We certainly looked and felt like bums even if the picture does register happiness.

 

"I have never come in contact with any of the boys in the picture since returning from overseas and I would be extremely pleased if any more should write to identify the picture, if my address is given to them. I am the seventh man from the right of the picture, without any hat on."

THEN our friend, "Red" Ryanpardon us, Department Adjutant Ernest A. Ryan, — of Topeka, Kansas, wrote to tell us that when Legionnaire Leslie E. Edmonds of the Topeka Capital saw this picture in Then and Now in the Monthly, he recognized one of the men, the fourth one from the right, sizing up the photographer, as Jack (John J.) Payne, Service Officer of Capitol Post, Topeka. Edmonds got busy, wrote a feature story and ran it with a reproduction of the picture in his paper. We are going to reprint, with permission, part of Edmonds's account :

"In the July number of the American Legion magazine the editor of the 'Then and Now' section asks for identification of a photograph of Allied prisoners of the German Army. It is the picture reprinted here. With its reprinting, however, there is no longer need for its identification. Hundreds of Topeka Legionnaires have lifted it from an unnamed and unknown bit of wartime photography by discovering a speaking likeness of John J. Payne, far belter known as Jack, First Division veteran, proprietor of the Keystone Dairy, resident of 808 Lane Street and member of Capitol Post of the Legion.

"Before the picture was taken — and since, — Jack Payne's Irish heart, so set on its owner's fighting that it caused him to enlist, the day war was declared, must have beaten faster many times. Jack's story may not be unique but it is a war epic that only the chance printing of his picture by a veterans' magazine has made possible the telling.

"It includes his tour of duty with the First Division, his promotion from private to sergeant in an organization that still held jealously to the principle of high efficiency in the non-commissioned officer, his experiences in battles and raids, his capture by a crack Prussian raiding company after a veritable hell of shell fire, his dangerous tilts with officers of the German Army, his forced migration across the length and breadth of Germany as an exhibit, his devoted services to buddies in the prisoners' camp, his calm self-repatriation by way of Switzerland after the Armistice, his latter service with his old outfit in the Army of Occupation and his return to the comparatively calm and peaceful milk industry. Payne won't talk mucabout himself and the war except when some comrade induces him to reminisce."

EDMONDS goes on to tell that Payne enlisted at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, on April 6, 191 7, and just a little more than two months later was part of a gunsquad on a transport heading for France. Landing in St. Nazaire, training in the Gondrecourt area, the division was in line in August, with Payne as a platoon sergeant. One morning in March, 1918, his outfit was surrounded by an enemy box barrage and by noon he was a prisoner of the Germans. A raid which penetrated the gap between the First Division and a French unit on its right did the work. Seventeen prisoners, including Sergeant Payne, the highest ranking man of the group, were taken, although the Prussians left fifteen of their number dead on the field. Edmonds continues:

"Once behind the enemy lines many of the prisoners lost their shoes and much of their other equipment. The Germans had been too long without new issue and the dubbin-soaked hobnails were a God-send. But not Jack Payne! There and then began his career of rebellion that might have cost him plenty. The blonde soldier in feldgrau who gestured his desire to possess himself of Jack's footwear was answered by:

" 'No, by God, you can't have a non-commissioned officer's shoes.' Probably Heinie didn't grasp all that but a fighting Irishman's eyes speak a common language. So Jack kept his shoes.

"Well to the rear, the party was halted for examination by the Intelligence branch of the corps staff. Jack's chevrons won him instant attention. . . . Jack broke down at once and promised to tell all — where the Americans were located, what time chow was delivered, where the defense weak points were, when the next relief was expected. The German representative of All-highest fairly beamed. Jack was taken to private quarters. An orderly brought tea and sandwiches. ... A yet-higher officer strode in. . . . He read the first page of Payne's story and then glanced through the latter pages and with an oath that would have been good in any language tore the entire report crossways. . . . Jack hadn't told a word of truth in two hours and the only honest thing he had done was to eat sandwiches and drink tea. . . .

"Late that night Payne in company with fellow prisoners was placed aboard a train en route to Berlin. Four days later the handsome American non-com was parading 'Unter den Linden' which had been his objective all along. To be sure the parade was under slightly different auspices than he had planned it but for hours the Americans were exhibited to hordes of big and little krauteaters. During his captivity,

was paraded in Berlin four times. Seemingly the Germans desired to make by frequent reappearance a semblance of much prisoner-taking.

"Most of his captivity was spent at the prison camp for Americans at Rastatt. Here Payne had his biggest and probably most dangerous thrill. The camp was commanded by Captain Rudolph von Tosher, who promptly attempted to put all prisoners to work. Now Payne had found out that noncom prisoners were not supposed to do manual labor under international war agreements. And no work would he do.

"He was obdurate and even an appearance of Captain von Tosher, personal representative of Gott in those parts, had no effect. . . . Payne's time was left free to give to his fellows. To help the wounded and sick, to pay America's last respects to those who died in prison. He was given a 'Feldwebel' brassard and from that hour his persecution ceased.

"It was this same von Tosher who is the center of the group of prisoners in the picture used in the Monthly. He is asking questions of a big colored soldier from the 92d Division. The whole proceeding was calculated to put the prisoners in cheerful humor so that the picture could be used to show the light lot of prisoners of war in German hands.

"The coming of the Armistice was felt by the group of American prison ers. Days before November nth they knew the end was near. The people in southern Germany were through and admitted it. 'The Prussians, of course,' says Payne, 'weren't whipped then and they aren't now but the other German peoples had had enough.' With the Armistice there was not even a pretense of looking out for the prisoners. Payne stayed a week to help sick comrades and buried two of them who could not survive even with the tonic of victory. Then he entrained for Berne, Switzerland, and eventually rejoined his division as it marched into Germany.''

Ref: The American Legion Monthly [Volume 3, No. 4 (October 1927)] )] “Then and Now” pp.55;84-85 on Internet Archive website 

 

[observer]

Note the picture of the POWs marching was also made into a postcard...with "American Prisoners" in german!!!!!