author
William Elmer Bachman
1894–1966
A Pennsylvania newspaperman and World War I veteran, he is best remembered for turning his service with Battery D, 311th Field Artillery into a vivid regimental history. His writing has the feel of a firsthand chronicle, mixing military detail with the everyday experience of soldiers overseas.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in 1894, William Elmer Bachman was an American writer and journalist from Pennsylvania. His best-known book, The Delta of the Triple Elevens, was published in Hazleton in 1920 and recounts the story of Battery D, 311th Field Artillery, part of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I.
The book stands out as a firsthand unit history shaped by someone who knew its people and events closely. Rather than writing as a distant historian, Bachman captured the movement, camaraderie, and hardships of wartime service in a direct and readable way.
Later in life, he worked in newspaper publishing in Hazleton and was identified as an editor of the Standard-Speaker. He died in 1966, leaving behind a record that connects local journalism with the lived memory of World War I.