Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-07-24
No Wonder Germany Quit
BRIGGS
NUMBER TWENTY-NINE

Probably the greatest surprise Of
the whole war was the rapidity with
which the United States built up a
great army and transported it to
France" said Colonel ]. B. K,emper,
of the Army Recruiting Station,
S25 Market street, Harrisburg. 1T
certainly amazed Germany and up
set all their plans. In the sum-
mer of 1917 the Interallied Supreme
Council believed that America S
greatest part in the war would be
the furnishing of supplies but with
the collapse of Russia we were
called on to participate in four
ways; first, to keep the Allies from
starvation by shipping food Sec
ond, to assist the Allied armies by
keeping up the flow of material al
ready in production in the United
States; third, to send as many men
as could be transported with the
shipping facilities then at Americas
command; fourth, to bend energies
toward a big American army in
1919, equipped with American sup
plies. Following that decision a
program of troop shipments was
drawn up. This program called for
progressively increased schedule
of sailingS reaching a maximum in
the spring of 1919. But how we all
did fail in our calculations. On
March 21, 1918, the Boche started
in with their big offensives and kept
them up one night after the other.
The British War Cabinet implored
us to send all available infantry and
machine gunners and loaned us a
~ ft.nt, rt.As, "
packed troops tightly in the ships
and left guns, horses, transport la
Dor units, flying service, rolling
stock, and so forth to later occa-
sion. The French and British fur
nished us with such equipment as
was vitality necessary and the rest
we did without, difficult though it
was. What was the result of this
change in program? The original
schedules called for the sailing of
about $4,000 men by July 1, 1918,
but we had actually sent over a
million. We were to send up to
November II. 1,157,0OO men but we
actually sent 2,OS7,0OO or 100000
more men than the program called
for. Now when you consider that
when we entered the war we had
less than 100000 men in the Regu-
lar Army and National Guard com
bined that $4,000 extra men looks
like some little army. There are
only three cities in the whole coun-
try that contains more men, women
and children than that army we
landed over and above the program.
And consider that we transported
those two millions of soldiers from
three to seven thousand miles. kent
them supplied with food clothing.
ammunition and so forth, despite the
distance and the submarines. Do
you realize that it took Great Bri-
tain until March 1917 to reach the
two million mark in France-two
years and eight months of war-and
that they then dropped below two
million and stayed there until the
armistice. And it is only twenty-one
miles across the Straits of Dover.
Early in October, 1918, the Amer
lean Expeditionary Force CA. E. FD
exceeded the British (B. E. F) in
size and we had just started our eff
forts In nineteen months we ex-
ceeded Great Britain's highest point
in numbers and we had two mil
lions more in training ready to send
as fast as ships became available.
And Furthermore, the great mass of
our troops in the A. E. f. were
combatants, infantry. machine gun
ners, artillery, divisional engineers,
pioneer infantry, and so forth. In
the final great Meuse- Argonne bat
tie over 100000 American troops
took part, about twenty times the
number in the Union Army at Get
tysburg, and this only a year and a
half after we got into the war"