Real Hero Report | September 2019 | 33
1st Lt. Vivian Roberts: The Georgia
National Guard’s Only POW of WWI
The United States observes National Prisoner of War/
Missing in Action Recognition Day on the third Friday
in September. On this day, when Americans remember
those who have been held as prisoners of war during our nation’s
the return of the only Georgia Guardsmen held as a POW during
World War I.
Prelude
Vivian Hill Roberts Sr. was born September
29, 1887, in Jackson Georgia. He enlisted in
the Macon Hussars, then Company F of the
2nd Georgia Infantry Regiment as a private
July 26, 1906. Roberts served in every enlisted
Company F before accepting a commission
as a second lieutenant March 1, 1915. He was working as a
bookkeeper for Benson Clothing Company in Macon when the
Georgia Guard was deployed to the Mexican Border in August
1916. Returning with his regiment in 1917, Roberts company was
re-designated Company A, 151st Machine Gun Battalion (MGB)
and assigned to the 42nd Division which sailed to France in
October 1917.
As a platoon leader, Roberts led his machine gun sections from
the Baccarat Sector near the southern terminus of the Western
Roberts’ Company was heavily engaged while supporting infantry
assaults on German positions near Sergy, France. The men of
the 151st MGB were ordered to move forward with the Infantry
Regiments of the 84th Brigade, 42nd Division. As the machine
gunners were already overly-burdened with heavy machine guns
and ammunition, Roberts ordered the men to remove unnecessary
gear–including packs and canteens. In the assault, the men would
only carry ammunition and gas masks.
Capture
Roberts recalled moving forward with four machine guns and
due to the presence of enemy machine guns positioned near the
crest of the hill upon which he was advancing, Roberts requested
infantry support which came in the form of a company from
the 167th under command of Capt. Wyatt. Roberts recalls what
happened next.
stretching all across the hill. Machine guns opened up on us from
the woods on the right and from the church steeple and buildings
into our ranks. Hearing a groan at my side, I turned and saw little
about every sixth man in our line. A bullet struck me in my right
thigh breaking the bone and passing on through the leg and
lodging in the lower leg… I asked two infantrymen to carry me
back. They tried to do it but as my right leg was dangling, giving
me so much pain and bullets were singing all around us. I asked
them to put me in a shell hole and make their escape.”
Roberts was found by German Soldiers. One gave him a blanket
and told Roberts that they would come back for him that evening.
When they returned it was only to leave Roberts once more with
the knowledge that the Germans anticipated an American attack
to come in the morning. Roberts remained in the shell hole for
30 hours without food or water and with three exposed wounds
men found him and bore him into German lines in a shelter half.
His wounds were dressed, and he was taken via stretcher to a
horse-drawn ambulance while American artillery shells crashed all
around. Roberts grimly recalled the ambulance ride.
“As my leg had not been put into a splint you can imagine
the condition I was in after about a two hours’ ride. We arrived
at what I took to be Fismes; here we were taken to a German
Field Hospital. And my leg was set and put in a splint. As the
hospital was being evacuated that night due to the advance of the
Americans, I was soon put into an automobile ambulance with
three wounded Germans. We travelled all night, arriving early in
the morning at what I took to be Laon.”
In Laon, Roberts along with wounded French and German
Soldiers were loaded onto freight rail cars on pallets of bloodsoaked
straw and blankets for transport to Formies, France, near
the Belgian border. Here he was asked by an English-speaking
nurse when his wound had last been dressed. As jarring as this
was, Roberts soon discovered that he was one of 800 wounded
Soldiers being treated at the hospital by one doctor and two nurses.
On August 25, 1918, Roberts was reported as missing in action.
Roberts’ family endured weeks of uncertainty, then on September
13, the Macon Telegraph reported that the 151st MGB had listed
Roberts as killed in action. It was not until November 1, that
Roberts’ family learned that Lt. Roberts was indeed alive and
being held in a prison at Langensalza Thuringen, Germany.
Roberts Return
Roberts would remain at Langensalza until December 21, 1918,
when he began his journey home. Arriving at the American Base
Hospital Number 45 on December 24, 1918, Roberts realized
his earnest wish to be free by Christmas. He did not return to the
United States until February 25, 1919. Roberts would remain
hospitalized due to the effects of his wound until December 22,
1922, when he was released from federal service. While still a
patient at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Roberts married Antoinette
Lipgens. For more than 20 years, Roberts served as the Clerk of
Bibb County Superior Court. He died August 24, 1946 at the age
of 57 and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Macon, Georgia.