Existing comment:
Forging the AEF: The American Expeditionary Forces:
-- :"Lafayette, we are here!" -- Lieutenant Colonel C.E. Stanton, AEF, Paris, France, July 4, 1917
The cry "Vive les Americains!" rang out from the lips of a million Parisians when they greeted the first contingent of the AEF, the American Expeditionary Forces. As the U.S. troops marched into the city on July 4, 1917, crowds rained flowers on the soldiers whom they hoped would break the long stalemate on the Western Front.
Not since the Civil War had the United States fielded an army approaching the size of the AEF. And never before had the United States formed an army the way the AEF was formed. Rather than taking charge of largely volunteer units formed under the authority of the individual states, the Federal government attempted to amalgamate the nation's citizen-soldiers into the organizational structure of the U.S. Army. Rather than being a member of the Third Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, for example, a soldier from whatever locale became a standardized "doughboy." While a greatly enlarged U.S. Navy helped protect ships transporting troops and war materiel to France, it was the creation, organization, equipping, training and leading of this huge new army that occupied the attention of the American leaders during 1917-1918. |