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War!
That was the headline screaming from newspapers
around the country on April 6, 1917, as the United States declared
war on the German empire.
The United States had avoided being
drawn into what was then known as “The Great War,” which had been
raging in Europe since 1914. But German unrestricted submarine
warfare – which U.S. leaders regarded as war on civilians – led to
this juncture. President Woodrow Wilson, who had just been
re-elected under the slogan “He Kept Us Out of War,” felt he had no
other option.
Congress provided the then-astronomical sum of
$3 billion to build a million-man Army.
What’s more, it had to be an American army. The United States did
not formally join the alliance against Germany. Rather it was an
Associated Power, which meant the United States would work with the
Allies, but would be free to pursue its own strategic objectives.
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American troops conduct grenade gun training in France during
World War I. (Photo provided by Library of Congress)
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“The United States was in it, but they had to define what ‘it’
meant,” said Brian Neumann, a historian at the Army’s Center of
Military History. Neumann, who edited a series on the Army during
World War I, said it wasn’t a done deal that Americans would go to
France to help man the Western Front.
Various Points of View
Some Americans believed that because a naval provocation led to the
war, the proportional response would be a naval campaign against
Germany. Others felt it was all right to help France, but not to
help Great Britain, he said.
Still others believed that going
to war had to mean something greater than simply returning to the
status quo on the continent, Neumann said. They saw the war as an
inferno that would topple empires so democracy and the will of the
people could triumph. This was the camp that led.
“For the
United States to have a voice at the peace table, it had to make a
significant contribution to the war effort,” Neumann said. “That
meant building an Army and engaging the enemy on the Western Front.”
Doing that was no simple task. On April 6, the U.S. Army was a
constabulary force of 127,151 soldiers. The National Guard had
181,620 members. Both the country and the Army were absolutely
unprepared for what was going to happen.
The United States
had no process in place to build a mass army, supply it, transport
it and fight it. Continental European powers had a universal
military service program in place, and when war broke out,
reservists – already trained – went to their mobilization points and
joined their units.
Large
Standing Armies
Germany, France, Russia and
Austria-Hungary had large standing armies and reserve formations in
1914 that the nations could call up in the event of a war. Great
Britain maintained a robust naval reserve, but did not have a
commensurate universal service reserve for its army.
“Britain and the United States didn’t see the need for universal
service because of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Those
were two pretty good barriers,” Neumann said. “But after the war
broke out, Britain began building its army.”
In 1917, Britain
had an army of roughly 4 million soldiers, not counting the
contributions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and the other
parts of its empire. At its peak, the French army had 8.3 million “poilus”
– as the French called their soldiers. The German army had 11
million under arms, the Ottoman Empire had 2.9 million, Russia had
12 million, and Austria-Hungary had 7.8 million.
The United
States had to match that level of manpower.
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Soldiers conduct training with a Lewis machine gun at Camp Mills, NY
in 1917. (Photo provided by Library of Congress)
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The British and French desperately needed soldiers, and they
wanted them fast. “This was the heart of the whole amalgamation
debate,” Neumann said. “The French proposed taking American
battalions and merging them into French brigades until enough
arrived to form an American Army. The British wanted American
soldiers to go through their training and be assigned to British
units. No one on this side of the Atlantic agreed to either
proposal.”
Wilson believed that without an independent
American fighting force, he would not be able to shape the post-war
peace – that the overwhelming sacrifices made by all would mean
nothing without a change to the status quo. But the overriding
reason for an independent American expeditionary force was the
belief was that the American public would not support their soldiers
fighting and dying under a foreign flag, Neumann said.
Pershing Takes Command
Wilson and Secretary of War Newton D. Baker chose Army Gen. John
J. Pershing to lead what would become the American Expeditionary
Forces in France. Pershing was one of the few Army leaders to
command large formations, having been in charge of the U.S.
intervention in Mexico in 1916. He had been a successful combat
leader in Cuba and the Philippines. Much of his time in France would
be spent simply building -- and protecting -- the independent
American presence in the country.
Building an army takes more
than just opening recruiting stations. Soldiers needed barracks,
training areas, uniforms and equipment as well as a steady supply of
recruits.
While many Americans rushed to recruiting stations
and enlisted, the War Department recommended a draft to build what
was called the National Army. “America’s only other experience with
the draft – during the Civil War – was not pleasant,” Neumann said.
“There were too many loopholes. It allowed rich men to buy
substitutes. It was unfair.”
And Americans had a distrust of
a large standing army, going back to the founding of the republic.
Many recent immigrants also disliked the idea of forced national
service.
But a draft – or Selective Service – was the only
way to go, and officials crafted legislation to eliminate most of
the unfairness. The Selective Service Act passed on May 18, 1917,
and all men age 21 to 30 were required to register with local draft
boards. As the war continued, the age for registration went up to
45. Overall, 24,234,021 men registered for the draft, and inductees
comprised 66 percent of those who served.
Army Infrastructure
Building the barracks and training facilities was also a
priority. Many of the bases still familiar today were established in
1917. Camp Jackson, South Carolina; Camp Meade, Maryland; Camp Lee,
Virginia; Camp Lewis, Washington and Camp Gordon, Georgia were among
the 30 camps and cantonments the Army built to handle the hundreds
of thousands of draftees that came in.
The camps needed
roads, railroad spurs, sewage, barracks, mess halls, headquarters
buildings, hospitals -- all the things that a post needs to function
-- and they needed to build them all at once.
Camp Jackson
was a good example. Camp Jackson had a total military strength of
42,498, according to the Fort Jackson website. In six months, they
built 1,519 buildings, spending a total of $8,897,375. This did not
include the cost of roads, electricity or plumbing. This effort was
duplicated at Camp Funston, Kansas; Camp Shelby, Mississippi; Camp
Devens, Massachusetts; and at 26 other places around the United
States.
Some camps were better than others. There is a
classic bit of testimony before Congress about a barracks built so
badly that snow came in the cracks and coated sleeping soldiers.
Still, it was a tremendous accomplishment to build the camps and
cantonments, even as soldiers were reporting for training.
Equipment was another bottleneck. The first troops showed up and
trained with wooden rifles. There were delays in getting uniforms
and boots. Heavy equipment or weapons? Nope. Machine guns or
artillery? Not really. British and French personnel came to the
United States to help train the doughboys, but it was mostly
marching, target practice and small unit movement.
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Marines take a break at the Philadelphia Marine Barracks before
readying to board ships for France in 1917. (Photo provided by Library of Congress)
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Finally, what would the units themselves look like? Pershing
decided each American division would have four infantry regiments,
an artillery brigade and ancillary units to allow it to function.
Each would have 28,000 soldiers – about two to three times the size
of British or French divisions. Part of the reasoning was to give
the units combat power. Part was because there was a dearth of
qualified military leaders.
Desperate Situation
While all this was happening in the
United States, there was still a war going on, and the situation was
desperate.
By April 1917, a million
soldiers in the French army had been killed. In 1916’s Battle of
Verdun alone, the French lost about 160,000.
In April 1917,
the French poilus in seven corps were ordered to attack Chemin des
Dames, a massive limestone formation that the Germans had
transformed into a perfect defensive position. French units suffered
40,000 casualties the first day of the offensive and 271,000 over
the course of the offensive.
And then they quit.
French soldiers had had
enough, and about half of its infantry divisions refused to fight.
These mutinies – which the Germans never found out about – caused
the commander to resign and brought Gen. Philippe Petain, the hero
of Verdun, to command of French forces. Petain, who collaborated
with the Nazis in World War II, would rest the forces, grant leave
and order no new offensives. His strategy “was to wait for the tanks
and the Americans.”
Across the
continent, Russian Czar Nicholas II had abdicated. While Russian
forces were still in the field against German and Austro-Hungarian
forces, they were stumbling toward dissolution with units already
choosing sides for what would become a civil war.
And in
Italy, a combined German-Austrian offensive pushed the Italian army
back 60 miles from the battle line along the Isonzo River in the
Battle of Caporetto. To stabilize the front, British and French
units – desperately needed in France – had to deploy to Italy.
This was the situation Pershing faced when he arrived in France
on June 10. A cobbled together U.S. Army provisional division –
which morphed into the 1st Division, “the Big Red One” – began
arriving later in the month to a rapturous welcome. On July 4, the
Big Red One paraded through Paris and stopped at the tomb of the
Marquis de Lafayette – the French nobleman who valiantly fought in
the American Revolution. “Lafayette, we are here,” said Army Col.
Charles E. Stanton during a speech at the tomb.
And more
would be coming. After surveying the strategic situation, Pershing
sent a telegram to the War Department: “Plans contemplate sending
over at least one million men by next May.”
It was a tall
order, and at the time it was written, a seemingly impossible one.
By Jim Garamone
DOD News
Copyright 2017
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