FIRST ON THE BEACH, AND DINNER WITH HEMINGWAY

Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Teague… was called by Col. Charles T. Lanham ‘the most competent leader in battle I have ever known.’

-From “Paschendale with Treebursts” by Robert S. Rush

Referring to the great stone face of The Old Man of the Mountain, Daniel Webster famously wrote “Men hang out their signs indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a gigantic shoe; jewelers a monster watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth; but up in the Mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.”

Arthur S. Teague was one of those men. While not a native of the Granite State, he had been appointed manager of the Cog Railway by its president, Henry Teague (no relation, or so the legend goes) in 1935. But in 1941, as the deepening shadow of fascism and war fell across Europe, Teague was called to active duty by the US Army, quickly rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He commanded one of the infantry battalions leading the assault on Utah Beach on D-Day, then pushed forward through France, Belgium and deep into Germany, where he negotiated the surrender of troops manning a complex of 31 pillboxes (reinforced bunkers), by telephone, with the Nazi battalion’s commanding officer. And yes, he even enjoyed a dinner with author and war correspondent Ernest Hemingway, as Nazi armor-piercing artillery shells ripped through the commandeered German farmhouse in which they were dining. Miraculously, the shells didn’t explode, and even more miraculously, Hemingway never even flinched.

After being to evacuated to England for treatment of shrapnel wounds suffered in combat, Teague’s valor was recognized by the American, British and French governments with high military decorations including the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart (US), the Croix de Guerre (France), and the Distinguished Service Order (UK). After the war, he returned to New Hampshire in 1946 with his wife Ellen Crawford Teague to resume his role as General Manager of the Cog Railway, and eventually, as its President, until his sudden death in 1967.

We are once again indebted to historian Tim Lewis for his comprehensive, primary-source documentation of Arthur Teague’s wartime service, the full and hair-raising text of which you can read here