Recently while helping the New Ulm American Legion conduct research into New Ulm men who were held as prisoners of war during World War II I accidently stumbled upon a man from the rural Springfield area, who had fought in France and was captured by the Germans during World War 1.

This is his story: Otto A. Bast was born in 1892 in Bashaw Township. When he was 8 he moved with his parents and siblings to a farm in Sundown Township (Redwood Co.). Otto enlisted to serve his nation on Sept. 21, 1917 at Redwood Falls. Leaving by train the next day he passed through the “Cities” and on to Camp Dodge, Iowa arriving on Sept. 22. Otto was assigned to C. Company of the 327th Infantry of the 88th Division.

Otto was given K.P. (Kitchen Patrol) duties at Camp Dodge and was so proficient that the Army promoted him to a cook! It was there in the kitchen that Otto met Charles Brazle of Sanborn and the two became fast friends. They cooked and trained together at Camp Dodge until March of 1918. The two were allowed to go on pass into nearby Des Moines and were reported to have “celebrated” some. They were reassigned to the 313th Ammunition Train of the 88th Division and later transferred to the 82nd Division when they were shipped to Camp Gordon near Atlanta, Georgia.

There Otto was reassigned to K. Company and Charles was placed in C. Company. They stayed in Georgia for about a week and were then shipped by rail to Camp Upton in New York City where they stayed four days before departing for overseas duties.

“Thirteen days at sea was a very long time for the men,” wrote Charles, in a memoir about his comradeship with Otto. They were fed spoiled fish and were seasick the entire journey. Arriving in Liverpool, England they were allowed to rest 10 days to get over their seasickness. Soon after they departed for France by crossing the English Channel and landing at La Havre. They would spend the summer of 1918 in the La Reine (Boucq) Sector (also known as the Toul Sector) which was a bulge in the Allied lines remaining from the original German advance in 1914.

Charles wrote that the Toul Sector was very “quiet” (in regards to combat action). Their first offensive action was in the American Offensive at Saint Mihiel and they were next sent into action in the Muese Argonne Offensive. On Sept. 21 they traveled “under shell fire the whole day while the 33rd Division got their lines straighten out.” On Oct. 6 Otto and Charles were sent to the front line with 298 other men. The next day they “went over the top,” presumably out of the trenches to fight head on in No Man’s Land with the opposing force. Only 40 men returned to the safety of the trenches that night, the remainder were killed or wounded.

Otto and Charles and another force of men went over the top again on Oct. 9. Otto was in the lead; Charles was farther behind in the trenches that were spewing out hundreds of men like an upset ant hill. Being in the lead or farther behind had no consequence in their fate that day. Otto was captured by the Germans and became a Prisoner of War in the morning and Charles was captured in the afternoon. They were immediately put to work by their captors carrying wounded Germans from the front lines back to aid stations. They carried one wounded German solider wrapped in a blanket for a stretcher a quarter-mile to the aid station. At the aid station they were forced to carry gravely injured Germans to a base hospital which was two to three miles away. In the evening the prisoners were assembled and marched throughout the night. In the morning they were searched and all of their valuables were confiscated. Again they marched all afternoon, eventually arriving at a prison camp. Otto’s obituary called it Raustau. They didn’t get fed for the first three days and they fought off flea infestations for over a week. Their first real food came through the American Red Cross. After a month they were transferred to a camp in the central part of Germany where they were hired out to local farmers.

There they learned to use cows to pull plows, move hay and other farm crops needed to feed the German Army. Otto and Charles were hired out to a pair of brothers where they worked until the Armistice was signed. They were freed and sent back to a garrison camp where they remained until mid-December.

As liberated soldiers they traveled on a Swiss train that stopped in Berne, Switzerland where they were treated to a real dinner served again by the Red Cross. Wounded men were treated by Red Cross nurses and everyone received new, clean uniforms. They continued on the Swiss train until they could be transferred onto a French train. Accommodations were not as nice on the French train as Charles described being “packed like sardines for 3 days, and only given food rations for one day’s travel.”

They eventually were reunited with their Company where they remained until departing in May of 1919. Again, 13 days by sea voyage to New York City, shipped by rail to Camp Dodge, and they were discharged from the Army. Charles would go Illinois to visit his mother and eventually returned to Sanborn. Otto headed straight back to Springfield to see his parents and of course his sweetheart Clara Klabunde. Otto and Clara married a year later on May 26, 1920. Otto and Clara farmed until his untimely death at age 46 in 1939. Otto had been a Charter Member and Vice President of the John Watson American Legion Post of Springfield. He was also the treasurer of the school board for eight years. He and Clara had one daughter, Irene Bast who gave her parents seven grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Clara would live another 55 years, passing in 1994 at the age of 96.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of America’s entry into the Great War. Charles wrote that “Otto was one boy willing to give his life for his country.” The last living American soldier to serve in WW1 was Frank Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia. He died in 2011 at the age of 110 years. May God rest these valiant men’s souls.