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The Stoeger Coach Gun
John Barkley was an unlikely hero.
In his youth, Private First Class John Lewis Barkley was a bit of a troublemaker. He was known to sneak liquor into his unit area and had a not inconsiderable weakness for women both French and German. Interestingly, when he had originally attempted to enlist he was denied due to a severe stutter.
John Barkley ultimately made it into the Army on his second try.
Later, at age 22, Barkley found his way into the US Army after the need for troops became severe. Barkley was an otherwise typical young American hailing from a small town in Missouri. In World War 1 he found the greatest adventure of his life.
John Barkley’s job was to kill Germans and he embraced it.
John Barkley served with Company K of the 4th Regiment of the 3d Infantry Division in most of the major American engagements during the First World War. A reconnaissance specialist and sharpshooter, Barkley spilled more than his share of German blood. However, he understood the war to be a fight between good and evil and he had few qualms about the violence he visited upon the enemy. Barkley was satisfied with his lot as a private soldier and eschewed promotion when the opportunity arose. His job was to kill Germans pure and simple, and he threw himself into it.
A near miss from artillery during the Second Battle for the Marne changed Barkley’s life.
During the Second Battle for the Marne, artillery fire splintered a nearby tree and dropped a heavy branch onto him, leaving him unconscious for several hours. He awoke without his stutter. His mom viewed this as a miracle conjured from amidst a veritable sea of blood.
Beginnings
Barkley headed off to war a self-confident young sharpshooter.
John Barkley was born in Blairstown, Missouri, in August of 1895. A hard man from a nation of hard men, Barkley grew up knowing austerity and deprivation. When he went off to war he was enthusiastic, driven, and dangerous.
Barkley’s introduction to the messy bits of war was viscerally overwhelming.
As is always the case, Barkley’s introduction to practical war was both shocking and stark. On board a troop train packed with wounded these were his initial observations, “The train was packed with men. Men lying as still as if they were already dead. Men shaking with pain. One man raving, jabbering, yelling, in delirium. Everywhere bandages . . . bandages . . . bandages . . . and blood.”
The Medal of Honor
The Germans during World War 1 were well-trained and formidable fighters.
On October 7, 1918, World War 1 had just over a month to go before it bled itself dry. John Barkley found himself this fateful day in an observation post some five hundred meters from the German lines.
Cunel, France, was a desolate place during the war.
Before the war had blasted everything to hell, there had been a small picturesque French community nearby called Cunel. This particular bloodbath came later to be known as the battle for the Argonne Forest.
WW1 battlefields in 1918 were ravaged places.
Artillery, machine guns, and poison gas transformed the World War 1 battlefields into something out of Dante. This late in the war the toxic combination of tanks and desperation drove men to truly extraordinary efforts. That desperation became the soil from which true heroes are raised.
The WW1-era French Renault FT tank was small, lightweight, and vulnerable. More than 3,700 were produced.
An earlier assault had left a small French tank destroyed near Barkley’s fighting position.
Disabled weapons litter the industrial battlefield. PFC John Barkley found himself with a disabled German Maxim gun in need of attention.
Among the detritus of combat, he also found himself in possession of an inoperative German Maxim gun and an ample supply of belted ammunition. Like most men of his generation, John Barkley was fairly adept at fixing things. Throwing stuff away when it no longer works is a recent disease.
The classic MG08 Maxim gun mounted on a massive sled mount but was reliable and fairly easy to run.
In relatively short order he had the German MG08 up and running. It turned out that on this particularly bloody day he would soon have desperate need of that captured German gun.
The Germans in WW1 were smart and relentless. Over time, John Barkley came to read their intentions from the state of the battlefield.
A man in combat develops a sixth sense for trouble.
A nearby disabled French Renault FT tank became John Barkley’s improvised hard point.
John Barkley could tell the Huns were up to no good, so he climbed into the disabled French armored vehicle and mounted his captured German gun where it gave him a generous field of fire. In short order the Germans slathered his position with artillery fire, driving his comrades back or to ground.
John Barkley turned an enemy Infantry assault into a deadly ambush.
Throughout it, Barkley crouched inside the derelict French tank awaiting the inevitable Infantry assault that he could feel was coming.
Barkley waited until the Germans were abreast his position.
Barkley waited patiently until the advancing German troops were in line abreast his position.
John Barkley killed multiple dozens of German assault troops single-handedly.
When the moment was perfect he leaped up from the tank and triggered the German gun, mowing down the shocked Hun soldiers by the bushel. John Barkley’s audacious surprise attack splintered the German assault, killing or wounding dozens of enemy soldiers.
The Germans responded with concentrated artillery fire from a cannon like this 77mm monster. One 77mm round struck the derelict tank’s drive wheel and exploded.
Desperate for a breakthrough, the German commanders directed concentrated artillery fire on Barkley’s already ventilated tank at point blank range. One 77mm high explosive round struck the tank’s drive wheel and exploded, rocking the little vehicle and showering the surrounding area with dirt. Throughout it all John Barkley remained in position, manning his gun singlehandedly in the face of overwhelming odds.
When the dust settled German dead were scattered all around Barkley’s position.
Satisfied that this one American soldier with his captured German gun had been silenced, the Huns launched a second massive assault on Barkley’s position. The lone American repeated his performance a second time, shattering the attack and leaving more than a hundred German dead surrounding his position.
Barkley held his position through guile and force of personal will.
The resolute defense PFC Barkley established enabled American troops to advance and seize the strategic hilltop near John Barkley’s last stand. When fresh troops retook the area they found more than four thousand expended shell casings inside John Barkley’s ruined French tank.
The Human Cost
The sights, sounds, and smells of war tend to change a man.
John Barkley sent his brother a letter soon after his heroic defense of that forlorn moonscape. His words explain what a close thing that engagement actually was. Time, distance, and the limitations of the language conspire to mute the horror of that day.
The end result of John Barkley’s implacable defense was bodies stacked like cordwood.
“Don’t think I’m going to tell you anything about that tank deal. It is too bad to tell a civilized man. I played them dirty every chance I got, and this is not the first time I ever did this.”
“I fired my last round of ammunition from the machinegun but kept my automatic pistol for hand-to-hand fighting: plunged out of that tank with a sudden dash. I had three bullet marks in my clothes and a burnt legging string.”
The Guns
The original German MG08 Maxim gun was adapted from Hiram Stevens Maxim’s original design.
The MG08 Maxim gun revolutionized the way men killed each other. The brainchild of American-born British inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1884, the infamous Maxim gun armed both sides throughout World War 1. While the Germans employed what may be seen as the definitive model, the British Vickers was based upon the same internal mechanism.
The MG08/15 was a lightened version of the earlier sled mount gun. Despite its svelte lines the gun still weighed 39 pounds empty.
The Maxim was a recoil-operated weapon and was actually one of the first recoil-operated guns ever devised. The Maxim in its ground configuration was a water-cooled beast that fired at around 600 rounds per minute.
The British version of the Maxim action was the improved Vickers gun.
The Maxim ultimately saw service with the English, Russians, Germans, Finns, Chinese, Americans, and many more.
When properly serviced and supported the MG08 Maxim would run almost indefinitely.
The Maxim gun was sinfully heavy by modern standards and was typically crewed by between four and six men. However, when properly stoked and supplied with an ample supply of water for the barrel jacket the gun could fire almost indefinitely. The end result was carnage on an unprecedented scale.
The Colt 1911 pistol was a revolutionary gun for its day.
The automatic pistol John Barkley carried was an early example of the legendary Colt 1911 in .45ACP. Designed by the firearms luminary John Moses Browning, the 1911 was the finest combat handgun of the war. Offering superb reliability, exceptional accuracy, and unrivaled knockdown power, the 1911 remains in service with some specialized military units even today.
The Colt 1911 .45ACP pistol that John Barkley carried for personal defense was a rugged and effective combat handgun.
The combat handgun has evolved profoundly in the past century. However, John Barkley’s 1911 set a standard for battlefield effectiveness that has not since been bested. Despite indescribable gore and deprivation aplenty, Barkley could take solace in the fact that the pistol that rode on his hip in October of 1918 was the best combat sidearm on the planet.
Denouement
John “Blackjack” Pershing was commander of the American Expeditionary Forces during WW1.
PFC John Barkley received his Medal of Honor in 1919 from the legendary General John “Blackjack” Pershing.
Field Marshal Ferdinand Foche was renowned for his ample whiskers.
He also received the Medaille Militaire from French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foche. When Foche kissed him on the cheeks, per the French custom, his bushy mustache brushed Barkley’s face and caused him to sneeze violently. A young American officer named Douglas Macarthur was in attendance and nearly disrupted the proceedings with laughter.
John Barkley’s memoirs were republished years after his death. This book has been likened to All Quiet on the Western Front.
Barkley published an autobiographical work in 1930 titled “No Hard Feelings.” In more recent years the book has been edited and republished as “Scarlet Fields: The Combat Memoir of a World War 1 Medal of Honor Hero.”
John Barkley remained a humble man throughout his life.
John Barkley came home from the war and settled into a humble life, farming two hundred acres around Johnson County, Missouri. Barkley died in 1966 at the age of 70.
John Barkley’s grave is nondescript with little to inform the casual observer of his remarkable wartime feats of heroism.
He is buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.
John Barkley was a highly decorated WW1 American hero.
John Barkley has been described by those who knew him as unassuming, likable, and modest. On a particularly dark day in October of 1918, Barkley singlehandedly stopped an aggressive German Infantry assault using a captured German machinegun and a knocked-out French tank. John Barkley personified American heroism and courage.
Barker’s exploits have been memorialized in his home state of Missouri.
The Guns
| MG08 Maxim | Colt 1911 | |
| Caliber | 7.92x57mm | .45ACP |
| Weight | 60 lbs | 2.4 lbs |
| Length | 42.5 in | 8.25 in |
| Barrel Length | 26.5 in | 5.03 in |
| Action | Recoil-Operated | Short Recoil |
| Cyclic Rate of Fire | 550-600 rpm | N/A |
| Feed System | 250-rd Canvas Belt | 7-rd Box Magazine |
Much of what we think we know about the 1914-18 conflict is wrong, writes historian Dan Snow.
No war in history attracts more controversy and myth than World War One.
For the soldiers who fought it was in some ways better than previous conflicts, and in some ways worse.
By setting it apart as uniquely awful we are blinding ourselves to the reality of not just WW1 but war in general. We are also in danger of belittling the experience of soldiers and civilians caught up in countless other appalling conflicts throughout history and the present day.
1. It was the bloodiest war in history to that point
Fifty years before WW1 broke out, southern China was torn apart by an even bloodier conflict. Conservative estimates of the dead in the 14-year Taiping rebellion start at between 20 million and 30 million. Around 17 million soldiers and civilians were killed during WW1.
Although more Britons died in WW1 than any other conflict, the bloodiest war in our history relative to population size is the Civil War, which raged in the mid-17th Century. A far higher proportion of the population of the British Isles were killed than the less than 2% who died in WW1. By contrast, around 4% of the population of England and Wales, and considerably more than that in Scotland and Ireland, are thought to have been killed in the Civil War.
2. Most soldiers died
In the UK around six million men were mobilised, and of those just over 700,000 were killed. That’s around 11.5%.
In fact, as a British soldier you were more likely to die during the Crimean War (1853-56) than in WW1.
3. Men lived in the trenches for years on end
Front-line trenches could be a terribly hostile place to live. Units, often wet, cold and exposed to the enemy, would quickly lose their morale if they spent too much time in the trenches.
As a result, the British army rotated men in and out continuously. Between battles, a unit spent perhaps 10 days a month in the trench system and, of those, rarely more than three days right up on the front line. It was not unusual to be out of the line for a month.
During moments of crisis, such as big offensives, the British could occasionally spend up to seven days on the front line but were far more often rotated out after just a day or two.
4. The upper class got off lightly
Although the great majority of casualties in WW1 were from the working class, the social and political elite were hit disproportionately hard by WW1. Their sons provided the junior officers whose job it was to lead the way over the top and expose themselves to the greatest danger as an example to their men.
Some 12% of the British army’s ordinary soldiers were killed during the war, compared with 17% of its officers. Eton alone lost more than 1,000 former pupils – 20% of those who served. UK wartime Prime Minister Herbert Asquith lost a son, while future Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law lost two. Anthony Eden lost two brothers, another brother of his was terribly wounded, and an uncle was captured.
5. ‘Lions led by donkeys’
George V and his generals at Buckingham Palace in 1918
This saying was supposed to have come from senior German commanders describing brave British soldiers led by incompetent old toffs from their chateaux. In fact the incident was made up by historian Alan Clark.
During the war more than 200 generals were killed, wounded or captured. Most visited the front lines every day. In battle they were considerably closer to the action than generals are today.
Naturally, some generals were not up to the job, but others were brilliant, such as Arthur Currie, a middle-class Canadian failed insurance broker and property developer.
Rarely in history have commanders had to adapt to a more radically different technological environment.
British commanders had been trained to fight small colonial wars; now they were thrust into a massive industrial struggle unlike anything the British army had ever seen.
Despite this, within three years the British had effectively invented a method of warfare still recognisable today. By the summer of 1918 the British army was probably at its best ever and it inflicted crushing defeats on the Germans.
6. Gallipoli was fought by Australians and New Zealanders
Australians and New Zealanders mark Anzac Day in Gallipoli, 2011
Far more British soldiers fought on the Gallipoli peninsula than Australians and New Zealanders put together.
The UK lost four or five times as many men in the brutal campaign as its imperial Anzac contingents. The French also lost more men than the Australians.
The Aussies and Kiwis commemorate Gallipoli ardently, and understandably so, as their casualties do represent terrible losses both as a proportion of their forces committed and of their small populations.
7. Tactics on the Western Front remained unchanged despite repeated failure
Never have tactics and technology changed so radically in four years of fighting. It was a time of extraordinary innovation. In 1914 generals on horseback galloped across battlefields as men in cloth caps charged the enemy without the necessary covering fire. Both sides were overwhelmingly armed with rifles. Four years later, steel-helmeted combat teams dashed forward protected by a curtain of artillery shells.
They were now armed with flame throwers, portable machine-guns and grenades fired from rifles. Above, planes, which in 1914 would have appeared unimaginably sophisticated, duelled in the skies, some carrying experimental wireless radio sets, reporting real-time reconnaissance.
Huge artillery pieces fired with pinpoint accuracy – using only aerial photos and maths they could score a hit on the first shot. Tanks had gone from the drawing board to the battlefield in just two years, also changing war for ever.
8. No-one won
Swathes of Europe lay wasted, millions were dead or wounded. Survivors lived on with severe mental trauma. The UK was broke. It is odd to talk about winning.
However, in a narrow military sense, the UK and its allies convincingly won. Germany’s battleships had been bottled up by the Royal Navy until their crews mutinied rather than make a suicidal attack against the British fleet.
Germany’s army collapsed as a series of mighty allied blows scythed through supposedly impregnable defences.
By late September 1918 the German emperor and his military mastermind Erich Ludendorff admitted that there was no hope and Germany must beg for peace. The 11 November Armistice was essentially a German surrender.
Unlike Hitler in 1945, the German government did not insist on a hopeless, pointless struggle until the allies were in Berlin – a decision that saved countless lives, but was seized upon later to claim Germany never really lost.
9. The Treaty of Versailles was extremely harsh
The Treaty of Versailles confiscated 10% of Germany’s territory but left it the largest, richest nation in central Europe.
It was largely unoccupied and financial reparations were linked to its ability to pay, which mostly went unenforced anyway.
The treaty was notably less harsh than treaties that ended the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War and World War Two. The German victors in the former annexed large chunks of two rich French provinces, part of France for between 200 and 300 years, and home to most of French iron ore production, as well as presenting France with a massive bill for immediate payment.
Treaty of Versailles, 1919
After WW2 Germany was occupied, split up, its factory machinery smashed or stolen and millions of prisoners forced to stay with their captors and work as slave labourers. Germany lost all the territory it had gained after WW1 and another giant slice on top of that.
Versailles was not harsh but was portrayed as such by Hitler, who sought to create a tidal wave of anti-Versailles sentiment on which he could then ride into power.
10. Everyone hated it
Two German soldiers with two Polish women
Like any war, it all comes down to luck. You may witness unimaginable horrors that leave you mentally and physically incapacitated for life, or you might get away without a scrape. It could be the best of times, or the worst of times.
Many soldiers enjoyed WW1. If they were lucky they would avoid a big offensive, and much of the time conditions might be better than at home.
For the British there was meat every day – a rare luxury back home – cigarettes, tea and rum, part of a daily diet of more than 4,000 calories.
Remarkably, absentee rates due to sickness, an important barometer of a unit’s morale, were hardly above those of peacetime. Many young men enjoyed the guaranteed pay, the intense comradeship, the responsibility and a much greater sexual freedom than in peacetime Britain.
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Some more USMC Pictures
Funny but there is not a beer bottle in sight! Grumpy Ex 18th US Cavalry