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WWI Profile

Over There: Harold Epstein

The night of July 28th would be the wartime experience to affect him most deeply. The 28th Division was in combat with the Prussian 4th Division attempting to take the area around Ronchères, France. The area was strongly held by Germans with heavy armaments. Epstein and the men of Company G were part of an attempt to capture a German machine gun nest in the Grimpette Woods.

Over There: James J. Joffe

In mid-January 1918, Lt. Joffe flew his Airco de Havilland twin seat bomber at several hundred feet altitude. The aircraft suddenly became uncontrollable and spun toward the earth nose first at full speed.  He pulled back his control stick with all his strength and hit his pedals attempting to stabilize the plane to no avail.

Over There: Abraham Krotoshinsky

Before the war, the “Savior of the Lost Battalion” was still an immigrant barber in the Bronx. Krotoshinsky came to New York from Płock, part of the Russian Empire in Poland. He’d left there specifically to escape military service. His attitude toward military service changed drastically in his adopted country.

Over There: Joseph Linett

Joseph Linett left Ukraine for the United States. He was inducted into the Medical Corps and served in France as doctor. While overseas, he tragically lost his wife back home.

Over There: Hyman Silverman

On October 27, 1918, German fire ignited an ammunition dump near Verdun. While exploding shells were seriously wounding his comrades, Private Hyman Silverman jumped into action. He began removing the ammunition even as more exploded around him. Silverman was hit multiple times by grenade explosions.

Over There: David Carb

Fort Worth’s David Carb (1885-1952), a Harvard graduate, poet, and playwright, was among the idealists who romanticized the Great War. In June 1915, two years before America entered the conflict, he was among the dozens of literati to join the American Red Cross Ambulance Service.

Over There: Sam Raiz

Heavy rains and strong winds whipped across the American trenches lining a hill near the French town of Saint-Mihiel on a mid-September morning in 1918. Sam Raiz fixed his bayonet to his rifle. Along with other members of A Company of the 360th Regiment of the 90th Division Texas Brigade, he began a march towards the heavily fortified German lines.

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