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Duty, Honor, Privilege: New York’s Silk Stock-ing Regiment and the Breaking of the Hindenburg Line, by Stephen L. Harris
Washington: Potomac Books, 2006. Pp. xviii, 374. Illus., maps, notes, biblio., index. $9.95 . ISBN:1-57488-740-89.
Duty, Honor, Privilege, originally published in
2001, is the story of the 107th Infantry (the 7th New
York) during World War I. After
providing a good deal of detail on the origins and unique character of the 107th (notably that it was
probably the “richest” regiment in the U.S.), the work carries it through
activation and reorganization for war in 1917, training (in South Carolina,
where the “Silk Stocking” doughboys ran interference for the “Harlem
Hellfighters” of the 15th N.Y.), and then across the Atlantic to
France.
In France, the 107th, part of New York’s 27th
Division, served with the British Army, during which it broke the Hindenburg
Line at one of its toughest points, suffering the highest one day loss of any
American regiment in the war. Battle
pieces are very well done, and punctuated by many personal accounts. The book also provides interesting, and not
necessarily flattering looks at some senior personnel, including the generally
well-regarded Australian John Monash, who comes in for some severe
criticism.A good addition to the
literature of the A.E.F.
Reviewer: A. A. Nofi Buy it at Amazon.com
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