The Death of Missouri National Guardsman HENRY LEWIS COLLIER,
Machine Gun Company 140, 35th Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces
-- Montrebeau Wood, France
For the 35th Division of the AEF, the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne commenced on the morning of the 26th of September 1918, just south of Verennes, France, and struggled in a northerly direction toward Exermont. Very soon it became clear that the 35th Division was in trouble.
The Kansas and Missouri National Guardsmen of the 35th Division were suffering severe internal command problems. On the eve of battle, General Pershing had relieved the two brigade commanders, the chief of staff and three of the four regimental commanders, replacing them with regular Army personnel. They barely had time to introduce themselves before they started fighting the elite Prussian Guard Division.
On September 27 and 28, the 35th Division literally fell apart. The two brigades became chaotically entangled; communications between front and rear virtually ceased. The 35th's commander, Major General Peter Traub, roved the battlefield in a sleepless daze, out of touch with his own headquarters. At one point he was almost captured by the Germans.
In his book, Robert H. Farrell lists many causes for the breakdown of the 35th Division. Besides the internal command problems, one of the most important was the lack of divisional artillery support. During these opening days in the Meuse-Argonne, the U.S. Army commanders could not quite grasp what was necessary. Going into the Meuse-Argonne, the AEF had known of the gigantic preparation fire and barrages of [German] Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmueller. Typical of any AEF Division, the 35th was manned with an artillery brigade which included two regiments of 75mm field pieces and one regiment equipped with larger, 155mm howitzers. Although some of the American commanders appreciated the infantry's need of better firepower that would destroy or hold down opponents, other arms appear to have taken priority. Unfortunately, the army's three-inch gun could not be produced rapidly enough, once war was declared, and it was necessary to use French guns instead.
As with artillery, AEF commanders began the Meuse-Argonne in ignorance of the need to deploy gas shells to counter German gas. The Germans had employed gas shells from the beginning of the battle. Colonel Wieczorek was gassed the first day. When the Germans were attacking American troops in Montrebeau Woods, they drenched the place with gas. All low areas, especially ravines, were dangerous. This was an important strategic calculation on the part of the German enemy. American troops in the woods were forced to stay there and suffer artillery fire. The masks proved very difficult to use because of trouble with breathing and fogging-up of the circular eyeglasses.
General Pershing visited the headquarters of the 35th Division on the afternoon of September 28. He knew that it was disorganized and had taken heavy casualties and that the men were exhausted. But he did not tour the front lines, and neither he nor Major General Traub, who had wandered dazed all over the battlefield, had any idea of the conditions there. After looking over maps and speaking with some staff officers, Pershing ordered Traub to keep attacking "regardless of cost." In doing so, he opened the door to catastrophe.
Henry Lewis Collier died sometime during the fierce fighting in the Argonne Forest around Montrebeau Wood on September 28, 1918. No words could do justice to the horrific scene of the Montrebeau Wood as day broke on the morning of September 29. The Missouri-Kansas 35th Division had captured the wood the previous afternoon, at terrible cost. Bodies and pieces of bodies littered it now, alongside shattered and discarded equipment, shrapnel, unexploded shells, and cracked canisters of seeping gas. Bog-like shell holes, blasted concrete pillboxes, and splintered logs and branches concealed the prone forms of men huddled against icy rain falling from a black sky.
At 6:30 AM, the Prussian Guard launched a counter-attack that caused a near rout. German shells exploded everywhere, illuminating the nightmare scene with brief flashes of light. The diary of the German Third Army reported "concentrated artillery fire struck enemy masses streaming to the rear with annihilating effect."
By the afternoon of the 29th, gloom and confusion had spread across the entire American battle line. West of the Argonne Forest, the French Fourth Army had barely gained a foot, a mistake which made life all the more difficult for Americans in the woods.
The oncoming German infantry were stopped by counter-fire from the 35th's field artillery, among which Battery D of the 129th Regiment headed by Captain Harry S. Truman, performed with distinction. But on the following day, the shattered division was withdrawn and replaced by the 1st and 32nd Divisions. When the Division returned home it had sustained 7,913 casualties during the time it had been in France, with the majority occuring during the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. There were 1,530 deaths, 6,216 wounded and 167 captured as prisoners of war.
By the time the Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army. Many future US military leaders, such as George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, were veterans of the AEF. The AEF sustained about 320,000 casualties; 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 non-combat deaths and 204,000 wounded. This high AEF casualty count was sustained at a time when French casualties for 1918 are listed as 330,000, but with a much longer front line to hold. Prior to the AEF's arrival in France, French and British casualty rates had also been very high during the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in 1916. However, by the time the AEF entered the front lines in early 1918, improved combined-arms tactics had significantly reduced French and British casualty counts. The pneumonia/influenza pandemic during the fall of 1918 took the lives of more than 25,000 men from the AEF while another 360,000 became gravely ill. Other diseases were relatively well controlled through compulsory vaccination. Typhoid fever was also practically eliminated.
Henry's parents, William Thomas and Mary Catherine Collier, accepted the U.S. government's offer to have his remains repatriated to the United States. In 1921 (three years after his death), he was disinterred, likely from the nearby Chaudron Farm temporary war cemetery, and transported back to Missouri accompanied by an Italian soldier. Henry was buried with full military honors in the Collier family plot in Englewood Cemetery, Clinton, Missouri.
Machine Gun Company 140, 35th Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces
-- Montrebeau Wood, France
For the 35th Division of the AEF, the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne commenced on the morning of the 26th of September 1918, just south of Verennes, France, and struggled in a northerly direction toward Exermont. Very soon it became clear that the 35th Division was in trouble.
The Kansas and Missouri National Guardsmen of the 35th Division were suffering severe internal command problems. On the eve of battle, General Pershing had relieved the two brigade commanders, the chief of staff and three of the four regimental commanders, replacing them with regular Army personnel. They barely had time to introduce themselves before they started fighting the elite Prussian Guard Division.
On September 27 and 28, the 35th Division literally fell apart. The two brigades became chaotically entangled; communications between front and rear virtually ceased. The 35th's commander, Major General Peter Traub, roved the battlefield in a sleepless daze, out of touch with his own headquarters. At one point he was almost captured by the Germans.
In his book, Robert H. Farrell lists many causes for the breakdown of the 35th Division. Besides the internal command problems, one of the most important was the lack of divisional artillery support. During these opening days in the Meuse-Argonne, the U.S. Army commanders could not quite grasp what was necessary. Going into the Meuse-Argonne, the AEF had known of the gigantic preparation fire and barrages of [German] Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmueller. Typical of any AEF Division, the 35th was manned with an artillery brigade which included two regiments of 75mm field pieces and one regiment equipped with larger, 155mm howitzers. Although some of the American commanders appreciated the infantry's need of better firepower that would destroy or hold down opponents, other arms appear to have taken priority. Unfortunately, the army's three-inch gun could not be produced rapidly enough, once war was declared, and it was necessary to use French guns instead.
As with artillery, AEF commanders began the Meuse-Argonne in ignorance of the need to deploy gas shells to counter German gas. The Germans had employed gas shells from the beginning of the battle. Colonel Wieczorek was gassed the first day. When the Germans were attacking American troops in Montrebeau Woods, they drenched the place with gas. All low areas, especially ravines, were dangerous. This was an important strategic calculation on the part of the German enemy. American troops in the woods were forced to stay there and suffer artillery fire. The masks proved very difficult to use because of trouble with breathing and fogging-up of the circular eyeglasses.
General Pershing visited the headquarters of the 35th Division on the afternoon of September 28. He knew that it was disorganized and had taken heavy casualties and that the men were exhausted. But he did not tour the front lines, and neither he nor Major General Traub, who had wandered dazed all over the battlefield, had any idea of the conditions there. After looking over maps and speaking with some staff officers, Pershing ordered Traub to keep attacking "regardless of cost." In doing so, he opened the door to catastrophe.
Henry Lewis Collier died sometime during the fierce fighting in the Argonne Forest around Montrebeau Wood on September 28, 1918. No words could do justice to the horrific scene of the Montrebeau Wood as day broke on the morning of September 29. The Missouri-Kansas 35th Division had captured the wood the previous afternoon, at terrible cost. Bodies and pieces of bodies littered it now, alongside shattered and discarded equipment, shrapnel, unexploded shells, and cracked canisters of seeping gas. Bog-like shell holes, blasted concrete pillboxes, and splintered logs and branches concealed the prone forms of men huddled against icy rain falling from a black sky.
At 6:30 AM, the Prussian Guard launched a counter-attack that caused a near rout. German shells exploded everywhere, illuminating the nightmare scene with brief flashes of light. The diary of the German Third Army reported "concentrated artillery fire struck enemy masses streaming to the rear with annihilating effect."
By the afternoon of the 29th, gloom and confusion had spread across the entire American battle line. West of the Argonne Forest, the French Fourth Army had barely gained a foot, a mistake which made life all the more difficult for Americans in the woods.
The oncoming German infantry were stopped by counter-fire from the 35th's field artillery, among which Battery D of the 129th Regiment headed by Captain Harry S. Truman, performed with distinction. But on the following day, the shattered division was withdrawn and replaced by the 1st and 32nd Divisions. When the Division returned home it had sustained 7,913 casualties during the time it had been in France, with the majority occuring during the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. There were 1,530 deaths, 6,216 wounded and 167 captured as prisoners of war.
By the time the Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army. Many future US military leaders, such as George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, were veterans of the AEF. The AEF sustained about 320,000 casualties; 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 non-combat deaths and 204,000 wounded. This high AEF casualty count was sustained at a time when French casualties for 1918 are listed as 330,000, but with a much longer front line to hold. Prior to the AEF's arrival in France, French and British casualty rates had also been very high during the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in 1916. However, by the time the AEF entered the front lines in early 1918, improved combined-arms tactics had significantly reduced French and British casualty counts. The pneumonia/influenza pandemic during the fall of 1918 took the lives of more than 25,000 men from the AEF while another 360,000 became gravely ill. Other diseases were relatively well controlled through compulsory vaccination. Typhoid fever was also practically eliminated.
Henry's parents, William Thomas and Mary Catherine Collier, accepted the U.S. government's offer to have his remains repatriated to the United States. In 1921 (three years after his death), he was disinterred, likely from the nearby Chaudron Farm temporary war cemetery, and transported back to Missouri accompanied by an Italian soldier. Henry was buried with full military honors in the Collier family plot in Englewood Cemetery, Clinton, Missouri.
The Death of Missouri National Guardsman HENRY LEWIS COLLIER,
Machine Gun Company 140, 35th Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces
-- Montrebeau Wood, France
For the 35th Division of the AEF, the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne commenced on the morning of the 26th of September 1918, just south of Verennes, France, and struggled in a northerly direction toward Exermont. Very soon it became clear that the 35th Division was in trouble.
The Kansas and Missouri National Guardsmen of the 35th Division were suffering severe internal command problems. On the eve of battle, General Pershing had relieved the two brigade commanders, the chief of staff and three of the four regimental commanders, replacing them with regular Army personnel. They barely had time to introduce themselves before they started fighting the elite Prussian Guard Division.
On September 27 and 28, the 35th Division literally fell apart. The two brigades became chaotically entangled; communications between front and rear virtually ceased. The 35th's commander, Major General Peter Traub, roved the battlefield in a sleepless daze, out of touch with his own headquarters. At one point he was almost captured by the Germans.
In his book, Robert H. Farrell lists many causes for the breakdown of the 35th Division. Besides the internal command problems, one of the most important was the lack of divisional artillery support. During these opening days in the Meuse-Argonne, the U.S. Army commanders could not quite grasp what was necessary. Going into the Meuse-Argonne, the AEF had known of the gigantic preparation fire and barrages of [German] Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmueller. Typical of any AEF Division, the 35th was manned with an artillery brigade which included two regiments of 75mm field pieces and one regiment equipped with larger, 155mm howitzers. Although some of the American commanders appreciated the infantry's need of better firepower that would destroy or hold down opponents, other arms appear to have taken priority. Unfortunately, the army's three-inch gun could not be produced rapidly enough, once war was declared, and it was necessary to use French guns instead.
As with artillery, AEF commanders began the Meuse-Argonne in ignorance of the need to deploy gas shells to counter German gas. The Germans had employed gas shells from the beginning of the battle. Colonel Wieczorek was gassed the first day. When the Germans were attacking American troops in Montrebeau Woods, they drenched the place with gas. All low areas, especially ravines, were dangerous. This was an important strategic calculation on the part of the German enemy. American troops in the woods were forced to stay there and suffer artillery fire. The masks proved very difficult to use because of trouble with breathing and fogging-up of the circular eyeglasses.
General Pershing visited the headquarters of the 35th Division on the afternoon of September 28. He knew that it was disorganized and had taken heavy casualties and that the men were exhausted. But he did not tour the front lines, and neither he nor Major General Traub, who had wandered dazed all over the battlefield, had any idea of the conditions there. After looking over maps and speaking with some staff officers, Pershing ordered Traub to keep attacking "regardless of cost." In doing so, he opened the door to catastrophe.
Henry Lewis Collier died sometime during the fierce fighting in the Argonne Forest around Montrebeau Wood on September 28, 1918. No words could do justice to the horrific scene of the Montrebeau Wood as day broke on the morning of September 29. The Missouri-Kansas 35th Division had captured the wood the previous afternoon, at terrible cost. Bodies and pieces of bodies littered it now, alongside shattered and discarded equipment, shrapnel, unexploded shells, and cracked canisters of seeping gas. Bog-like shell holes, blasted concrete pillboxes, and splintered logs and branches concealed the prone forms of men huddled against icy rain falling from a black sky.
At 6:30 AM, the Prussian Guard launched a counter-attack that caused a near rout. German shells exploded everywhere, illuminating the nightmare scene with brief flashes of light. The diary of the German Third Army reported "concentrated artillery fire struck enemy masses streaming to the rear with annihilating effect."
By the afternoon of the 29th, gloom and confusion had spread across the entire American battle line. West of the Argonne Forest, the French Fourth Army had barely gained a foot, a mistake which made life all the more difficult for Americans in the woods.
The oncoming German infantry were stopped by counter-fire from the 35th's field artillery, among which Battery D of the 129th Regiment headed by Captain Harry S. Truman, performed with distinction. But on the following day, the shattered division was withdrawn and replaced by the 1st and 32nd Divisions. When the Division returned home it had sustained 7,913 casualties during the time it had been in France, with the majority occuring during the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. There were 1,530 deaths, 6,216 wounded and 167 captured as prisoners of war.
By the time the Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army. Many future US military leaders, such as George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, were veterans of the AEF. The AEF sustained about 320,000 casualties; 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 non-combat deaths and 204,000 wounded. This high AEF casualty count was sustained at a time when French casualties for 1918 are listed as 330,000, but with a much longer front line to hold. Prior to the AEF's arrival in France, French and British casualty rates had also been very high during the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in 1916. However, by the time the AEF entered the front lines in early 1918, improved combined-arms tactics had significantly reduced French and British casualty counts. The pneumonia/influenza pandemic during the fall of 1918 took the lives of more than 25,000 men from the AEF while another 360,000 became gravely ill. Other diseases were relatively well controlled through compulsory vaccination. Typhoid fever was also practically eliminated.
Henry's parents, William Thomas and Mary Catherine Collier, accepted the U.S. government's offer to have his remains repatriated to the United States. In 1921 (three years after his death), he was disinterred, likely from the nearby Chaudron Farm temporary war cemetery, and transported back to Missouri accompanied by an Italian soldier. Henry was buried with full military honors in the Collier family plot in Englewood Cemetery, Clinton, Missouri.
Machine Gun Company 140, 35th Infantry Division, American Expeditionary Forces
-- Montrebeau Wood, France
For the 35th Division of the AEF, the Battle of the Meuse-Argonne commenced on the morning of the 26th of September 1918, just south of Verennes, France, and struggled in a northerly direction toward Exermont. Very soon it became clear that the 35th Division was in trouble.
The Kansas and Missouri National Guardsmen of the 35th Division were suffering severe internal command problems. On the eve of battle, General Pershing had relieved the two brigade commanders, the chief of staff and three of the four regimental commanders, replacing them with regular Army personnel. They barely had time to introduce themselves before they started fighting the elite Prussian Guard Division.
On September 27 and 28, the 35th Division literally fell apart. The two brigades became chaotically entangled; communications between front and rear virtually ceased. The 35th's commander, Major General Peter Traub, roved the battlefield in a sleepless daze, out of touch with his own headquarters. At one point he was almost captured by the Germans.
In his book, Robert H. Farrell lists many causes for the breakdown of the 35th Division. Besides the internal command problems, one of the most important was the lack of divisional artillery support. During these opening days in the Meuse-Argonne, the U.S. Army commanders could not quite grasp what was necessary. Going into the Meuse-Argonne, the AEF had known of the gigantic preparation fire and barrages of [German] Lieutenant Colonel Georg Bruchmueller. Typical of any AEF Division, the 35th was manned with an artillery brigade which included two regiments of 75mm field pieces and one regiment equipped with larger, 155mm howitzers. Although some of the American commanders appreciated the infantry's need of better firepower that would destroy or hold down opponents, other arms appear to have taken priority. Unfortunately, the army's three-inch gun could not be produced rapidly enough, once war was declared, and it was necessary to use French guns instead.
As with artillery, AEF commanders began the Meuse-Argonne in ignorance of the need to deploy gas shells to counter German gas. The Germans had employed gas shells from the beginning of the battle. Colonel Wieczorek was gassed the first day. When the Germans were attacking American troops in Montrebeau Woods, they drenched the place with gas. All low areas, especially ravines, were dangerous. This was an important strategic calculation on the part of the German enemy. American troops in the woods were forced to stay there and suffer artillery fire. The masks proved very difficult to use because of trouble with breathing and fogging-up of the circular eyeglasses.
General Pershing visited the headquarters of the 35th Division on the afternoon of September 28. He knew that it was disorganized and had taken heavy casualties and that the men were exhausted. But he did not tour the front lines, and neither he nor Major General Traub, who had wandered dazed all over the battlefield, had any idea of the conditions there. After looking over maps and speaking with some staff officers, Pershing ordered Traub to keep attacking "regardless of cost." In doing so, he opened the door to catastrophe.
Henry Lewis Collier died sometime during the fierce fighting in the Argonne Forest around Montrebeau Wood on September 28, 1918. No words could do justice to the horrific scene of the Montrebeau Wood as day broke on the morning of September 29. The Missouri-Kansas 35th Division had captured the wood the previous afternoon, at terrible cost. Bodies and pieces of bodies littered it now, alongside shattered and discarded equipment, shrapnel, unexploded shells, and cracked canisters of seeping gas. Bog-like shell holes, blasted concrete pillboxes, and splintered logs and branches concealed the prone forms of men huddled against icy rain falling from a black sky.
At 6:30 AM, the Prussian Guard launched a counter-attack that caused a near rout. German shells exploded everywhere, illuminating the nightmare scene with brief flashes of light. The diary of the German Third Army reported "concentrated artillery fire struck enemy masses streaming to the rear with annihilating effect."
By the afternoon of the 29th, gloom and confusion had spread across the entire American battle line. West of the Argonne Forest, the French Fourth Army had barely gained a foot, a mistake which made life all the more difficult for Americans in the woods.
The oncoming German infantry were stopped by counter-fire from the 35th's field artillery, among which Battery D of the 129th Regiment headed by Captain Harry S. Truman, performed with distinction. But on the following day, the shattered division was withdrawn and replaced by the 1st and 32nd Divisions. When the Division returned home it had sustained 7,913 casualties during the time it had been in France, with the majority occuring during the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. There were 1,530 deaths, 6,216 wounded and 167 captured as prisoners of war.
By the time the Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army. Many future US military leaders, such as George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, were veterans of the AEF. The AEF sustained about 320,000 casualties; 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 non-combat deaths and 204,000 wounded. This high AEF casualty count was sustained at a time when French casualties for 1918 are listed as 330,000, but with a much longer front line to hold. Prior to the AEF's arrival in France, French and British casualty rates had also been very high during the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in 1916. However, by the time the AEF entered the front lines in early 1918, improved combined-arms tactics had significantly reduced French and British casualty counts. The pneumonia/influenza pandemic during the fall of 1918 took the lives of more than 25,000 men from the AEF while another 360,000 became gravely ill. Other diseases were relatively well controlled through compulsory vaccination. Typhoid fever was also practically eliminated.
Henry's parents, William Thomas and Mary Catherine Collier, accepted the U.S. government's offer to have his remains repatriated to the United States. In 1921 (three years after his death), he was disinterred, likely from the nearby Chaudron Farm temporary war cemetery, and transported back to Missouri accompanied by an Italian soldier. Henry was buried with full military honors in the Collier family plot in Englewood Cemetery, Clinton, Missouri.
Inscription
HENRY L. COLLIER
BORN JULY 25, 1895
KILLED IN ACTION
SEPT. 28, 1918
M.G. CO. 140, INF.
35. DIV. A.E.F.
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