American expeditionary force : france 1917 - 1918: rare photographs from wartime archives

291 Pages·2012·21.12 MB·English

by  Holroyd

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by PEN & SWORD MILITARY
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street, Barnsley,
South Yorkshire.
S70 2AS
Copyright © Jack Holroyd, 2012
ISBN 978 1 84884 877 1
eISBN 978 1 78303 813 8
The right of Jack Holroyd to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Introduction
Chapter One
‘We Go To War’ – April 1917
Chapter Two
The Yanks Are Coming
Chapter Three
Training and Trench Fighting
Chapter Four
First Offensive Action – Cantigny
Chapter Five
Chateau Thierry
Chapter Six
St Mihiel
Chapter Seven
Meause-Argonne
Chapter Eight
Victory and Armistice
Introduction
CONFLICT ERUPTED IN EUROPE in August 1914 and the
President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, promptly
declared America’s neutrality. Despite strong ties with Britain,
Wilson was concerned about American citizens who had been born in
Germany and Austria. Consequently he proposed an even-handed
approach towards all the belligerent stating that it was to be maintained in
both ‘thought and deed’. The President steadfastly held to his hope of a
peaceful solution to the conflict despite the protestations of those
convinced that events in Europe would inevitably draw America into the
war. He was supported in his policy of non-involvement by some
politicians who argued strongly in favour of the USA maintaining its
isolationist policy. This included the pacifist pressure group, the American
Union Against Militarism. In 1916, Wilson campaigned for re-election on
a peace platform with the slogan ‘He kept us out of war’.
Opinion against Germany hardened after the sinking of the Lusitania.
William J. Bryan, the pacifist Secretary of State, resigned and Wilson
replaced him with the pro-Allied Robert Lansing. At that time Wilson
announced an increase in the size of the US armed forces. Of the 139 US
citizens aboard Lusitania, 128 lost their lives, and there was massive
outrage in Britain and America. The British felt that the Americans just
had to declare war on Germany. However, US President Woodrow Wilson
refused to overreact. He said at Philadelphia on 10 May 1915:‘There is
such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a
nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that
it is right.’ It would be two years before the United States declared war on
the German government (not the German people).
A drastic ploy was concocted by the Germans to ensure that America did
not enter the war on the side of the Allies. They surmised that should the
United States become embroiled in a fight on their own doorstep then
likelihood of their intervention in the fighting in France would diminish.
German Foreign Minister, Alfred Zimmerman, attempted to provoke
Mexico and Japan into attacking the United States with the promise of
German assistance after the fight with Russia was successfully ended. A
message containing Zimmerman’s intent was decoded by the British and
immediately sent to the US, further swaying the Americans to action.
Due primarily to unrestricted submarine warfare conducted by Germany
and the Zimmerman note, President Wilson asked Congress for
permission to go to war, and on 6 April, 1917, congress officially declared
it. President Wilson, along with many Americans, justified their
involvement as: ‘an act of high principle and idealism…[and]…as a
crusade to make the world safe for democracy’.
With that declaration, and preliminary steps under way to put the nation
on a war footing; delegations began to arrive. The first of these were the
British and the French. Italian, Belgian and Japanese missions followed.
The Senate and House passed the army draft bill which allowed for the
calling up of ten million men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-
one. The French and the British were asking for the immediate despatch of
American troops to France. To comply with the clamour for help, the War
Department announced that nine regiments of engineers would be raised
immediately and shipped out. The President ordered the 1st Division of
the regular standing army to France under command of Major-General
Pershing.
The 1st Division, American Expeditionary Force (AEF), landed in
France in June 1917. The 2nd Division did not arrive until September and
by 31 October 1917, the AEF only numbered 6,064 officers and 80,969
men. Nine months after war was declared there were 175,000 American
troops in Europe. This was nowhere near the half a million plus that
Britain had put into the fight in the same length of time in 1914.
Consequently, despite her strength on paper, America was in no position
to influence the Allied war activities in 1917.
However, was America to blame for the lack of speed in her military
build-up? Whereas Britain had spent time in 1914 planning for war and
creating six divisions for the European campaign, America was all but
starting from scratch. In peacetime, the American army only numbered
190,000 and they were spread across America. Now, with the declaration
of war, these men had to move to the eastern seaboard where many camps
had to be built to accommodate them before they sailed across the
Atlantic. French ports had to be greatly expanded to handle the influx of
men and the French rail network in the region had to be improved.
Pershing wanted the AEF to be ready for combat. He certainly did not
want what the British and French were expecting; that the AEF be used to
fill in where the Allies were weak. The American commander-in-chief
wanted an independent fighting army that was self-contained. Therefore,
when the Germans launched their great offensive of March 1918, there
was only one American division in the Allied lines – with three divisions
in training areas. The series of German offensives beginning in March
1918 posed serious dangers to the French and British. Paris was
threatened and on two occasions, the British were nearly driven back to
the Channel, but in these defensive battles the AEF played little part.
However, the German spring offensive had made Pershing realise that he
needed to change his course of action. In June it was agreed that American
troops would be sent to France from America without space-occupying
equipment that could be provided by the French and British once the
Americans were in France. In June and July 1918, America sent over
584,000 men. The German army could not hope to cope with such
numbers now taking the field against them.
In July 1918, the French launched a major attack against the Germans
from the Forest of Villers-Cotterêts, this attack included two American
divisions – a total of 54,000 men. By August 1918, there were upwards of
one and a half million American troops in France. In that month the
British and French began their One Hundred Days’ Offensive, or
‘Advance to Victory’. This led to the smashing of the Hindenburg Line,
capture of ground beyond, and the Armistice in November 1918.
Taylor collection
The excellent picture book U.S. Official Pictures of the World War was
published in 1920 by Pictorial Bureau, written and compiled by James C.
Russell and William E. Moore and was with the co-operation and
collaboration of fifteen contributors. Around 900 images taken by the
photographers of the Signal Corps tell the story of the American
Expeditionary Force in France and a selection has been made from these.
Additional illustrations have been included from the Taylor Library to
help the pictorial history, and they, along with images from the ninety-
year-old book, will reintroduce to public awareness the crafted camera
work of those days of the Great War. This Images of War publication will
serve as a catalogue for illustrations now available in the Taylor archive.
An identifying number is included with the captions.
The kind of image that helped the United States enter the war. Unrestricted submarine warfare and
the loss of American lives caused a shift in opinion in the States. The original caption reads: These
pictures just received in this country tell part of the story of the sinking of the French liner Sontay
in the Mediterranean on 10 April with a loss of forty-five lives.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MID-WEEK PICTORIAL WW1/US001
Chapter One
‘We Go To War’ –April 1917
IT IS A FEARFUL THING to lead this great, peaceful country into war, into the most terrible
and disastrous of all wars, civilisation itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more
precious than peace... the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her
might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness amid the peace which she has
treasured. God helping her. She can do no other.