A Pilgrimage to World War I Country

Anna’s maternal grandfather, Grover Franklin Thomas, was a bit of a character.  She has fond memories of his visits – taking apart wind-up clocks and trying to put them back together, learning how to play poker and checkers (he never “let her win” but was careful to explain afterwards what she should have done), and sitting on his lap while he moved the dark bits of shrapnel embedded under the skin on his forearms for her amusement.  He was a proud veteran of World War I; it had obviously been an incredibly important time in his life.  But, whenever Anna asked him what he did during the war, he would smile and tell her he was “just a cook.”    In truth he was a cook – after the war the US army set up kitchens in Belgium to feed the starving people there.  But, that was after the war.

The biggest clue to what Grover did do during the war was his Purple Heart.  The Purple Heart is a United States military decoration awarded to those wounded or killed while serving with the US military on or after April 5, 1917.  Long after his death, we sought information on her grandfather’s Purple Heart.  His award documentation told how Grover served as an infantryman, was wounded (gunshot wound), what unit he was in, when he was wounded, and in which offensive.  That information opened doors to an amazing wealth of data since David was able to do more research on Grover’s regiment online.  What he found was a book entitled With the 364^th Infantry in America, France, and Belgium, a day-to-day record of this unit that was kept by its Chaplain and Regimental Intelligence Officer.  Truly a gold mine!

Purple Heart Award

This book is really a fascinating story about the 364^th from its beginnings on the west coast of the US to its “Welcome Home Parade” in Los Angeles on April 12, 1919.  It not only chronicles all their activities and battles but also lists all the members of the unit, their ranks and home towns, who was wounded, who had died, and who had received decorations (including 1 Congressional Medal of Honor and numerous Distinguished Service Crosses, French Croix de Guerre, and Belgian Croix de Guerre).  Through the authors one gets a sense of the pain and frustrations of war but also surprisingly humorous happenings such as lice races, unfailingly pleasant encounters with the civilian population, finding and “liberating” an abandoned German canteen that was well-stocked with beer and cigarettes, etc. One story has to do with Grover's unit not getting enough food at one point at the Front so Grover's Company 'B' stole the bran from the mules to make breakfast cereal.  The mules were quite unhappy and made all kinds of noise because they were hungry. 

Armed with this book, a variety of maps, local signage, and information from people we met in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive area, David was able locate the actual places where Grover and his fellow-soldiers camped,were shelled, came under machine gun fire and diphosgene gas, where they were entrenched, and areas and hills they attacked.  We actually walked and stood in many of those places; it was an incredible experience. 

The following postings are a brief account of our journey to the Champagne area of France and, more importantly, our attempt to trace Grover’s footsteps during WWI.