Draft:McKinley Wooden

McKinley Wooden (born March 2, 1895) was an American mechanic who worked on the French 75 (Matériel de 75 mm or m1897) during World War 1.

Early Life
Wooden was born on March 2, 1895 in Harrison County, Missouri, to Charles and Elizabeth Wooden. His family moved onto a farm near Walker, Missouri when he was 3 years old then into the town the next year. In 1900, his family moved a couple of miles back outside of Walker before then moving to Dedrick, now Dederick, Missouri.

It was at about 8 years old that Wooden began a formal education at a school called Flycreek. About this time the family settled down in Clear Creek, Missouri. Not long after they moved out to Milo, Missouri for two years, then to Montevallo, Missouri. It was there in Montevallo in 1910 where Wooden finished his education in 8th grade at Diamond Grove, the nearby country school.

In early 1916, Wooden took a job transporting 2 mules, two horses, a cow and some chickens from Missouri to Idaho. Wooden decided to stay in Idaho Falls and ended up with a job on a ranch for $40 a month. By October, Wooden had decided that he was ready to move on, from Idaho Falls he went to Salt Lake City and got a job at Utah Fire Clay Company. By election day in 1916, Wooden was back in Walker, Missouri working for a previous employer of his.

Enlistment & Training
Wooden arrived in Kansas City April 7, 1917, and decided to do a 6 week course at the Rahe Auto and Tractor School before deciding what branch he wanted to join. June 11, 1917, after finishing his course, he enlisted into Battery D of the Second Missouri Field Artillery.

August 4, 1917, the battery was mustered into the regular army as Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Field Artillery Brigade, 35th Division. In September they went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for training where they stayed until April of 1918.

Deployment
From Ft. Sill, Wooden and the rest of Battery D traveled to New York where they boarded the Saxonia to Liverpool, England. The trip took about 16 days then after a couple of nights in England they boarded a small boat called the Viper and crossed the channel to Le Havre, France. From Le Havre, the battery took a train to Angers, France before a 6-8 mile hike to where they were camping.

Shortly after arriving in Angers, Wooden was sent to an artillery school at Coetquidan in France. It was here he stayed until July of 1918 when the rest of the battery joined him and he met (then) Captain Harry Truman.

Upon Battery D's arrival at Coetquidan, Wooden was promoted to Chief Mechanic. They were practicing firing the cannons everyday. According to Wooden the, "Chief mechanic is responsible to the battery commander for all material in the battery and shall be with the firing battery at all times."

2 or 3 weeks after Battery D had arrived at Coetquidan, they moved into a sector of the Vosges Mountains. This was Wooden's first engagement of the war. 3,000 rounds of chlorine gas shells were fired by the regiment that night. The engagement, nicknamed The Battle of Who Run, was not an ideal first. Many of the men obeyed 1st Sgt. Wooldridge and retreated from their lines though Wooden and Sgt. James T. McNamara (gunner of #4 gun) stayed throughout the barrage. Wooden names McNamara the fastest of the gunners, on gun 4 he handled the range. The Battery soon moved up to Kruth, France then to St. Mihiel, France.

The Meuse-Argonne Offensive
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive is the most famous of Battery D's campaigns.

After a hard week's march in mostly rainy weather, Battery D made it to their location for the Argonne drive. Roughly 7:40pm, on September 26th, the barrage began. According to Wooden, "seven days after that, our guns were still warm, all the time." During the battle, water had to be poured into the barrel of the gun and allowed to run all the way to the breech. This was the only way to cool the guns down enough to keep firing. In order to keep from causing issues, grease was applied to the brass rotating band on the shell for lubrication. Each night they moved a little further up the hills in order to increase the range of the shots. Their main targets were the German machine gun nests on the other side of the valley though several towns, fortified and occupied by the Germans, were also bombed. Bombing the towns made advancement easier for the infantry troops to capture.

One evening a German plane flew overhead the battery prompting Truman to move the battery back and right from the original position which likely saved the lives of the entire group. Less than 15 minutes later the Germans began a barrage on the previous location. The battery stayed around that position for several days after the 35th Division Infantry moved out of the Argonne. The Battery stayed in place and supported the First Division who were struggling to get their artillery up. When Battery D was relieved from their positions around October 2nd, they only had 2 men wounded. The majority of the losses amongst artillery was from Battery C.

The French 75
The gun Battery D used in WW1 was frequently known as the "French 75". Wooden, after being promoted to Chief Mechanic, was present for every firing of this gun for the duration of their deployment. Among the things he was in charge of was the readjustment of the recoil systems which needed to be done frequently, especially during long battles.

Each gun was contained within a "section". A section consisted of 1 gun, 16 men, a dozen horses, and the caissons with the gun. While the horses were not under Wooden's supervision, everything else was.