AMERICA TRANSFORMED BY WAR
When Germany threw down the gauge of battle to the civilized world,
the German High Command calculated that the long, rigorous and
thorough military training to which every male German had submitted,
would make a military force invincible in the field. The High Command
believed that a nation so trained would carve out victory after victory
and would end the World War before any nation could train its men
sufficiently to check the Teutonic rush.
To that theory was opposed the democratic conception that the free
nations of earth could train their young men intensively for six months
and send these vigorous free men into the field to win the final
decision over the hosts of autocracy.
These antagonistic theories were tried out to a finish in the World
War and the theory of democracy, developed in the training camps of
America, Canada, Australia, Britain, France and Italy, triumphed.
Especially in the training camps of America was the German theory
disproved. There within six months the best fighting troops on earth
were developed and trained in the most modern of war-time practices.
Everything that Germany could devise found its answer in American
ingenuity, American endurance and American skill.
The entrance of America into the tremendous conflict on April 6,
1917, was followed immediately by the mobilization of the entire
nation. Business and industry of every character were represented
in the Council of National Defense which acted as a great central
functioning organization for all industries and agencies connected with
the prosecution of the war. Executives of rare talent commanding high
salaries tendered their services freely to the government. These were
the “dollar a year men” whose productive genius was to bear fruit in
the clothing, arming, provisioning, munitioning and transportation of
four million men and the conquest of Germany by a veritable avalanche
of war material.
Out of the ranks of business and science came Hurley, Schwab, Piez,
Coonley to drive forward a record-breaking shipbuilding program,
Stettinus to speed up the manufacture of munitions, John W. Ryan to
coordinate and accelerate the manufacture of airplanes, Vance C.
McCormick and Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor to solve the problems of the War
Trade Board, Hoover to multiply food production, to conserve food
supplies and to place the army and citizenry of America upon food
rations while maintaining the morale of the Allies through scientific
food distribution and a host of other patriotic civilians who put the
resources of the nation behind the military and naval forces opposed
to Germany. Every available loom was put at work to make cloth for the
army and the navy, the leather market was drained of its supplies to
shoe our forces with wear adapted to the drastic requirements of modern
warfare.
German capital invested in American plants was placed under the
jurisdiction of A. Mitchell Palmer as Alien Property Custodian. German
ships were seized and transformed into American transports. Physicians
over military age set a glorious example of patriotic devotion by
their enlistment in thousands. Lawyers and citizens generally in the
same category as to age entered the office of the Judge Advocate
General or the ranks of the Four Minute Men or the American Protective
League which rendered great service to the country in exposing German
propaganda and in placing would-be slackers in military service.
Bankers led the mighty Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp drives and
unselfishly placed the resources of their institutions at the service
of the government.
Women and children rallied to the flag with an intensity of purpose,
sacrifice and effort that demonstrated how completely was the heart of
America in the war. Work in shops, fields, hospitals, Red Cross work
rooms and elsewhere was cheerfully and enthusiastically performed and
the sacrifices of food rationing, higher prices, lightless nights,
gasolineless Sundays, diminished steam railway and trolley service were
accepted with a multitude of minor inconveniences without a murmur.
Congress had a free hand in making appropriations. The country approved
without a minute’s hesitation bills for taxation that in other days
would have brought ruin to the political party proposing them. Billions
were voted to departments where hundreds of thousands had been the rule.
The true temper of the American people was carefully hidden from the
German people by the German newspapers acting under instructions from
the Imperial Government. Instead of the truth, false reports were
printed in the newspapers of Berlin and elsewhere that the passage
of the American conscription law had been followed by rioting and
rebellion in many places and that fully fifty per cent of the American
people was opposed to the declaration of war. The fact that the
selective service act passed in May, 1917, was accepted by everybody
in this country as a wholly equitable and satisfactory law did not
permeate into Germany until the first American Expeditionary Force had
actually landed in France.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES AN ARMED CAMP]
America’s fighting power was demonstrated conclusively to the
Germanic intellect at Seicheprey, Bouresches Wood, Belleau Wood,
Château-Thierry, and in the Forest of the Argonne. Especially was it
demonstrated when it came to fighting in small units, or in individual
fighting. The highly disciplined and highly trained German soldiers
were absolutely unfitted to cope with Americans, Canadians and
Australians when it came to matching individual against individual, or
small group against small group.
This was shown in the wild reaches of the Forest of the Argonne. There
the machine-gun nests of the Germans were isolated and demolished
speedily. Small parties of Germans were stalked and run down by the
relentless Americans. On the other hand, the Germans could make no
headway against the American troops operating in the Forest. The
famous “Lost Battalion” of the 308th United States Infantry penetrated
so far in advance of its supports that it was cut off for four days
without food, water or supplies of munitions in the Argonne. The enemy
had cut its line of communication and was enforced both in front and in
the rear. Yet the lost battalion, comprising two companies armed with
rifles and the French automatic rifle known as the Chauchat gun, called
by the doughboys “Sho Sho,” held out against the best the overpowering
forces of the Germans could send against them, and were ultimately
rescued from their dangerous position.
The training of the Americans was also in modern efficiency that
made America prominent in the world of industry. The reduction of
the German salient at St. Mihiel was an object lesson to the Germans
in American methods. General Pershing commanding that operation in
person, assembled the newspaper correspondents the day before the
drive. Maps were shown, giving the extent and locale of the attack. The
correspondents were invited to follow the American troops and a time
schedule for the advance was given to the various corps commanders.
In that operation, 152 square miles of territory and 72 villages were
captured outright. For the reduction of the German defenses and for the
creeping barrage preceding the American advance, more than 1,500,000
shells were fired by the artillery. Approximately 100,000 detail maps
and 40,000 photographs prepared largely from aerial observations, were
issued for the guidance of the artillery and the infantry. These maps
and photographs detailed all the natural and artificial defenses of
the entire salient. More than 5,000 miles of telephone wire was laid
by American engineers immediately preceding the attack, and as the
Americans advanced on the morning of the battle, September 12, 1918,
6,000 telephone instruments were connected with this wire. Ten thousand
men were engaged in operating the hastily constructed telephone system;
3,000 carrier pigeons supplemented this work.
During the battle American airplanes swept the skies clear of enemy
aircraft and signalled instructions to the artillery, besides attacking
the moving infantry, artillery and supply trains of the enemy. So sure
were the Americans of their success that moving-picture operators
took more than 10,000 feet of moving-picture film showing the rout of
the Germans. Four thousand eight hundred trucks carried food, men and
munitions into the lines. Miles of American railroads, both of standard
and narrow gauge, carrying American-made equipment, assisted in the
transportation of men and supplies. Hospital facilities including 35
hospital trains, 16,000 beds in the advanced sector, and 55,000 other
beds back of the fighting line, were prepared. Less than ten per cent
of this hospital equipment was used.
As the direct consequence of this preparation, which far outstripped
anything that any other nation had attempted in a similar offensive,
the Americans with a remarkably small casualty list took 15,188
prisoners, 111 guns, many of them of large calibre, immense quantities
of munitions and other supplies, and inflicted heavy death losses upon
the fleeing Germans.
Two selective service laws operated as manhood conscription. The first
of these took men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one years
inclusive. June 5, 1917, was fixed as registration day. The total
number enrolled was 9,586,508. The first selective army drawn from this
number was 625,000 men.
The second selective service legislation embraced all citizens between
the ages of 18 and 45 inclusive, not included in the first draft. Over
13,000,000 men enrolled on September 12, 1918.
The grand total of registrants in both drafts was 23,456,021. Youths
who had not completed their 19th year were set apart in a group to be
called last and men between thirty-six and forty-five were also put
in a deferred class. The government’s plan was to have approximately
5,000,000 men under arms before the summer of 1919. The German
armistice on November 11th found 4,000,000 men actually under arms and
an assignment of 250,000 made to the training camps.
A most important factor in the training plans of the United States was
that incorporated in the organization of the Students’ Army Training
Corps, by which 359 American colleges and universities were taken over
by the Government and 150,000 young men entered these institutions
for the purpose of becoming trained soldiers. The following are the
conditions under which the S. A. T. C. was organized:
The War Department undertook to furnish officers, uniforms, rifles,
and equipment, and to assign the student to military duty, after a
few months, either at an officers’ training camp or in some technical
school, or in a regular army cantonment with troops as a private,
according to the degree of aptitude shown on the college campus.
At the same time a circular letter to the Presidents of colleges
arranged for a contract under which the Government became responsible
for the expense of the housing, subsistence, and instruction of the
students. The preliminary arrangement contained this provision, among
others:
The per diem rate of $1 for subsistence and housing is to govern
temporarily, pending examination of the conditions in the individual
institution and a careful working out of the costs involved. The
amount so fixed is calculated from the experience of this committee
during the last five months in contracting with over 100 collegiate
institutions for the housing and subsistence of over 100,000
soldiers in the National Army Training Detachment. This experience
indicates that the average cost of housing is 15 to 20 cents per day;
subsistence, (army ration or equivalent,) 70 to 80 cents per day. The
tuition charge is based on the regular per diem tuition charge of the
institution in the year 1917-18.
A permanent contract was arranged later under these governing
principles:
The basis of payment will be reimbursement for actual and necessary
costs to the institutions for the services rendered to the Government
in the maintenance and instruction of the soldiers with the stated
limitation as to cost of instruction. Contract price will be arrived
at by agreement after careful study of the conditions in each case,
in conference with authorities of the institution.
The War Department will have authority to specify and control the
courses of instruction to be given by the institution.
The entity and power for usefulness of the institutions will be
safeguarded so that when the contract ends the institutions shall be
in condition to resume their functions of general education.
The teaching force will be preserved so far as practicable, and this
matter so treated that its members shall feel that in changing to the
special intensive work desired by the Government they are rendering a
vital and greatly needed service.
The Government will ask from the institutions a specific service;
that is, the housing, subsistence, and instruction along specified
lines of a certain number of student soldiers. There will be no
interference with the freedom of the institution in conducting other
courses in the usual way.
The contract will be for a fixed term, probably nine months, subject
to renewal for a further period on reasonable notice, on terms to be
agreed upon and subject to cancellation on similar terms.
The story of the life of the American army behind the lines in France
would fill a volume. The hospitality of the French people had something
pathetic in it. They were expecting miracles of their new Allies. They
were war sick. Nearly all of them had lost some father, or brother, or
husband, and here came these big, hearty, joyous soldiers, full of
ardor and confident of victory. It put a new spirit into all France.
Their reception when they first landed was a scene of such fervor
and enthusiasm as had never been known before and probably will not
be known again. Soon the American soldier, in his khaki, with his
wide-brimmed soft hat, became a common sight.
The villagers put up bunting, calico signs, flags and had stocks of
American canned goods to show in their shop windows. The children, when
bold, played with the American soldiers, and the children that were
more shy ventured to go up and touch an American soldier’s leg. Very
old peasant ladies put on their Sunday black, and went out walking,
and in some mysterious way talking with American soldiers. The village
Mayors turned out and made speeches, utterly incomprehensible to the
American soldiers.
The engineering, building and machinery works the Americans put up
were astonishing. Gangs of workers went over in thousands; many of
these were college men. They dug and toiled as efficiently as any
laborer. One American Major told with glee how a party of these
young workers arrived straight from America at 3.30 P. M. and started
digging at 5 A. M. next morning, “and they liked it, it tickled them
to death.” Many of these draftees, in fact, were sick and tired of
inaction in ports before their departure from America, and they
welcomed work in France as if it were some great game.
Perhaps the biggest work of all the Americans performed was a certain
aviation camp and school. In a few months it was completed, and it
was the biggest of its kind in the world. The number of airplanes
used merely for training was in itself remarkable. The flying men--or
boys--who had, of course, already been broken-in in America, did an
additional course in France, and when they left the aviation camp they
were absolutely ready for air-fighting at the front. This was the
finishing school. The aviators went through eight distinct courses in
the school. They were perfected in flying, in observation, in bombing,
in machine-gun firing. On even a cloudy and windy day the air overhead
buzzed with these young American flyers, all getting into the pink of
condition to do their stunts at the front. They lived in the camp, and
it required moving heaven and earth for one of them to get leave to go
even to the nearest little quiet old town.
[Illustration: THE SECRETARY OF WAR’S OFFICIAL CHART
This reproduction of Secretary Baker’s chart, which hung in his office
at Washington, illustrates graphically Germany’s success and failure
in the war.]
An impression of complete businesslike determination was what one got
when visiting the Americans in France. A discipline even stricter than
that which applied in British and French troops was in force. In towns,
officers, for instance, were not allowed out after 9 P. M. Some towns
where subalterns discovered the wine of the country were instantly put
“out of bounds.” No officer, on any pretext whatsoever, was allowed to
go to Paris except on official business. From the camps they were not
even allowed to go to the neighboring towns.
[Illustration: SHOWING GERMANY’S ROAD TO DEFEAT
Austria’s fluctuations are indicated, as well as the morale, military
position, political and food conditions and undersea enterprises of
Germany.]
The postal censors who read the letters of the American Expeditionary
Force were required to know forty-seven languages! Of these languages,
the two least used were Chinese and German.
The announcement of the organization of the first American Field Army
was contained in the following dispatch from France, August 11, 1918:
“The first American field army has been organized. It is under the
direct command of General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the
American forces. The corps commanders thus far announced are Major
Generals Liggett, Bullard, Bundy, Read, and Wright.
“The creation of the first field army is the first step toward the
co-ordination of all the American forces in France. This does not
mean the immediate withdrawal from the British and French commands of
all American units, and it is probable that divisions will be used
on the French and British fronts for weeks yet. It is understood,
however, that the policy of organizing other armies will be carried out
steadily.”
This announcement marked a milestone in the military effort of the
United States. When the American troops first arrived in France, they
were associated in small units with the French to get primary training
with the armies then in the field.
Gradually regiments began to function under French division commanders.
Then American divisions were formed and trained under French corps
commanders. Next, American corps began to operate under French army
commanders. Finally, the first American army was created, because
enough divisions and corps had been graduated from the school of
experience.
An American division numbers 30,000 men, and a corps consists of six
divisions, two of which play the part of reserves. With auxiliary
troops, air squadrons, tank sections, heavy artillery, and other
branches, a corps numbers from 225,000 to 250,000 men.
The following were the general officers temporarily assigned to command
the first five corps:
First corps--Major General Hunter Liggett.
Second corps--Major General Robert L. Bullard.
Third corps--Major General William M. Wright.
Fourth corps--Major General George W. Read.
Fifth corps--Major General Omar Bundy.
Seven divisions and one separate regiment of American troops
participated in the counter-offensive between Château-Thierry and
Soissons and in resisting the German attack in the Champagne, it was
officially stated on July 20. The 42nd, or “Rainbow” Division, composed
of National Guard troops from twenty-six States and the District of
Columbia, including the New York 69th Infantry, now designated as the
165th Infantry, took part in the fighting in the Champagne east of
Rheims. The six other divisions were associated with the French in the
counter-offensive between Château-Thierry and Soissons. These divisions
were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of the Regular Army, the 26th National
Guard Division, composed of troops from the six New England States,
and the 28th, composed of the Pennsylvania National Guard. Marines
were included in this number. The separate regiment that fought in the
Champagne was a negro unit attached to the new 93rd Division, composed
entirely of negro troops. It was also announced that the 77th Division
was “in the line near Lunéville” and was “operating as a division,
complete under its own commander.”
The 42nd Division had the distinction, General March announced on
August 3d, of defeating the 4th Division of the crack Prussian Guards,
professional soldiers of the German standing army, who had never before
failed. General March also disclosed the fact that another American
division had been sent into that part of the Rheims salient where the
Germans showed resistance. This was the 32nd Division. “The American
divisions in the Rheims salient,” General March said, “have now been
put in contiguously and are actually getting together as an American
force. Southeast of Fère-en-Tardenois our 1st Corps is operating, with
General Liggett in actual command.”
The organization of twelve new divisions was announced by General
March, Chief of Staff, in statements made on July 24th and July
31st. These divisions were numerically designated from 9 to 20, and
organized at Camps Devens, Meade, Sheridan, Custer, Funston, Lewis,
Logan, Kearny, Beauregard, Travis, Dodge, and Sevier. Each division
had two infantry regiments of the regular army as nucleus, the other
elements being made up of drafted men. The new divisions moved into the
designated camps as the divisions already trained there moved out.
The composition of an American division is as follows:
Two brigades of infantry, each consisting of two regiments of infantry
and one machine-gun battalion.
One brigade of artillery, consisting of three regiments of field
artillery, and one trench mortar battery.
One regiment of engineers.
One field signal battalion.
The following trains: Headquarters and military police, sanitary,
supply, engineer, and ammunition.
The following division units: Headquarters troop and one machine-gun
battalion.
A general order of the War Department providing for the consolidation
of all branches of the army into one army to be known as the “United
States Army” was promulgated by General March on August 7th. The text
of the order read:
1. This country has but one army--the United States Army. It includes
all the land forces in the service of the United States. Those
forces, however raised, lose their identity in that of the United
States Army. Distinctive appellations, such as the Regular Army,
Reserve Corps, National Army, and National Guard, heretofore employed
in administration command, will be discontinued, and the single term,
the United States Army, will be exclusively used.
2. Orders having reference to the United States Army as divided in
separate and component forces of distinct origin, or assuming or
contemplating such a division, are to that extent revoked.
3. The insignia now prescribed for the Regular Army shall hereafter
be worn by the United States Army.
4. All effective commissions purporting to be, and described therein,
as commissions in the Regular Army, National Guard, National Army,
or the Reserve Corps, shall hereafter be held to be, and regarded
as commissions in the United States Army--permanent, provisional,
or temporary, as fixed by the conditions of their issue; and all
such commissions are hereby amended accordingly. Hereafter during
the period of the existing emergency all commissions of officers
shall be in the United States Army and in staff corps, departments,
and arms of the service thereof, and shall, as the law may provide,
be permanent, for a term, or for the period of the emergency. And
hereafter during the period of the existing emergency provisional
and temporary appointments in the grade of Second Lieutenant and
temporary promotions in the Regular Army and appointments in the
Reserve Corps will be discontinued.
5. While the number of commissions in each grade and each staff
corps, department, and arm of the service shall be kept within the
limits fixed by law, officers shall be assigned without reference
to the term of their commissions solely in the interest of the
service; and officers and enlisted men will be transferred from one
organization to another as the interests of the service may require.
6. Except as otherwise provided by law, promotion in the United
States Army shall be by selection. Permanent promotions in the
Regular Army will continue to be made as prescribed by law.