OCR Text |
Show GUARDSMEN SAW HEM JOIjJ WASHINGTON. Nov. 26 News from France today that the Twenty-seventh Twenty-seventh and Thirtieth divisions whicl have been fighting with the Brtlisl Fourth army, have been witbdrawr with only approximately 12,500 officcn and men in each, does not mean thai these organizations have boon reduccc to less than hair of their norma strength in the severe fighting on the British front before the signing of th( armistice. Army officers recalled today that only the Infantry and ma-chine ma-chine gun units of those divisions weit into action with the British forces the artillery being used clsowhere. It also al-so was regarded as more than probable that tho infantry nnd machine gur units were reduced in number so as to make tho division conform in siz to the British divisions with whicl they were operating. The British divisional unit numbers about 12.500 mon. The Twenty -seventh division is the Now York national guard division commanded by Majoi General John F. O'Ryan, the only national na-tional guard officer to have served through tho war with that high rank. 1 The Thirtieth division was composed ; of the Tennessee, North Carolin and South Carolina national guard and v.-ns known as tho "wildcat" division. Both these organizations say heavy 1 action with the Brioit and were highly commended by British officers for their desperate fighting when Marshal Halg's armies were smashing the Hin-denburg Hin-denburg line in northern France early in the fall and later engagements. TJieir losses undoubtedly have been heavy, but it Is not regarded as probable prob-able that half their original strength figured in the casualty lists. So far as is known hero no date for the return of these or any other divisions di-visions from Franco has "been fixed. Secretary Baker said today none of the divisional orgnnizatlous would arrive home before Christmas as the transport trans-port facilities will be used in moving casuals and sick and wounded. When the divisions do return from France they will bear little resem blance in enlisted personnel to ihe same divisions when they started overseas. Application of the one army theory to all the forces and the systems sys-tems of ropfnecnient employed to fill gaps in front line organizations will be found to have obliterated to a large degree the lines which before their departure divided the divisions into national guard, national army or regular reg-ular organizations. This fact was sharply illustrated today to-day by news from Franco that the 7Gth division had reached its embarkation embark-ation port on the other side with a full strength of sixty-one officers and 1,0000 men. It went over filled substantially sub-stantially to full strength of 27,000 men. The report today from France shows that not only have 26,000 of the 27,000 men of the original Seventh -sixth been scattered in the fighting army, but that probably a large number of additional ad-ditional men passed through its ranks in the same way. The division itself was never in action or near the front, but it is evident that the bulk of Its original peroonnel did see action in other divisions. It may be that ihe extraordinary depletion de-pletion in the ranks of the Seventy -sixth division represents casualtlt' suffered by the Twenty -sixth division, the New England national guard force that was first of tho troops other than those of the regular army to reach France. This division saw heavy fighting in many sectors and won an enviable reputation. Its casualties arc cortain to have been heavy and it is quite likely that it was kept at fighting fight-ing strength by replacement drafts from the Seventy-sixth division which was composed largely of men from the same part of the country. If that is true the Twenty -sixth when that does come home will appear more like the old Soventy-slxth than anything else for the bulk of its personnel will havq been drawn from that source. Even if the men of the Seventy-sixth Seventy-sixth have not gone Into the Twenty-sixth Twenty-sixth but have been scattered among other divisions, it is obvious that tho replacement system has served to break up almost entirely the localized character of the original divisions. All of the active units are now filled with men from the selective service, national na-tional guard and regular army indis-1 crimlnately, nnd had the war continued, contin-ued, the whole army would have been welded together In this fashion until thore was no possibility of distinguishing distin-guishing between the units except bv j number. |