Abstract
The relative success of the Allied and Associated Powers of the First World War in overcoming the problems of effectively coordinating their economic and military resources was a major factor in their ultimate victory. France, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy, Russia and the United States each possessed an army with its own particular strengths, weaknesses, organization, weapons, doctrine, leadership, and level of experience. In no respect did these armies differ more significantly than in the logistical systems designed to support them in the field. Nowhere was cooperation more needed or ultimately more effective.
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Notes
Martin II, p. 174; J. Phillip Hatch (ed.), Concerning Base Hospital No. 5 (Boston: Barta Press, 1920), pp. 19
Harvey W. Cushing, From a Surgeon’s Journal, 1915–1918 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1936), pp. 200–2.
The most complete account of their service, although anecdotal, is that of W. A. R. Chapin, The Lost Legion (Springfield, MA: Loring-Axtell, 1926).
Van Tuyl Boughton, History of the Eleventh Engineers United States Army (New York: Trustees, Eleventh Engineer Fund, 1926), p. 82
John A. Laird and others, History of the Twelfth Engineers, U. S. Army (St. Louis: Buxton and Skinner, 1919), pp. 10
Robert G. Henderson, History of the Fourteenth Engineers US Army, from May, 1917 to May, 1919 (Boston: Atlantic Printing, 1923), pp. 2–5.
Report, CHQ, AEF, 30 June 19, subj: ‘Relations with Allied Governments and Armies, in USAWW, XII, p. 85. On the same date there were also 34 334 American combat troops training with the BEF. At various times in 1918, Headquarters, United States Army Troops on duty with the BEF, controlled six base hospital units, about 1400 Army doctors assigned directly to British units, elements of six engineer regiments and other engineer units, four aerosquadrons, and a miscellaneous collection of other troops. Elements of the 17th, 22nd, 28th, and 148th Aero Squadrons trained with the RAF. The 17th and 148th Aero Squadrons were reassembled in June 1918 and operated in the BEF under British control. A number of other American pilots flew with British pursuit squadrons and the Independent Air Force. See James J. Hudson, Hostile Skies: A Combat History of the American Air Service in World War I (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1968), pp. 250.
On 15 June 1918, Headquarters, US II Corps, was formally organized and Major-General George W. Read, then commanding the 30th Division, was assigned as Corps Commander. See Historical Section, Army War College, Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War: American Expeditionary Forces: General Headquarters, Armies, Army Corps, Services of Supply, and Separate Forces (Washington: GPO, 1937), p. 220 [cited as OB II]; Ewen C. Macveagh and Lee D. Brown, The Yankee in the British Zone (New York and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1920), pp. 149–50.
Elmer A. Murphy and Robert S. Thomas, The Thirtieth Division in the World War (Lepanto, AR: Old Hickory, 1936), p. 64.
John F. O’Ryan, The Story of the 27th Division, 2 vols (New York: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford, 1929), I, p. 166.
William F. Clarke, Over There with O’Ryan’s Roughnecks (Seattle: Superior Publishing, 1968), p. 92.
Joseph N. Rizzi, Joe’s War: Memoirs of a Doughboy (Huntington, WVA: Der Angriff Publications, 1983), pp. 29–30.
Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 49–50.
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© 1990 The Military Studies Institute of Texas A & M University
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Shrader, C.R. (1990). ‘Maconochie’s Stew’: Logistical Support of American Forces with the BEF, 1917–18. In: Adams, R.J.Q. (eds) The Great War, 1914–18. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11454-2_7
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