An American Big Gun in France
Day after day the American troops moved slowly forward, over rugged, difficult ground, broken by ravines and steep hills, through dense underbrush, in the face of deadly fire from artillery and nests of machine guns hidden in every vantage point, through incessant rain and mud and fog and penetrating cold, pushing the enemy steadily back, until they reached Sedan, cut the German Army’s most important line of communication, and so brought the end of the war in sight. For a few days later came the German request for an armistice and terms of peace.
Aiding the fighting men at the front were non-combatant troops who by their courage and zeal helped greatly and won high honor. Regiments of engineers worked with the lines at the front, keeping the roads open, building railways, repairing bridges in front of the advancing lines to enable them to pour across in pursuit of the fleeing enemy, and, in the earlier months, mining and tunneling under the enemy’s lines and constructing trenches. Much of the time they worked under fire and it sometimes happened that, suddenly attacked, they seized rifles from the dead and wounded around them and fought back the assaulting party. The camoufleurs worked close behind and sometimes at the front, disguising roadways, ammunition dumps, artillery and machine gun positions, concealing the advance of troops, most of the time in the shelled areas and often under fire. Immediately behind the front lines during the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives and under the protection of camouflage the map makers and printers of the American Army had big rotary presses on trucks and turned out the necessary maps at once as they were needed. British and French lithographers had told them it could not be done, but their mobile map-making trains kept in touch with the army, turning out a million maps during the Argonne drive.
The Signal Corps gave services of such inestimable value that without them the successes of the combatant troops would have been impossible. The war enlarged the personnel of the Corps from 1,500 to 205,000, of whom 33,500 were in France, where they strung 126,000 miles of wire lines alone, of which 39,000 miles were on the fighting fronts. Their duties were varied and highly specialized and demanded the greatest skill and efficiency. Regardless of danger the personnel of the Corps carried on their work with the front lines, went over the top with the infantry, and even established their outposts or radio stations in advance of the troops. A non-combatant body, it lost in killed, wounded and missing, 1,300, a higher percentage than any other arm of the service except the infantry. Its photographers made over seventy miles of war moving picture films and more than 24,000 still negatives, much of both within the fighting areas.
The enemy captured 4,500 prisoners from the American forces and lost to them almost 50,000, so that the Americans took ten for each one they lost. The American Army captured also in the neighborhood of 1,500 guns. There were 32,800 Americans killed in action and 207,000 were wounded, of whom over 13,500 died of their wounds, while the missing numbered almost 3,000. The total casualties of all kinds, exclusive of prisoners returned, for the Army amounted to 288,500, while those for the Marine Corps totaled over 6,000 additional. The battle death rate for the expeditionary forces was 57 per thousand.
In recognition of their exceptionally courageous and self-forgetful deeds on the battle field nearly 10,000 members of the American Expeditionary Forces received decorations from the French, British, Belgian and Italian Governments. Our own rarely bestowed and much coveted Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest recognition for valor the Government can give, was won by 47 heroes, while Distinguished Service Medals were awarded to several hundred individuals and to a goodly number of fighting units.
Those of their own officers who had had a lifetime of military training and experience marveled at the spirit of these civilian soldiers and their feeling was voiced by one of them who said, “They have taken our West Point tradition of implicit obedience and run away with it, as they have with every other soldierly quality.”
Field Marshal Haig complimented the American divisions who had fought under him upon “their gallant and efficient service,” and “the dash and energy of their attacks,” said that their deeds “will rank with the highest achievements of the war” and told them, “I am proud to have had you in my command.”
Marshal Foch said that “the American soldiers are superb” and told how, when General Pershing wished to concentrate his army in the Meuse-Argonne sector, notwithstanding its many obstacles and forbidding terrain, he consented, saying to the American general, “Your men have the devil’s own punch. They will get away with all that.”
Other British and French officers on many occasions praised the “gallantry” and “the high soldierly qualities” of these civilian troops, their “energy, courage and determination,” their “discipline, smartness and physique,” said they were “splendid fighters with marked initiative,” and one French general commanding an American division that was in battle for the first time declared that their “combative spirit and tenacity” rivaled that of “the old and valiant French regiments” with which they were brigaded. German documents captured not long after our men had begun to take an important part showed that the foe already had a good opinion of the American soldier, for they spoke of his expertness with weapons, his courage, his determination, his fighting qualities and—curious soldierly quality for a German to recognize—his honor in battle.