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WW1 Purple Heart to a Doughboy Who Almost Wore the Kaiser's Gray


Geoff
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American WW1 veteran John Giese was born Johannes Giese on April 10, 1895, in Leipzig, Germany. Johannes’ mother was named Anna, but the father’s name is currently unknown.

 

Anna and her son immigrated to the United States in 1914 just shortly before the Great War broke out in Europe. (In 1915 Anna is listed as a widow living in a boarding house, so it may be that her husband died and prompted her and son Johannes to seek a new life in America.) Whatever the reason, if Anna and Johannes had delayed their trip by even a few months Johannes/John Giese might well have found himself serving in the Kaiser’s army during World War One.

 

It appears that Anna Giese had friends or relatives in North Dakota, because she and son John (now using the English variation of his name) quickly made their way to Buelah, North Dakota. John found work there as a farm hand on a farm owned by the Kusk family.

 

In 1917 John Giese dutifully registered for the newly-established draft after the United States entered the war though he and other German and Austrian immigrants were considered “enemy aliens” by the American government. His draft number came up in May 1918, and despite his enemy alien status Giese reported for duty and was sworn into United States military service on June 4, 1918.

 

 

 

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He was sent to Camp Grant at Rockford, Illinois, where he trained with the 161st Depot Brigade. In August he was assigned to Company M, 341st Regiment, 86th Division, as it prepared to move from Camp Grant to the east coast for transport to France. On August 18, 1918 Giese became a naturalized American citizen, and on September 8 he and elements of the 86th Division boarded the SS Elpenor at Hoboken, NJ, bound for France and the war.

 

Attached: Army Transport passenger manifest listing John Giese boarding the SS Elpenor. The clerk who typed this got his stepfather's home town and state wrong. John's mother had remarried by this time, but still lived in Buelah, ND. Evidently the clerk, who had just typed "Wisconsin" on the previous two entries, did the same on John's listing although this is clearly an error.

 

Also attached: A photo of the SS Elpenor, a British registered ship, in August 1918 just prior to embarking John Giese's unit.

 

 

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After arrival in France the 86th Division served as a depot or replacement division, parceling out its personnel to other units who were combat-ready but understrength. On or about October 7 Private John Giese reported for duty with Company L, 310th Infantry Regiment, 78th Division, as it prepared for combat in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The division moved up and relieved the bloodied and battered 77th Division (including the famed “Lost Battalion” whose survivors had just returned to American lines) on the front line. The 78th division’s immediate goal was seize a heavily wooded series of ridges and ravines near St. Juvin and Grandpre.

 

The attack kicked off on the morning of October 16 and soon bogged down under withering enemy fire. The attack was stopped almost before it started and the division went nowhere while suffering heavy casualties on itsr first day in combat. This was also John Giese’s baptism of fire. The attack resumed on the morning of the 17th with the 310th Regiment leading the advance of the entire division. The 310th advanced under heavy fire about 100 yards into a dense woods called the Bois des Loges. It was here on John Giese’s second day of combat that he was wounded and gassed by his former countrymen.

 

John was evacuated and eventually wound up in the Army’s Base Hospital #216 in Nantes. He was still there in April, 1919 when he was selected for return to the United States. He was transferred to an Army Medical Corps collection center in Bordeaux, where he was assigned to Convalescent Detachment #302 – a unit of 150 wounded and sick soldiers. They boarded the USS Siboney on April 18, 1919, and arrived in New York Harbor on April 27. Giese was sent on to Camp Dodge, Iowa, where he was discharged from the Army on May 10, 1919.

 

Attached: Embarkation document dated April 18, 1919 at Bordeaux, France, listing John Giese with Convalescent Detachment #302. Also attached, a photo of USS Siboney in August, 1919.

 

 

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Giese returned to Buelah, ND, where he resumed working on a farm. In 1921 he married a local 16 yr old girl named Ida Katharine Diede, the daughter of another German immigrant family. They soon had a son named John Jr. who would serve in the US Navy during WW2.By 1930 Giese had given up farming and moved into Bismark, ND, where he worked as a cook in a downtown establishment and Ida worked as a maid in a hotel.

 

The Depression was hard on the Giese family. John and Ida divorced sometime in the 1930s, and Ida was remarried by 1940 while John lived alone in a rented room in downtown Bismark. John declined in health but he continued to work various jobs until his death on May 18, 1947 at the age of 52. He was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Bismark, ND and has a military marker that commemorates his WW1 service and Purple Heart award.

 

Attached: A photo of John Giese's grave marker, from Find A Grave.com. Also attached: a close-up of John's name engraved on the rear of the Purple Heart medal.

 

His Purple Heart is numbered #42674 on the rim

 

 

 

 

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Thanks, Sarge8! I also found this on Ancestry.com. On the reverse side of the card it lists his Purple Heart award. The information attached to John Giese's service record as seen in North Dakota's book Soldiers and Sailors of the Great War is incorrect. It lists John Giese as serving with the 370th Infantry in France. That incorrect information was also put on his headstone application card, but someone who knew John's actual war service scratched out the wrong data and penciled in the 310th Infantry - his real unit. (Probably his son gave that info). It goes to show that even official records can be wrong, and it pays to keep checking!

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Here is the front and back of John Giese's headstone request card, shown larger so you can see the penciled correction and the Purple Heart notation on the rear of the card.

Also of note - his place of birth is listed as "Russia", but he was born in Leipzig, Germany, which was at the time part of greater "Prussia".

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Outstanding research! Amazing what can be found via the Internet. Pvt. Giese's history & service will forever be attached to his medal. So many of these medals are resting anonymously. Rest in Peace - Pvt Giese. -----Bobgee

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Geoff,

Thank you for sharing the story of an adopted American son who spilt his blood for this narion 100 years ago. Based on the wear to the medal and ribbon as well as the switching repairs made to it, John must have taken great pride in wearing his Purple Heart. Wonderful research into this soldier's life and service. RIP Soldier, Your country appreciates your services rendered on the battlefields of France.

John

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Amazing to consider a young man living the first 19 years of his life in one country, and 4 years later to dutifully take up arms against that country. That is one tremendous immigrant story from an American perspective.

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  • 2 years later...
BigJohn#3RD

Great online research brought this veterans service into the light. Geoff provides future generations with a small snapshot of what the nearly two million Soldiers, Sailors and Marines of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), endured in the Meuse-Argonne campaign for this nations well being and the liberation of others 100 + years-ago. He also illustrates that many of the AEF carried those experiences with them the rest of their lives.

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