FOOTNOTES
[1] In this the system differed from that in use in the United States. Not the Quartermaster Corps but the Embarkation Service in the United States prepared the overseas troops for the voyage and embarked them on the transports. The Embarkation Service also operated many of the transports. After the armistice the Embarkation Service, now merged into the Transportation Service, continued to manage the Army’s ocean shipping facilities, and it also attended to the details of debarking troops at the ports in this country; but its jurisdiction over those troops began only after they had boarded the ships in France.
[2] Deadweight tonnage represents the weight of cargo it takes to sink a vessel in the water from her light-load line to her deep-load line.
[3] In the spring of 1919 the Transportation Service brought back to America from Archangel the American troops, about 4,500 in number, sent to northern Russia in September, 1918, to combat the Bolsheviki. It also, in late 1919 and early 1920, transported from Vladivostok to American Pacific ports about 10,000 American troops who had been sent to Siberia at different times to aid Czecho-Slovak, Japanese, and other Allied forces in operations against German and Austrian troops aiding the hostile native Russians in Siberia. In 1920 the Transportation Service, acting as an independent contractor, undertook to repatriate 30,000 of the Czecho-Slovak Siberian troops cut off from escape to the Balkans by the successes of the Bolsheviki in southern Russia. To the government of Czecho-Slovakia the Service named the price of $12,000,000 for this work, a price criticized in this country as too low. The last of the 30,000 Czecho-Slovaks were landed at Trieste about January 1, 1921, and the whole job had been carried through at a cost of approximately $8,000,000. The Service employed twelve U. S. transports for one or more trips in the movement of the Czech expedition, and two of them—the America and the President Grant, both ex-German liners—circumnavigated the globe in the process of the work, proceeding from New York to Vladivostok via Panama and thence to Trieste via the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal, and from Trieste to New York via Gibraltar. The Czechs traveled under American military discipline with what that implies in cleanliness and sanitation, and therefore moved without the epidemics of disease that have usually accompanied the progress of Balkan forces.
[4] The disability discovered in these examinations was surprisingly small, affecting a little more than 5 per cent of the soldiers examined. Since the so-called limited-service men—soldiers suffering from physical disability at the time of their induction and accepted for military duties with the proviso that they should serve in capacities where their physical shortcomings would not impair their value to the Government—since these men also went to the demobilization centers for discharge, it is evident that, to show a true picture of the physical condition of the Army at demobilization, the limited-service troops must be subtracted from the totals. With such subtraction made, it is estimated that less than 5 per cent of the men called to arms and accepted for service incurred physical disability of any sort by reason of their experience.
[5] This work was practically all done after the date of the armistice and before the advent of spring in 1919—in other words, during the time of the year when the days are short and the nights long.
[6] The financing of war factories, and particularly of those which had to make large and expensive plant additions before manufacturing could proceed, was effectively aided by the War Credits Board of the War Department. In the autumn of 1917 Congress authorized the War Department to advance to contractors amounts up to 30 per cent of the total contract obligations. The War Credits Board administered this work. In all, it lent to war department contractors about $250,000,000. On June 1, 1921, it had recouped all but $14,500,000 of these loans. Its total losses were not expected to run over $150,000, while the profits (interest, of which $8,000,000 had been collected) were estimated at $12,000,000.
[7] The A. E. F. importations include all American-made guns shipped to France, these same guns also being included among the 6,663 units noted as built in the United States.
[8] This and other special artillery plants since sold to private buyers are regarded as military assets. In the event of another great war they would undoubtedly be used once more for the work their walls encompassed in 1918.
[9] Includes surplus for sale.