SPEEDING UP
While the soldiers were still, figuratively speaking, in their own
trenches and learning the several arts of getting out, the officers of
the infantry camp were having some special instructions in instructing.
Young captains and lieutenants were placed in command of companies of
the Blue Devils, and told to put them through their paces--in French.
It was, of course, a point of honor with the officers not to fall back
into English, even in an emergency. One particularly nervous young man,
who had ordered his French platoon to march to a cliff some distance
away, forgot the word for "Halt" or "Turn around" as the disciplined
Blue Devils, eyes straight ahead, marched firmly down upon their doom.
At the very edge, while the American clinched his sticky palms and
wondered what miracle would save him, a helpful French officer called
"Halte," and the American suddenly remembered that the word was the same
in both languages--an experience revoltingly frequent with Americans in
distress with their French.
But disasters such as this were not numerous. The officers worked
excellently, at French as well as soldiering, and little precious time
was needed for them.
Three battalions were at work at this first training--two American and
one French. As these learned their lessons, they were put forward to the
next ones, and new troops began at the beginning. This plan was
thoroughly organized at the very beginning, so that the later enormous
influx of troops did not disrupt it, and as the first Americans came
nearer to the perfection they were after, they were put back to leaven
the raw troops as the French Blue Devils had done for the first of them.
The plan further meant that after the first few weeks, what with
beginners in the First Division and newly arriving troops, the Vosges
fields offered instruction at almost anything along the programme on any
given day.
Over the whole camp, the aim of the French officers was to reproduce
actual battle conditions as absolutely as possible, and to eliminate,
within reason, any advantage that surprise might give to the Germans.
By the end of the first week in August, the best scholars among the
trench-diggers and bombers were being shown how to clean out trenches
with live grenades, and the machine-gunners and marksmen were getting
good enough to be willing to bet their own money on their performances.
Then came the battalion problems, the proper use of grenades by men
advancing in formations against a mythical enemy in intrenched
positions.
From the beginning, the American Army refused to accept the theory that
the war would never again get into the open. They trained in open
warfare, and with a far greater zest--partly, of course, because it was
the thing they knew already, though they found they had some things to
unlearn.
Then the war brought about a reorganization of American army units, and
it was necessary for the officers to familiarize themselves with new
conditions. The reorganization was ordered early in August, and put into
effect shortly afterward. The request from General Pershing that the
administrative units of the infantry be altered to conform with European
systems had in its favor the fact that it economized higher officers and
regimental staffs, for at the same time that divisions were made
smaller, regiments were made larger.
The new arrangement of the infantry called for a company of 250 enlisted
men and 6 commissioned officers, instead of 100 men and 3 officers. Each
company was then divided into 4 platoons, with a lieutenant in command.
Each regiment was made up of 3 battalions of 4 companies each,
supplemented by regimental headquarters and the supply and machine-gun
organizations.
This made it possible to have 1 colonel and 3 battalion commanders
officer 3,600 men, as against 2,000 of the old order.
This army in the making was not called on to show itself in the mass
till August 16, just a month after its hard work had begun. Then
Major-General Sibert, field-commander of the First Division and
best-loved man in France, held a review of all the troops. The
manoeuvres were held in a great open plain. The marching was done to
spirited bands, who had to offset a driving rain-storm to keep the men
perked up. The physical exercise of the first month showed in the
carriage of the men, infinitely improved, and they marched admirably, in
spite of the fact that their first training had been a specialization in
technical trench warfare. General Sibert made them a short address of
undiluted praise, and they went back to work again.
A few days later the army had its first intelligence drill, with the
result that some erstwhile soldiers were told off to cook and tend
mules.
The test consisted in delivering oral messages. One message was: "Major
Blank sends his compliments to Captain Nameless, and orders him to move
L Company one-half mile to the east, and support K Company in the
attack." The officer who gave the message then moved up the hill and
prepared to receive it.
The third man up came in panting excitement, full of earnest desire to
do well. "Captain, the major says that you're to move your men a mile to
the east," he said, "and attack K Company." He peeled the potatoes for
supper.
The gas tests came late in August. The officers, believing that fear of
gas could not be excessive, had done some tall talking before the masks
were given out, and in the first test, when the men were to enter a
gas-filled chamber with their masks on, they had all been assured that
one whiff would be fatal. The gas in the chamber was of the
tear-compelling kind, only temporarily harmful, even on exposure to it.
But that was a secret.
The men were drilled in putting their masks on, till the worst of them
could do it in from three to five seconds. Both the French and the
British masks were used, the one much lighter but comparatively riskier
than the other. Officers required the men to have their masks constantly
within reach, and gas alarms used to be called at meal-times, or
whenever it seemed thoroughly inconvenient to have them. The soldiers
were required to drop everything and don the cumbersome contrivances,
no matter how well they knew that there wasn't any gas. There is no
question that this thoroughness saved many lives when the men went into
the trenches.
When they masked and went into the gas-chamber the care they took with
straps and buckles could not have been bettered. One or two of the men
fainted from heat and nervousness, but nobody caught the temporary
blindness that would have been their lot if the gas had not been held
off. And after the first few entrants had returned none the worse, the
rest made a lark of it, and the whole experience stamped on their minds
the uselessness of gas as a weapon if you're handy with the mask.
The first insistence on rifle use and marksmanship, which General
Pershing was to stress later with all the eloquence he had, was heard in
late August. The French said frankly they had neglected the power of the
rifle, and the Americans were put to work to avoid the same mistake. In
target-shooting with rifles the Americans got their first taste of
supremacy. They ceased being novitiates for as long as they held their
rifles, and became respected and admired experts. The first English
Army, "the Old Contemptibles," had all been expert rifle-shots, and,
after a period when rifle fire was almost entirely absent from the
battle-fields, tacticians began to recall this fact, and the cost it had
entailed upon the Germans.
So the doughboys added rifle fire to their other jobs.
About this time the day of the doughboy was a pattern of compactness,
though he called it a harsher name.
It began in the training area at five o'clock in the morning. One
regiment had a story that some of the farm lads used to beat the buglers
up every day and wander about disconsolate, wondering why the morning
was being wasted. This was probably fictional. As a rule, five o'clock
came all too early. There was little opportunity to roll over and have
another wink, for roll-call came at five-thirty, and this was followed
by brief setting-up exercises, designed to give the men an ambition for
breakfast. At this meal French customs were not popular. The poilu, who
begins his day with black coffee and a little bread, was always amazed
to see the American soldier engaged with griddle-cakes and corned-beef
hash, and such other substantial things as he could get at daybreak.
Just after breakfast sick-call was sounded. It was up to the ailing man
to report at that time as a sufferer or forever after hold his peace.
While the sick were engaged in reporting themselves the healthy men
tidied up. Work proper began at seven.
As a rule, bombing, machine-gun, and automatic-rifle fire practice came
in the mornings. Time was called at eleven and the soldiers marched back
to billets for the midday meal. Later, when the work piled up even more,
the meals were prepared on the training-grounds. Rifle and bayonet
practice came in the afternoon. Four o'clock marked the end of the
working-day for all except captains and lieutenants, who never found any
free time in waking hours. In fact, most of the excited
youngsters--almost all under thirty--let their problems perturb their
dreams. The doughboys amused themselves with swims, walks, concerts,
supper, and French children till nine o'clock, when they were always
amiable toward going to bed.
With September came the British to supplement the French and, after a
little, to go far toward replacing them. For the Blue Devils had still
work to do on the Germans, and their "vacation" could not last too long.
A fine and spectacular sham battle put a climax to the stay of the
French, when, after artillery preparation, the Blue Devils took the
newly made American trenches, advancing under heavy barrage. The three
objectives were named Mackensen, Von Kluck, and Ludendorff. The
artillery turned everything it had into the slow-moving screen, under
which the "chasers" crept toward the foe. All the watching doughboys had
been instructed to put on their shrapnel helmets. At the pitch of the
battle some officers found their men using their helmets as good front
seats for the show, but fortunately there were no casualties. Words do
not kill.
The departure of the Blue Devils was attended by a good deal of
home-made ceremony and a universal deep regret. A genuine liking had
sprung up between the Americans and their French preceptors, and when
they marched away from camp the soldiers flung over them what detachable
trophies they had, the strains of all their bands, the unified good
wishes of the whole First Division, and unnumbered promises to be a
credit to their teachers when they got into the line.
It was the bayonet which proved the first connecting-link between the
Americans and the British. American observers had decided after a few
weeks that the bayonet was a peculiarly British weapon, and in
consequence it was decided that for this phase of the training, the army
should rely on the British rather than the French.
The British General Staff obligingly supplied the chief bayonet
instructor of their army with a number of assisting sergeants, and the
squad was sent down to camp.
The British brought two important things, in addition to expert
bayoneting. They were, first, a familiar bluntness of criticism, which
the Americans had rather missed with the polite French, and a
competitive spirit, stirred up wherever possible between rival units of
the A. E. F.
Their willingness to "act" their practice was another factor, though in
that they did not excel the French except in that they could impart it
to the Americans.
The British theory of bayonet work proved to be almost wholly offensive.
They went at their instruction of it with undimmed fire. At the end of
the first week, they gave a demonstration to some visiting officers.
Three short trenches had been constructed in a little dip of land, and
the spectators stood on the hill above them. On the opposite slope tin
cans shone brightly, hoisted on sticks.
"Ready, gentlemen," said the drill-sergeant. "Prepare for trench bayonet
practice by half sections. You're to take these three lines of trenches,
lay out every Boche in the lot, and then get to cover and fire six
rounds at them 'ere tin hats. Don't waste a shot, gentlemen, every
bullet a Boche. Now, then, ready--over the top, and give 'em 'ell, right
in the stomach."
Over the top they went and did as they were told. But the excitement was
not great enough to please the drill-sergeant. He turned to the second
section, and put them through at a rounder pace. Then he took over some
young officers, who were being instructed to train later troops, at
cleaning out trenches. Sacks representing Germans were placed in a
communicating trench.
"Now, remember, gentlemen," said the sergeant, "there's a Fritz in each
one of these 'ere cubby-'oles, and 'e's no dub, is Fritz. 'E's got ears
all down 'is back. Make your feet pneumatic. For 'eaven's sake, don't
sneeze, or 'is nibs will sling you a bomb like winkin', and there'll be
a narsty mess. Ready, Number One! 'Ead down, bayonet up ... it's no use
stickin' out your neck to get a sight of Fritzie in 'is 'ole. Why, if
old Fritz was there, 'e'd just down your point, and then where'd you be?
Why, just a blinkin' casualty, and don't you forget it. Ready again,
bayonet up. Now you see 'em. Quick, down with your point and at 'im.
Tickle 'is gizzard. Not so bad, but I bet you waked 'is nibs in the next
'ole. Keep in mind you're fightin' for your life...."
By the time the officers were into the trench, the excitement was
terrific.
It was such measures as these that made the bayonet work go like
lightning, and cut down the time required at it by more than one-half.
The organized recreation and the competitions, two sturdy British
expedients for morale, always came just after these grimmest of all of
war's practices. The more foolish the game, the more rapturously the
British joined in it. Red Rover and prisoner's base were two prime
favorites. A British major said the British Army had discovered that
when the men came out of the trenches, fagged and horror-struck, the
surest way to bring them back was to set them hard at playing some game
remembered from their childhood.
The British had even harder work, at first, to make the men fall in with
the games than they had with war practice. But the friendly spirit
existing basically between English and Americans, however spatty their
exterior relationships may sometimes be, finally got everybody in
together. The Americans found that a British instructor would as lief
call them "rotten" if he thought they deserved it, but that he did it
so simply and inoffensively that it was, on the whole, very welcome.
So the Americans learned all they could from French and British, and
began the scheme of turning back on themselves, and doing their own
instructing.
The infantry camp was destined to have some offshoots, as the number of
men grew larger, and the specialists required intensive work. Officers'
schools sprang up all over France, and all the supplemental forces,
which had infantry training at first, scattered off to their special
training, notably the men trained to throw gas and liquid fire.
But, for the most part, the camp in the Vosges remained the big central
mill it was designed to be, and in late October, when three battalions
put on their finishing touches in the very battle-line, the cycle was
complete. Before the time when General Pershing offered the
Expeditionary Force to Generalissimo Foch, to put where he chose, the
giant treadway from sea to camp and from camp to battle was grinding in
monster rhythms. It never thereafter feared any influx of its raw
material.