The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-02
the following letter:

Iue 1OllOWlng leCCef.
 | Under the commander in chief this stan must carry out the policy, and | direct the details of administration. | supply, preparation and operations of ' the army as a whole, with all special 1 prahches and bureaus subject to it's , control. AS models to aid us we had 1 the veteran French general staff and 1 the experience of the British, who had ! similarly formed an organization to meet the demands of a great army. By selecting from each the features best
 auapted toSour basic organization, and iortined by our own early experience 1 in war, the development of our great | general staff system was completed. me general staff is naturally divided ] into nVe groups, each with Its chief Whlch IS an assistant to the chief of | the general staff G-1 general staff-D
 IS In charge of organization and eauip- heht or troops, replacements, tonnage priority of overseas shipments, the aux
 Hilary welfare associations and coenate subjects; G-2 has censorship, enemy in | teLlgence, gathering and disseminatine 1 information, preparation of mans and all similar subjects; Ga is charged with all strategic studies and plans, move
 hient or troops and thes upervision of icoilpat operations; G-4 co-ordinates inn portant questions of supply. construc | ton, transport arrangements for com l pat, and the operations of the service I or supply, and of disqualification and | the evacuation of the sick and wound ca G-5 supervises the various schools
 1nu mas general direction and co-or- | alnatlon of education and training
 The first chief of staff was Col fno1y Maj. Gen.) James G. Hubhard u,bo was succeeded in May 1918. bv Mai 1 Gen. James w. McAndrew. To these 1 onlcers, to the deputy chief of staff ana to the assistant chiefs of staff who
 as heads of sections aided them.
 sleat cFealt IS due for results obtained 1 not only In perfecting the general staff
 organization. but in applying correct principles to the multiplicitv of nro- 1 blens that have arisen.
 ORGANIZATION AND TRAINING
 After thorough consideration af .1,iad 1 organizations, it was decided that o,r i compat divisions should consist of four ] reSlnents of infantry of 5000 men each with three battalions to regiment and tour companies of 250 men each to a batta-
 non, and of an artillery brigade, of three
 regiments, machine gun battalion. an | engineer regiment, a trench mortar bat
 tery, signal battalion. wagon trains ana the Headquarters staffs and mili- 1 tary police. These with medical and other l uillts made a total of over 5000 men, or 1 practically double the size of a French | or German division. Each corps would l normally consist of six divisions. four 1 combat and one depot and one replace 1 iieht alVIslon, and also two regiments
 ol caVairy' and each army of from three 10 flve corps. With four divisions fully | trained, corps could take over an American sector, with two divisions in line and two in reserve, with the depot ana replacement divisions prepared to l i'll the gaps in the ranks
 our purpose was to prepare an inte- gral American force which should be apie 10 take the offensive in every re- | spect Accordingly tho development of q | self-reliant infantry by thorough drill ! Tn the use of the rifle and in the tac- tlcs or open warfare was always upper most. The plan of training after arri- | val in France allowed a division one month for standardization and instruction l Tn small units from battaions down. second month in quiet trench sectors l by battalions. and third month after | it came out of the trenches. when it should be trained as a complete division 1 in war of movement
 very early system of schools was outlined and started having the advan- tage of instruction by officers direct from the front. At the great school cen ter at Langres one of the first to be organized was the staff school where the
 
 laid down in our own organization were taught to carefully selected officers
 Men in the ranks who had shown uuall- ties Of leadership were sent to the school or candidates for commissions. A school of the line taught younger officers the principals of leadership tactics and the use of the differept weapons In the ar tillery school at Saumur young office. were taught the fundamental principles of modern artillery, while at Issoudun an immense plant was built for training cadets in aviation. These and otne schools with their we'll considered curri- culums for training n every branch of our organizations were co-ordinated in manner best to develop an efficient army out of willing and industrious young men, many of whom had not be- fore known even the rudiments of military technique. Both Marshal Haig and Gen. eral Petain placed officers and men at our disposal for instructional purposes, and we are deeply indebted for the oppor- tunities given to profit by their veteran eYperiaDco