The final chapter in the war record of E.P. Dudley (pictured above with his “pal” Cecil) was written some forty years after the end of the war, following his retirement from the Santa Fe Railroad, as he prepared his personal memoirs for his three grandchildren. This final narrative has the benefit of his maturity, experience…
Friday, March 22, 1918 Went to Bar-le-Duc. Got up 5:15 a.m., got there at 9:30 a.m. Ordered uniform and got measured. Cost 260 francs. Horrid journey on slim gauge. Ate dinner Commerce Hotel 18 francs. Got back 9:00 p.m. German offensive started 5:00 a.m. against the British front. Heavy artillery action against Verdun but no attack yet. Gas came…
Thursday, January 3, 1918 Happiest day in my life. When I got up I found a letter on my bed telling me to report to the doctor for a physical examination for commission as a 2nd lieutenant. Took a bath, shaved and was examined by Dr. Clayton and Tope at 4:00 p.m. in their rooms. Passed…
EP Dudley’s visit to the front makes for grim reading. His matter of fact reporting of how German prisoners were treated is startlingly contrary to the Geneva Convention. The Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War wasn’t formally signed until 1929 and didn’t enter into force until 1931. It stipulates that captured prisoners…
War has been described as “interminable monotony punctuated by moments of sheer terror.” The boredom of late September and October 1917 is evident in these diary entries, where mail from home is the high point and nearly always the final mention of the day. Tuesday, September 25, 1917 No papers received or mail for two…
On September 11 the 13th Engineers moved to Fleury-sur-Aire, near Verdun, which was to be their headquarters for the next twenty months. Tuesday, September 11, 1917 Up 5:00 a.m. Moving today. Breakfast, packed up, left Châlons 11:00 a.m. over Eastern railway. Went south to St. Dizier, then headed north to Fleury. Arrived Fleury 9:00 p.m. Just on the…
The final call to all officers and men was issued on June 1, 1917, to report at the Municipal Pier in Chicago for active service, to begin basic training and to prepare for an early departure for Europe. Some of the men had arrived as early as May 25, and EP Dudley arrived about this…
On April 24, 1917, shortly after the US declared war on Germany, former French Prime Minister René Viviani arrived in the US as head of a commission to solicit US support for the war. He was accompanied by the famous Marshal of France, Joseph Joffre. The mission was initially met by Admiral Henry Mayo, commander-in-chief…
I’m getting ahead of my story. In fact we need to go back a few years. In 1887 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway began to build a 350-mile line connecting Chicago to Kansas City and on to the west coast. Railroad planners created towns along the new line at regular intervals so the…
In the late summer of 1914, the war engulfing Europe seemed a distant concern to most Americans. Yet for many recent immigrants — the Italians, Irish, and Slovenians who had arrived in great waves at the turn of the century to work Colorado’s mines and steel mills — the conflict struck close to home. Their…