He was the only local boy to fight in Italy during World War One.

Leo Paul Werne was a younger brother of Gary’s grandpa George. Born on January 25, 1891, he was 25 when the call came to sign up for the draft. Leo prepared to go “over there.”

As part of the American Expeditionary Forces, Private Werne was a “Doughboy.”

According to a front-page article in The Ferdinand News on May 23, 1919, Leo had quite an adventure:

Returns Home From Italy

Private Leo Werne, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Werne, the only Ferdinand boy who saw service in Italy, returned home last Friday night, after a visit with relatives at Akron, Ohio.

He was with the 332nd Infantry, a brief history of which we give below. He was only in battle once, on the fourth of last November, and that day he will never forget.

When the order came to “go over,” lead, steel, and iron came their way as thick as rain. But as they advanced, they got under the Austrian’s range, with the result that the veritable destruction of humanity passed over their heads, and continuous rapid advance, caused the enemy to retreat, leaving great stores of munitions behind. Only one of the Americans was killed and several injured during this attack.

Leo says that his company had received special training in bayonet work but the Austrians and Germans ran so fast that they never had a chance to get close to them with their bayonets.

History of the Regiment

The 332nd Infantry was a part of the 83rd Division which trained at Camp Sherman, Ohio, under Maj. Gen. Edwin F. Glenn. Most of the men being from Akron, Cleveland, and Canton. These are the Yanks who fought their way across the flooded Tagliamento, driving the picked Austrian troops to within 10 miles of their own border.

The 83rd Division settled down to hard training immediately upon arriving in France and the training had scarcely begun when word spread through the ranks that the 332nd Infantry was to be “signally honored” and this honor was the transfer to Italy.

A second physical examination was given so that only those most fit might be sent.

The journey to Italy lasted nearly four days, arriving in Italy on July 29th.

Then began a peculiar “campaign of propaganda” in which the 332nd played their parts unknowingly, but which later bore fruit that was surprising. The regiment was shifted from place to place. Companies and battalions were detached and marched to this and that town for parades and reviews, always with great ostentation.

The result, shrewdly calculated, was beyond expectation. German spies in Italy saw these companies and battalions marching in many cities. They reported it to the Austrians, who, when finally attacked by the Americans, fancied a whole army was upon them instead of just one regiment. When this seed had been sown the 332nd started toward the Austrian front, beginning to move by detachments around Sept. 10.

On the night of Oct. 29 the regiment moved out of Treviso as part of the 31st Italian Division attached to the 10th Army, in conjunction with British on their left and Italians on their right. After four days of forced march they reached the Tagliamento River near Valvasone, the first infantry organization to get there.

The Austrians were waiting.

In the face of marching gunfire from front and flank, they pushed along the Tagliamento on single planks over destroyed bridges. Troops then deployed on the left bank of the river and pushed on 10 miles to the final objective, Villorba, where they made ready for another advance, when the armistice with the Austrians stopped the fighting.

Leo’s first letter home from “somewhere in Italy” also made the paper:

Leo married Veronica Nord in 1921, settled in Dale, and had two daughters. He lived to be 88.

Maybe just once in a while over the years, Leo thought back to those days in Italy. The training, the fruit, snow, the bayonets. And the long journey back, on board the ship Canopic from Marseilles to New York.

---

Please subscribe here and we’ll send an email notice with each new story: