The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
on the
Western Front of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
under the command of General
John J. Pershing. It fought alongside
French Army
The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...
,
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
,
Canadian Army
The Canadian Army (french: Armée canadienne) is the command responsible for the operational readiness of the conventional ground forces of the Canadian Armed Forces. It maintains regular forces units at bases across Canada, and is also res ...
,
New Zealand Army and
Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...
units against the
Imperial German Army. A small number of A. E. F. troops also fought alongside
Italian Army
"The safeguard of the republic shall be the supreme law"
, colors =
, colors_labels =
, march = ''Parata d'Eroi'' ("Heroes's parade") by Francesco Pellegrino, ''4 Maggio'' (May 4) ...
units in that same year against the
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...
. The A. E. F. helped the French Army on the Western Front during the
Aisne Offensive (at the
Battle of Château-Thierry and
Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood (1–26 June 1918) occurred during the German spring offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France. The battle was fought between the U.S. 2nd (under the command of Major General Omar Bundy) and 3rd Divisi ...
) in the summer of 1918, and fought its major actions in the
Battle of Saint-Mihiel
The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major World War I battle fought from 12–15 September 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing of the United States against ...
and the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the latter part of 1918.
Formation
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...
initially planned to give command of the A. E. F. to Gen.
Frederick Funston
Frederick Funston (November 9, 1865 – February 19, 1917), also known as Fighting Fred Funston, was a general in the United States Army, best known for his roles in the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. He received ...
, but after Funston's sudden death, Wilson appointed Major General
John J. Pershing in May 1917, and Pershing remained in command for the rest of the war. Pershing insisted that American soldiers be well-trained before going to Europe. As a result, few troops arrived before January 1918. In addition, Pershing insisted that the American force would not be used merely to fill gaps in the French and British armies, and he resisted European efforts to have U.S. troops deployed as individual replacements in depleted
Allied units.
This approach was not always well received by the western Allied leaders who distrusted the potential of an army lacking experience in large-scale warfare.
[Coffman, ''The War to End All Wars'' (1998)] In addition, the British government tried to use its spare shipping as leverage to bring US soldiers under British operational control.
![Port of Embarkation Hoboken (1917-1918)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Port_of_Embarkation_Hoboken_%281917-1918%29.png)
By June 1917, only 14,000 American soldiers had arrived in France, and the A. E. F. had only a minor participation at the front up to late October 1917, but by May 1918 over one million American troops were stationed in France, though only half of them made it to the front lines.
Since the
transport ship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...
s needed to bring American troops to Europe were scarce at the beginning, the U.S. Army pressed into service passenger liners, seized German ships, and borrowed Allied ships to transport American soldiers from the
Hoboken Port of Embarkation with facilities in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, and the
Newport News Port of Embarkation in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. The mobilization effort taxed the American military to the limit and required new organizational strategies and command structures to transport great numbers of troops and supplies quickly and efficiently. The French harbors of
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
,
La Pallice
La Pallice (also known as ''grand port maritime de La Rochelle'') is the commercial deep-water port of La Rochelle, France.
During the Fall of France, on 19 June 1940, approximately 6,000 Polish soldiers in exile under the command of Stanisła ...
,
Saint Nazaire
Saint-Nazaire (; ; Gallo: ''Saint-Nazère/Saint-Nazaer'') is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France, in traditional Brittany.
The town has a major harbour on the right bank of the Loire estuary, near the Atlantic Ocean. ...
, and
Brest
Brest may refer to:
Places
*Brest, Belarus
**Brest Region
**Brest Airport
**Brest Fortress
* Brest, Kyustendil Province, Bulgaria
* Břest, Czech Republic
*Brest, France
** Arrondissement of Brest
**Brest Bretagne Airport
** Château de Brest
*Br ...
became the entry points into the French railway system that brought the American troops and their supplies to the Western Front. American engineers in France also built 82 new ship berths, nearly of additional standard-gauge tracks, and over of telephone and telegraph lines.
![The US Army in Britain, 1917-1918 Q30005](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/The_US_Army_in_Britain%2C_1917-1918_Q30005.jpg)
The first American troops, who were often called "
Doughboy
Doughboy was a popular nickname for the American infantryman during World War I. Though the origins of the term are not certain, the nickname was still in use as of the early 1940s. Examples include the 1942 song "Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in ...
s," landed in Europe in June 1917. However the A. E. F. did not participate at the front until October 23, 1917, when the
1st Division fired the first American shell of the war toward German lines, although they participated only on a small scale. A group of regular soldiers and the first American division to arrive in France, entered the trenches near
Nancy, France, in
Lorraine
Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of Gra ...
.
![America's First Convoy 1917](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/America%27s_First_Convoy_1917.png)
I Corps was officially activated in France, under the A. E. F., from 15 January 1918. It include the 1st, 2nd, 26th, 32nd, 41st and 42nd Divisions. (4th Brigade, US Marine Corps, was included as part of 2nd Division.) II Corps was activated on 24 February, by which time troop numbers justified it. Initially II Corps consisted of the 27th, 30th, 33rd, 78th and 80th Divisions.
In June 1918, many component infantry units from II Corps – commanded by Maj.-Gen.
George W. Read – were attached to veteran
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
or
Australian Army
The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...
units. This served two purposes: familiarizing the Americans with actual battlefield conditions in France, and temporarily reinforcing the British Empire units that were often severely-depleted in numbers, after more than three years of fighting. In fact, the first major operation in World War I to involve US troops concerned individual infantry platoons of the 33rd Division, which were attached to battalions of the
Australian Corps
The Australian Corps was a World War I army corps that contained all five Australian infantry divisions serving on the Western Front. It was the largest corps fielded by the British Empire in France. At its peak the Australian Corps numbered 10 ...
for the
Battle of Hamel on the 4th of July. Their involvement was voluntary and occurred despite last-minute orders from A. E. F. headquarters, that its troops should not take part in offensive operations led by non-US generals. Thus Hamel was historically significant as the first major offensive operation during the war to involve US infantry and the first occasion on which US units had fought alongside British Empire forces.
![18th Infantry MG Battalion in St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/18th_Infantry_MG_Battalion_in_St._Baussant_HD-SN-99-02303.JPG)
The A. E. F. used French and British equipment. Particularly appreciated were the French
canon de 75 modèle 1897
The French 75 mm field gun was a quick-firing field artillery piece adopted in March 1898. Its official French designation was: Matériel de 75mm Mle 1897. It was commonly known as the French 75, simply the 75 and Soixante-Quinze (Frenc ...
, the
canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider
The Canon de 155 C modèle 1917 Schneider, often abbreviated as the ''C17S'', was a French howitzer designed by Schneider. It was essentially the ''Canon de 155 C modèle 1915 Schneider'' fitted with a different breech to use bagged propellant r ...
, and the
canon de 155mm GPF
The Canon de 155 Grande Puissance Filloux (GPF) modèle 1917 was a WWI-era French-designed 155 mm gun used by the French Army and the United States Army during the first half of the 20th century in towed and self-propelled mountings.
Hist ...
. American aviation units received the
SPAD XIII
The SPAD S.XIII is a French biplane fighter aircraft of the First World War, developed by '' Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés'' (SPAD) from the earlier and highly successful SPAD S.VII.
During early 1917, the French designer Louis ...
and
Nieuport 28
The Nieuport 28 C.1, a French biplane fighter aircraft flown during World War I, was built by Nieuport and designed by Gustave Delage. Owing its lineage to the successful line of sesquiplane fighters that included the Nieuport 17, the Nieu ...
fighters, and the U.S. Army tank corps used French
Renault FT
The Renault FT (frequently referred to in post-World War I literature as the FT-17, FT17, or similar) was a French light tank that was among the most revolutionary and influential tank designs in history. The FT was the first production tank to ...
light tanks. Pershing established facilities in France to train new arrivals with their new weapons.
By the end of 1917, four divisions were deployed in a large training area near
Verdun
Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department.
Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...
: the 1st Division, a regular army formation; the
26th Division, a
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
division; the
2nd Division, a combination of regular troops and
U.S. Marines
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
; and the
42nd "Rainbow" Division, a National Guard division made up of soldiers from nearly every state in the United States. The fifth division, the
41st Division, was converted into a depot division near
Tours
Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...
.
Logistics
![Hubble identity card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Hubble_identity_card.jpg)
Logistic operations were under the direction of Chicago banker
Charles G. Dawes
Charles Gates Dawes (August 27, 1865 – April 23, 1951) was an American banker, general, diplomat, composer, and Republican politician who was the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 under Calvin Coolidge. He was a co-reci ...
, with the rank first of colonel and then brigadier general. Dawes reported directly to Gen. Pershing. Dawes recommended in May 1918 that the allies set up a joint logistics planning board, which was approved by the Allies in the form of the
Military Board of Allied Supply (MBAS), which coordinated logistics and transportation on the Western and Italian fronts.
Supporting the two million soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean was a massive logistical enterprise. In order to be successful, the Americans needed to create a coherent support structure with very little institutional knowledge. The A. E. F. developed support network appropriate for the huge size of the American force. It rested upon the
Services of Supply
The Services of Supply or "SOS" branch of the Army of the USA was created on 28 February 1942 by Executive Order Number 9082 "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department" and War Department Circular No. 59, dated 2 March 1942. Services of Supp ...
in the rear areas, with ports, railroads, depots, schools, maintenance facilities, bakeries, clothing repair shops (termed salvage), replacement depots, ice plants, and a wide variety of other activities.
The Services of Supply initiated support techniques that would last well into the Cold War including forward maintenance, field cooking, graves registration (mortuary affairs), host nation support, motor transport, and morale services. The work of the logisticians enabled the success of the A. E. F. and contributed to the emergence of the American Army as a modern fighting force.
African Americans
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s were drafted on the same basis as
whites
White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view.
Description of populations as ...
and made up 13 percent of the draftees. By the end of the war, over 350,000 African-Americans had served in A. E. F. units on the Western Front. However, they were assigned to segregated units commanded by white officers. One fifth of the black soldiers sent to France saw combat, compared to two-thirds of the whites. They were three percent of A. E. F. combat forces, and under two percent of battlefield fatalities. "The mass of the colored drafted men cannot be used for combatant troops", said a General Staff report in 1918, and it recommended that "these colored drafted men be organized in reserve labor battalions." They handled unskilled labor tasks as
stevedores in the Atlantic ports and common laborers at the camps and in the Services of the Rear in France. The French, whose front-line troops were resisting combat duties to the point of mutiny, requested and received control of several regiments of black combat troops. Kennedy reports "Units of the black
92nd Division particularly suffered from poor preparation and the breakdown in command control. As the only black combat division, the 92nd Division entered the line with unique liabilities. It had been deliberately dispersed throughout several camps during its stateside training; some of its artillery units were summoned to France before they had completed their courses of instruction, and were never fully-equipped until after the Armistice; nearly all its senior white officers scorned the men under their command and repeatedly asked to be transferred. The black enlisted men were frequently diverted from their already attenuated training opportunities in France in the summer of 1918 and put to work as stevedores and common laborers."
The
369th,
370th,
371st, and
372nd Infantry Regiments (nominally the
93d Division, but never consolidated as such) served with distinction under French command with French colonial units in front-line combat. The French did not harbor the same levels of disdain based on skin color and for many Americans of African descent it was a liberating and refreshing experience. These African-American soldiers wore American uniforms, some dating from the time of the Union Army, with
French helmets and were armed with French
Model 1907/15 Berthier rifle manufactured by
Remington Arms, rather than the
M1903 Springfield
The M1903 Springfield, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American five-round magazine-fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 20th century.
The M1903 was first ...
or
M1917 Enfield
The M1917 Enfield, the "American Enfield", formally named "United States Rifle, cal .30, Model of 1917" is an American modification and production of the .303-inch (7.7 mm) Pattern 1914 Enfield (P14) rifle (listed in British Service as Rifle No. ...
rifles issued to most American soldiers. One of the most distinguished units was the 369th Infantry Regiment, known as the
Harlem Hellfighters
The 369th Infantry Regiment, originally formed as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment before being re-organized as the 369th upon federalization and commonly referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters, was an infantry regiment of the New Y ...
. The 369th was on the front lines for six months, longer than any other African-American regiment in the war. One hundred seventy-one members of the 369th were awarded the
Legion of Merit. One member of the 369th,
Sergeant Henry Johnson, was awarded the
French ''Croix de guerre'', and posthumously the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
.
Actions during World War I
![Riflemen-1918-Western-Front](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Riflemen-1918-Western-Front.jpg)
At the beginning, during the spring of 1918, the four battle-ready U.S. divisions were deployed under French and British command to gain combat experience by defending relatively quiet sectors of their lines. After the first offensive action and American-led A. E. F. victory on 28 May 1918 at the
Battle of Cantigny
The Battle of Cantigny, fought May 28, 1918 was the first major American battle and offensive of World War I. The U.S. 1st Division, the most experienced of the five American divisions then in France and in reserve for the French Army near the v ...
, by the
U.S. 1st Division, and a similar local action by the
2nd Division at
Belleau Wood beginning 6 June, both while assigned under French Corps command, Pershing worked towards the deployment of an independent US field Army. The rest followed at an accelerating pace during the spring and summer of 1918. By June Americans were arriving in-theater at the rate of 10,000 a day; most of which entered training by British, Canadian and Australian battle-experienced officers and senior non-commissioned ranks. The training took a minimum of six weeks due to the inexperience of the servicemen.
The first offensive action by A. E. F. units serving under non-American command was 1,000 men (four companies from the
33d Division), with the
Australian Corps
The Australian Corps was a World War I army corps that contained all five Australian infantry divisions serving on the Western Front. It was the largest corps fielded by the British Empire in France. At its peak the Australian Corps numbered 10 ...
during the
Battle of Hamel on 4 July 1918. (
Corporal
Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...
Thomas A. Pope was awarded the
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valo ...
for this battle.) This battle took place under the overall command of the Australian Corps commander, Lt. Gen. Sir
John Monash
General (Australia), General Sir John Monash, (; 27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the First World War. He commanded the 13th Brigade (Australia), 13th Infantry Brigade before the war an ...
. The Allied force in this battle combined artillery, armor, infantry, and air support (
combined arms
Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects (for example by using infantry and armour in an urban environment in which each supports the other) ...
), which served as a blueprint for all subsequent Allied attacks, using "
tanks
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engi ...
".
![Field hospital WWI](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Field_hospital_WWI.jpg)
U.S. Army and
Marine Corps
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refl ...
troops played a key role in helping stop the German thrust towards Paris, during the
Second Battle of the Marne
The Second Battle of the Marne (french: Seconde Bataille de la Marne) (15 July – 18 July 1918) was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack failed when an Allied counterattack, supported by s ...
in June 1918 (at the
Battle of Château-Thierry (1918)
The Battle of Château-Thierry was fought on July 18, 1918 and was one of the first actions of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under General John J. Pershing. It was a battle in World War I as part of the Second Battle of the Marn ...
and the
Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood (1–26 June 1918) occurred during the German spring offensive in World War I, near the Marne River in France. The battle was fought between the U.S. 2nd (under the command of Major General Omar Bundy) and 3rd Divisi ...
). The first major and distinctly American offensive was the reduction of the Saint Mihiel salient during September 1918. During the
Battle of Saint-Mihiel
The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major World War I battle fought from 12–15 September 1918, involving the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J. Pershing of the United States against ...
, Pershing commanded the
U.S. First Army
First Army is the oldest and longest-established field army of the United States Army. It served as a theater army, having seen service in both World War I and World War II, and supplied the US army with soldiers and equipment during the Kore ...
, composed of seven
division
Division or divider may refer to:
Mathematics
*Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication
*Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division
Military
*Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...
s and more than 500,000 men, in the largest offensive operation ever undertaken by United States armed forces. This successful offensive was followed by the
Meuse-Argonne offensive, lasting from September 26 to November 11, 1918, during which Pershing commanded more than one million American and French combatants. In these two military operations, Allied forces recovered more than 200 sq mi (488 km
2) of French territory from the German army. By the time the
World War I Armistice had suspended all combat on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Forces had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army.
Late in the war, American units ultimately fought in two other theaters at the request of the European powers. Pershing sent troops of the
332d Infantry Regiment to Italy, and President Wilson agreed to send some troops, the
27th
27 (twenty-seven; Roman numeral XXVII) is the natural number following 26 and preceding 28.
In mathematics
* Twenty-seven is a cube of 3: 3^3=3\times 3\times 3. 27 is also 23 (see tetration). There are exactly 27 straight lines on a smooth ...
and
339th Infantry Regiment
The 339th Infantry Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Army, raised for service in World War I, that served in the North Russia Intervention and World War II.
North Russia intervention
The 339th Regiment was created in June 19 ...
s, to Russia.
[Venzon, ed. ''The United States in the First World War: An Encyclopedia'' (1995)] These latter two were known as the
American Expeditionary Force Siberia
The American Expeditionary Force, Siberia (AEF in Siberia) was a formation of the United States Army involved in the Russian Civil War in Vladivostok, Russia, after the October Revolution, from 1918 to 1920. The force was part of the larger All ...
, and the
American Expeditionary Force North Russia
The American Expeditionary Force, North Russia (AEF in North Russia) (also known as the Polar Bear Expedition) was a contingent of about 5,000 United States Army troops that landed in Arkhangelsk, Russia as part of the Allied intervention in th ...
.
Casualties
The A. E. F. sustained about 320,000 casualties: 53,402 battle deaths, 63,114 noncombat deaths and 204,000 wounded.
Relatively few men suffered actual injury from poison gas, although much larger numbers mistakenly thought that they had been exposed.
The
1918 influenza pandemic
The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...
during the fall of 1918 took the lives of more than 25,000 men from the A. E. F., while another 360,000 became gravely ill.
Demobilization
After the
Armistice of November 11, 1918
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices ...
thousands of Americans were sent home and demobilized. On July 27, 1919, the number of soldiers discharged amounted to 3,028,487 members of the military, and only 745,845 left in the American Expeditionary Forces.
American Expeditionary Forces University at Beaune
The A. E. F. established the American Expeditionary Forces University at
Beaune
Beaune () is the wine capital of Burgundy in the Côte d'Or department in eastern France. It is located between Lyon and Dijon. Beaune is one of the key wine centers in France, and the center of Burgundy wine production and business. The annua ...
, complete with its own chapter of
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
.
Faculty included
Walter M. Chandler
Walter Marion Chandler (December 8, 1867 – March 16, 1935) was a Progressive and later a Republican U.S. Representative from New York.
Biography
Born on December 8, 1867 near Yazoo City, Mississippi, Chandler attended public schools, the U ...
, a
Progressive Party Progressive Party may refer to:
Active parties
* Progressive Party, Brazil
* Progressive Party (Chile)
* Progressive Party of Working People, Cyprus
* Dominica Progressive Party
* Progressive Party (Iceland)
* Progressive Party (Sardinia), Ita ...
member and, later, a
Republican Party member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from the
State of New York
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. state ...
.
See also
*
Bonus Army
The Bonus Army was a group of 43,000 demonstrators – 17,000 veterans of U.S. involvement in World War I, their families, and affiliated groups – who gathered in Washington, D.C., in mid-1932 to demand early cash redemption of their servi ...
*
Formations of the United States Army during World War I
Notes
*
*
Further reading
Awards and Decorations: World War I Statistics*
Ayres, Leonard P, ''The War with Germany: A Statistical Summary'' Government Printing Office, 191
full text online* Barbeau, Arthur E. and Florette Henri, ''The Unknown Soldiers: Black American Troops in World War I'' (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1974),
* Beaver, Daniel R. ''Newton D. Baker and the American War Effort, 1917–1919'' (1966)
* Chambers, John W., II. ''To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America'' (1987)
* Coffman, Edward M (1998). ''The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I'' The Standard History. ISBN
*
Cooke, James J., ''The Rainbow Division in the Great War, 1917–1919'' Praeger Publishers, (1994)
* Dalessandro, Robert J. & Dalessandro, Rebecca S. ''American Lions: The 332nd Infantry Regiment in World War I'' (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 2009)
*
Dalessandro, Robert J., & Knapp, Michael G., "Organization and Insignia of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917–1923" (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 2008) The best single volume on AEF unit organization.
* Dalessandro, Robert J. & Gerald Torrence, "Willing Patriots: Men of Color in the First World War" (Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 2009)
* Davenport, Matthew J. "First Over There: The Attack on Cantigny America's First Battle of World War I" (New York, Thomas Dunne: 2015)
* Faulkner, Richard S. ''Pershing's Crusaders: The American Soldier in World War I'' (U Press of Kansas, 2017). xiv, 758 pp
* Freidel, Frank. ''Over There'' (1964), well illustrated
* Grotelueschen; Mark E. ''Doctrine under Trial: American Artillery Employment in World War I'' (2001)
full text version at Google Books
* Hallas, James H. ''Doughboy War: The American Expeditionary Force in World War I'' (2000)
* Heller Charles E. ''Chemical Warfare in World War I. The American Experience, 1917–1918''. Fort Leavenworth, Kan.: Combat Studies Institute, 1984.
* Hirrel, Leo P. "Supporting the Doughboys: US Army Logistics and Personnel During World War I." Ft. Leavenworth, KS Combat Studies Institute, 2017.
online at no charge* Holley, I. B. ''Ideas and Weapons: Exploitation of the Aerial Weapon by the United States During World War I''(1983)
* Howarth, Stephen. ''To Shining Sea: A History of the United States Navy, 1775–1991'' (1991)
* Hurley, Alfred F. ''Billy Mitchell, Crusader for Air Power'' (1975)
* James, D. Clayton. ''The Years of MacArthur, I, 1880–1941.'' (1970)
* Johnson; Herbert A. ''Wingless Eagle: U.S. Army Aviation through World War I'' University of North Carolina Press, (2001)
* Kennedy, David M. ''Over Here: The First World War and American Society'' (1982)
* Koistinen, Paul. ''Mobilizing for Modern War: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1865–1919'' (2004)
*
* Lengel, Edward G., ed. ''A Companion to the Meuse-Argonne Campaign'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014). xii, 537 pp.
* Millett, Allan Reed. ''Semper Fidelis: The History of the United States Marine Corps'' (1991)
*
Pershing, John J. Pershing, ''My Experiences in the World War'' (1931)
* Smythe, Donald. ''Pershing: General of the Armies'' (1986)
* Trask, David F. ''The United States in the Supreme War Council: American War Aims and Inter-Allied Strategy, 1917–1918'' (1961)
* Trask, David F. ''The AEF and Coalition Warmaking, 1917–1918'' (1993
online free* Van Ells, Mark D. ''America and World War I: A Traveler's Guide''. (Interlink, 2014)
* Venzon, Anne ed. ''The United States in the First World War: An Encyclopedia'' (1995)
* Wilson Dale E. ''Treat 'Em Rough: The Birth of American Armor, 1917–1920'' Presidio Press, 1989.
* Woodward, David R. ''Trial by Friendship: Anglo-American Relations, 1917-1918'' (1993
online* Woodward, David R. ''The American Army and the First World War''(Armies of the Great War) Cambridge University Press, 2014. 484 pp
online review*
*
Yockelson, Mitchell. Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat at the German Army in World War I (New York: NAL, Caliber, 2016)
* Zeiger; Susan. ''In Uncle Sam's Service: Women Workers with the American Expeditionary Force, 1917–1919'' (1999)
External links
; Government
Records of the American Expeditionary Forces (World War I)at the
National Archives
; General information
American Expeditionary Forcesat UASWW1.com
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{{DEFAULTSORT:American Expeditionary Forces
1917 establishments in France
1920 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.
Disbanded armies
Expeditionary units and formations
Military units and formations of the United States in World War I
Military units and formations established in 1917
Military units and formations disestablished in 1920