Doughboys Train with the British (JUL 1918)
In May 1918, the New York National Guard’s 27th Division arrived in France as part of an agreement between the American and British armies. Landing at Brest and St. Nazaire, the division immediately moved to an area in northern France near Abbeville to begin a training program under British supervision. Maj. Gen. John F. O’Ryan, the division’s popular and able commander, oversaw this training. Throughout June 1918, the doughboys of Col. Willard C. Fisk’s 107th Infantry worked with the British Tommies of Maj. Gen. Herbert Watts’ 66th Division. By early July, the division relocated northward to the Flanders staging area, specifically sectors behind the dangerous Ypres salient, where they would serve as a critical reserve for the British Second Army.
Within this framework, the 107th Infantry’s newly organized regimental and battalion intelligence sections received specialized training that would prove invaluable in the months ahead. The sections trained at British Army Schools of Scouting, Observation, and Sniping, a rigorous, multi-week course that prepared infantrymen to be reconnaissance specialists.
The British training covered three interconnected disciplines. In scouting courses, soldiers mastered the “leopard crawl” to cross No Man’s Land undetected and learned camouflage techniques to destroy their silhouettes against devastated landscapes. Night training emphasized navigating by precise compass bearings and laying down white guiding tape to mark assault routes for dawn attacks. Observation classes treated surveillance as a science, teaching personnel to use compasses, trench periscopes, and high-powered binoculars to systematically record enemy movements and shell trajectories. Sniping instruction required soldiers to transition to telescopic-sighted rifles, targeting high-value enemy personnel while using papier-mâché dummy heads on sticks to draw and map counter-sniper fire.
During this period, capable officers guided their sections through their baptism of fire. Colonel Fisk’s S-2, 1st Lt. Eugene L. Mullaney, commanded the regimental section. The 1st Battalion’s section was led by 1st Lt. Ford Terry and later 2nd Lt. Oscar Hellquist. Meanwhile, 1st Lt. Earle D. Grimm led 2d Battalion’s section, and Lt. Richard Raven led 3rd Battalion’s section.
During July 1918, these intelligence units transitioned from classroom instruction to dangerous field operations along the reserve trenches of the East Poperinghe Line. Operating under direct observation from German forces positioned on Mont Kemmel, each section performed distinct tactical roles. The regimental section established an administrative base to the rear and manned an observation post. The observers excelled at “compiling regular battle maps” from aerial photography, quickly earning recognition as “the premier section of the division in this particular line.”
The battalion sections faced more hazardous assignments. On July 17, twelve scouts from Terry’s section deployed forward of the support trench lines for a ten-day continuous watch. This mission provided them with their “first taste of shell fire and first whiffs of chloropicrin and mustard gas.” Grimm’s 2nd Battalion section operated a forward training post, using specialized miniature terrain models “with contour lines indicated at vertical intervals of two inches” to study topographic features safely. Meanwhile, select personnel from Raven’s section embedded with frontline British troops on July 10 before establishing permanent observation posts along the support trench line later in the month. Despite the constant “shower of shells from Jerry,” 3rd Battalion’s scouts recorded aircraft and shell data with remarkable precision.
This training period forged strong bonds among the intelligence personnel. From it, one account noted, “sprang many inter-company friendships which still endure.” Through a combination of academic instruction and dangerous live-fire reconnaissance, the 107th Infantry’s intelligence sections secured the technical and tactical foundation necessary to navigate the brutal battles that lay ahead on the Western Front.
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Article by Michael E. Bigelow, INSCOM Command Historian. New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
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