William K Bray - The County and the Kaiser

Private, 51st Co, 5th Regiment, 4th U.S. Marine Brigade, 2nd Division.

Killed in action at Belleau Wood, France, June 11, 1918. Age 24.

Town: Batavia

Burial: Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, Plot A Row 4 Grave 75, Belleau, France

William Kenneth Bray was born on January 16, 1894 in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. He was the only son of Oscar E Bray and wife Barbara nee McKay Bray, and had two younger sisters, Margaret and Kathleen. According to the 1910 US Census (column 15), the family immigrated to the United States in 1902. The same census shows the family living at 419 East Main Street in Batavia (Genesee County), New York. An article in the July 28, 1918 Wyoming County Times mentions that the Brays were former residents of Warsaw (Wyoming County), New York, and had moved to Batavia “a number of years ago.” Several classified ads selling firewood from W. Kenneth Bray at 201 Washington Avenue appear in Batavia newspapers during 1915 and 1916; this is the same address given for the family in 1917’s Farm Journal Illustrated Directory of Genesee County and also in 1918 newspaper announcements of Bray’s death.

According to his draft registration card, Bray was a naturalized U.S. citizen. Newspaper accounts state that he graduated from Batavia High School in 1913 and was working at the Lackawanna Steel Plant when he joined the Marines in Buffalo in 1917. His enlistment papers in his OMPF give Bray’s sign-up date as July 20, 1917, and his occupation as steel inspector. He was sent for training to Parris Island, South Carolina, where on August 1, 1917, he was officially enlisted.

After completing his training at Parris Island and Quantico, Virginia, Private Bray sailed for overseas duty from the Philadelphia Navy Yard aboard USS Von Steuben on February 5, 1918. His unit arrived at Brest, France, on February 25, 1918.

Private Bray was one of four Genesee County marines who lost their lives in the fighting at Belleau Wood in June, 1918.

By the end of May, 1918, a major German offensive had successfully driven south through French lines to the Marne River at Chateau-Thierry, and had then turned west towards Paris. With French defenses faltering, the American 2nd Division, which included the 5th and 6th Marine regiments, was rushed to the area northwest of Chateau-Thierry to halt the enemy advance. On June 1 the division took up positions west and south of Belleau Wood, and for five days held its ground against German assaults, stopping the advance.

Then, on June 6, the 5th Marines’ 1st Battalion launched the Americans’ first offensive attack in what would become a month-long battle for Belleau Wood. Bray’s 51st Company, normally a component of the 5th Marines’ 2nd Battalion, was sent to assist the 1st Battalion’s assault. Bray survived that fighting, in which Glenn S Loomis, another Genesee County marine, was killed. On June 10, the 51st Company rejoined the 2nd Battalion.

Private Bray was killed the next day, June 11, when the 2nd Battalion attacked Belleau Wood from the west, first crossing an open wheat field and then fighting through brush-tangled, boulder-strewn wooded terrain against hardened German troops. The attack was launched at 4:30 a.m. on a two-company front, with Bray’s 51st Company leading the assault on the right. Obscured by heavy morning mist, the marines made it most of the way across the exposed field before German machine gunners opened up with ferocity, especially on the 51st’s side. “Once discovered . . . they were brought under fire, and the leading waves shot to pieces, the volume of fire coming from the right front in the angle of the woods,” reads History of the 2d Division in World War I. The fighting was no less intense as the battalion’s survivors entered the woods. “The enemy made good use of the available cover, frequently hiding machine guns until a line had passed and then firing on our troops from the rear,” says History of the Second Battalion Fifth Marines. “German snipers were also concealed in tree tops. Fighting continued all the morning with frequent hand-to-hand encounters with the bayonet.” By the end of the day, the 2nd Battalion had taken some 30 enemy machine guns and nearly 400 prisoners, but at a heavy cost. The battalion’s casualties numbered six officers and 176 men killed and wounded.

Private Bray was first listed as missing in action, but the Marine Corps casualty list published July 20, 1918 reported that he had been killed. Documents in Bray’s Burial Case File and OMPF say that he died of a gunshot wound and place his battlefield burial location as “in field west of Bois de Belleau,” suggesting that he was likely killed during the marines’ initial early-morning assault toward the woods. His body was later interred permanently at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, France.

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July 28, 1918 Wyoming County Times p1 c1

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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York

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