July 5 – The American Expeditionary Force Officially Formed

July 5, 1917

Today is over 100 years since the American Expeditionary Forces were established during World War I. Have you heard of the AEF?

The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), a formation of the United States Army on the Western front of World War I, was established on July 5, 1917 in France under Major General John J. Pershing. The AEF fought alongside the French, British, Canadian, and Australian Armies against the German empire. A small portion of troops also fought alongside Italian Army units against the Austro-Hungarian Army. The AEF helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive in the summer of 1918 and fought its major actions in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the latter part of 1918.

By June 1917, only 14,000 American soldiers had arrived in France and the AEF only had a minor participation at the front through late October. By May 1918 over one million American troops were stationed in France, though only half of them made it to the front lines. Since the transport ships needed to bring American troops to Europe were scarce in the beginning, the United States Army pressed into service passenger liners, seized German ships, and borrowed other Allied ships to transport American soldiers from ports in New Jersey, New York City, and Virginia.

The mobilization effort taxed the American military to its limit and required new command structures and organizational strategies to transport great numbers of troops and supplies quickly and efficiently. The French harbors of Bordeaux, Saint Nazaire, La Pallice, and Brest became the entry points into the French railway system which then brought the American troops and their supplies to the Western Front. American engineers in France also built nearly 1,000 miles of additional standard-gauge tracks, 82 new ship berths, and over 100,000 miles of telephone and telegraph lines.

The first American troops, often called “Doughboys,” landed in Europe in June 1917. However, the AEF did not participate at the front until October 21, 1917, when the 1st Division fired the first American shell of the war toward German lines, though they participated only on a small scale. A group of the first American division and a group of regular soldiers later entered the trenches near Nancy, France in Lorraine.