The army behind the army

For the interest they have shown and the assistance they have given me in the preparation of this book, I am indebted to many persons. Each chapter was written with the co-opera...

Despite the unending stream of men which constantly flowed Europeward for work on the “A. E. F. Tel. & Tel. Co.,” as our military telegraphs and telephones were familiarly known...

The exigencies of the Great War wrought many strange and startling transformations. Scientists who had devoted their entire lives to discovering methods for prolonging life turn...

As a result of the researches and experiments which it carried on during the war, the Signal Corps has, in addition to its countless other achievements, produced several devices...

Now it was realized, from the very beginning, that the success of our armies in France would depend upon transportation. And, thanks to the threats of Pancho Villa, we had at le...

One of the most picturesque and interesting developments of the war—and, because of the secrecy which surrounded it, one of the least known—is the work of the flash and sound ra...

Though it has no direct relation to the work of the American Mining School, I might mention, as an illustration of the part played by miners in the great conflict, that when the...

The first time I visited the big warehouse of the Camouflage School at Fort St. Menge, I thought for a moment that I was back in the old Eden Musée which used to stand in West 2...

Only those who saw the low-lying, swamp-lined shores of Gunpowder Neck during the winter and spring of 1917-1918 can fully picture the obstacles with which our gas-makers were c...

The new methods and devices in gas warfare which were developed by the great corps of scientists and laboratory experts attached to the American University Experiment Station we...

As the result of the experiments at American University, Lakehurst, and Edgewood, and the experiences of our troops in the field, several new gases of incredible deadliness were...

When war was declared the Regular Army and the National Guard already had, of course, their complements of experienced cooks and bakers, though in wholly insufficient numbers, b...

The Quartermaster Corps introduced endless economies in order to save wool. More economical patterns were made for uniforms. Originally 1.45 yards of cloth were required to make...

Profiting by the example of our enemy, we exercised the utmost care in fitting our men with footwear. As the result of examinations conducted at a number of training-camps, it w...

First of all, I would wish to convey to you some conception of the vastness of the organization commonly referred to as Army Ordnance, the immensity of the sums which it expende...

By the assurance of steady employment and lucrative remuneration the great European ordnance manufacturers attracted to their employ men of exceptional technical ability, thus f...

Of small-arms ammunition (for pistols, rifles, and machine-guns) there were produced between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918, 2,879,148,000 rounds, a total equivalent to th...

When war was declared there were on hand in this country approximately 670 Benet-Mercie machine-rifles, 285 Maxim machine-guns, and 350 Lewis guns chambered for British ammuniti...

This chapter already so bristles with statistics that a few more can do no harm. They may open your eyes, moreover, to the magnitude of our preparations for producing nitrates—a...

Now spruce, curiously enough, had not been considered a valuable wood for the ordinary lumber trade; the lumbermen held it a doubtful asset that was hardly worth the cutting. As...

When the United States entered the war the Vickers was the only type of fixed gun in use on either English or French planes and was used on all the planes which General Pershing...

Now it may not have occurred to you that the higher you ascend the greater becomes the decrease in atmospheric pressure. At 19,000 feet the pressure of the atmosphere is one-hal...

When the United States entered the war we were practically without this type of aircraft, the only balloon possessed by our military forces on the Mexican border having been the...

In order to accomplish the best results, a comprehensive programme was undertaken, providing for the standardization of both tests and examiners. Sixty-seven military units were...

The chief, and indeed the most important, function of the subsection was the compilation and the constant revision—based on the latest and most accurate data obtainable—of the e...

What were the results of this propaganda offensive? Making an estimate of how it affected the enemy is like reporting on the effects of artillery-fire or bombing raids, for they...

The activities of the men under investigation assumed many forms. First in importance, of course, though not in numbers, were those enemy agents who had entered the army for the...

From the beginning of the war until its end the American public was constantly thrilled by the sensational and usually highly circumstantial accounts which appeared in the press...

It did not take the government long to realize that, if the cable and postal censorships were to be made sufficiently water-tight to prevent our military secrets leaking through...

Everything considered, the tanks were not of much assistance to the infantry on the occasion of their first appearance, though they unquestionably caused considerable consternat...

Although, upon our entry into the European war, preparations were immediately begun for the complete motorization of the various trains—ammunition, engineer, sanitary, and suppl...

Beginning, as I have already said, with a peace-time personnel of barely 700 officers, and a peace-time organization, the Medical Department expanded as the army expanded, until...

The problems handled by the Division of Laboratories and Infectious Diseases were both varied and vitally important in preventing wastage of troops. The view held by the experts...

Even more important than its care of the animals of the army was the work of the Veterinary Corps in protecting the men by guarding the purity of their meat and dairy supplies....