With the 100th anniversary of the US entrance into WW1 I have been re-reading a few books that are personal accounts of American participants. Two that I have enjoyed are “Make the Kaiser Dance”, by Henry Berry and “Doughboy War” edited by James Hallis. In the latter, there were a number of references to the book, “I Remember the Last War” by Bob Hoffman. Hoffman was a Sergeant in Co. A, 111th Inf Reg., 28th Division. For those of you who might have lifted weights many years ago, Bob Hoffman was better known as the US Olympic weight lifting coach, York Barbell founder and publisher of “Strength and Health” and “Muscular Development” magazines.
When Hoffman’s unit went to France in 1918 they were trained in a British camp. “We were equipped at this camp with British rifles which were somewhat different from the Springfields we had in the beginning of the war and the Enfields we used later”.
The last portion of his book describes his experiences in Fismette, France. They were short of food, water and ammunition. “…had to be careful of their ammunition for one never knew when we would get any more. The hand grenades and German ammunition we had found were brought up to the lines. It would fit our guns [!]. Later he continues “Fortunately, we could use their ammunition, and the potato-masher grenades were of considerable use to us.”
It would be interesting to know if Co. A, 111th Inf was using the M1903 or the M1917, or both, and if they really did fire the 8 mm German rifle round in their rifles due to shortage of .30-06 ammo. Having looked at the listings of failed, “low number” M1903 receivers, at least 4 in the 1920’s (according to Hatcher) were caused by using an 8mm round.
I wonder how many other Doughboys thought that the German 8mm round could be used in a .30-06 rifle? If they did, were they lucky or WIA or KIA?
Thought this might be of interest to “low number” ’03 collectors and WW1 history buffs. Hoffman’s book is a very interesting read. I paid $50 for an original 1940 copy a few years ago. It is now available from Amazon on Kindle and reprint. I wish he had included his experiences in the Argonne.