Major General Leonard Wood (1860 - 1927) served as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff between the years 1910 through 1914 and was relieved of that office by President Wilson, who was unnerved by his wariness concerning America's inability to wage a modern war. Having alienated the president and other prominent generals in Washington, he continued on this path by launching the "Preparedness Movement" a year later in which he established four volunteer army training camps across the country.
Wood's admirer's were legion, and this article opines that his finely tuned military mind was not being put to proper use:
"General Wood has committed the sin of having been right from the very start. He has always been right. He has been right when Washington has been wrong. It is upon the heads of the entire pacifist crew who sold their shriveled souls and their country's safety to the devil of German propaganda, that is falling the blame for the blood of those who are dying on the hills of Picardy and the plains of Flanders."
A leaf torn from the chic pages of VANITY FAIR in which eight snap shots depict various high-profile New Yorkers 'absorbed' in their officer training routine. The journalist opined: "The Business Man's Camp at Plattsburg has accomplished several of it's avowed objects. It has proved itself practicable. It has demonstrated that men of high standing in business, professional and social affairs are willing to make personal sacrifices for the country's good. It has shown that American officers have made good use of lessons taught by the War, and have adapted their tactics to conform to modern exigencies. Finally, the Plattsburg camp has grounded a large number of intelligent Americans in the rudiments of warfare."
You can read an article about General Wood here. At the end of the First World War, the young women of France were asked the question:
"Who would you choose for a husband, a Frenchman or an American? And what are the qualities and faults which justify your preference?" Some of the answers were pretty funny (especially the responses made by the irate Frenchmen returning from the Front). After all the votes were tallied, it was discovered that, regardless of their "gold teeth", "big tortoise shell glasses" and shaved faces, the Doughboys were able to charm as much as a quarter of the women asked (which was a good deal better than they thought they would do) Some women, however, were not very impressed.
Click here to read an article about social diseases within the A.E.F..
Click here if would like to read about British Women and American G.I.s during the Second World War... This paragraph was lifted from a longer article concerning the battle-savvy Native Americans of World War One and it supports the claims made in 1918 by a number of nameless allied POW's who reported seeing female soldiers in German machine gun crews toward the close of W.W I. There is solid documentation pertaining to the women who served in the Serb, Russian and French armies but very little as to the German ladies who did the same. The article appeared after the Armistice and this was a time when "The Stars and Stripes" editors were most likely to abstain from printing patriotic falsehoods. If you would like to read another article about women combatants in W.W. II, click here. Click here to read additional articles about the rolls women played during W.W. I. Attached is a history article concerning the various organizations that made up the French Colonial Army in Africa:
"Before and during the World War, all the different races serving in the French Army were excellently officered by subalterns and non-coms born in North Africa, but of European ancestry: by sons of immigrated colonists of French, Spanish and Italian extraction."
"The late Marshal Lyautey used to say of these sons of European settlers: 'Their knowledge of the ways of the natives is priceless, because they have assimilated it from childhood. In the native regiments, they constitute a human concrete, which keeps together men of antagonistic races and beliefs'
It has been said that when the U.S. Army's senior staff officers had learned of the great victory that the U.S. Marines had achieved at the Bois de Belleau in the summer of 1918, one of them had remarked, "Those head-line hunting bastards!" When reading this next piece you will immediately get a sense that the army was fed-up with the folks at home believing that the same Marines were responsible for the Army's success at Chateau-Thierry. The war was already over by the time this piece appeared, making it clear to all that Chateau-Thierry was a feather in the cap for the Army. Click here to read an article about the American snipers in W.W. I France.
Click here to read about W.W. I art.
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