Andy Youngbar: Curtis Bay Private Emerged a Hero from ‘No Man’s Land’ in WWI
A shy, unassuming U.S. Army private first class huddled shellshocked in a muddy trench in France in 1918, just seconds after German grenades had exploded over him ripping 32 separate wounds into his arms and back. The infantryman’s next moves were mostly reactive, but those brave actions saved the lives of his regiment and earned Private Andy Youngbar the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award in the U.S. Army.
World War I introduced trench warfare to soldiers in the European theater. It was a particularly deadly specialized munition tactic that took the lives of between 8.5 and 12 million men during the Great War. Soldiers looking to advance in the battlefield needed to navigate forward from trench to trench, avoiding mustard gas and dodging bullets and mortars along the way. The gaps between the trenches were known as “No Man’s Land” because neither side could secure it. The bulk of American deaths in the Great War were a result of trench warfare. It was No Man’s Land where Andy Youngbar emerged a hero.
Youngbar was a typical young man growing up in Fairfield, a modest enclave of Baltimore’s Curtis Bay. He was one of three brothers and his family worshiped at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church. Andy’s brothers also served in the Army, but he was the only one to serve overseas. After basic training, he soon found himself serving in the U.S. Army’s 29th Infantry Blue and Gray Division, 115th Infantry Regiment, Maryland Army National Guard.
Embedded with the Maryland-based 115th for parts of 1918, Baltimore Sun correspondent Raymond S. Tompkins, retold Youngbar’s story in the October 6, 1918, edition of the Morning Sun. It started with the Regiment’s arrival in France on a rainy July 30. The 115th’s mission was to secure and hold a strategically sensitive area on the French Front near the border of Germany and Switzerland.
Unit commanders set up a line of resistance in the ruined, muddy village of Balschwiller. The trenches there were old and bombed out, so the Marylanders set out to repair broken duckboards, some of which had sunk deep into the mud, and to build up trench walls and improve the automatic rifle structures and the gas attack defense measures.
While some soldiers affected the repairs, other stood watch in “petit posts,” which were guard stations at the end of the trenches. Youngbar and Sergeant John H.E. Hoppe, both of Company K, were standing watch that night. Near the end of their shift, at roughly 4:45 a.m. on July 31st, a raiding party of about 20 Germans attacked the post where Youngbar and Hoppe were standing watch with five other soldiers.
Hiding behind tall grass in No Man’s Land, the German soldiers rained hand grenades into the trench behind the petit post. The explosions instantly killed three Marylanders and wounded the other five. One of Hoppe’s thumbs was blown off in the explosions and Youngbar’s back and arms were filled with steel grenade splinters. Medics later counted 32 separate wounds, 18 of them were serious. Both of their uniforms were torn to shreds and Youngbar had a shell splinter pierced his helmet near his temple. Curtis Bay’s own Alexander Stanorski, a 21-year-old Russian immigrant, died in the raid, along with Pvt. James Lundy of Baltimore, and Pvt. Paul Hull of Silver Spring, Maryland.
The post was destroyed and the surviving soldiers were in disarray, but Hoppe, a Baltimore City native, refused to fall back and instead jumped over the top of the trench with his rifle. Hoppe shouted, “Come on, Andy,” and Youngbar jumped out of the trench to join his sergeant. The counter-attack surprised the German soldiers who were not prepared to see survivors. Youngbar and Hoppe shot and killed one German soldier and the others fled; they stayed on guard until reinforcements arrived shortly after. Had Youngbar and Hoppe not counter-attacked, the sleeping 115th would have been overrun. Later that morning the full strength of the Second and Third Battalions arrived and secured that portion of the border before moving forward into Germany in August.
The 115th soldiered on in France, but the fighting had ended for Youngbar and Hoppe. Both returned to America wounded, but in good spirits. Youngbar’s injuries were far more serious than Hoppe’s, and he convalesced in an Army hospital for more than four weeks. For their act of valor, they both received the Distinguished Service Cross.. They were the first soldiers from the 115th to ever earn the honor.
On a bright Saturday morning in October Youngbar’s hometown of Baltimore and his Maryland Army battalion welcomed him home. The day was replete with pomp and circumstance. A military parade was ordered with an Eyes Right maneuver courtesy to Youngbar, Hoppe, and the other soldiers being honored. Youngbar couldn’t stand for his award, being relegated to a limousine, but his heroism was recognized by General of the Armies John J. Pershing:
“Private, First Class, Andy Youngbar. Infantry. During a raid against a post of his command, near Gildwiller, France, July 31, 1918, he showed great courage and endurance when attacked with hand grenades. Although seriously wounded he joined in a counter-attack against great superior numbers and continued to fight even after receiving a second wound, until the enemy was repulsed.”
Life returned to normal for Youngbar after his discharge from the Army. He married the former Miss Alice Neff with great fanfare in September 1920; the Baltimore press never forgets a war hero. He didn’t venture far from his hometown of Fairfield, renting a house at 3706 Ninth Street in Brooklyn where he lived out most of his 58 years. He and Alice had five children — three sons and two daughters. He worked for more than 20 years as a tool helper and machinist at the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay. He died after a long illness on October 15, 1952. When he passed, the Baltimore Sun again recognized him and his achievement with a story that remembered how he and Sergeant Hoppe bravely charged into No Man’s Land and saved the lives of their Regiment brothers.
