1931

Articles from 1931

Training the Doughboy (U.S. Gov. 1931)

Two remarkably brief paragraphs concerning the required military training of the average American Doughboy throughout the course of America’s blessedly short participation in the First World War:

The average American soldier who went to France received six months of training in this country before he sailed. After he landed overseas he had two months of training before entering the battle line. The part of the battle line that he entered was in a quiet sector and here he remained one month before going into an active sector and taking part in hard fighting.

Click here to read a 1918 magazine article about the Doughboy training camps.

Unemployment Data for 1930 (Pathfinder Magazine,1930)

In a statement for the month of December, President Green of the Federation of Labor placed the number of unemployed at about 5,000,000; estimated that incomes of wage earners had declined over $6,000,000,000 in the past year and said about 50 percent of trade union members had had to lower their standard of living because of lowered incomes.

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

Prior to reading this PHOTOPLAY article we were convinced that Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war film, PLATOON (1986) was the first production of it’s kind to actually take the effort to school all cast and extras as to the horrors of war; however it seems that this unique distinction goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.


In this interview the seven leading cast members discuss how the making of that movie disturbed each of them in profound ways:

We went into that picture a group of average wise-cracking fellows. We didn’t come out that way…


A small notice has been added that announced that the movie had been banned in Austria.

A 1929 review of the book can be read here

Realistic Training for ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Photoplay Magazine, 1931)

Prior to reading this PHOTOPLAY article we were convinced that Oliver Stone’s Vietnam war film, PLATOON (1986) was the first production of it’s kind to actually take the effort to school all cast and extras as to the horrors of war; however it seems that this unique distinction goes to All Quiet on the Western Front.


In this interview the seven leading cast members discuss how the making of that movie disturbed each of them in profound ways:

We went into that picture a group of average wise-cracking fellows. We didn’t come out that way…


A small notice has been added that announced that the movie had been banned in Austria.

A 1929 review of the book can be read here

The Size of the U.S. Army: 1917 – 1919 (U.S. Gov. 1931)

A diagram pulled from a 1931 U.S. Government study indicating the number of soldiers in the American Army each month from 1917 through 1919, and the number of Doughboys who were deployed in Europe.

Click here to read an interview with the World War I American fighter pilot Eddy Rickenbacker.

The Healthiest American Men and the Draft of 1917 (U.S. Gov. 1931)

Attached is a map of the 48 states that will show you which regions of the country produced the greatest number of healthy men who passed their Selective Service physical examinations. You will also learn which parts of the nation provided men who could not pass this examination.

A.E.F. Deployment Compared to B.E.F. Deployment (U.S. Gov. 1931)

Attached is a graph comparing the amount of time it took for both the British Army and the American Army to have 2,000,000 soldiers on the Western Front during World War One:

The British sent to France many more men in their first year in the war than we did in our first year. On the other hand, it took England three years to reach a strength of 2,000,000 men in France and the United States accomplished it in one half the time.

The U.S. Army Divisions and Their States of Origin (U.S. Government Archive, 1931)

The attached file is composed of two informative paragraphs and a table listing the 42 American Army divisions, the states from which they were pooled and the locations of their respective training camps:

The Doughboys were trained in the division, which was our typical combat unit. In the American Army it was composed of about 1,000 officers and 27,000 men. Training and sorting organizations of about 10,000 men, known as depot brigades, were also utilized, but as far as possible, the new recruits were put almost immediately into the divisions which were the organizations in which they would go into action.

Click here to read about the efforts that were made to get free cigarettes to the Doughboys…

A Study of World War I American Army Officers (U.S. Government Archive, 1931)

The attached pie chart will give you an understanding as to the history of the U.S. Army officer corps that served throughout the First World War. Drawn in 1931 and based upon the data collected by the Department of War, this study outlines the history of Army leadership between April of 1917 through November of 1918.


Click here to read a 1917 article about the U.S. Army officer training camp at Plattsburg, New York.

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