Last updated: 8 February 2012
Few Americans, or even British, know that there were any organised American Army units under foreign command during World War One, much less that General Pershing had allocated several US divisions in just that way. Two divisions, the 27th and the 30th, fought under the US II Corps in the British sector from July 1918 to the Armistice.
The National Army Museum has already hosted US author Mitchell Yockelson, who discussed this topic in general in 2009. This has also been the subject of talks at seven Western Front Association branches in UK. This particular talk discusses the mobilisation of the New York State National Guard units, concentrating on Company K of the 1st New York Infantry Regiment, from a small village in rural New York. It will cover what happened to these men as they were incorporated into the new 27th Division, their Stateside training, shipment overseas, training in the British sector, employment in the trenches, and their part in the British offensives that autumn, including the breaking of the Hindenburg Line. Then come their experiences in post-war France, their return home, and demobilisation.
Besides the basic history, the talk discusses the experiences of several doughboys, Company K and others, through this period, particularly their interface with their British and Australian counterparts. This was the first large-scale 'meeting and mingling' of Americans and Brits in a hundred years (since the War of 1812). It wouldn't be the last.
John Bessette is a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel, having flown as a navigator and served as an intelligence officer in the Pentagon and in NATO assignments. He also had a civilian career as an intelligence analyst, retiring from the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1996. His father was mobilised with Company K in July 1917, and is one example discussed in this talk.