John Lewis Barkley - MOH

I've always had a fascination and appreciation for our military and war heroes.  I once did the 25 days of heroes, instead of the 25 days of Christmas and wrote about many Medal of Honor winners and some just unbelievable war stories I had found.  I got a really good response to that.  I think what has fascinated me is in situations, where death is certain, the commitment of these soldiers to their task and their brothers is astounding.  Where fear leaves the body and duty is all that remains.  They become machines and is seems in many cases that without divine intervention there is no way they would've survived.  In some cases, they did not.  In my searching for stories I had not come across the story of John Lewis Barkley and I cannot figure out why.  This story does have some miraculous to it and is a great example of what it takes to be considered and deserving for the award.

The First World War was drawing to an end in October of 1918.  Nearly a million US soldiers were taking part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, a battle that lasted from September until the last day of the war.  Over 26,000 doughboys lost their lives in that two month stretch.  It saw some of the fiercest fighting and many Americans would earn the Medal of Honor here, including Alvin York, Samuel Woodfill and Charles Whittlesey.  Among them was a farm boy from Missouri named John Lewis Barkley.  He was an 18 year old private in Company K, 4th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division.  He had been denied entry into the Army in 1916 because he had a severe stutter, which had dogged him his whole life.  In 1917 he was allowed in and spent time training as a sniper and scout.  Sometime in July or August of 1918, shortly after arriving in France, Barkley was in an observation post when a German artillery shell hit a tree behind him.  The tree fell on him, knocking him unconscious for several hours.  When he came to, he radioed to his superior and found that his stuttering had stopped.  The Kansas City Times reported his mother called it “a missile from God.” His father thought his son only “needed (the) hell knocked out of him to get over that.”

Shortly after midnight on October 7th, Barkley was in an observation post near Cunel, France when he spotted a large German force advancing.  The Germans held the crest of Hill 253 and despite the Americans holding the southern slope of the hill, they could not see what the Germans were up to on the other side as it had been raining and airplanes had not been allowed in the sky.  Barkley's superior, Sergeant Nayhone, a native of Syria, ordered Barkley to follow an unoccupied ridge and get close to the Germans to see what they were doing.  This foray would put Barkley out in no-man's land, far from help.

“If you want to bump me off, for God’s sake do it here!” he yelled during a face-off with the sergeant in a candlelit command post.

“We’ve got to have information,” Nayhone replied. “You can see for yourself there’s no way out. Somebody’s got to go.” He reached out his hand, and Barkley, after a brief hesitation, shook it.

“I know you’ll do the best you can.… And no hard feelings!” the sergeant said.

“All right,” Barkley replied. “No hard feelings!… But write a nice letter home to my folks.”

Taking two signal man with him, who carried wire and a phone, they followed Barkley for more than an hour as they worked their way across the ridge.  Finding a large crater, the signal corps men set up the phone so it would buzz and not ring and then took off in the darkness, leaving Barkley alone.  When day broke, Barkley could see the whole valley before him and soon spotted the Germans, busily getting ready for an assault on the 7th Regiment below.  Barkley called Nayhone to let him know of the impending assault just as a barrage of artillery was hitting between him and the regiment.  During the conversation, the line went dead, having been cut by a shell.  Figuring his work there was done, he prepared to head back, but spotted a knocked out French Renault tank with dead Germans scattered about.  He decided to look around for a German machine gun among the dead and found a Maxim light machine gun, which was the MG 08/15.  The MG 08/15 is a belt-fed, water-cooled gun that could be carried by one man.  Barkley found the gun in good order, but with no water in it.  Here's an interesting note to this story and one that goes along with training and listening.  It's also kind of miraculous in my mind.  The Germans often removed the breechblock when a Maxim had to be left in the field, so it could not be fired at them later.  In Intelligence School, Barkley had been taught that if he came across a captured Maxim to take the breechblock and carry it with him.  As he scrambled from shell hole to shell hole and stumbling upon a Maxim, he found the breechblock was missing, but just happened to have one in his pocket he had picked up much earlier in his tour.  Boy, did it come in handy.

Perfect timing played its hand once again as a smoke screen was being laid down by the Germans prior to their assault and obscured the view of the valley.  Finding boxes of ammunition and the cover he needed, Barkley worked his way to the knocked out tank.  Climbing inside he found that the machine gun in the turret of the tank had been removed, leaving a rather large opening.  He placed many cannisters of ammunition on the floor and some outside of the hatch and brought the Maxim inside with him.  Arranging the ammo for easy access, he swung the turret of the tank to face the woods where the Germans would be coming from and waited.  

“My legs felt wobbly. I hoped if there was any God, he’d give me the breaks. Then I forgot everything, for through my port I’d caught a glimpse of movement at the edge of the woods.”  He spotted 500-600 Germans leaving the woods and heading down the slope across from him in diagonal lines.  They were 200 yards away and he slowly turned the turret to follow them as the marched until the last of the advancing column had left the woods and were in the open.  With a deep breath, Barkley edged the machine out the hole, lined up the sight in the mid section of the nearest soldier and fired.  The Germans had no idea where the firing was coming from and for a few moments stood paralyzed until they scattered for cover.  Firing in long and short bursts, Barkley devasted the line of soldiers, killing several officers.  Soon, they returned fire and bullets began to hit the tank all around the turret. Barkley's ears were ringing as bullets ricocheted around with very loud bangs.  Several rounds actually went through the port in the turret and hit inside the tank, miraculously missing Barkley.  He continued to fire until the gun over heated.  He quickly used the water in his canteen and poured it in the water jacket.  The gun was so hot that the water boiled, but it worked.  Having to slow his rate of fire, he now had about 20 Germans coming toward him with two light machine guns and grenades.  

Killing one of the gunners, he fired as he could, then reloaded, the whole time the Germans closed in.  The other machine gunner had found a shell hole and was firing at the port trying to hit and knock out Barkley's gun or possibly kill him, but he left himself exposed and Barkley killed him too.  The other Germans got close enough to throw their grenades, but they did no damage.  Just then a 77mm shell exploded nearby, which caused the Germans to retreat.  More shells crept closer until one hit on each side of the tank.  Barkley was frantically searching for the gun, when he spotted it in the woods 600 yards off.  A split second later and the gun found its mark, hitting the tank and launching Barkley around the insides of the tank.  He awoke with a weight on his chest and the sensation of being strangled.  He found an ammo box had fallen on his chest and the strangling was from the acrid smoke he was breathing in.  Blood poured from his nose and his throat was closing.  Since no more bullets were hitting the tank, he opened the rear hatch and gasped for fresh air.  Thinking he was dead, the Germans stopped firing at him, which gave Barkley time to gather himself.

He climbed back inside and caught the Germans outside coming under fire from other American guns.  Now he had time to find the artillery gun that caused him so much pain.  He fired an entire box of ammo at the gun and killed its entire crew.  This, however, made the German infantry aware that he was still alive and more incoming fire rattled off the tank.  His Maxim started to jam continuously and eventually it would only fire a single shot before jamming again.  Thinking he was done, he waited for an opportune time to leave the tank, but spotted a can of oil and decided to try it to cool the gun down.  It worked miraculously and he was back in business.  He continued to pour fire on the Germans until the oil boiled over and jammed the gun.  Black smoke poured from the gun and caused him to choke again.  “I just sat there, with my head in my hands, waiting. I told myself I was waiting for the gun to cool off. But it was really the end I was waiting for. I couldn’t hold out much longer with a gun that would fire only once in a while.”

Suddenly more artillery was raining down, but this time it was American shells hitting the valley and forcing the Germans to retreat.  As a filthy and blood-soaked Barkley exited the tank he was met by an American patrol who looked at him incredulously, asking what the hell he was doing there.  He was relieved of his duty and headed back to HQ.  After the battle, over 4,000 rounds of spent ammunition were found inside the tank and though no official number of enemy killed has been attributed to Barkley's actions, it was probably around 200.  At this same time, the Lost Battalion, of Charles Whittelsey had been found and relieved as well.  Major Whittelsey, Captain McMurtry and John Barkley were all awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions on that day.  Barkley was awarded the Medal of Honor by General John Pershing on April 2, 1919. His heroism also earned him the French Croix de Guerre, the Italian Cross of Military Valor and the Montenegrin Medal of Bravery.

Barkley later wrote a book, titled No Hard Feelings, but it was later retitled, Scarlet Fields and can be found in book stores today under the new name.  The quotes I used were from a booked titled, To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918, by Edward G. Lengel.

Barkley attended both the founding of the WWI Memorial in Kansas City in 1921 and the dedication to the memorial in 1926.  He died in 1966.  His daughter, Joan Barkley Wells, served as a trustee of the WWI Museum in Kansas City and gave the museum her father's medals and a portrait of him, which are on display today.