Log Cabin Memorial - Veterans 314th Infantry Regiment A.E.F.

First Lieutenant Joseph F.M. Baldi II - Company SF (Regimental Staff)

November 11, 1918: Day of Armistice   In the early morning hours of November 11, 1918, First Lieutenant Joseph F.M. Baldi II received a note from a runner. He would tell his son, Robert, years later, that when he received the note, he needed to crouch down behind a pile of debris for protection from enemy fire in order to read the note and respond; he was not certain the note was real and insisted on proper identification from the runner. Crouching down behind the debris and writing a reply, a bullet shot over his head; debris fell down on him and the note. He pushed it aside and responded to the message. As he turned to give his reply to the runner, he realized the bullet had hit the soldier behind him. The message, a handwritten order from Colonel Oury, stated:   Hostilities will cease at 11 AM today. At that time everyone dig in where they are shoot rockets to announce the hour. No firing at 11 o’clock unless the enemy fires after 11. No man go forward or come back. Until that time the advance will be pushed vigorously. Col. Oury Lieutenant Baldi was spared that morning from enemy fire, but the soldier behind him was shot just minutes before the Armistice, and he later died. After the war, Colonel Oury’s order was framed by Lieutenant Baldi and hung in his Philadelphia law office.   Lieutenant Baldi, later Major Baldi, rarely spoke of his service during World War I and World War II. Many years after his death, his son, Robert, learned, specifically, what the 314th Infantry experienced in France during World War I.   When Lieutenant Baldi received the handwritten battlefield order from Colonel Oury on November 11, the 313th and 314th Infantries were in the front line where they first experienced combat during the early morning hours of September 26th. These two regiments led the 79th Division in a battle to capture the town of Montfaucon while pushing the Germans out of bunkers and trenches that the Germans had held for two years. The job of the 79th division, along with additional divisions sent to France by United States, was to push the Germans from the land they had long occupied. This land rightfully belonged to France, but the town of Montfaucon was completely fortified and protected by German artillery. The Germans knew the land in this area very well and were practiced in the artillery needed to stop any advances by the Americans. From November 1st until November 11th, the 314th continued their assignment to capture the towns of Crepion, Waville, and Moore. From there, they captured Buisson Chaumont, Hill 328, but the taking of Montfaucon cost the Americans many lives. Both the 313th and the 314th suffered through a devasting battle and ultimately achieved their objective, but it took them a day longer than planned by the senior command, and subsequently, they suffered from misplaced and unreasonable criticism. Their story has since been retold in books written by Maarten Otte, a military scholar, who in his book, Montfaucon: The American Expeditionary Forces in the Great War (Amazon link), describes the land crossed by the 313th and 314th as “death traps” created to trap the Americans.   In spite of the criticism, on the morning of November 11, 1918, when Lieutenant Baldi received the order to suspend all firings at 11AM, the 314th had advanced to the edge of Cote de Romagne; this was the greatest advance into German lines on the entire eastern front of Meuse-Argonne. In a letter written to his mother on November 20, 1918, he wrote: I came out in great shape-we’ll have lots to tell you all when I return… I really feel thankful that I came through what I did unwounded. Lots could have happened so I thank the Lord that I came through… have been corresponding regularly with FRED and Virgil [his brothers, who also served in the military] -they are OK according to their letters. Sure would like to see them soon….. we sure put it to those Germans and believe me our battalion did all of it --of course we will not get our credit but who cares. We know just what we did and we all have a clean conscience as to doing our part and that helps…… also enclosing the note which we received while on the front line which told us hostilities were to cease. We received it at 20 minutes to11-and believe me they were 20 awful minutes. That would have been a poor time to get hit and we all know it. Keep this note for me--it is a real “souvenir” --believe me.   Biography: Joseph F.M. Baldi. World War I: First Lieutenant; World War II: Major, Air Force Army Intelligence   JOSEPH BALDI was born May 11, 1894, to Louisa Sobernheimer and Charles Carmen Antonio Baldi, a proud, successful, and politically significant Italian immigrant. Joseph Baldi graduated from Central High School and the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. In April 1917, while attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he joined the Army and applied to the newly created Reserve Officers Training Camp, and on August 10, 1917, he completed his training and was appointed First Lieutenant; he went on to train at Fort Mead with the rest of the 314th and served as the camp “Censor” in his role as “Intelligence Officer.”   At the end of World War I, following his discharge from the army, he practiced law in Philadelphia and was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature for two sessions, 1929 to 1932, representing the First Ward. During World War II, stationed in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he served in the Air Force Intelligence Army as a Major. In Fort Wayne, he met his future wife, Caroline Otjen, and they married shortly after, returning to Philadelphia where they raised two sons: Joseph and Robert. A successful lawyer and an active member of the American Legion, he regularly attended the annual 314th infantry gatherings at the Log Cabin where he often was a speaker and known for reading from a collection of poems titled Doughboy Ditties, authored by Joseph Cushing, and dedicated to his fellow members of the 314th Infantry. Joseph Baldi died on November 23, 1970, and is buried in the Baldi Crypt at Westminster Cemetery, Manayunk, Pennsylvania.

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Lieutenant Joseph Baldi 2nd: The Camp Censor

Public Ledger Philadelphia Newspaper - Sunday October 21, 1917

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Lieutenant Joseph Baldi 2nd: The Camp Censor

Major Joseph Baldi (click to see full-size)

Rep. Joseph F.M. Baldi, Roxborough District, Philadelphia, from the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper (click to see full-size)