The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-03-21
HAYWARD, NOW
CITIZEN, SCORES
ARMY'S CHIEFS
Ignorance, After 4 Years
of War, Astonishing,
He Declares.
SOLDIERS NOT TRAINED
Men Had to Be Shown How
to Load Rifles on Field
of Battle.
TRIALSOF 18TH REGIMENT
=
SOLDIERS NOT TRAINED
TRIALSOF 18TH REGIMENT
Colonel Of Unit Gives Plain
Talk Before Circumnavi-
gators Club.


Citizen William Hayward. formerly
Col "Bill" Hayward OF the Fifteenth
Regiment, but now free Of the restric-
tions placed upon public utterances OF
army officers, asserted In plain Ian
guage last night that the heads Of the
American military establishment had
bungled their Job the first year the
United States was in the war The oc-
casion was the dinner held In his honor
by the Circumnavigators Club. Of
which he is a member. at the Commo-
dore.
THE ignorance of the whole Ameri-
can military establishment Of what
modern warfare actually meant, and
this after Europe had been torn by
war nearly four years, was astound-
ing" said Col. Hayward. Il do not
blame the National Guard, for the
members did everything expected of
them; or the Plattsburg men, for these
certainly made good. had read the
Sunday papers, and when i reached
France and looked around 1 decided
that knew from this source some
thing more about war than the aver
age American. We fell down and fell
DOWN damned badly the nrst year and
did not live up to promises made to
our allies.
my regiment was taken over and
left by Gen. Pershing on the doorstep
Of France. We were transferred to
French unit and In short time my
regiment was to all intents and purposes
French unit. We were reorSanized
by French officers, had French rifles,
French machine guns. French knapsacks
and French equipment. The only thing
about us that was American was our
expected pay and the tattered uniforms
and wornout shoes.
Our men, who had trained with
broomsticks on the streets OF Harlem
and had less than three weeks training
on a rifle range, knew nothing OF gas.
gas masks. hand grenades or the other
! implements used In modern warfare.
They were good. intelligent men, these
| first ones who went over. but the bank
ers or business men who had charge Of
affairs at home could not realize that
there is such thing as sectional esprit
| de corps.
No Omcer From Tbi. state.
"Of the 5000 negroes | later received
as requirements | got some from every
State IN the Union but New York. Al
though after three days OF fighting my
4 t.
! officers, did not get an officer from
| New York State In the same time, 500
. Of my original 1000 were ca sualties.
| Then the replscements came in. !
| had men killed under me on September
| rs WHO had been hoeing corn in Ala
| bama on August -. This was not my
experience alone, for after Chateau
/ Thierry met white officers who told me
/ that on tine skirm'sh line and under fire
they had TO show men how to put clip
OF cartridges into their rifles. That was
the training the regular army gave our
| boys Tor this war"
Col Hayward said that since his re-
/ turn he had been severely criticised in
some quarters for giving the German
| soldier credit for bravery. He reiterated
that the Germans we're not towards, but
said he did not know whether It was
! their iron discipline or their despera te
plis int which was responsible.
| "HciI, Heaven or Hobokcn."
Il don't know what they were like
before we got there, but when we had
| licked them we knew NC were licking
something" he sad. "Tf they were
towards. there would be no credit in
! licking thNm. and that was the kind OF
men our boys. with their brief training.
/ were up against. II was lust case of
| hell Heaven or Hoboken' on our part
against the long training OF the Ger
/ mans and any man who says they did
/ rot HTht says the Americans did not
have to fight 10 beat them"
Reclting his personal exploits as com
mander of the famous 'IIell Fighters
! Col. Hayward told with characteristic
modesty how he was ready to leave his
command on several occasions shortly
after its organization because some
people laughed at him. He said this
! fact decided him to so on and Charles
s. whitman, then Governor. who was
also guest last night, gave him sup
port and strengthened his determination
10 go on. He continued:
When l walked up Fifth avenue AT
the head of what believe to he the
! finest regiment ever moulded, did no,
know whether to laugh or cry We
found We were appreciated and had Jus.
'ified the trust reposed in us by a few
For the most part. we were whole and
that was n damned fine average in the
vicinity we came from hoped IN.
American people would not feel AFRO.
giant about winning the war. which We
did But for four years, the French
Belgians and British had beep winning
the war
"As nation we were only In for four
months while the others were In for -four
years. After one year I was we'll fed
up. and how the others kent I'D thej,
morale win always be mystery to me
But our march up Fifth avenue was the
end Of perfect day for my boys and
myself"
Newton d. Gilbert. president Of tbs
Circumna vigators Club. presided. Among
the guests were former Governor Whit,
man. Harry Houdini, c. r. Atchison
| N r. \ "