George Bonham O'Neal was born in Pensacola, Florida on September 1894, the son Luther Rodgers O'Neal (1857-1919) and Susan Anna Burch (1861-1937). His family migrated to Pensacola from Russell County, Alabama around 1893. Here, his father would occupy several jobs before becoming a jailer at the county jail in 1913. He would then become a police officer with the Pensacola Police Department while living at 1016 West LaRua Street, one of many residences. By 1919, he had been promoted to a police Sergeant. In the meantime, his son George dropped out of school in the 6th grade and entered the workforce as a clerk.
But by 1917, America's entry into World War I was becoming more of a reality than President Woodrow Wilson wished. George decided to go ahead and enlist in the US Army on February 17, 1917. He was ordered to the induction center at Ft. Hayes, Ohio, also known as Columbus Barracks. After induction, he was assigned to Company "G" of the 16th Infantry Regiment. He joined his regiment at El Valle, Mexico where they were confronting the Mexican bandit Pancho Villa. The Mexican bandit had previously attacked Columbus, New Mexico on March 9, 1916 and fought a pitched battle with US forces. Seventy American soldiers and fifteen civilians were killed whereas Villa lost up to 170 men. The 16th Regiment was sent along with another regiment on a punitive expedition against the bandits. It was about this time that George joined his regiment for several weeks of patrol and skirmishing. However, President Wilson recalled the American forces resulting in their withdrawal beginning in February.
After America's entry into the war, George's regiment was sent to France on June 14, 1917 as part of the new 1st Expeditionary Division. They sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey to St. Nazaire, France and became one of the first four American regiments to arrive in France in World War I. On November 3, 1917, it became the first US regiment to fight from their trenches near Bathlémont. Bloody battles and mounting casualties followed in the battles of the St. Mihiel salient and the Meuse-Argonne Campaign. In this ferocious campaign, George wrote home in June 1918 of the huge shells bombarding them from the German "Big Berthas." He told his folks of "being within range of the giant German guns and seeing their shells flying overhead and hearing their terrifying shrieking!" These monsters were 16.5-in howitzers and nicknamed for the "Krupp Arms" matriarch Bertha Krupp von Bohlen (1886–1957).
George was wounded on July 30, 1918 in the bloody attack at Soissons. But on November 6th, the French forces captured the town of Sedan with its critical railroad hub while American forces captured the surrounding hills. It was in this battle that George was severely wounded just four days before the cessation of all hostilities. After the armistice, his regiment performed occupation duties until their return in August 1919, however George was sent home with 25% disability on December 21, 1918. He would return home to marry Hazel Barwick (1919-1962) in 1937 in her home in Hardee County, Florida. In 1940, George was in Hardee County as a farm laborer and by 1945 had returned to Pensacola with Hazel and their three children Josephine E., Jasper, and Susan. Hazel would pass away in 1962 and was buried in the Pleasant Home Primitive Baptist Cemetery, Bellview, Escambia County, Florida where George would join her in 1973.
Pensacola News Journal 6-19-1918
George Bonham O'Neal WWI Service Card
Big Bertha, the most feared weapon of WWI by the Allied Army
Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (1886–1957)
Namesake of her company's howitzers "Big Bertha"
Buried Pleasant Home Primitive Baptist Cemetery, Bellview, Escambia County, Florida