Veterans column: Janet Jones experiences war first hand
No other letters from Janet Jones exist about her service once she arrived in France. However, by looking at her service record and using information from author Elizabeth Cobbs’ book “The Hello Girls, America’s First Woman Soldiers” an accurate picture of what they did can be seen.
When Janet with the first 100 operators arrived in France, they were immediately put on a train for Paris. They were told the city was under bombardment by the Germans. They arrived in Paris after dark. There was not a light to be seen so they could avoid giving the enemy any targets. The operators were taken to a YMCA Hostel. They had slept maybe an hour when they heard what they soon learned were air raid sirens and people running through the corridors yelling. A bomb hit next to the hostel that evening, which quickly made the war very real.
According to Cobbs’ book, “Seven days later, the boom of heavy artillery shook windows and walls so badly that the phones were almost impossible to use at times,” quoting the diary of operator Bertha Hunt. She also noted in her diary later when Paris was under attack, “Signal Corps women drilled with leaky gas masks.”
The operators were split into smaller groups and stationed around France; Janet was sent to Chaumont. Their task included getting the phone network up and running as quickly as possible, what would have taken AT&T in the states months to do they did in weeks. By July local connections increased from 13,000 calls per day in January, to 35,000 calls. Telephone lines were everywhere, from the front trenches to every major city in France and even across the channel to England. The operators had to work with French operators to connect calls. This was often a strain since French were trained differently than Americans. When calls came from the trenches for artillery or reinforcements, the operators knew that their efficiency was crucial to saving American lives. They often worked 12-hour days and by the end of the war in November “would serve 8,152 different subscribers” according to Cobbs. “By November 11, the Signal Corps was averaging 4,000 toll calls and 150,000 local calls every day. By the end of the war, they had connected 26 million calls.”
Paperwork from Janet’s military file shows that in December 1919, she was transferred to Paris and was notified that she was given a raise in salary from $60.00 a month to $70.00 per month. With that raise, she was given the “Oath of Allegiance” again on Dec. 27, 1918. In January she was given another $5.00 increase in salary and again signed another “Oath.” The Army now had three signed oaths on file for Janet Jones on “Standard Form No. 6 of the War Department.” However, they would soon have another surprise in store for the “Hello Girls.”
Doug Stout is the Veterans Project Coordinator for the Licking County Library. You may contact him at 740-349-5571.