Marion's Own - Home of Company D, 166th Infantry in WW1 |
Diary of Sgt. Roy E. BaileyMaterial Provided By |
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| Roy Bailey - Circa 1916 |
About the Diary
The diary of Sergeant Roy E. Bailey contains a great deal of interesting information about Co. D of the 166th Inf., 42Div, in which he served.Sgt. Bailey's grandson Paul, has photographed each page of the diary and transcribed much of it. That work he incorporated into a PDF document which is too large to distribute here. We are working on converting it to Web pages so that it can more easily be viewed on the Internet.
Along with the diary were some photographs. Most of the men in the photographs are unidentified. We hope to eventually have those available here as well.
The diary contains a chronological record of his service from September 1917, until April 26th, 1919. It also includes technical descriptions of various hand grenades, a Browning Automatic Rifle and an automatic pistol. It also lists the names of the men in his platoon and in some cases their status, as well as other men in the company. Also, several poems are included.
The book itself was apparently acquired in early January, 1919 when Co. D was billeted in Unklebach Germany. He took notes on the training that was taking place (hand grenades and automatic rifle) and then recorded the chronology (probably transcribed another diary he had kept) into this book and continued keeping a dairy from that time on.
Diary Contents
Warning: Each web page had multiple images of the dairy
pages. If you are on a slow
speed connection, this can take some time to load.
| Diary Pages | Contents |
|---|---|
| 1 thru 12 | Notes made during training in Germany in January, 1919 Hand grenade details and small unit tactics. |
| 13 thru 20 | Notes about men in his squad (presumably).. getting supplies for them. |
| 21 thru 30 | More details about his men and getting supplies. |
| 31 thru 43 | More keeping track of his men. |
| 44 thru 51 | Poetry or songs |
| 52 thru 61 | Chronology from September 1917 until July 29,1918 including details of the battle at Ourcq River |
| 62 thru 70 | Chronology from Aug 1. through the Armistice, Nov. 11, 1918. |
| 71 thru 80 | From the Armistice, moving into Germany on the Rhine River and then back to Brest, France for disembarkation across the Atlantic to Hoboken, N.J and Camp Merritt, N.J. |
| 81 thru 86 | Miscellaneous records about various men |
| 87 thru 95 | Notes on the the disassembly and operation of the automatic rifle (Browning Automatic Rifle most likely) |
Photo Pages:
Photos from 4th Ohio Infantry (National Guard) at Camp Pershing, Tx, 1916
Photos from Jan. 1919 on the Rhine River
About Roy Bailey
Sgt. Bailey was born in Morrow, Co. Ohio and grew up in Marion. He joined the Ohio National Guard unit in Marion, Oh around 1916 and was deployed in the Mexican Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa in 1916. In July, 1917, the ONG was called up for service in WW 1 and sent to Camp Perry, Ohio, and then eventually to war in France.He received the following citation for his service:
Sergeant Roy Bailey (93370), Company D, 166th Infantry.
"For gallant and meritorious conduct in action in St. Mihiel, 12th to 30th of September, 1918."
"Sergeant Bailer commanded his platoon during the Saint Mihiel Offensive of September 12-14th, 1918, and while the battalion was in line opposite Haumont on September 25th-30th, 1918. By his courage, fearlessness and devotion to duty he has proven himself a most efficient non-commissioned officer."
After the war, Roy Bailey lived in Marion and worked at the Marion Power Shovel Co.
Contact Paul Wallace via e-mail ohglass@yahoo.com
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