HE CHARGED ALONE

A biography of the “second bravest” American soldier in World War I.

In the pantheon of America’s World War I heroes, Sgt. Alvin York is usually the first to spring to mind, his exploits having been chronicled in at least three biographies and a 1941 movie starring Gary Cooper. However, it was Pfc. Frank Gaffney who, in September 1918, single-handedly charged an entrenched German position along the Hindenburg Line, resulting in the capture of 80 German troops and a Medal of Honor for Gaffney. The 34-year-old infantryman was near Bony, France, when his company engaged the Germans. One sergeant had described him as an “indifferent soldier” in training camp, but under heavy German shelling, he turned into “a veritable human hurricane,” charging the German trench with “his Lewis gun, pistol, and whatever ammunition and grenades he could carry.” According to Strasburg, the breach he created in the Hindenburg Line “allowed soldiers to funnel into the massive main trench from where they rolled up the German resistance.” He lost the use of his arm to a bullet wound sustained in another engagement with the Germans, but he returned to the U.S. a hero. Once home, he had to deal with “unwanted celebrity status and navigating the red tape to obtain his government benefits.” One interviewer reported: “He will look you straight in the eye and deny that he was ever in the war.” But Gaffney wasn’t given much to introspection or rumination about his experiences. “The work of a soldier is dangerous, but I enjoyed it….If I had come back whole, I would have said the experience did not do me any harm,” he told another interviewer. Strasburg’s breezy biography ably captures Gaffney’s bravery but is somewhat short on revealing details about the man. The author ably notes Gaffney’s “renowned sense of humor” and disinclination to fame, but his portrayal of his subject feels incomplete. Still, military buffs will find memorable information here on Pfc. Frank Gaffney.

A somewhat flat rendering of a modest hero.