Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_.

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE WORK OF

THE EIGHT THOUSAND YALE MEN

WHO TOOK PART IN THE WORLD WAR

1914–1918

HOW AMERICA WENT TO WAR

⁂

THE GIANT HAND
THE ROAD TO FRANCE I.
THE ROAD TO FRANCE II.
THE ARMIES OF INDUSTRY I.
THE ARMIES OF INDUSTRY II.
DEMOBILIZATION

HOW AMERICA WENT
TO WAR

AN ACCOUNT FROM OFFICIAL SOURCES OF
THE NATION’S WAR ACTIVITIES
1917–1920

_From a photograph by the Signal Corps_]

DEMOBILIZATION

OUR INDUSTRIAL AND MILITARY
DEMOBILIZATION AFTER THE ARMISTICE
1918–1920

⁂

BY BENEDICT CROWELL
THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF WAR AND
DIRECTOR OF MUNITIONS 1917–1920

AND ROBERT FORREST WILSON
FORMERLY CAPTAIN, UNITED STATES ARMY

_ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE
COLLECTIONS OF THE WAR AND NAVY DEPARTMENTS_

NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON · HUMPHREY MILFORD · OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXXI

COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Halt! 1

II. The A. E. F. Embarks 9

III. The Transatlantic Ferry 30

IV. Ebb Tide 47

V. The Process of Discharging Soldiers 62

VI. Picking Up after the Army 74

VII. Soldier Welfare 92

VIII. War Contracts 112

IX. The Settlement of the War Contracts 126

X. Ordnance Demobilization 145

XI. Artillery 163

XII. Ammunition and Other Ordnance 181

XIII. Aircraft 199

XIV. Technical Supplies 214

XV. Quartermaster Supplies 234

XVI. Buildings and Lands 256

XVII. Selling the Surplus 269

XVIII. The Foreign Liquidation 287

XIX. The Balance Sheet 315

Index 323

ILLUSTRATIONS

Armistice Day at Independence Hall _Frontispiece_
_Opposite page_
The Last Shot 4

The Armistice at a Munitions Factory 4

Victory 5

Reconstruction 5

Camp Street in Le Mans Area 12

Bath House at Brest 12

In Camp Pontanezen 13

Company Street in Pontanezen 13

1. Entering “Mill” at Bordeaux 22

2. Receiving Clean Clothing in “Mill” 22

3. The “Mill” Barbershop 23

4. Through “Mill” and Ready for Home 23

Kitchens at Le Mans 30

Street in Le Mans Area No. 5 30

Casuals on Transport Leaving Brest 31

Boarding Transport from Lighters, Brest 31

Troops on Battleship Ready for Mess 36

Warships with Troops Docking at Hoboken 36

Embarking for United States 37

Mess Room on Converted Cargo Transport _Ohioan_ 37

Sailing Day at St. Nazaire 42

Transport _Maui_ Loading at St. Nazaire 42

Souvenirs of His Service 43

Embarking at St. Nazaire 43

Casuals Waiting to Board Ship at St. Nazaire 54

Boarding _Edward Luckenbach_ 54

Embarkation at Bordeaux 55

Left Behind 55

Home Again 60

Welcoming Returning Troops at Hoboken 60

First Division Parading on Pennsylvania Avenue 61

Victory Arch in Washington 61

Overseas Troops Entraining at Hoboken 66

Veterans Detraining at Camp Sherman 66

Discharged Soldiers Receiving Final Pay 67

Making Out Discharge Certificates 67

Common Grave near Cirey 78

Lost Military Baggage at Hoboken 78

Preparing Cemetery at Beaumont 79

Loading Coffins on Collection Trucks 79

1. Overflowed Cemetery at Fleville 86

2. Two Months Later--Bodies All Removed 86

1. Romagne Cemetery, April 10, 1919 87

2. Romagne Cemetery, May 30, 1919 87

Portrait of Colonel Ira L. Reeves 94

Students at Beaune University 94

Art Students in A. E. F. Training Center, Paris 95

A. E. F. Students in University of Lyon 95

Air View of Pershing Stadium, Paris 100

American Soldiers at University of Grenoble 100

A. E. F. Soldiers as Comedians 101

Judging Comedy Horse at 4th Army Horse Show 101

Disabled Veterans Taking Federal Training 108

Editorial Conference of _Stars and Stripes_ 108

Poster Used in Reëmployment Campaign 109

Employment Office at Camp Sherman 109

Sending Out the _Stars and Stripes_ 122

Graduate A. E. F. Students at Edinburgh University 122

Review of “Pershing’s Own Regiment” at Coblenz 123

Games in Le Mans Embarkation Area 123

Portrait of War Department Claims Board 144

Convalescent Reading _Stars and Stripes_ 145

Hospital Train in United States 145

Havoc Wrought by German Guns at Fort near Rheims 164

“Wipers” Ready for Tourists 164

French and German Airplane Engines after Combat 165

Ruined Tanks near Cambrai 165

American Field Guns on the Rhine 180

American Gun on Ehrenbreitstein, Coblenz 180

Destroying Captured German Ammunition 181

A Captured Ammunition Dump 181

Preparing Liberty Engines for Storage 200

Assembling Plant at Romorantin 200

Flying Field at Issoudun 201

Lame Ducks 201

American Airplane Wreckage 212

Fuel for the Bonfire 212

German Locomotive Taken Over by A. E. F. Engineers 213

Engineers Constructing Beaune University 213

Air View of A. E. F. Ordnance Docks 230

A Gas Demonstration 230

Motor Transport in France 231

Part of A. E. F.’s Surplus Motor Equipment 231

A. E. F. Supply Train on Way to Ration Dump 246

A. E. F. Flour on Way to Starving Austria 246

A. E. F. Horses to be Sold 247

Storage Warehouses at Jeffersonville Depot 247

West Indian Laborers Embarking for Home 268

View of Camp Sherman 268

In an Army Retail Store 269

Customers at Opening of Army Retail Store 269

Wreck of Coal Mine at Lens 310

Motor Transport Salvage in France 310

Portrait of Interallied Purchasers 311

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors acknowledge their indebtedness to Major Robert H. Fletcher, Jr., General Staff, who collected from the various war department bureaus concerned most of the material on which this book is based. Also their thanks are due to the numerous former and present officials of the War Department and officers of the Army who read the manuscript and criticized it constructively.

B. C. & R. F. W.

_Washington, D. C.,
September, 1921._

DEMOBILIZATION