Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "17343226",
    "label": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226"
}

{
    "id": "17343226",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "The Memoirs of Sergeant Verne Chaney",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "collections": [
        "Verne E. Chaney Papers",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972",
        "Spina, Frank E., 1887-1972",
        "Klemm, Karl D., 1880-",
        "Wooldridge, Glenwood F., 1893-1977",
        "Pershing, John J. (John Joseph), 1860-1948",
        "Thacher, John H., 1872-1960",
        "Miles, John L., 1878-1961",
        "Soldiers",
        "World War, 1914-1918",
        "Artillery"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/3432/17343226/content/presidential-libraries/truman/648564/hst-vec-naid7453017-01.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/3432/17343226/content/presidential-libraries/truman/648564/hst-vec-naid7453017-01.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/3432/17343226/content/presidential-libraries/truman/648564/hst-vec-naid7453017-01.jpg",
    "imageCount": 49,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/17343226",
    "naId": 17343226,
    "levelOfDescription": "item",
    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1919-01-01",
            "year": 1919
        }
    ],
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 7,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/26/3432/17343226/content/presidential-libraries/truman/648564/hst-vec-naid7453017-07.jpg",
    "mediaId": "509443341d379b90",
    "ocrText": "7\ngetting to the spot getting all three of them. There was something like forty\nfive charges dropped altogether.\n19\nThe ship was messing at the time and everyone must have his ringside\nseat, so then came the scramble. I had just finished mess and was leaning\nover the forward rail so had a good view of the quick manouver. Behind me\ncame a rush of feet and some one bawled down the hatch, \"Come on\nChawps, we're 'it. \"turning around I saw a deck hand with three life\npreservers on. The ships cooks left their posts for a dash to the deck.\nA few men, that were waiting to be fed, stayed down and they stole\nenough grub for a dozen men. The cooks returned all red under the ears,\ncalling us \"bloody Americans\" that wouldn't give a damn if the boat did sink,\nand they would stay on it to get a good feed before it went down. Then the\nsteward got sore and couldn't resist the temptation to cut loose, so he says\n\"Ihave fed Chinks, Canadians, English and Australians but I never seen\nsuch bloody chawps' as you\" I've seen 'em pray and wring their hands, but\nyou fellows either block our way or get a front seat and the ones that don't\nTRUMAN\ngo up steal all my grub. You chawps don't know what it is to get 'it.'\nTECORDS\nDMIN\nIVERANCED\nThere came a day when, the way the grub was put out, was taken up\nwith the C.O's for improvement if possible. Col. Rumbolt was in favor of\ntaking it up with the C.O. of the ship, but Col. Klemm said it was good\nenough for his men and remarked that they could \"take it or leave it.' Day\nafter day there were words between the 2nd Steward and the men. Until\n19\nIn 1917 the submarine was still a primitive weapon. It usually tracked, attacked and escaped on the\nsurface. The low dark silhouette made it difficult to spot with a moderate sea running. The submarine could,\nbecause of battery life and oxygen limitations, hide only briefly under the sea. The underwater detection devices\nof the era were crude and unreliable and often hiding was enough. The standard German practice was to attack\nwith deck guns to conserve torpedoes. By July 1917, German submarines had sunk 1400 ships. The editor can\nfind no reference to substantiate Sergeant Chaney's statement of three submarines being sunk that day. Three\nsubmarines sunk in one day is a lot of submarines. An event of this magnitude would surely have elicited some\ninterest."
}