Private Papers of Captain T F Grady

Highly detailed ms diary (143pp) kept during his service in B Company, 305th Machine Gun Battalion (77th Division), American Expeditionary Force, while on the Western Front (March 1918 - May 1919), in which he records the journey to France (March - April 1918), his stay in a New Zealand Field Hospital near St Omer while suffering from blood poisoning and tonsillitis (May 1918), the march to Pommeuse, near Paris, and the sight of the numerous American graves that cover the area (August 1918), his first stay in the front lines during which rations ran out and the Division incurred numerous physical and mental casualties, including one man who had to be bound with belts during an German attack (August 1918), vivid details about going to the front lines in relief of another company, coming under heavy fire and the resulting mental breakdowns incurred by men unaccustomed to warfare (September 1918), the arrival of the 90th Division of black soldiers in France (September 1918), the march to Grandpre during which one man shot himself to avoid further exhausting work without food (October 1918), the sounds of wounded soldiers left on the battlefield and the numerous shell-shock victims left in the trenches after a heavy battle (October 1918), his reactions to the Armistice, which was declared five minutes after 12 men were killed by a final German shell (November 1918), his time spent at an NCO training school (December 1918 - March 1919), the journey back to the United States (April - May 1919), an extensive description of the docking in New York and homecoming celebrations and concluding with his own return to Boston, Massachusetts (May 1919). Also included are 2 printed booklets (26pp and 23pp) entitled Army Talks (Vol. II, No's 36 & 39, 1944), published for American servicemen in the European Theatre of Operations, another booklet entitled Combat Tips (56pp) published for the Fifth Army Infantry Replacements (1945) and a photograph of Grady in uniform taken during the First World War.

Highly detailed ms diary (143pp) kept during his service in B Company, 305th Machine Gun Battalion (77th Division), American Expeditionary Force, while on the Western Front (March 1918 - May 1919), in which he records the journey to France (March - April 1918), his stay in a New Zealand Field Hospital near St Omer while suffering from blood poisoning and tonsillitis (May 1918), the march to Pommeuse, near Paris, and the sight of the numerous American graves that cover the area (August 1918), his first stay in the front lines during which rations ran out and the Division incurred numerous physical and mental casualties, including one man who had to be bound with belts during an German attack (August 1918), vivid details about going to the front lines in relief of another company, coming under heavy fire and the resulting mental breakdowns incurred by men unaccustomed to warfare (September 1918), the arrival of the 90th Division of black soldiers in France (September 1918), the march to Grandpre during which one man shot himself to avoid further exhausting work without food (October 1918), the sounds of wounded soldiers left on the battlefield and the numerous shell-shock victims left in the trenches after a heavy battle (October 1918), his reactions to the Armistice, which was declared five minutes after 12 men were killed by a final German shell (November 1918), his time spent at an NCO training school (December 1918 - March 1919), the journey back to the United States (April - May 1919), an extensive description of the docking in New York and homecoming celebrations and concluding with his own return to Boston, Massachusetts (May 1919). Also included are 2 printed booklets (26pp and 23pp) entitled Army Talks (Vol. II, No's 36 & 39, 1944), published for American servicemen in the European Theatre of Operations, another booklet entitled Combat Tips (56pp) published for the Fifth Army Infantry Replacements (1945) and a photograph of Grady in uniform taken during the First World War.

Cataloguer BEK

Catalogue date 2006-06-29