AN ORDINARY SOLDIER

 

by Rory Morgan

When the U.S. declared war on Germany in April, 1917, the furthest thing from anyone's mind was the flu. Patriotic excitement swept through  the country. Young men rushed to military recruiting offices to enlist. Newspapers proudly announced the number of locals who had signed up to become soldiers and sailors. These early recruits received a modest amount of training in the U.S. and then were loaded onto transports for the journey to France, on their way to becoming the "doughboys" of the American Expeditionary Force (or AEF), fighting alongside the British and the French.

One of the early recruits in Easton was Robert E. Bitzer. He was 26 years old, one of nine children. He lived in the family home at 802 Spring Garden Street, and appears to have worked as a plumber in a silk mill. He was well-known in Easton for his participation in local football and baseball leagues. He was sworn into the Army on May 15, 1917, and was assigned to Battery A of the 7th Field Artillery, 1st Division. 

The unit shipped out to France in July, and was one of the first U.S. units to arrive. (The earliest-arriving American units, lacking cannons of their own, had to borrow them from the French.) Battery A claimed credit for firing the first American shot at the Germans, in October 1917. It was engaged in frequent combat from then until the Armistice brought an end to the fighting in November, 1918. Bitzer was promoted to Corporal in late 1917. By October of 1918, he had experienced a year of fighting and had received just one minor wound. 

Suddenly, the doughboys faced a new enemy, one that wore no uniforms and carried no guns. It was the worldwide epidemic of influenza. It somehow came to be called the Spanish Flu, even though Spain had no more to do with it than any other country. The first sign of the illness was often cyanosis - a blue coloring of the face. Some of those affected died within a day of becoming ill. Pneumonia frequently developed. Autopsies revealed unusual lung damage. Compared to earlier editions of influenza, it was particularly harmful to young, otherwise-healthy people - such as soldiers. Overcrowded training camps and troopships provided a ideal environment for the spreading the disease. New arrivals to France brought the virus from the U.S., passing it to exhausted veterans.

Eventually, about 25,000 soldiers of the A.E.F. died from the effects of the disease. Corporal Bitzer was one of the them; he died of pneumonia on October 15, 1918. He was initially buried in  France. In 1921, his body was exhumed, returned to the U.S., and reinterred in Easton Cemetery. In addition to his stone in the cemetery, Bitzer has a plaque in the grove at Hackett's Park which honors the Easton World War I service men who gave their lives.