52 Ancestors-Week 44: Scary Stuff – Building the Bridge Over the Vesle (France)

This is my third year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow. I will write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or at My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.

I have written previously several blog posts about my paternal grandmother’s brother, John Cyril “Jack” Sullivan’s service during WWI.

• A veteran’s Service and Gravesite
• Finding Uncle Jack’s WWI Unit & Service No.
• John Cyril “Jack” Sullivan
• The Day U.S. Declared War on Germany and Entered WWI
• Veteran’s Day – John Cyril Sullivan, Veteran of WWI

Today’s topic is scary stuff, and I don’t know what would have been scarier than trying to build a bridge over a river with the German army not far on the other side sending bullets and artillery over your head.

Jack was in Company E, a part of the six companies in 4^th Engineers of the 4^th Division.  

A book was written by members of the 4^th Engineers about their adventures during the war, from the time they enlisted in Vancouver, Washington, through their training at Camp Greene, North Carolina, their voyage on the Atlantic, and their journey across France to the Rhine in Germany. It is unclear who actually wrote the stories, but the illustrators are noted by name. The book was printed on a German printing press by the Westdeutsche Grossdruckerei G.M.B.H. in Wald once the U.S. Army was in Germany.[1]

The men of the regiment are listed in the back with their addresses and there also a list of casualties. However, it was rare that an individual was mentioned by name in the prose. Only occasionally were companies mentioned specifically.

So, to start this part of the story, after the 4^th Engineers arrived on 18 July 1918 at the Gironade River, they marched across France. Their job was two-fold: remove impediments, such as coiled barbed wire, that the Germans left to impede movement, and to rebuild roads, railroads, and bridges destroyed during the war. They did this often as battle was engaging. They had to build bridges strong enough so the artillery and infantry could cross safely without having to wade through the rivers.

". . . German had stretched a good deal of barbed wire in the river bed, as well as entanglements on both sides, and had placed many machine guns under cover of the trees . . . "[2]

They reached the Vesle River, about thirty-five to forty feet wide and four or five feet deep. They were high above the river on a bluff but there were few trees. On the other side, it was forested.

"Company E was the first to meet the fury of [the German’s] fire. They were resting in the woods, eating chow, when a storm of shells fell among them. Captain K.B. Sleppy was instantly killed by a shell that burst at his feet, and six men were wounded, two of them dying in the hospital."[3]

They learned on the 4^th of August they would have to bridge the river. Company E began the surveying party but found the Germans could have driven across the river before any bridge could be put up. The next night another attempt was made. They used timbers cut by Company F that were loaded in trucks. In the dark of the night with drizzling rain (which hid the starlight and made it impossible “to see the hand in front of your face” they drove the loaded trucks over severely damaged roads from shell fire and excess water that made swampy mud. The Germans shot up flares in the sky and send noxious fumes of mustard gas, but the Engineers kept on.

Once they were in position, however, the Germans did not let up with a barrage of shelling. Many soldiers were holing out in foxholes waiting to cross the river and there was no place for the Engineers to go.

"Shell after shell exploded amidst the imitation ground-hogs, and the holes went deeper and deeper. And finally, after they had said their prayers and made their wills for the fiftieth time, word came down that a bomb-proof cave was found."[4]

On the sixth, doughboys started for the river along with the Engineers, single file with ten paces between them. Each carried a pick, shovel, axe, or saw, and his gun, ammunition, gas mask, tin hat, and spare rations. They were to have cover, but no smoke screen arrived and German fire sounded all around them.

At the water’s edge, they started laying the logs across the river while the doughboys laying in tall grass tried to silence the machine guns with their rifles. At the silence of the German fire, the infantry began crossing the river, some crossing on the fallen trees, some by wading.

The Germans then began sending all types of fire, but the Engineers lay down four bridges as they were protected by their patrols. It was not without casualties. 

"No body liked to stand up and swing an axe or work a saw while bullets were splintering the tree on which he was working, or cut the grass at his feet. But before dusk a series of crude bridges were made, mot much for looks, but offering a passage way that was better than swimming the river."[5]

The men worked even shoulder-deep in water. Gas shells rained in but working in gas masks was impossible. Jack’s company crossed the river to give protection in case of a counterattack. Finally, the trucks started over the bridge even with continued attacks from the Germans.

Bridging the Vesle by Knudsen

At one point, the narrative said about the Vesle:

"Of all the tough jobs we had, that on the Vesle River was the worst. To get to the river it was necessary to cross an open field, under direct observation, and rake by artillery and machine gun fire. German guns in the woods across the river fired at point blank range, so the shells often ‘skipped’ along the surface of the ground before exploding. The ground we crossed was so wet and swampy that the shells coming from a high angle buried deeply before exploding, and did little damage. A good many engineers owe their lives to the swampy ground and the poor shooting of the German machine gunners."[6]

To The Vesle, by Knudsen

Soldiers on the ground have no idea of the big picture that the small advance makes. Pushing the Germans back at this river was big. It was felt it halted the major threat against Paris and freed the railroads for the American’s use.[7]

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[1] U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 4^th Regiment, Columbia to the Rhine: Being a Brief History of the Fourth Engineers, and Their Trip from the Columbia River, in the State of Washington, U.S.A. to the Rhine River in Germany. A copy can be purchased from Amazon or viewed at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/columbiatorhineb00unitrich.

[2] Ibid, p. 95.

[3] Ibid, p. 95.

[4] Ibid, p. 100.

[5] Ibid, p. 106.

[6] Ibid, p. 110.

[7] American Armies and Battlefields in Europe: A History, Guide, and Reference Book, (American Battle Monuments Commission, 1938), Chapter 2, “American Operations in the Aisne-Marne Region,” p. 41.

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