The End

Well the summer is over.

It has been fun to do a little history, but I have to fire Yankee Tirade back up because there is an election coming up in Massachusetts. For the first time in decades the people have a choice.

TTYL

April 19th 1775 and the Cavalry

It is a known fact that three towns mustered their militia cavalry troops on April 19th 1775. Ipswich, Groton and Sudbury were the communities, but where are the muster rolls to show who was in those troops?

The other question is during the siege of Boston, the Battle of Bunker Hill and the other operations associated with the summer of 1775 did any of these troops participate?

Count Pulaski’s Legion did recruit early on in Boston before moving to Baltimore, did any of the militiamen join this formation?

Connecticuts militia troop’s clearly were involved as well as the Philadelphia Troop, but for some reason the Massachusetts stuff was lost to the dust bin of history.

Paul Harkins

General Paul Harkins was the first commander of United States forces in Vietnam and was appointed by John F. Kennedy in 1962. He was chosen for his experience, having been on staff at Third Army as Pattons assistant chief of staff and on Maxwell Taylor’s staff during Korea.

Harkins grew up in the Jamaica Plain part of Boston and quit school at 14. He enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard’s 110th Cavalry Regiment at 17 and took the entrance exam for West Point. He was accepted and finnished in the middle of his 1929 graduating class.

He went on to serve in the 1st Cavalry Division when it was still a mounted unit and play polo for the command.

He was replaced by William Westmoreland in 1964 by LBJ.

Ted Kennedy U.S. Army

Well since Senator Edward Moore Kennedy passed away last night I will highlight him today.

He left Harvard in 1951 before graduating and enlisted in the Regular United States Army. He applied for intelligence school but was instead sent to military police training. Kennedy served in Paris from 1951-1953 at which point he re enrolled at Harvard.

Creighton Abrams

Another peice of New England military history is the third and final commander of United States forces in Vietnam, Creighton Abrams.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts and raised in Agawam he entered West Point in the 1930s and served as a horse cavalry officer in the First Cavalry Division while it was still a mounted unit.

He was considered the best armor officer of World War Two by George Patton and lead  his tank battalion as the spearhead of the relief of Bastgone during the Battle of the Bulge.

He was made Chief of Staff of the Army after Vietnam and was the only General that had to draw up plans to remove the President had Nixon actually been impeached and refused to leave office.

He died of cancer while leading the United States Army.

Weekend Stuff

Went and played 9 at Jato Highlands and won the foursome by two strokes, needed that bad.

The summer feels over here already.

Sherborn and Yankee Division

So the question comes up…was Sherborn involved with Yankee Division? Yes it was. Three men served in the 101st Engineers during the Great War. They were a Dowse, Clark and a Nelson.

All three served in the 101st Engineer Regiment in France. These men seemed to have enlisted as the war was in process. The 101st Engineers were the unit that would be broken up and handed out to other regiments to dig the famous trenches everyone thinks of about World War One.

There were several men who were drilling Guardsmen during World War Two that were Yankee Division prior to 1944-1945. There were MacAlpines and Gherngellis to name some.

The Divison during World War Two was used as a source for pilots and officer candidtes through out the Army. The Natick Armory was detached from Yankee Division and was sent to Italy. The Framingham Armoy was detached from YD and assigned to the Americal Division and fought in the Pacific.

Some men did end up in Yankee Division and one was in the 26th MP Company. The Divison fought in Europe and is mainly known for the Battle of the Bulge.

Thanks to Betsy Johnson and the Sherborn Historical Society for letting me view the photos and documents.

VaJoWa

Island Falls Golf Course is actually called VaJoWa, and I played again yesterday. I need more work if I am going to even play like I was earlier in the summer.

The summer is coming to an end here in Central Maine.

Bangor in the War of 1812

In 1814 the British under the cover of fog attacked the Town of Hampden, Maine, at that time Bangor was cosidered a suburb of that community.

The Maine Milita was easily defeated and took of into the woods. Several ships were scuttled and the British marched on Bangor and demanded an unconditional surrender which they received. The occupation lasted thirty hours and then the English took off.

The Dover Legion Post 209

The Dover, Massachusetts American Legion Post 209 was named after a town resident named George B. Preston who was killed in April 1918 in France. Preston enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard and was sent to the 102nd Infantry in Connecticut when the Yankee Division was formed up for training.

During the first major battle of the division Preston was killed by enemy fire at the Battle of Seichpery. The Germans used a rolling barrage and waved the 102nd Regiment and the attached 102nd Machine Gun Battalion. The fighting broke down to hand to hand and one of the 102nd regimental cooks had to kill two Germans with meat cleavers.

The battle was considerd a major propagnada victory for Germany, but the divison actually got all the land back the next day. Due to infighting between General Pershing and Yankee Division’s General Edwards, both had been rivals for the top position before the war, the division was reprimanded.

Yankee Division had the most gas casualties of any American unit of the Great War, many self inflicted, and was the basis of study for a 1957 report as to why the United States should never use chemical weapons again.

I am a member of Post 209, The Yankee Division Veterans Association and the United States Armor Association, but just like my Marine stuff I am not very active. I have been published in Yankee Doings , the YDVA quarterly magazine.