The villagers put up bunting, calico signs, flags and had stocks of American canned goods to show in their shop windows. The children, when bold, played with the American soldiers, and the children that were more shy ventured to go up and touch an American soldier's leg. Very old peasant ladies put on their Sunday black, and went out walking, and in some mysterious way talking with American soldiers. The village mayors turned out and made speeches, utterly incomprehensible to the American soldiers.
The engineering, building and machinery works the Americans put up were astonishing. Gangs of workers went over in thousands; many of these were college men. They dug and toiled as efficiently as any laborer. One American major told with glee how a party of these young workers arrived straight from America at 3.30 P. M. and started digging at 5 A. M. next morning, "and they liked it, it tickled them to death." Many of these draftees, in fact, were sick and tired of inaction in ports before their departure from America, and they welcomed work in France as if it were some great game.
Perhaps the biggest work of all the Americans performed was a certain aviation camp and school. In a few months it was completed, and it was the biggest of its kind in the world. The number of airplanes used merely for training was in itself remarkable. The flying men—or boys—who had, of course, already been broken-in in America, did an additional course in France, and when they left the aviation camp they were absolutely ready for air-fighting at the front. This was the finishing school. The aviators went through eight distinct courses in the school. They were perfected in flying, in observation, in bombing, in machine-gun firing. On even a cloudy and windy day the air overhead buzzed with these young American fliers, all getting into the pink of condition to do their stunts at the front. They lived in the camp, and it required moving heaven and earth for one of them to get leave to go even to the nearest little quiet old town.
An impression of complete businesslike determination was what one got when visiting the Americans in France. A discipline even stricter than that which applied in British and French troops was in force. In towns, officers, for instance, were not allowed out after 9 P. M. Some towns where subalterns discovered the wine of the country were instantly put "out of bounds." No officer, on any pretext whatsoever was allowed to go to Paris except on official business.
The postal censors who read the letters of the American Expeditionary Force were required to know forty-seven languages! Of these languages, the two least used were Chinese and German.
The announcement of the organization of the first American Field Army was contained in the following dispatch from France, August 11, 1918:
"The first American field army has been organized. It is under the
direct command of General John J. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the
American forces. The corps commanders thus far announced are
Major-Generals Liggett, Bullard, Bundy, Read, and Wright.
[Illustration: Chart]
Key
The state of German civilian morale.
Variations in Germany's military position
Decree of political unity in Germany.
The Food situation In North Germany.
Condition of Austria-Hungary.
U-Boat sinkings. (Monthly reports of tonnage sunk.)
SECRETARY OF WAR'S OFFICIAL CHART
This reproduction of Secretary Baker's chart, which hung in his office
at Washington, illustrates graphically Germany's success and failure
in the war.
"The creation of the first field army is the first step toward the coordination of all the American forces in France. This does not mean the immediate withdrawal from the British and French commands of all American units, and it is probable that divisions will be used on the French and British fronts for weeks yet. It is understood, however, that the policy of organizing other armies will be carried out steadily."
This announcement marked a milestone in the military effort of the United States. When the American troops first arrived in France, they were associated in small units with the French to get primary training. Gradually regiments began to function under French division commanders. Then American divisions were formed and trained under French corps commanders. Next, American corps began to operate under French army commanders. Finally, the first American army was created, because enough divisions and corps had been graduated from the school of experience.