Submitted by the Bedford Historical Society
When the call went out for American boys to join the fight to save democracy in Europe in 1917, the Yankee Division was the first to be organized, the first to cross the ocean, and the first to take to the battle lines in World War I.
Formed on July 18, 1917 and activated on August 22, 1917 at Camp Edwards, MA from units of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, the Yankee Division was the nickname of the 26th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.
The Division’s famous accomplishments will be described by historian Dan Leclerc at the Bedford Historical Society’s Sunday, Nov. 12th program. Those include facing intense enemy attacks in French towns like Apremont and Seicheprey, where its members demonstrated their courage and fighting spirit in what was sometimes bayonet-to-bayonet combat, and earned a regimental “Croix-de-Guerre” (French military bronze medal). LeClerc also will discuss four subsequent larger offensives of the Division, in which its members faced the full force of stiff enemy resistance, costing many casualties.
The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will begin with a half-hour refreshment period at 2 pm in the Great Hall of Old Town Hall, 16 South Road. At 2:30 pm, after brief announcements, Society President Don Corey will introduce LeClerc.
Dan Leclerc taught history for 20 years in the Chelmsford and Hingham Public Schools, and was a senior administrator for 12 years and retired as Assistant Superintendent in the Ashland Public Schools. He holds a Masters Degree in History from Northeastern University specializing in Modern European and Early U.S. Colonial History and has made numerous trips to the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to sites in Germany, Russia and Israel.
He is a frequent speaker to historical societies and libraries, and currently teaches in the Beacon Hill Seminars and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at UMASS Boston and Tufts University.
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