Oral History Interview with John Haddock

Interview

INTERVIEWER: I'm at the home of John J. Haddock on Monona Drive, Madison, Wisconsin. Today is Wednesday, August 13th, 1986. Mr. Haddock is a veteran of WWI, and we'll be discussing his experiences in that war today. Can you tell me some information about your family as to where you were born, what town you were from, growing up, and educational attainments?

HADDOCK: I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the year 1900, September the 14th. My parents were both immigrants from England back in the 1880s sometime. I went to a boarding school called the Wauwatosa Boarding School at that time. I 00:01:00got as far as the eighth grade. One of the difficulties there was a teacher who I didn't get along with because she used a pretty strong arm with a wooden pointer she had. I wasn't the type of lad to take punishment like that, so I had difficulty in that grade. That was the eighth grade, and I learned very little under her. Finally it got so bad that she'd send me to the principal's office every day almost. Finally he told me, "Son," he says, "You might as well go home. You're not learning anything in school, and you're getting the students riled up. [inaudible] now fighting and so forth. You might as well go home and 00:02:00tell your father that I said he ought to put you to work somewhere in a job." Which I did. Then my father said, "Well then, if you won't go to school, go to work. Go find a job."

INTERVIEWER: What did your father do?

HADDOCK: He was a locomotive engineer for the Milwaukee Railroad. I went down at a firm called McGreider, Frishke, and Frey [??]. I was fourteen years old and hired out as a machine operator. I did that for quite a while. I went from there to a call boy on the railroad. Then my father died. The superintendent of the locomotive shop called me down to his office and said that my father had told 00:03:00him--he was dying then--that he should look out for me and see that I learned a trade of some kind. I had two brothers. One was five years older than I was, William. Ernest was fifteen years older than I was. Both of them passed away now--both of them young. William died at the age of fifty-one, and Ernie died at sixty-eight.

INTERVIEWER: When you worked in the railroad shop you mentioned that you were a call boy. What is that?

HADDOCK: Calling crews for the locomotives. On the freight trains, they're not a regular scheduled train. They call 'em whenever they get enough cars to make up 00:04:00a train. Then they call the crew. I called the engineers and the firemen. They had a different caller for the train crews. I did that for quite a while. I think that was the last job I held, yes. No, then he--oh, superintendent called me down there, and then he told me what my father had told him to do. He says, "What kind of a trade do you want to learn, John? You can take your pick of any trade--electrician, machinist." Well, my brother was a machinist so I picked the machines to my sorrow--never did like it. Quit it as soon as I got the opportunity. In the meantime I went into the Army. [inaudible]

INTERVIEWER: When you say the Army, this is what year approximately are we 00:05:00talking now?

HADDOCK: This is June 7th, 1917.

INTERVIEWER: When you say you went into the Army, did you not have some experience in the National Guard prior to being in the Army?

HADDOCK: Well, this is what I call the Army.

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Can you explain [inaudible] what was the [inaudible] for getting into the National Guard?

HADDOCK: Quite a story [laughs].

INTERVIEWER: [inaudible].

HADDOCK: Those days [??]--a National Guard Armory at 27th and Vliet in Milwaukee, and I knew about it. The war had been declared, and everybody had the war spirit. I got the war spirit, and I wanted to be a hero [laughs]. I was only sixteen years old at the time. I went up to the recruiting man on recruiting duty in front of the door outside on the street. I asked him, "How old do you have to be to enlist in the National Guard?" "Gee," he says, "I don't know." 00:06:00Here's the man on recruiting duty that don't even know that. He said, "I think it's seventeen. How old are you?" I says, "Seventeen." So, "Well, come on up and see the lieutenant." He took me upstairs to the lieutenant. "Here's a lad wants to enlist," he says. The lieutenant looked at me and he said, "How old are you, lad?" I says, "Seventeen." "Oh," he says, "You're too young." He said, "You have to be eighteen. Come back in a week." So I came back in a week, and he says, "Weren't you in here last week?" I says, "Yes." He says, "How old are you?" I says, "Eighteen." "Swear him in, Sergeant." So that's how I became a member of the 5th Wisconsin Infantry, Company F of the 5th Wisconsin Infantry.

INTERVIEWER: When you mention the war spirit, can you just describe a little bit about it? Were people familiar with what was going on in Europe prior to our 00:07:00[inaudible] in the war, or how did this all arise? Just in your own experience.

HADDOCK: Well, I really couldn't say much about that. I was pretty young. I do know that they were holding patriotic rallies and things like that. Flag raisings they had. Mothers would put a flag in their window--wait a minute--silver star, I'm not certain it was--I'm thinking it was a silver star, and if their son was killed in action they put up a gold star.

INTERVIEWER: When America entered the war [inaudible]

HADDOCK: Oh, everybody had the war spirit, yes. Everybody was all enthused about the war. Newspapers were full of it, and war [inaudible]. So I got the war 00:08:00spirit, and I joined up. I drilled a couple times in the Army; once a week I think we drilled. Didn't know much about soldiering, but they did drill a couple times and taught me my right foot from left foot and so forth. Then we were called into service and went to Camp Douglas, Wisconsin.

INTERVIEWER: The National Guard I assume was federalized.

HADDOCK: Not yet.

INTERVIEWER: Not yet. Okay. It was still called the National Guard?

HADDOCK: Yes--well now, I'm not sure about that. Maybe we were federalizing. But anyhow, we went to Camp Douglas, and there we spent I would say a couple of months, yeah, month and a half, anyhow. What I remember most about Camp Douglas was the beautiful cliffs around, I mean with the trees on top of them. Our parade ground was a field down on the level. The thing that stands out most in 00:09:00my mind about Camp Douglas was we were all in tents--each company of the regiment, I was in Company F--I think they ran from A Company to L. I think the L Company was from Janesville. I think that was the highest. Laying in our tents at night they used to blow "Taps"--10:30 I think it was. The first call meant "Go to Bed." That was at 10:00 o'clock I think. Then "Taps" was called for the last call, and everybody had to be off the street and everything then. What I remember most was laying in my tent and listening to the bugle calls of the 124th Field Artillery--which was about three-quarters of a mile across the field 00:10:00from us--hearing that bugler blow "Taps". Beautiful call. "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep", that bugle call would call. Then the 107th Engineer bugler would blow, and then the 119th Field Artillery bugler would blow his "Taps". One fade [??] out through the other. Then it would start and come to the infantry, and our regimental bugler would blow, and the next regimental bugler would blow, and so forth. It was the most beautiful thing I ever heard in my life. Stands out clearly in my memory.

INTERVIEWER: Can you describe the average period of work and training you experienced in the [inaudible]?

HADDOCK: Well, we were raw recruits, all rookies. We were getting the basics. 00:11:00Right shoulder rounds, left shoulder rounds, at ease, and so forth--the different commands. Taught how to obey them and so forth. That was principally what we did at Camp Douglas. Well, they'd take us out on the field and teach us the various maneuvers out there also.

INTERVIEWER: What kind of maneuvers are you talking about?

HADDOCK: Squad formations where the captain would call--I don't recall the command anymore. I don't remember how many squads there was in a company, but quite a few--dozen maybe. He'd give a command, and that full company would break up into a right turn--each squad in a right turn--and go off on different angles and so forth. Principally it was learning the manual of arms, discipline, and 00:12:00things like that.

INTERVIEWER: Did you ever practice with more than a company size?

HADDOCK: Not up there, no. Down in Texas we did: Camp MacArthur.

INTERVIEWER: So you went to the squad-sized drills, you learned the manual of arms, pretty much disciplinary type of--

HADDOCK: That's what it was mostly.

INTERVIEWER: Then a month and a half later what happened?

HADDOCK: Then we entrained for Camp MacArthur, Waco, Texas. The trip was uneventful going down as I recall. Then we went out on the drill field. The camp was laid out with a mess hall--that's where we ate, we called them mess halls--a wooden mess hall with benches inside which was a luxury for us then. 00:13:00The company streets were laid out in streets. We were put in tents--had wood stoves in 'em fired by wood, stovewood, fired by wood which we had to put in ourselves. This was getting late; now I'm speaking of the fall. We went out on the drill field to drill, and it had never been used as anything, and it was a cotton field. I can still remember all the cotton bolls were still on the cotton, hadn't been picked. We trampled all those beautiful plants down with our feet when we started drilling. We went there in sometime in July, the middle of 00:14:00July, I would say and we stayed there until January of the following year. Intense training before going overseas. They sure did train us; we were hard as nails when we left there. The first call was 5:30 in the morning; 5:15 in the morning was first call, fall in for reveille at 5:30 in full uniform--guns on our shoulder, ammunition belts on, and our packs on our back and so forth. Then they'd blow reveille, the bugler. That brings to mind a little story about that. This is a cute story. [laughs] I have to laugh when I think of it. We were so tired out from drilling every day, and I don't know, probably nine hours I would 00:15:00say, that we used to lay and take five minutes to get dressed, lay till the last minute. Then hurry up and get dressed. Then some bright soldier got the idea to put on our long overcoats. We had overcoats--even in the summertime--that reached to our ankle boots. Don't put on your clothes or anything or your uniform; just jump out of bed at the last second and jump in and put that big long overcoat on. Put your rifle belt on that, and come out and stand reveille with your rifle on your shoulder. Well, that was swell. Even the sergeants started doing it. Everybody was in love with it. Give you another five minutes to sleep, laying there anyhow. Somebody tipped the captain off to it. So one 00:16:00morning he stood up in front of the company at reveille, and he says, "Well, men, I understand you have a new dress format." He said, "All you men please remove your overcoats and fold them up neatly and lay them in front of you on the ground." So [laughs] here was the entire company in underwear [laughs]. Long underwear--we wore long underwear winter and summer. He says, "Well, what do we have here? All right, Sergeant," he says to the first sergeant. "You take these men for a little stroll up and down every company street in the regiment," he says, "Let them show off their beautiful underwear for the rest of the regiment." [laughs] So we paraded up one street and down the other and how they did catcalls and what have you and give us the raspberry as we walked [laughs] in our underwear. So that cured it; none of that went on after that.

INTERVIEWER: When your company went down to Texas, did you then start to operate as a larger unit with more companies? [inaudible] you were in Company F of the 1st Infantry.

HADDOCK: Yup.

INTERVIEWER: When did they start calling it--

HADDOCK: 32nd Division? Sometime in that period: I think the minute we arrived or just before we left Camp Douglas we were put into federal service. Then we became the 127th Infantry.

INTERVIEWER: I see.

HADDOCK: Not the 5th Wisconsin any more.127th Infantry of the 32nd Division. That's what it was, 32nd Division. By the way, I'm going to the 32nd Division convention in Janesville this time end of the month.

INTERVIEWER: You were talking about the training.

HADDOCK: We used to go out on the field there, and, oh, we had such a rigid training out there. They'd get athletic push-ups in the morning first thing we got out there. All kinds of push-ups, bends, and what have you and running. They'd run us around till our tongues were [??] hanging out. It was a really, really good program. We got hard as nails from it. Then we would come in for breakfast and go down to the mess hall. They gave us a pretty good breakfast as I recall: sometimes it would be ham and eggs, sometimes bacon and eggs, and so forth and some kind of a bran or something like that, cereal of some kind, and plenty of coffee--that black Army coffee. It could stand up in the cup by itself. So then we would go out to drill after breakfast. Then we'd go back to 00:19:00our tents and we'd have a clean up [inaudible]. We'd clean up all our equipment, everything and then we'd have an inspection. We had to take all of our stuff out into the company street. The captain and the lieutenants would come along and inspect our rifles for dirt and all that and inspect our equipment to see that it was clean. Oh yes, I should tell you about the washup. We had in front of our tent we had a little raised platform: little table-like made of wood. On there was a bucket of water and a wash basin and a large bucket on the floor 00:20:00where you'd wash there: pour some water in the wash basin--everybody used the same wash basin by the way. You'd wash with soap and water on your face and then you had a towel and clean up that way. Pour the water on to that bucket down there. Then it was up to some member of the squad to empty that bucket. The corporal would designate somebody for that job; usually somebody that was in trouble got that job. Then we'd go down and eat. Then after eating we'd come back, he said, "Police up." That's what it was called: police up your place. Then we'd go out on the drill field. Probably about 8:30 I would say when we were headed for the drill crew and stayed out there till noon. We went through all kinds of formations, company formations. They started to teach us the war 00:21:00maneuvers: bayonet practice and things like that.

INTERVIEWER: Rifle practice?

HADDOCK: We went to the rifle range--I don't know how often. That was, oh, probably a mile from where we were. We'd march over there, and then they'd put us on the rifle range. They had men in a sort of a trench and the trench in front of it so they wouldn't get hit with the bullets. They used to put up a marker where your bullet would hit that great big bulls-eye they had up there. On a pole they had some kind of a cardboard marker they'd hold up where the bullets were. That was fine for us. But when the officers took rifle practice, 00:22:00some of them couldn't even hit the target [laughs]. Us privates got even with them: they'd give 'em all bad marks [laughs] on their shooting, on their marksmanship.

INTERVIEWER: How much marksmanship training was there?

HADDOCK: Oh, all the time we down there I think they'd take us over every once in a while to the rifle range. They'd have what they called disappearing targets, too. A target would pop up out in the field somewhere, and you had to find it and fire at it and shoot it. Some of it was long distance firing. We used to have a scope I'd guess you'd call it on the rifle to designate how far you were shooting and so forth and help you with your sight.

INTERVIEWER: Were the rifles [inaudible]? That's the old 03 Springfield, isn't it?