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 Size of the U.S. Army: 1917 – 1919 (U.S. Gov. 1931) Read More »
Attached is a pie chart illustrating the expansion of the U.S. Army beginning in April of 1917 through 1918, when it reached the zenith of its might. The chart also indicates the shrinkage in National Guard units within the same time frame.
Read about the W.W. I growth of the U.S. Marine Corps…
Click here to read what the young women of France thought about the Doughboys.
The Expansion of the U.S. Army (U.S. Gov. 1931) Read More »
An assortment of opinions gleaned from various interviews with German soldiers who all made remarks about the naked aggressiveness shared by the A.E.F.:
The French would not advance unless sure of gaining their objectives while the American infantry would dash in regardless of all obstacles and that while they gained their objectives they would often do so with heavy loss of life.
The Aggressive (U.S. Army Study, 1919) Read More »
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.
The Healthiest American Men and the Draft of 1917 (U.S. Gov. 1931) Read More »
A black and white map indicating the Atlantic ports up and down North America where the A.E.F. boarded troop ships, their trans-Atlantic routes and their French and British points of arrival. The map is also accompanied by a few facts concerning this remarkable trip across U-boat infested waters.
Click here to read an article about the sexually-transmitted diseases among the American Army of W.W. I…
When the Doughboys complained, they complained heavily about their uniforms; read about it here.
Where Did the Doughboys Board? Where Did They Land? (Pictures of The World War, 1920) Read More »
This page contains a chart clearly stating the number of men who served in the U.S. Army during World War One, the number of men provided by each state and what percentage of the entire army originated from these states.
*Doughboys from New York numbered 367,864 and made up 9.7% of the U.S. Army.
*Doughboys from Pennsylvania numbered 297,891 and made up 7.93% percent.
*While the men of California made up 2.98% of the army, clocking in at 112,514.
etc…etc…etc…
Click here to read about the shipments of chewing gum that were sent to the American Army of W.W. I.
Where Were the Doughboys From? (U.S. Gov. 1931) Read More »
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.
A.E.F. Deployment Compared to B.E.F. Deployment (U.S. Gov. 1931) Read More »
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…
The U.S. Army Divisions and Their States of Origin (U.S. Government Archive, 1931) Read More »
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.
A Study of World War I American Army Officers (U.S. Government Archive, 1931) Read More »
Additional data regarding the 1917 Draft and how the first one million inductees measured-up physically:
The first adequate physical survey in half a century was made possible when the Selective Service system brought before medical examiners some ten million men. Of the 2,510,000 men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one 730,000 (29 percent) were rejected on physical grounds.
We found it interesting to learn two facts from this article; the first being that the highest number of acceptable draftees were from the countryside and the second involved the malady of flat feet -which effected one out of every five American men at that time.
The Suitability of the First One Million Draftees (Current Opinion, 1919) Read More »
