MAKING IT HOT FOR BOCHE AVIATORS American officers on second line of defense firing a machine gun on an anti-aircraft mount at German airplanes.

U. S. Official Photograph.

ATTACKING WITH LEWIS GUNS

These light machine guns are well adapted for infantry work, and great numbers were used

in service.

How American manhood, womanhood and childhood mobilized in a mighty effort that ended the greatest war the world ever knew is a story of imperishable glory. An army that for dauntless resolution and clear-eyed initiative and resourcefulness was never equalled broke the back of German militarism at Château-Thierry, St. Mihiel, and in the dark, blood-soaked spaces of the Argonne forest. An American Navy, ready to spring like an unleashed tiger if the German Navy had ventured from behind its protecting mine fields co-operated with the British Navy in the blockade of the German coast and the destruction of the German submarine menace. Back of the army and the navy stood in serried ranks American labor, American farmers, American civilians in an overpowering array of industrial, agricultural and civilian effort.

It was a mobilization such as no country had ever known against which the phalanx of autocracy could not compete.

American effort ended the war. That is the judgment of history, a record that will inspire future generations of Americans and the peoples of other lands to future efforts for liberty's sake.

CHAPTER IV

CONSCRIPTION OF A PEACEFUL NATION

OW the flower of America's youth, answering the call to battle, sprang to the support of the colors; how America's army of democracy was raised almost overnight, trained in an incredibly short period of time and made ready for the front line trenches in the battle for civilization, is a story that will go down through the ages as a monument for all time to the patriotism of America's young manhood.

Shortly after the declaration of war, the War Department announced that Major-General John J. Pershing would command approximately one division of regular troops which had been ordered to proceed to France as soon as possible, and that Pershing would accompany his staff before the troops left. President Wilson declined to accept the offer of the late Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, hero of San Juan Hill, and later President of the United States, to raise and equip a volunteer division, somewhat on the plan of the "Rough Riders" of Spanish-American War fame. Thus, at the time of the declaration of war with Germany, America had only one division to throw immediately into the balance on the side of the Allies.

It was announced that a divisional unit of the army as reorganized on the plan used by the Allies, would consist of 25,718 men and officers. Wagon trains and motor trains would raise this number to 28,334. To this would be added the medical contingent consisting of 125 officers, 1,332 enlisted men and forty-eight ambulances.

The mobilization of the national guard had been ordered in all the states of the Union. The Vermont, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and District of Columbia National Guard divisions had been called out for police duty in March.

They were stationed near railway bridges and water works as guards against German plotters. Before the end of March, twenty regiments and five battalions of the national guards in eighteen more states were called. Twenty-two thousand guardsmen who were then returning from service on the Mexican border were not mustered out, but held in the service, and seven additional regiments were called out. On April 1st, out of a total of 150,000 national guardsmen, 60,000 were under arms.

On April 6th came the order for the mobilization of the navy. This branch of the service was found to be 35,000 men short of the 87,000 men authorized by law. It was necessary to recruit 99,809 men as regulars, and 45,870 men as reserves to put the navy on a war basis. Of these, 73,817 regulars and 25,219 reserves were to be used on battleships, scouts, destroyers, submarines and training ships of the navy; 10,318 regulars and 2,080 reserves were to be used for shore stations, and 10,633 regulars and 17,195 reserves were to be used for coast defense.

Enlistments were opened almost immediately. Every possible means to attract a recruit to the service was used. Women pleaded with noon-hour crowds at recruiting meetings, and the entire country was plastered with posters urging men to enlist. Volunteer recruiting was not a success in the United States. It was as flat a failure in this country as it had been in England. We later profited by England's example and drafted men into the army, but it was not until we had experienced some of the same symptoms which had marked England's entry into the war and a few subsequent months thereafter.

Far from satisfactory were the recruits obtained by volunteer enlistment. Many gave fictitious names or addresses when they enlisted. Others failed to report to the stations to which they had been assigned. Thousands of volunteers failed to pass the physical examinations. Flat feet, bad hearing, bad teeth, defective sight and other physical defects barred many from the service. However, the daily enlistments for the navy rose from twenty-five to a thousand a day while the army, at the peak of its recruiting campaign, obtained

nearly fifteen hundred recruits a day. By July 31st, more than a million men had volunteered, and of these, 558,858 had been accepted for service. Of this great number of recruits, the regular army received 163,633 men; the navy, 69,000 men,

Sep Oct Nov Dea Jan Feb Ma Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov

CHART SHOWING, IN THOUSANDS, THE NUMBERr of Men DraFTED EACH

MONTH INTO THE NATIONAL ARMY

This chart and the other charts in this book are reproduced from the "Statistical Summary" prepared by Col. Leonard P. Ayres, Chief of the Statistics Branch, General Staff.

the officers' training camps 35,000 men and the national guard received 145,000.

On May 18th, after a month of wrangling, Congress passed the Selective Service Law, which called for the registration of all males in the United States between the ages of twenty-one and thirty years, inclusive. The measure pro