April/May this year is the 100th year since the US entered WWI

The Great War, World War I

100^th Year Remembrance

By

Justin M. Ruhge

   April and May 2017 mark 100 years since the United States entered the First World War in Europe.

“Seeing the Boys Off” A Typical Scene All Over America During World War I.

Here are Seen Troops in Lompoc, California Leaving for the

 Long Cross-Continent Trip to the East Coast in 1917-1918. 

Courtesy of the Lompoc Historical Society. 

An Original Family Photograph of the American Troops in France in World War I. 

Many Foreign-Born Americans Fought in the Great War on the American Side. 

Note Helmets and Puttees Warn by American Soldiers in France.

Photograph Provided by Justin M. Ruhge.

    Very much like the Spanish-American War, the events of World War I were unplanned and occurred over a very short time of about one and a half years.  The difference was that four million men were involved instead of 200,000 in the latter war and Selective Service was instituted to conscript that many to the service.  However, times were simpler and things could get done in a shorter time than experienced in the “modern” age of warfare where a large standing army is needed at all times to be ready at a moment’s notice to engage the enemy threats anywhere in the world.  

    On April 6, 1917 the United States declared war on Germany.  The little Regular Army provided the leaven for 2 successive waves of manpower – the National Guard and the draftees produced by the Selective Service Act passed on May 19, 1917.  From a strength of 200,000 men and 9,000 officers, which included 65,000 National Guardsmen presently serving on the Mexican border under General John J. Pershing, the Army grew overnight to over four million men including 200,000 officers.  Some two million served overseas.  In California, 23 special bases were established to support this intense war effort.

    General Pershing was appointed Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe.  He promoted a divisional organization of about 28,000 men.  It consisted of two infantry brigades of two regiments each, an artillery brigade, an engineer regiment, three machine-gun battalions and trains and supporting services.  Forty-two of these divisions reached France.  Each division was approximately twice the size of the French counterparts. 

    Pershing opposed entrenchments as a defeatist concept of trench warfare.  His training doctrine was predicated on the spirit of the offensive, mobile combat, with stress on individual marksmanship.  Americans went to war with the Springfield 30-06 five-round stripper-clip rifles on which the troops were trained to be marksmen.  The Germans suffered greatly when they came up against hundreds of thousands of deadeye riflemen.  In addition to the rifle the Americans brought their machine gun and the BAR for field assaults against German machine gun nests.

    Pershing chose the Lorraine area east of Verdun as the American combat zone.      War was declared in April 1917.  The first battle in which American forces took part was a year later in May 28, 1918 at the Battle of Cantigny in which the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd Divisions took part.  The war ended six months later on November 11,1918.

Reference: “The Military History of California”, Justin M. Ruhge, 2005, pgs. 917-930.