Chapter I
THE WAR WITH GERMANY
A STATISTICAL SUMMARY
LEONARD P. AYRES,
Colonel, General Staff
CHIEF OF THE STATISTICS BRANCH OF THE GENERAL STAFF
Second Edition with data revised to August 1, 1919
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1919
WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON,
May 10, 1919.To: Col. LEONARD P.. AYRES,
Chief of the Statistics Branch of the General Staff.
SIR: Now that the negotiations of the peace commission are drawing to a close there is general desire for a stocktaking of the efforts made and the results achieved by the United States in the war. In addition to the other reports being prepared by the different divisions of the War Department there is need for a statement which shall set forth the significant facts and figures with respect to those major steps in our military preparation and action which, taken together constitute the record of our participation in the war.
These main steps are not difficult to distinguish from the innumerable details connected with them. They include such major enterprises as raising the men, training them, transporting them overseas, furnishing small arms, artillery, and airplanes, conducting battle operations, and caring for the sick and wounded. It is important that there should be available at an early date an authoritative account giving the important facts about these consecutive operations of the war so that the more detailed reports that are beginning to appear may be judged in their. proper setting and perspective.
For these reasons I wish you would have prepared as promptly as possible a brief and simple statistical report showing what was accomplished by the department and the cooperating agencies during the war.
Very truly, yours,
NEWTON D. BAKER,
Secretary of War.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, May 31, 1919.To: Hon. NEWTON D. BAKER,
Secretary of War.
SIR: In accordance with your instructions there is transmitted herewith a statistical summary of the larger steps in the military preparation and action of the United States in the late war. The data presented have been compiled by the several sections of the Statistics Branch of the General Staff. In the main they set forth facts taken from the reports made by the Branch each week during the war to the President, to yourself, and to the Chief of Staff. These have been supplemented by facts and figures secured from the offices of the Statistics Branch maintained during the war at General Headquarters and at the headquarters of the Services of Supply in France. Some of the data have also been secured from the office of the Statistics Branch maintained at the headquarters of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Paris. Other data have been taken from the reports of the Interallied Bureau of Statistics, of which the Statistics Branch has been the American agency, and from the files of the Supreme War Council at Versailles with which the Branch has maintained close contact.
While it is still impossible to secure final figures on some points or entirely reliable ones on others, care has been taken to insure such degree of reliability in the data presented as is reasonably feasible. Since most of the data have been taken from compilations which have been currently maintained for many months, and which have been subjected to repeated checking and revision, it is believed that they are in the main fairly trustworthy.
Very truly, yours,
LEONARD P. AYRES
Colonel, General Staff, Chief of Statistical Branch.
Letter of instruction
Letter of transmission
List of diagrams
List of tables
List of maps
Figures of American participation in the war
Chapter I. Four million men:
The men who served
The American Expeditionary Forces and the British Expeditionary Forces
Army at home and in France
The selective service
Rejections for physical reasons
200,000 officers
The share of each state
Summary
Chapter II. Six months of training:
The average man
The divisions
Camps and cantonments
Instructors for training 4,000 000 men
French and British instructors
Length of training
Summary
Chapter III. Transporting 10,000 men a day:
Sending the troops overseas
Growth of the transport fleet
Where the ships came from
Embarkation and debarkation
Help from the Allies
Cargo movement
Losses at sea
Return of troops
Summary
Chapter IV. Food, clothing and equipment:
The problem of purchase
Machinery of distribution
Narrow-gauge railways and motor trucks
47 000 telegrams a day
Construction in the United States
Construction in the A. E. F
Food and clothing at the front
Summary
Chapter V. Springfields, Enfields, and Brownings:
Rifles
Machine guns
Rifles and machine guns used in France
Pistols and revolvers
Small-arms ammunition
Arms and the men
Preparing for the campaign of 1919
Summary
Chapter VI. Two thousand guns on the firing line:
Artillery
Artillery ammunition
British and American artillery production
Smokeless powder and high explosives
Toxic gases
Tractors and tanks
Our artillery in France
Guns needed v. guns available
Summary
Chapter VII. Airplanes, motors, and balloons:
Prewar equipment
Training
Training planes and engines
Service planes
Service engines
Raw materials
Accessories
Balloons
Forty-five squadrons in action
Important operations
Chateau-Thierry
St. Mihiel
Meuse-Argonne
The test of battle
Summary
Chapter VIII. Two hundred days of battle:
Two out of three
Tipping the balance of power
Thirteen battles
German offensives
Allied offensives
Battle of St. Mihiel
Battle of Meuse-Argonne
Records of 29 combat divisions
Summary
Chapter IX. Health and casualties:
The deadliest war
Battle deaths by services
Wounded, prisoners, and missing
Battle and disease losses
The control of disease
Venereal disease
Hospitalization
Summary
Chapter X. A million dollars an hour:
Total war expenditures
Army expenditures
Where the dollar went
Permanent assets
War expenditures of all nations
Summary
Appendix: Some international comparisons:
Duration of war
Cost of war
Battle deaths
Per cent of front held by each army
Ration strength
Guns organized in batteries
Airplanes in each army
Airplanes per 100,000 men
Production of ordnance
Merchant shipping lost
Merchant shipping before and after the war
National debts
Comparative strength of armies
1. British and American forces on western front
2 Thousands of soldiers in Army each month
3. Sources of the Army
4. Male population registered and not registered
5. Thousands of men drafted each month
6. Sources of the commissioned personnel
7. Soldiers furnished by each State
8. Composition of National Guard divisions
9. Officers commissioned from training camps, by ranks
10. Officers commissioned from training camps, by services
11. French instruction officers
12. British instruction officers
13. Time from organization of divisions to entering line
14. Monthly sailings to France and home
15. Growth of the trans-Atlantic fleet
16. Growth of the cross-Channel fleet
17. American troops carried by ships of each nation
18. Turnarounds of transports
19. Cargo shipped by months
20. Cargo carried by corps
21. Time for converting cargo ships to troop transports
22. American production and Army purchases
23. Motor trucks needed and available
24. Costs of construction
25. Stocks of food in France
26. Springfields and Enfields
27. Machine guns made in America
28. Small arms available
29. Artillery made in America
30. Artillery ammunition made in America
31. British and American artillery production
32. Gas
33. Artillery available .
34. Flying officers
35. Training planes and engines
36. Service planes
37. Service engines
38. Observation balloons
39. Battle squadrons
40. Planes sent to zone of advance
41. Hours of flying
42. Airplanes and balloons brought down in action
43. Divisions in France
44. Front line held by each army
45. Rifle strength
46. Divisions in quiet and active sectors
47. Kilometers advanced against the enemy
48. German prisoners captured
49. Casualties by divisions
50. Battle deaths each week
51. Death rates of officers and men
52. Men missing in action
53. Total deaths
54. Disease and battle deaths
55. Deaths by kinds of disease
56. Deaths from disease, weekly rates
57. Venereal diseases
58. Hospital beds in France
59. Cost of war per day
60. Where the dollar went
61. Cost of the war by nations .
62. Battle deaths by nations
63. Per cent of front held by each army
64. Ration strengths of each nation
65. Artillery of each nation
66. Airplanes of each nation
67. Airplanes per each 100,000 men
68. Production of munitions
69. Shipping lost
70. Merchant fleets of the nations
71. National debts
72. Comparative strengths of the armies1. Men registered and inducted
2. Organization and sources of divisions
3. Clothing produced for the Army
4. Machine guns produced
5. American machine guns used in France
6. American artillery in France
7. Thirteen American battles
8. Data of the Meuse-Argonne battle
9. Battle deaths of the nations
10. American battle casualties
11. Hospital construction
12. Army expenditures
13. War expenditures of the nations
14. Duration of the war1. Results of physical examinations, by States
2. Camps and cantonments ~
3. Where the ships came from
4. Embarkation and debarkation
5. American supply lines in France
6. American telegraph and telephone lines in France
7. Construction projects in the United States
8. Construction projects in France
9. German offensives
10. Allied offensives
11. Battle of St. Mihiel
12. Battle of the Meuse-Argonne
Total armed forces, including Army, Navy, Marine Corps, etc.............
4,800,000
Total men in the Army...........................................................................
4,000,000
Men who went overseas..........................................................................2,086,000
Men who fought in France......................................................................1,390,000
Greatest number sent in one month...........................................................306,000
Greatest number returning in one month...................................................333,000
Tons of supplies shipped from America to France.................................7,500,000
Total registered in draft.........................................................................24,234,021
Total draft inductions..............................................................................2,810,206
Greatest number inducted in one month...................................................400,000
Graduates of Line Officers' Training Schools............................................80,568
Cost of war to April 30, 1919....................................................$21,850,000,000
Cost of Army to April 30, 1919................................................$13,930,000,000
Battles fought by American troops...................................................................13
Months of American participation in the war...................................................19
Days of battle.................................................................................................200
Days of duration of Meuse-Argonne battle.....................................................47
Americans in Meuse-Argonne battle..................................................1,200,000
American casualties in Meuse-Argonne battle......................................120,000
American battle deaths in war.................................................................50,000
American wounded in war....................................................................206,000
American deaths from disease................................................................67,500
Total deaths in the Army......................................................................115,.500