AMERICANS IN FRANCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10028, 20 July 1918, Page 8

AMERICANS IN FRANCE

paving way to victory

REASONS FOR PRIDE AND CON-

fidenob.

Returnin'* from the Lorraine front. I touud myseif seared in the tram oppose a wounded French S °i dl j‘£ (writes Mr F. A. McKonme. the W 1 known Canadian correspond* t. wiU imr at the beginning oi May). Mf waterproof concealed the distinguish- - * nry k: lf w on my unifmm. **»sr a long, steady, sombre glance, the man loaned over me. _ _. , , “Are you an American? He asksir,” I replied, “I am a CauaThe soldier was silent for a minute, the frown on his face deepened, then he spoke again, slowly. ; “Les Anglais son durs, durs, said he. “Les Americans 'sont trop turd. (“The English are strong, stubborn. The Americans are too late,”; It would be idle to deny that many people in Franco and England are ol the same mind about the Americans as that French soldier. “What are -they doing? Before England was m•- tne war a year she had fought four great campaigns. The Canadians wore war veterans befbre a year'was over. 1 VVhat have the Americans done?”' - 1 have just returned from a long visit to the American lines.in France, from the .bases on the Atlantic coasi to the jntpoats in. No .Mail’s Tand m the sheila wept sectors 01. Lorraine. I have had opportunity to examine their work and to discuss their future preparations with their loaders. mo best answer to the French soldier and to the English critic is a' simple statement of facts. First, lot us understand the difficulties of the Americans. They were hampered at the beginning by an almost complete lack of organisation and by a very scanty war. personnel- ’trained soldiers were few. The Regular Army .was small, and - the State Militia, was not equipped for modern war. The Government had refrained from making preparations before war was declared lest it should Beem to be guilty of ill-faith. * The American problem was very different from that of England or even of the Dominions. England could work from her bases at homo for her operations a few'score miles away in .Franco.' The ' Dominions'*'Seat' - their men over to England to join prepared establishments. But America' was sending her troops from an average distance of 4009 miles. She had to prepare a countrywide in, Europe to le ceive them, carry them from end to oud of France, build docks at which they could land, buiid railways over which they could be carried, build vast Warehouses to hold their supplies, ordnance factories-where their guns could bo re-rifled, motor works whole- automobiles by the scores of thousands could be assembled and kept, in order, and hospitals .vrhero„ a hundred , thousand men could be tended at once. She must thread France from the Atlantic coast to the German border with her own telegraph ’ lines. Vast cold storage plant was necessary icr the food of tne army, lest some un happy turn might br.ng two la'llium men-fact to face with starvation, lor every, two men in the front lines i-lierc must be three, behind ..the lines, keeping up supplies, repairing the wreckage of war, car.ug for the wounded. They had to lay the foundations. These foundations have been laid with a solidity, and with a opted of which the world at large has no idea. X Have seen some of the most beautiful countryside of France turned,- 1 mile after mile, into a region of warehouses to store food for tne army, old cities of mid-Franco transformed by the pulsing life of the vast numbers of Americans that have come to train among them. What of the fighting men themselves? The numbers in the fighting line are increasing daily, and the best proof of the Americans’ activity at the front is that in a comparatively short time they have had more than 41)00' casualties.

‘The Americans are keen fighters. They remind me at every turn >d the Canadians. They have begun with the idea of transforming trench war into open war. Their motto is: Attack! Attack! Attack! all the time.

I examined’ with great interest the Army aviation, work. American flyers expressed great disgust at their countryman, who boasted last autumn .about what American airmen would do ; making impossible claims, ~ and raising false hopes whose failure. was inevitable. “Believe us,” ,fchey told me,_ “it wasn’t real airmten who talked in that way. The fools who said we would have 20.000 airplanes in France this spring imagined ’planes' could be turned out like lord cars. We know better.” .... „ ‘ .. The actual situation is this. America has a very large available, supply of trained pilots, men who nave been most carefully selected- There are practically all of them college athletes. So many applied to join the Army Air S rvi" ■ that the authorities were able to re'-’ot 90 per cent., eliminating nil except those most thoroughly ■ equipped mentally and physically.

The Americans also have an enormous supply of skilled mechanics. America has. been able to lend many thousand aeroplane mechanics tin England. They have now erected a,large aeroplane training city in the heart of France, also aeroplane construction works. They have to-day fighting sunadrons upon the Eastern front, besides American, flyers with both the F.ngbsh and French forces. The brilliant work of.theae-jnen-is-well known.

The speed of growth of the American aeroplane force . depends, almost wholly upon- the sunnly of engines. I anticipate that America’s air.strength will begin to be directly, felt ..as a, real factor in ■ the Western campaigns .this autumn. It i« felt on a smaller scalo already. I find amowt American airmen a most intense admiration, for our Bnvnl Air Force, which tli-w. declare is to-day the best in the world. , No one can complete a journo-* finch a« T b~vo undertaken ndtbnu* —rdo and cenAdonoo in tbe Amer’enn i>*or‘ I have to toll of a now force!wb?'’*' coming into the war, a force wh : ch comes fr°sb when some of ”s are woa-lorl which pomes wj+b almrwt unlimited mnn-nowpr, and which comes, best of all. with a resolute. ,d r tcrmi>.a. tion -’i --’ -" throe "h every rank tc see th : s thing through.

‘‘Wn ■'■i 'i wo 1.-. l a miP'on men Ip the lino.” «c V the American S'lld : e-c “But lot Fua-lard and F-anee bald on. We will bare five millims here before the end if the fob needs them.” And they arc keening the wires hot. sending messages ..across ,Jhc.-Atlantic, “Hurry! Hurry! Send more menl”