Official Government Statistics
Number of Battle Aeroplanes in Each Army at the Date of the Armistice
CONSTRUCTION STATISTICS
In building factories and storage warehouses for supplies as well as housing for troops, 200,000 workmen in the United States were kept continuously occupied for the period of the war.
The operations of the Construction Division constituted what was probably the largest contracting business ever handled in one office. The total expenditures in this enterprise to November 11, 1918, were about $800,000,000.
Construction projects were conducted in France by the Corps of Engineers under the services of supplies. Up to the signing of the armistice these projects had been undertaken to the number of 831, distributed all over France. To economize tonnage, materials were obtained in Europe as far as possible. The Engineer Corps ran its own quarries, and its own logging camps and saw-mills. The labor force consisted largely of American soldiers and German prisoners, though French and English civilians and Chinese coolies were used wherever available.
TWO HUNDRED DAYS OF BATTLE
Of our combat forces Colonel Ayres says:
"Two out of every three American soldiers who reached France took part in battle. The number who reached France was 2,086,000, and of these 1,390,000 saw active service in the front line.
"American combat forces were organized into divisions, which consisted of some 28,000 officers and men. These divisions were the largest on the Western front, since the British division numbered about 15,000 and those of the French and Germans about 12,000 each. There were sent overseas 42 American divisions and several hundred thousand supplementary artillery and service of supply troops.