Show Cje Cie qs S sto slora L LJ of the A ef F 1 0 11 II by th north allocc world lu Cier teral the la ot la pan prohibited john J pers pershing inq amica CHAPTER A large party including col E bt 11 aliouse the american delegates to the linte rallied conference ambassador william 0 sharp and lord northcliffe went by train from paris december 4 1017 1917 to our training area stop topping stippling pling at my chaumont headquarters en route on the train I 1 had an interesting conversation with lord northcliffe of the british air board regarding the formation of an american army and its transportation overseas lord northcliffe thought ills his government should do more to help with shipping but bul like most englishmen he believed it best for us to send our men for or service with the british lie ile argued in favor of a proposal that lloyd george had recently made to mr hir house that we should incorporate in their units any infantry that we might not be able to organize immediately into complete divisions of our own it Is all very well I 1 said to make hsuch an appeal to us but it Is impossible to ignore our national viewpoint the people themselves would not approve even though the president anil and his advisers should lean that way wo we cannot permit our men to serve under another flag except in tin an extreme emergency and then only temporarily I 1 also insisted eliat we would contribute more largely to allied success by the use of the american army as a unit hits fault finders about tills this time mr house told me that retain petain had criticized the american ideas of training and also that louis of munitions had spoken about the rise in prices caused by american purchases mr bir house wisely suggested to these gen clemen he said that matters of this wad kind were for me to settle I 1 called without delay on it II clemenceau and told him of the reports report and explained my understanding about training neree ingree ments with petain and also the steps that had previously been take by the purchasing hoard board la in operation cooperation co with ills his own bureaus to prevent the rise in prices I 1 also to d him that french dealers were largely to blame if prices had risen as we had eliminated competition uniting among ourselves and that our purchases were and had been tor for some time actually handled through french officials 1 objected to these backdoor back hack door methods of lodging complaints and ampha sized the necessity of frankness and directness in nil all our dealings I 1 him to give instructions that if there was any fault to find with our methods it should lie le brought to my personal attention lie he entirely agreed with me and expressed chagrin and surprise that any other course had been followed on the face of it there was no other conal conclusion u s 1 oll however than that both complaints n t s were made for the purpose of finding out just the er tent of my independent authority gets apology from petain I 1 took occasion a a few days to let petain know very politely what I 1 thought of the impropriety of this sort of thing and also criticized mm him then and there for telling anybody even mr house as aa he had done about the plan to attack the st salient as the farst offensive by he american army I 1 was pleased falth petals Petal ns apology and ills his statement that there would be no further of this kind on ills part As aa a matter ot of fact I 1 think the french erroneous erroneously y regarded louse house as n a sort of special ambassador and thought that tippy could lay the foundation for an approach through him to the quest question len of amalgamation just bedorr its ills return to the states house said 0 o me that lie he entirely agreed alti me ine and that lie he felt sure the Pres lent Hent ond and secretary of war nar intended 0 to o leave leae the whole question re gardlin the disposition of our troops to my judgment assurance on this a point was in no sense necessary essary as I 1 had full confidence that this was wag the rase case during tits his stay in france I 1 formed a high opinion of houses ability we formed a friendship in the beginning which enabled us to discuss all matters most freely and frankly before he left for home lie he and I 1 arranged for confidential communication bv cable should it become necessary to roach reach mr air raker baker or mr wilson direct the missing turkeys immediately upon my return to headquarters nt at chaumont december cember Pe 7 1917 general Ilar harbord bord reported there had bad been a shortage of turkeys turl and other kotlier essentials of a truly amerl can thanksgiving dinner and in a facetious manner deplored tile the heartlessness of a stuff at washington that would so BO neglect our troops ile he stated that the shortage short was due to these supplies which had been or derod in september for delivery delhery november 1 being burled buried under a larga cargo that hat could not be unloaded in time the following cable was sent as written by harbord Hur Ilar bord on september IS 18 supplies for thanksgiving were ordered your cablegram stated mincemeat shipped or on Ilon tannin there was no mince ment ineat on montanan mincemeat arrived november 20 0 on in powhatan ua berneath dern der cath neath heavy cargo which it was necessary to discharge before mincemeat could be unloaded result mincemeat aboard ship thanksgiving day sweet potatoes arrived on da kotan and could not be unloaded until november 22 result some troops did not have sweet potatoes it was necessary to buy geese to fill gittons on account of part of turkeys not arriving notwithstanding the fact act thal tha thanksgiving supplies were ordered to arrive in france november I 1 L although we had treated this matter lightly I 1 really felt regret that some 0 f our troops had been deprived of a homelike thanksgiving dinner find and at the same time I 1 was wa not at all pleased to have further evidence of careless loading of ships need two regular divisions division in considering the composition of our expeditionary forces it was a n question whether we ought to organize higher units by using regular regiments with a proportionate number of new officers or utilize the permanent commissioned personnel of the line for equitable assignment to the citizen contingents and leave our regular organizations to be completed from the relatively raw material at our disposal and thus build up all categories of the army simultaneously I 1 recommended that regular regiments at honolulu and elsewhere be relieved for this purpose by national guard regiments these regular troops would more nearly approximate tile the standards of our allies at the start and more important still their use would emild dit diminish nInish the chances of reverses during our first encounters with the enemy the acting chief of start staff at home maj haj gen john diddle biddle agreed with my suggestion but the widely separated locations of these regiments t made their replacement somewhat difficult and only the third fc fourth and fifth divisions came in time for service early in 1018 the sixth and seventh arriving to aake take part in the fall campaign CHAPTER the progress of our preparation at home at this time december 1917 was war far from being satisfactory as tests of newly arrived troops showed their instruction was not up to our standards tan dards in france lit it was evident that my recommendations were being disregarded 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 follow our own conception of training emphasizing pha sizing the rifle and bayonet bayon et as the supreme weapons of the infantry soldier and insisted upon training for open warfare the training of officers for tile the general staff which also necessarily hail had to be undertaken in france was well under way at the general staff school at Lan laneres langres Lang gres forty miles south ot of chouin on t under the able direction of major general mcandrew the three months course of instruction was has basped upon our staff organization and 1 7 77 7 77 X A 14 y 50 Z I 1 4 bat in the trenches in winter time was conducted by our own instructors with two 0 or r three frene french h and on an equal number cumber of british offic officers ers to assist as lecturers lecture ra the difficulty dini culty was tins the scarcity of officers uval available lable for or detail as students we were confronted with the task of building up an arrn army of millions that would require as many trained staff officers ns as we had officers in the whole regular army at the beginning of the war to meet this urgent demand washington was asked to send over in advance a small percentage of cers from each division tor for instruct tion but only a few ever came my ily diary notes the following chaumont wednesday jan 2 1918 both french and british pressing us for amalgamation went to M llanga lead head quarters friday by rall rail accod panted by colonel wagstaff and spent the night blo motored through heavy out roni kraples Kl aples gangs ganga of conscientious objectors opening up roads discussed with sir douglas possible shipment ba I 1 and training of Amerl american cao troop 1 with british visited king anil and queen of bat belgium and their army at Aden kirke on saturday As we wa have seen there had bad been some talk of the british providing shipping to bring over american troops for training behind their lines during the evening I 1 spent with sir douglas haig as noted in the diary he presented ills plans for training our troops ills idea was to place the battalions as they arrived one to the brigade in se selected british divisions preferably those serving on the southern part of their front and then gradually to increase the number of battalions until the division should become wholly american hoping to commit commie the me british deft aeu bitely n on the question ot of tonnage w which hach up to that time we had noi not succeeded in doling doing I 1 did not offer serious objection to the plan and even approved tome some of the features feat especially those pertaining to the earlier part of the proposed training and for the moment the question was left open tor for further conference causes king to walt I 1 left british headquarters the next morning mornin g en route to the belgian front to ply pay my respects to the th eking king and queen As sir douglas was oft off to london my car was attached to his bis train and wo we traveled together to boulogne where he boarded the channel boat and I 1 took a special consisting of my car and one other ind and proceeded on my way we were due at Aden kirke my destination ti at a fixed fired hour but to my surprise the train pulled in ten minutes u tes ahead of time I 1 was changing into my best uniform uril torm in fact was just putting on the right boot when ray my aid colonel boyd stuck his head bead in at the door of my compartment and said breathlessly general we have arrived I 1 knew it only too well as the train had stopped find and the royat royal band outside was playing tile the star spangled banner in the mournful radence cadence common to foreign bands it was an embarrassing barr assing thought that I 1 should be late in another minute when the th orderly and myself were struggling this time with the left boot boyd again appeared and said in a stage whisper that was no doubt heard by the entire escort outside sir the king Is out there standing at the salute lut that was too much the humor of the situation overcame me and tor for an instant all of us including the order ly who rarely smiled were convulsed with laughter that did not cot help matters of course and meanwhile the I 1 band outside which had already played the national air through three times was dolefully beginning nu nn the fourth when I 1 hurriedly descended the steps ot of my car car opposite his majesty buttoning ray my overcoat with willi one hand and saluting with the other at my appearance the band started afresh and as aa though they had just begun ran through our national anthem rather more vigorously cheered chee reil up no doubt at last to see me in evidence A few months later I 1 had the courage to relate the incident in all its details to their majest majesties les and they both seemed to enjoy it immensely king decorates pershing after inspecting the escort in company with the king lie he and I 1 drove to their residence where the queen in her most gra gracious clous manner received us at the entrance we had a very enjoyable luncheon which aay boyd thought was quite gay especially when I 1 became bold enough to air my dreadful french after lunch king ai albert to my surprise said ile he wished to bestow upon me the order of the grand cordon of leopold and as I 1 hesitated saying ahat we were not permitted to receive foreign decorations he insisted that I 1 should accept it conditionally which of course was the only thing to do boyd was decorated also in the afternoon the king with ills his chief of staff took me to tits his 0 II 11 Q and then to the front line tren trenches ies explaining the disposition of the limited im force with which their posit positions oils were held field it consisted of only th the six divisions which had stubbornly re retired red in 1914 in the face of overwhelming odds it was then being recruited by belgians escaping from within the german lines nt at the risk of their lives amused by U 8 congressmen while we were driving king albert related with much amused amu nt some incidents of 0 a recent visit by a party of our congressmen and inquired whether it was customary in our coun try fur for them to lie be on familiar lar cerimi with tile the president ile he said some of eliem had called him albert and one had stopped slapped him on the hack back lii king youre the right sort of fellow and everybody in america admires ires you I 1 explained to him that our congressmen were more orless or less privileged characters at home and that they only meant to be friendly As a matter of 0 fact act I 1 think their familiarity did not nol offend him at all during my lily brief visit I 1 was waa particularly impressed by the extreme simplicity of the home life of the kin klof and queen CHAPTER returning to my headquarters at chaumont december 31 1817 1017 1 I wall wa oot not surprised to receive the following cable from secretary of war baker la in view of the numerous suggestions suggestion that had come to me regarding varl ous plans fur for training our troops with the french and british both english and french are pressing upon the president their desires to have your forces amalgamated with theirs by regiments and companies and both express the belief in impending heavy drive by germans somewhere along the lines ot of the western front we do not desire loss of identity of ZO Q x bishop charles E brent our troops but regard that as secondary to the meeting of any critical situ aaion by the most helpful use possible of the troops at your command the difficulty of course Is to determine where the drive or drives of the enemy will take place and in advance of some knowledge on that question any redistribution of your forces would be difficult the president however desires you to have hae full authority to use the forces at your command as you deem wise visa in connection with the french and british commanders in chief it Is suggested tor for your consideration that possibly places might be selected for your forces nearer the junction of the british and french lines which would enable you to throw strength in whichever direction seemed most necessary this suggestion Is not however pressed beyond whatever merit it has in your judgment the presidents sole purpose being to acquaint you with with the ri representations presentations made here find and to authorize you to act with entire tree free dom to |