| Show general pers copyright dall ener ngos sou by the notia Amer 1611 story ot of the t e A ae E 0 o F e served world 10 whole RP it be apart prohibited by ru gen ohn J pershing bershin service CHAPTER continued aa As lie of different nationalities national itle gathered blithered in paris recent reports of decreasing losses of ocean tonnage and greater dc do of german submarines with of still further iro im pio seemed to the ghe more of hopefulness in the tile general situa lion tion and allied spirits were somewhat revived reviled the british bad had won at cam bral brat and were making satisfactory progress in their alliance on jerusalem which it was aid said would be facilitated by the use of their new base at jaffa the italians seemed to hive recovered their morale to a limited extent with the stiffening of their lines by british and french divisions rind hd hed successfully held their own against the austrian attack on the tile ilaa not t the least hopeful thing was the step just taken toward unity of command in the creation of the su sit preme war council but the deel sire alve factor in tie the hole situation if it could be utilized in time was the tremendous eco economic Romic and physical power polier of lie the united atutes to make that available before it waa was too late was the lem lern upon the solution of which depended the success of the allied cause 11 the allies see it and would they work together to it conference when all fill were seated around the table in the assembly room at the ministry of foreign affairs prime minister clemenceau who ed spoke briefly setting forth the importance of the gathering and the necessity of translating the tile noble spirit of the alliance into action no attempts at oratory were in erl dence nor was there prolonged dis course on tiny subject Na questions concerning mal available lable man mail power shipping munitions and supplies were ere mentioned but only in a general way the conference confer erce did little more than min agree th tant it the study of the tile various subjects should L b left to committees coin posed of rc re presenta thes tiles it was very clear that everybody was looking to america to provide tl e additional roan man power needed to give ghe the allies superiority none was as more eager to increase our forces than ourselves but on my part every eiery possible ble argument to procure shipping had been presented to the allies and to our war department part ment so when the conference urged the expedition of our forces it made the stron strongest gett kind 0 a we in favor of immediate increase of allied aid in tonnage for some time reliance upon the allies for any considerable amount of tonnage had seemed almost in vain and it looked as though we should have base to depend upon our limited resources for most of it the british were giving s some ome assistance si la in the transportation of men american ships tad carried d up to november 1 and the british 4 our engineer engineers in fight the results of the british success at cambrai were lot tot to be permanent as the germans quickly retal bretal gen von marwitz marwit hastily assembled a force of some fifteen divi divisions and november 50 30 sud denly launched it 0 violent counterattack the british were short of reserves and before von van marowitz was stopped his troops had regained most of the lost ground it was in this operation thit a detachment of our eleventh ble Lle ment of engineers became engaged while serving with the I 1 british the men to the number of were at work nork in the Gauz acourt railway yard when the germans attacked one officer and nine men were wounded and the detachment with drew they were then alvea arms and fought with the british war council meets again the second council of the sa preme war council was held at ver sallies december 1 our represent shye pa and nd M erts 1111 at meeting were mr houw a and n jdee general bliss respectively at the opening session M clemenceau drew attention to the general situa tion referring rt erring especially especial it to the col lapse of russia tio tho Tro probable bable relea n least of troops from that front the adverse situation in italy the depletion of allied man power and the reliance of the allies on american as assistance istance alic pr premier emiler enjoined the military representatives to bear in mind that their function Is to advise the supreme war council as a whole and not merely as representatives of their nations on the council and that they should view the problems confronting them cot not from a national standpoint point polut but from that of the allies is is a whole the military representatives at this conference were instructed to examine the military situation and report their recommendations as to the thi future plan of operations to T study the immediate situation in italy from the offen offensive she as well as from the defensive point of view 4 and to report on the utilization of the belgian army it was evident that this body was to become a kind of super parlia ment not oaly for the disc discussion assion of pf resources ains alris and purposes but for the of policies looking to concert of action in support of the military efforts the spirit in which the problems were approached at this meeting made it clear that the supreme war coun ell would sensibly co opera tion among the powers le the second meeting of the inter i s 1 b S allied conference december 3 closed its sessions none of the questions quee tlona brought before the first session could be settled but they were taken up by the more perm atif tit body the supreme war council alich as time went on undertook to co coordinate ordinate the work of the va rious committees that had been formed to handle the problems in evolved CHAPTER A large party including col 11 M house the american delegates to the Interi tilled conference am ain cassador bas william 0 and lord northcliffe went by special train from paris december 4 1017 to our training area topping stopping at ray my chaumont headquarters en ell route on the train I 1 had an interesting conversation creation with lord northcliffe of the british air board regarding the formation of an american army and its transportation overseas lord northcliffe thought ills gov should do more to help with shipping but like most eng be he believed it best for us to send our men for service with the british he ile argued in favor of a proposal that lloyd george had recently made to mr house that we ue should incorporate in their units any infantry that ne e might not be able to organize immediately into complete divisions of our on own n it Is all very well ell I 1 said to make such an appeal to us hut but it is impossible to ignore our cation nation al viewpoint the people them selves would not ap approve even though the and his ills ad ibers should lan kan that way we cannot permit our men to serve under another lag flag except lu in an extreme emergence emer genc and then only temporarily I 1 also insisted that we could contribute orore largely to allied success by the use of the american army as a unit hit fault finders about that time mr house told me that retain had criticized the american ideas of training and also that louis louls I 1 minister of munitions had spoken about the rise in prices caused by american purchases sir mr house wisely sug to these gentlemen he said there would be no further action of this tills kind on his part ag As a matter mitter of fait fact I 1 think the french erroneously regarded house as a it eort sort of pedal special ambassador and rind thought that they could lay the foundation for an approach through hirr hill to the question of jut jutt ju tt t before his ills return to the states house said to me that lie entirely agreed with me and that he felt sure the president and the secretary of sar intended to leave the ft hole question regarding the disposition of our to my judgment assurance on this point was us in no sense necessary as 03 I 1 had full confidence that this was the tile case during his ills stay in france I 1 formed a high opinion of houses ile Q formed a friendship in the tile beginning aich enabled us to discuss all matters most freely and frankly before he lie left for home he and I 1 arranged for conal dentral communication by cable should it become necessary to sir mr baker or mr wilson dl the mining missing turkey turkeys immediately upon my return to headquarters at Llin chaumont debein ber 7 1917 general harbord reported there bad had been a shortage of turkeys and aher essentials of a truly american thanksgiving dinner and in a facetious manner manne r deplored the heartlessness of a staff at washington that would so neglect our troops he lie stated that the shortage wis due to these supplies mitch had been ordered in september for delivery november NoN ov ember 1 being burled buried under a large cargo that could not be unloaded in time the following cable nas sent as written by harbord on september IS 18 supplies for thanksgiving were ordered lour cab cablegram lebram stated min cement shipped on montanan ilon there was no mincemeat on montanan mincemeat arrived november 20 26 on row pow hatan haten underneath heavy cargo which it was as necessary to dis charge before mincemeat could be unloaded result mincemeat aboard ship thanksgiving day sweet potatoes ardiee on dakotan and could not be unloaded until no vember 22 result some troops did dd divisions came in time for serlee early in 1018 1918 the sixth and bev sev arriving to take part in tle fall CHAPTER the progress of our preparation 11 at home at this tills time december 1017 1917 was uns far from aning tory as tests of newly nely arched troops showed that their truc ions were not up to our standard standards in france it was evident that my reco in lons were viere being disregard ed this faulty training at home threw an extra burden upon us of training officers and men after their arrival I 1 had urged that we should fol low our on own a conception of training emphasizing the lie rifle and bayonet ns as the supreme weapons of the tile in fantry soldier and insisting upon training for open warfare the training of officers tor for the general staff which also necessarily had to be undertaken in arance was well under way at the general start staff school at langres landres Lan gres 40 miles south of chaumont under lie tl e alle nl ie direction of major general lie andrew we were confronted with the task of DuI Dull IdIng ding up an army of millions that would require as many trained staff officers as we had ofil cers in the whole regular army at the beginning of the war 10 lo meet this urgent demand 1 washington N n as asked to send over in advance a small percentage of officers from eab division for instruction but only a few cur eier came my diary notes the following chaumont 11 wednesday ednes day an 2 1918 both french and brit ish pres in ans us for amalgams amal gama alon bent ent to aai il arshal headquarters by rail by colonel ipg ag staff and spent the night mo ito through heavy out from maples Lt aples gings aings of conscientious objectors open ing up bolds discussed alth sir douglas possible shipment by and training of american troops ith till british visited king and quen of belgium and their army at Aden kirke on saturday As we have seen there I 1 ad been 7 T k I 1 f 0 4 al 1 74 X 7 ne aa 1 k general pershing visits the king and queen of belgium that matters of this und were for me we to settle I 1 maled en lied without dela on at Clemenc clemenceau enu and told him film of the reports and explained my understanding at about training agreements with reft ln in and also the steps tl at had previously been taken by the purchasing hating I 1 board in co opera tion with ith his own bureaus to prevent the rise in prices I 1 also told him that freach dealers were largely to blame it if prices price had risen as we had eliminated corn coin petition among our ourselves selles and that our purchases bere a and had been for some time actually handled through french officials I 1 objected to these hick bick door methods of lodging complaints and emphasized the necessity of frank ness and directness in all our deal ings I 1 asked him to give instructions that if there was any fault to find alth our methods it should be brought to my personal attention he lie entirely agreed nith ft ath me and expressed chagrin and surprise that any other course had been fol loed on the face of it there was no other conclusion however than that both complaints were ere made for tho purpose of finding out just the extent of my independent au tho dhority thorl rity ty gets apology from petain I 1 took occasion a few days later to let petain know very politely what hat I 1 thought of the impropriety of this sort of thing and also criticized him then and there for telling anybody even sir mr house as he had done about the plan to attack the st rillene as the first offensive by the american army I 1 as pleased with Pet petain alris a apology and bis his statement that bijj not have hae sweet potatoes it was necessary to buy gee geese geee e to fill on nf part in f turkeys not arrived rot ing the fail act that thanksgiving supplies ordered to arrive in france nov v m aber oer I 1 although Altho agli we bad had treated this tills matter her I 1 really felt regret that some of ou troops had been delrivo of a homelike ins ing dinner and at the same time ja I 1 was not nt at all pleased to have further evidence of careless doid ing of ships need two regular divisions in considering the composition of our expeditionary forces it was a question ul whether lether we ought to organize higher units by using reg ular regiments with a proportion ate number of new off officers or util ize the permanent commissioned per personnel bonnel of the line for equitable assignment to the citizen contin gents and rind leave our regular organizations to be completed from the relatively hely raw material at our disposal and thus build up all categories of the tile ormy army simultaneously I 1 recommended that regular regi heuts nt at honolulu and elsewhere be relle relieved led for this purpose by na no lional guard regiments these regular troops would more nearly approximate the standards of our allies at the start and more tin still their use would dl di minish the chances of reverses during our flirt encounter encounters with mith the enemy the acting chief of staff at home maj gen john rid bid die agreed with roy my suggestion but the widely separated locations of these regiments made their replacement somewhat difficult and only the third fourth and fifth 1 I 1 f some talk of the british provi providing dint shipping to bring over american timms for branss tran in ss b hla UI lines during the evening I 1 spent with sir douglas hall as noted la in the dary he te pre presented tented his plans for training our troops ills idea melt was to place the battalions as they airles one to the bli bil gade in selected british divisions preferably those serving on the southern part of their front and then gradually grada ally to increase the number of battalion battalions until the divisions should become wholly american hoping to commit the british definitely on the question of ton nage which up to that time we had not succeeded in doing I 1 did not offer serious objection to the plan and eun eien approved some of the fra fea tures especially those pertaining to the earlier part of the proposed training and for the moment the question was left open for furtney conference cause causes king to wait I 1 left british headquarters the next morning en ell route to the bel glan front io to pay my respects to the king and queen As sir doug las was off to london my car wa was attached to bis his train and we tray trav tied cled together to boulogne where he boarded the channel boat and I 1 took a special consisting of my car and one |
