Private Walter B Guetthoff
Walter Bernard Gueffhoff was born in Kendallville, Indiana on August 15th, 1895. His father, Felix Guetthoff immigrated to America from Germany in the 1880’s and settled down in Indiana where he married Wilhelmina Lang in 1888. After Walter and his brother were born, they moved to Michigan where Walter would complete school and have a job as a store clerk. When the United States finally entered World War One which had been raging for years, he was drafted into the Army on May 7th, 1918 and after training, assigned to Company H, 338th Infantry Regiment.
Private Guetthoff’s unit was alerted for overseas duty and left New York on July 21st, 1918 for France. Arriving in March, his unit would be billeted in the cities of Nevers and Cosne. Instead of going to the front as a whole, the 338th Infantry’s troops were being used as individual replacements for the units taking losses fighting the Germans. After weeks of waiting, Private Guetthoff was sent as a replacement to Company D, 38th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division after they took heavy casualties pushing the German’s back during the Second Battle of the Marne, the action that earned the division their famous title of “Rock of the Marne.” To the Argonne Private Guetthoff would accompany his new unit for their role in the St. Mihiel Offensive, where the 3rd Infantry Division would be placed in corps reserve for the attack, thankfully never being mobilized. Soon after the battle ended, the 38th Infantry Regiment was quickly moved to support the massive Meuse-Argonne Offensive which kicked off on September 26th, 1918, and was met with mixed results. The first phase failed to capture most of their objectives and the assaulting divisions were badly mangled. Private Guetthoff and 3rd Division, along with the 80th and 33rd Divisions, relieved those units on October 3rd in preparation for the second phase of attack. Their attack commenced the very next day, but was met with high casualties and little ground gained, and it would continue like this for weeks until the 38th Infantry Regiment was finally relieved on October 27th, 1918. It was during this time that Private Guetthoff would be wounded by a gas attack seriously enough to be removed from the line and hospitalized. When the war finally ended on November 11th, 1918, Guetthoff was still recovering from his wound, and eventually left France on December 17th, 1918, arriving back in the United States in January for better treatment. He was discharged on March 30th, 1919, returned to Michigan, married Clara Sandman on September 16th, 1923 and worked as a superintendent for a water department. Throughout his life, he continued to be affected by the wound he received in France, forcing him to move to Arizona where he passed away on February 5th, 1960 at age 64. This was purchased directly from the family. |
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