Bert Spackman

"Bert was inducted September 19, 1917, in Logan, Utah. He became part of the newly formed (5 August 1917) 91st Division, sometimes called the ‘Wild West Division’ because all of the men were from western states. On September 5th, 1917, three machine gun battalions, the 346th, 347th, and 348th, were organized and Bert became part of the 347th machine gun battalion. The 91st trained vigorously for months at Camp Lewis, Washington, until June 22nd, 1918, when they loaded onto trains headed east across the U.S. They knew they were headed for France, and they were eager and excited to do so.

"On the morning of July 6, 1918, they sailed from the Brooklyn docks aboard a British freight ship, the Ulysses. On July 17th the battalion landed in Liverpool, England. There they boarded a train that took them across England to Southampton, where they rested for a couple of days before crossing the channel to France. Disembarking at Havre, France, the battalion marched to a British rest camp. After that they spent at least 4 days traveling, sometimes tightly loaded into train cars and sometimes marching, until they reached the French village where they were to be billeted, Vesaignes. The month of August was spent drilling, and frankly helping out/working around the village as all the able bodied French men were gone. Finally, on September 7, 1918, the 347th m.g. battalion began their final journey to the ‘front’.3 The men slugged thru mud for days carrying their heavy equipment. They could hear the guns and even see the enemy’s airplanes overhead. Finally on the morning of September 26, at 5:30 am, the battalion moved forward into the 1st phase of the Meuse-Argonne offensive.

"According to Wilkipedia, 'the Meuse-Argonne Offensive was fought from September 26, 1918, until the Armistice of November 11, 1918. The Allied objective was the capture of the railway hub at Sedan that would break the railway network supporting the German Army in France and Flanders.' The allied line stretched for 7 miles, and the 91st Division was assigned to fight right in the middle. Bert was killed on the 2nd day of the offensive, September 27th, 1918. He was 24 years old.

"After the war the Spackman family received a letter from one of Bert’s commanding officers. He told the family exactly what happened the day Bert died. He said Bert was laying on his stomach holding the ammo belt feeding the bullets into the machine gun, while his partner was holding and aiming the gun (on it’s tripod) at the enemy. His partner was hit, falling onto the gun. Bert raised up to lift his partner off the gun and lay him down, but as Bert raised himself up he was also shot. Both men were killed instantly. Both men were buried in France, but later, Bert's body was returned to the U.S. and buried alongside his parents in Richmond, Utah."1

Andrew Aitkin of Preston, Idaho writes:

"I found out today I was mistaken as to where Bert Spackman was shot. He [unknow] like he had been hit in the head, but upon being examined later it was found that he had been hit in the right side, and the bullet had gone on through the heart.

"He only gave a slight groan, said nothing and died in less than a minute."2

Bert is the only World War I veteran of Richmond who was killed in action, and not from disease. He is also the only World War I veteran killed in action to receive a Purple Heart.

1. Author Unknown. (2019) Bert in WWI, Uploaded to FamilySearch.org by HillDianaS1, May 26, 2019. https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/85706700?cid=mem_copy

2. (Date Unknown). Andrew Aitkin Tells of the Death of His Chum, Bert Spackman, of Utah. News Paper Co. Unknown. Uploaded to FamilySearch.org by AndersonDennisRay43, Dec 13, 2024. https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/212237849?cid=mem_copy

3. "Utah, World War I Army Servicemen Records Abstracts, 1914-1918", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:77V7-32ZM : Sat Mar 09 02:30:39 UTC 2024), Entry for Bert Spackman, 19 Sep 1917.