PERSHING SETS UP HEADQUARTERS.
General Pershing dropped quietly into the department and set up the first headquarters of the American expeditionary forces in a little office, hardly large enough to hold himself and his personal staff. There, with the aid of the general staff, of Secretary Baker and of the chiefs of the War Department bureaus, the plans were worked out.
Announcement of the sending of the force under General Pershing was made May 18. The press gave the news to the country and there were daily stories.
There came a day when General Pershing no longer was in the department. Officers of the general staff suddenly were missing from their desks. No word of this was reported. Then came word from England that Pershing and his officers were there. All was carried through without publicity.
Other matters relating to the expedition were carried out without a word of publicity. The regiments that were to go with General Pershing were all selected before he left and moving toward the seacoast from the border. Other regiments also were moving north, east and west to the points where they were to be expanded, and the movements of the troops who were to be first in France were obscured in all this hurrying of troop trains over the land.
Great shipments of war supplies began to assemble at the embarkation ports. Liners suddenly were taken off their regular runs with no announcement. A great armada was made ready, supplied, equipped as transports, loaded with men and guns and sent to sea, and all with virtually no mention from the press.
The navy bore its full share in the achievement. From the time the troop ships left their docks and headed toward sea, responsibility for the lives of their thousands of men rested upon the officers and crews of the fighting ships that moved beside them or swept free the sea lanes before them. As they pushed on through the days and nights toward the danger zone, where German submarines lay in wait, every precaution that trained minds of the navy could devise was taken.
A BRILLIANT CLIMAX.
The brilliant climax to the achievement was made public when it was announced that not only had the last units of the expeditionary force been landed on July 3, but that the American navy had driven off two German submarines, probably sinking one of them, when the transport ships and convoys had been attacked.
The last units of the American expeditionary force, comprising vessels loaded with supplies and horses, reached France amid the screeching of whistles and moaning of sirens. Their arrival, one week after the first troops landed, was greeted almost as warmly as the arrival of the troops themselves.