This Date in History: July 18

Eli B. Way fulfilled the duties of Adjutant during the 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition, which involved posting guards and as a tactical battle commander, who often quickly organized counter-attacks and charges during fights with the warriors; especially noteworthy were his efforts at the Battle of Great Medicine Dance Creek in early April 1874.   He was born at Trenton, Henry County, Iowa on May 29, 1845.  On July 18, 1861, he lied about his age and enlisted in Company K of the Sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  During the Civil War, he rose to the grade of corporal on January 1, 1864 and to Second Lieutenant on January 1, 1865.  Eli Way was mustered out of the service at Louisville, Kentucky on July 21, 1865.  He probably fought at Shiloh, Jackson, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Dalton, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta and Benton.  It appears that he was a saloon keeper in Humboldt County, Nevada in 1870.  (Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Gold and Guns: The 1874 Yellowstone Wagon Road and Prospecting Expedition and the Battle of Lodge Grass Creek)

**********

The U-109 left Lorient on July 18, 1942 for her seventh war patrol.  Patrolling off Freetown, Sierra Leone, on August 7, 1942 the U-109 sank the Norwegian 6,030-ton Arthur W Sewall at 9:47 p.m. with torpedoes and gunfire.  The ship was in ballast, heading from Freetown to Trinidad; all her crew survived.  At 7:13 p.m. on August 11, 1942 in the mid-South Atlantic, Heinrich Bleichrodt sank the British 5,728-ton Vimiera; the ship bound from Curacao and Trinidad to Freetown was carrying 8,100 tons of gas and fuel.  The torpedo and gunfire attack killed twenty-three of her crew.  On September 3, 1942 off Africa he sank the British 7,173-ton Ocean Might carrying 7,000 tons of military stores from Liverpool to Cape Town and the Middle East; four men died in the attack.

At 11:50 p.m. on September 6 Bleichrodt sank the British 11,449-ton Tuscan Star; heading from Santos, Brazil for Freetown, Sierra Leone, 7,840 tons of meat and 5,000 tons of general cargo went to the bottom – along with fifty-two of her crew.  Finally, at 1:14 p.m. on September 17, 1942 in the mid-South Atlantic the U-109 sank the British 5,221-ton Peterton.  The Peterton was carrying 5,758 tons of coal from Oban, Scotland to Buenos Aires; nine men perished when she sank.  On September 20, the U-109 refueled for her return home from the U-460 Bleichrodt arrived back at Lorient on October 6, 1942.  (Dönitz’s Crews: Germany’s U-Boat Sailors in World War II)