Sgt. Claud Chism, US Army - (Part 1)
By DAN BARNES
Groveton News - December 2009

   Little is known about Claud Chism’s roots or background.  He was born to Annie Chism on August 22,1916.  His father’s name is unknown and neither he nor his family has so far turned up in the 1920 to 1930 U.S. Census.
   The elder Chism seems to have been deceased by that time.  Additionally, I have not been able to locate the graves of either Claud’s mother or father and the information they might provide.
   Claud had at least one sister, Dorotha, mentioned in his military records.  Both his mother and sister were still receiving mail in Groveton as late as 1948.
   Claud did not finish high school, was single and supported himself in the pre-war period as a farm laborer.  At age 25, he entered the Army (38140424) at Tyler, Texas on June 29, 1942.
   Claud Chism eventually found himself a member of “the Big Red One”, the 1st Infantry Division, in his case Company “E” of its 18th Infantry Regiment.
   When he joined the division is unknown but his June 1942 entry into the Army probably did not allow time for him to be available for the division’s Nov. 8, 1942 landing in Northern Africa.  He probably joined the division as a replacement at some later date.
   One other man from Trinity County, Ramon T. Davis is known to have served with this division.  He fell while campaigning in North Africa with the 1st’s 16th Infantry Regiment and will be dealt with in a later article.
    The U.S. 1st Division had the longest battle history of any Infantry Division in Europe. It suffered 20,659 battle casualties and 3616 dead, fifth in both categories for all U.S. Army Divisions worldwide in World War II.
   It saw action in North Africa in 1942-43; later fought in Sicily and Italy; and landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944.  Once ashore in France it moved in and out of active fighting until the war ended in May 1945, usually with the U.S. 1st Army.
   Once the Allies breached the Rhine in early March of 1945, from Montgomery’s domain in the north to Jake Devers forces in the south, the tenets of SHAEF’s strategy that had dictated the tactics in Western Europe since the Normandy landing largely evaporated.
   Most notably discarded was the sacrosanct and long held “broad front” approach to the defeat of Germany in northwestern Europe.  Part of the reason for this was the deteriorating quality of German resistance the Allies encountered at this time.
   While many Germans never “got the message” and fought on until the very last, by the end of March the presence of both Russian and Anglo-American Armies deep in German territory presaged a corroding German resolve to resist.
   This was especially true in the west.  Willingly surrendering prisoners of war, many fearing the wrath and vengeance of the Russians approaching from the east, occasionally so swamped the Allied trail of advance in the west that some groups were sent walking to the Allied rear as ad hoc, unguarded, unfenced, and ambulatory prison camps, often under the command and control of German officers who were summarily but unofficially deputized for the task.
   Additionally, swelling German casualty numbers associated with the continued efforts of those still willing to resist limited the sheer number of German troops available for the fight and added to the general decline in the German’s defensive response.
   As a consequence, Allied formations in the west often saw themselves making spectacular geographic gains unseen since the post-Normandy breakout.  A study of the maps associated with the Allied campaign west of the Rhine in 1944 reveal a generally uniform World War I-like advance of the Allied line along its entire length.
   Once over the Rhine in force, however, this tableau was replaced by a rat’s nest-like series of probing and looping Allied military maneuvers, often accomplished by formations routinely containing one or more Army Corps.
   Some descriptions summon up memories of the 1889 Oklahoma land rush, but with tanks.  Though custom-made for George Patton and his rampage favoring 3rd Army, everyone caught the fever to some extend, even the normally stolid and cautious Hodge and Bradley. For the smell of victory was in the air, and everywhere the end of the fighting could be senses and was sought.
   Surprisingly, much of the inspiration and direction for this anomalous burst of Allied activity came straight from the top.
   In the presence of the weakened state of the enemy, the once fearful specter of exposed flanks was forgotten, prompting SHAEF to send entire armies gyrating off in reselected directions in pursuit of real or imagined foes or targets in a manner that would have been generally unimaginable and impermissible a few weeks before.
   Nevertheless, “the thousand year Reich” was crumbling, the end was near and the Allies were winning. American soldiers, including some from Trinity County, carried on the fight and continued to die.
   (Part 2 will appear in next week’s edition.)