American Expeditionary Forces

American Expeditionary Force
Active	May 3, 1917 - 1919
Country	USA
Garrison/HQ	Chaumont, France
Anniversaries	November 11, 1918
Commanders
Current commander	LTG John J. Pershing

File:C3f6.jpg

Officers of the American Expeditionary Force and the Baker mission

The American Expeditionary Force or AEF was the United States military force in World War I. The arrival of American combat troops at the rate of 10,000 a day in summer 1918 was the decisive factor in restoring the advantage to the Allies, as the German armies crumbled away.

The AEF helped the French defend the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive in May.

US President Woodrow Wilson initially planned to give command of the AEF to General Frederick Funston, but after Funston's sudden death, Wilson appointed General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing in May 1917, who oversaw US forces throughout the war. Pershing insisted that American soldiers be trained before going to Europe. As a result, few troops would arrive before 1918. In addition, Pershing insisted that the American force would not be used merely to fill gaps in the French and British armies and in particular resisted European efforts to have U.S. troops used as individual replacements in decimated Allied units. This attitude was resented by the Allied leaders who were short on troops.

By May 1918, there were more than 500,000 US soldiers in France and by July of the same year, there were over a million US soldiers in France. Since even the transport ships needed to bring American troops to Europe were scarce, the army pressed into service cruise ships, seized German ships, and borrowed Allied ships to transport American soldiers from New York, New Jersey, and Virginia. The mobilization effort taxed the limits of the American military and required new organizational strategies and command structures to transport great numbers of troops and supplies quickly and efficiently.

The first American troops, who were called "Doughboys" by other Allied troops, arrived in Europe in June 1917, and four companies from the 131st and 132nd Regiments (33rd Division) saw action at the Battle of Le Hamel on July 4, while attached for training purposes to the Australian 4th Division. However the AEF did not fully participate at the front until October, when the 1st Infantry Division, one of the best-trained divisions of the AEF, entered the trenches at Nancy. Pershing wanted an American force that could operate independently of the other Allies, but his vision could not be realized until adequately trained troops with sufficient supplies reached Europe. Training schools in America sent their best men to the front, and Pershing also established facilities in France to train new arrivals for combat.

Throughout 1917 and into 1918, American divisions were usually employed to augment French and British units in defending their lines and in staging attacks on German positions. Beginning in May 1918, with the first United States victory at Cantigny, AEF commanders increasingly assumed sole control of American forces in combat. By July 1918, French forces often were assigned to support AEF operations. During the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, beginning September 12, 1918, Pershing commanded the American First Army, comprising seven divisions 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 27 to October 6, 1918, during which Pershing commanded more than one million American and French soldiers. In these two military operations, Allied forces recovered more than two hundred square miles (520 km²) of French territory from the German army.

By the time Germany signed the Armistice on November 11, 1918, the American Expeditionary Force had evolved into a modern, combat-tested army. The United States had sustained an estimated 360,000 casualties in the First World War, including 116,000 dead - some 50,000 of them were killed in action or died of wounds - and 234,000 wounded. As a result of grave medical and sanitary problems in training camps as well as in Europe, the greater part of the AEF fell victim to disease, especially influenza.

In less than two years, the United States had established new motorized and combat forces, equipped them with all types of ordnance including machine guns and tanks, and created an entirely new support organization capable of moving supplies thousands of miles in a timely manner. World War I provided the United States with valuable strategic lessons and an officer corps that would become the nucleus for mobilizing and commanding sixteen million American military personnel in World War II.

References

• Ayers, Leonard P. The War with Germany: A Statistical Summary Government Printing Office, 1919
• 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. The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I (1998), the standard history
• James J. Cooke; The Rainbow Division in the Great War, 1917-1919 Praeger Publishers, (1994)
• Robert H. Ferrell; Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division University of Missouri Press, (2004)
• Frank Freidel, Over There (1964), well illustrated
• Mark E. Grotelueschen; Doctrine under Trial: American Artillery Employment in World War I Greenwood Press, 2001
• 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.
• 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)
• Herbert A. Johnson; 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)
• John Joseph Pershing. My Experiences in the World War (1922)
• Donald Smythe. 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)
• Frank E. Vandiver. Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing (1977)
• 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.
• Susan Zeiger; In Uncle Sam's Service: Women Workers with the American Expeditionary Force, 1917-1919 Cornell University Press, 1999

External Resources

• United States Army Center of Military History

ARMY HISTORICAL SERIES: AMERICAN MILITARY HISTORY

1. Chapter 17: WORLD WAR I: THE FIRST THREE YEARS, textbook
2. Chapter 18: WORLD WAR I: THE U. S. ARMY OVERSEAS, textbook

CMH Subject Publications

1. CMH Pub 24-1: Learning Lessons in the American Expeditionary Forces

U.S. ARMY CHEMICAL CORPS HISTORICAL STUDIES

1. GAS WARFARE IN WORLD WAR I: Study Number 9: THE 1st DIVISION AT ANSAUVILLE; January - April 1918

AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION Publications

1. 82D DIVISION: SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS IN THE WORLD WAR
2. 92D DIVISION: SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS IN THE WORLD WAR
3. 93D DIVISION: SUMMARY OF OPERATIONS IN THE WORLD WAR

Archival Material

1. Awards and Decorations: World War I Statistics
2. CAMPAIGNS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY
3. Number of Army Personnel who Served During Each Major War, and the Number of Casualties Incurred