The Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 191?-19??, 1919-08-16
FIGURES SHOW AMERICA DID
MUCH TO DEFEAT THE HUNS
Middle West Beat Rest Of Nation, While
Native Boys Made Better Showing
Than Foreign-Born

from the secretary OF war, OOlonel
Leonard P. Ayres, chief of the stat.
istics branch of the department, has
prepared 15O-page book dealing
with the larger steps in the military
preparations and action of the United
States in the world war. A conden-
sation of some of the facts present
ed therein follows;
The number of men serving in the
armed forces of the nation during
the war was 100000, of whom A.
100000 served in the army.
The British sent more men TO
France in their first year of the war
than we did in our first year, but it
took England three years to reach a
strength of 100000 men in France,
the United States accomplished it in
half of that time.
OF every 100 men who served, ten
were national guardsmen, thirteen
were regulars and seventy-seven
were in the national army, Tor would
have been if the services had not
been consolidated.)
Of the 100000 males in the
population, 26,OOO,OOO were register
ed in the draft or were already in
the service.
Country Boys Best.
In the physical examinations the
states of the middle west made the
best showing. Country boys did bet
ter than city boys; whites better
than colored, and natives better than
foreign bred.
There were 100000 army officers.
Of every six officers, one had pre-
vious military training with troops.
three were graduates of officers
training camps and two came directly
from civil life.
The average American soldier who
fought in France had six months of
training here, two months overseas
before entering the line, and one
month in a quiet sector before going
into battle.
Most soldiers received their train
ing in infantry divisions, which are
our typical combat units and consist
of about 1000 officers and $4,000
men.
Forty-two divisions were sent to
France.
More than two-thirds of our line
officers were graduates of the Officers
training camps,
Transporting Troops.
During our nineteen months of war
more than 100000 American sold
iers were carried to France. Half a
million of these went over in the first
thirteen months, and the others in
the last six months.
The highest troop carrying records
are those of July, 1918, when $685.
600 soldiers were carried to Europe,
and May, 1919, when $4,000 were
brought home to America.
Most of the troops who sailed for
France left New York. Half of them
landed in England and the other half
in France.
Among every 100 Americans who
went over forty-nine went in British
ships, forty-fve in American ships
three in Italian, two in French, and
one in Russian ships under English
control.
Our cargo ships averaged one com.
plete trip every seventy days and our
troop ships one complete trip every
thirty-fve days
The cargo ship was almost exclu.
sively American. 1t reached the size
of 100000 lightweight tons and
carried to Europe about 100000
tons of cargo.
The greatest troopship among all
the ships has been the Leviathan
which landed $4,000 men (the equiv.
alent of a German division) in
France every month.
American engineers built in France
SO new ship berths, 1000 miles Of
standard-guage track, and 59S miles
of narrow guage track.
The signal corps strung in Franco
100000 miles Of telephone and tele
graph wire.
Prior to the armistice $4,000
trucks were shipped to the forces il
France.
Construction projected in the Unit
ed States cost twice as much as tht
Panama canal, and construction over
seas was on nearly as large scale
Rifles and Machine Guns.
When war was declared the arm!
had on hand nearly 100000 Spring
field rifles. Their manufacture wa
continued, and the American En-
field rifle designed and put into pro
-