# US Army in France after WWI **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 28, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966 "2011-04-28T00:12:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/1 "2011-04-28T00:12:29Z")
I’ve been reading some old letters written in 1919 by my great uncle while he was in post war France. I have a few questions. How long did the US Army remain in France after the war ended? A constant theme from several letters is my g-uncle’s irritation at still being overseas. He had been injured by mustard gas during the war & in 1919 it seems that the army still had his outfit marching all over France in full backpacks. In one letter, my g-uncle refers to Gen. Pershing as “Gen. Perishing”. I first thought it was a case of simple misspelling, but then wondered if it was intentional. What did the typical doughboy think of Gen. John J. Pershing? One other thing I took from the letters was that my g-uncle was sick & tired of army stew. He dreamed of getting home to his “red headed girl” & sausage! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/2 "2011-04-28T01:48:44Z")
I think we were out within 2 months after the Treaty of Versailles was signed, it wasn’t like we garrisoned like after WW2. Rummaging around online, we had a medal > [@](#): > > The Army of Occupation is the designation given to troops assigned to serve in Germany, Austria and Hungary for postwar service between November 12, 1918 and July 11, 1923. so it looks like we were not in France, but in the aggressor’s country for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/3 "2011-04-28T05:32:23Z")
There are an awful lot of Google hits for “general perishing”, so many that I wonder if it was an alternate spelling. I personally, though, have never come across it until this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/4 "2011-04-28T06:02:10Z")
Do you know anything about what unit or division he was in? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/5 "2011-04-28T06:09:39Z")
I found a statement in [conservapedia](http://www.conservapedia.com/American_Expeditionary_Forces), a source which I normally don’t consider particularly reliable, which says: > [@](#): > > By the end of August 1919 the last American division had embarked for home, leaving only a small force in occupied Germany, and on Sept. 1, 1919, Pershing and his staff sailed for the United States for ticket tape parades and a a rousing appreciation for the nation’s heroes, but few veterans benefits. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/6 "2011-04-28T06:10:18Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Do you know anything about what unit or division he was in? He was from Georgia if that helps. In one letter, he mentions a relative who was serving in the “83 Div”, which seemed to indicate that he himself was not in the 83rd. I’ve seen one photo of him in uniform, but did not see any insignia to indicate a unit. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/7 "2011-04-28T06:17:37Z")
[This engineering unit](http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/campgaillard/12thengineers.htm) embarked on a transport for the trip back to the US in late April 1919. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/8 "2011-04-28T06:22:37Z")
[Here is a history of the 82nd division](http://www.archive.org/stream/officialhistoryo19171919unit#page/n255/mode/2up), which also departed in late April. The previous 10 pages or so are about post-armistice activities. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/9 "2011-04-28T13:00:02Z")
He was a soldier, he had just spent a lot of time away from home and peace was declared. He could have been complaining about delays in going home 2 days after the armistice. Military people are great at grousing and complaining. It is an occupational hazard or hobby. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/10 "2011-04-28T13:37:45Z")
I used to be a Civil War reenactor, and we portrayed members of the 51st Ohio Volunteer Infantry regiment. The 51st was sent to Texas under Sheridan’s command after the fall of the Confederacy, to rattle the saber at France and its puppet Emperor Maximilian in Mexico. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in early April 1865, but the boys of the 51st didn’t get back home until late August, after an un-air-conditioned summer in Texas wearing blue wool, and if you read their letters you can see that they _weren’t_ happy about it! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/11 "2011-04-28T13:51:21Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > In one letter, my g-uncle refers to Gen. Pershing as “Gen. Perishing”. I first thought it was a case of simple misspelling, but then wondered if it was intentional. What did the typical doughboy think of Gen. John J. Pershing? From what I’ve read, Pershing was fairly popular with the soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/12 "2011-04-28T14:18:05Z")
My understanding is Pershing once offered a toast “To the men. They paid the price”. That would imply he got men killed unnecessarily, although not as bad as many of the generals in other armies. There is also some History Channel special floating around talking about how the Americans, an others, kept attacking the Germans right up to the armistice on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11 month. Was that necessary? To be fair, it was an armistice, not a surrender so the commanders might have felt that Germany could use the cease fire to rebuild defenses and make any future combat even more deadly. I have some postcards from my grandfather over there in the occupationand he says very little in them. Most of them have nothing written ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/13 "2011-04-28T14:30:48Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > My understanding is Pershing once offered a toast “To the men. They paid the price”. That would imply he got men killed unnecessarily… Why would it necessarily imply that? ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/14 "2011-04-28T15:09:45Z")
[QUOTE=Jim’s Son] My understanding is Pershing once offered a toast “To the men. They paid the price”. That would imply he got men killed unnecessarily, although not as bad as many of the generals in other armies. [/QUOTE] He did get men killed unnecessarily (in the final hours before the cease fire American Generals were still sending men out in offensive actions to ‘get experience’…which was totally worthless actions that got men killed for no good reason), but I don’t think that’s what he was implying there at all. I think his implication is that the men paid the price for the victory, and that he was honoring those who had served, died or been wounded to achieve that victory. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/15 "2011-04-28T15:45:35Z")
Not too long ago, I read John Dos Passos’ USA trilogy, published in the 1930s. It was a library book, so I can’t look now, but much of the action took place in Europe during and after WWI, and I seem to recall the American characters in the Army staying there into the 1920s. And they all had good feelings toward Pershing. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-army-in-france-after-wwi/579966/16 "2011-04-28T17:55:24Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > He did get men killed unnecessarily (in the final hours before the cease fire American Generals were still sending men out in offensive actions to ‘get experience’…which was totally worthless actions that got men killed for no good reason), but I don’t think that’s what he was implying there at all. I think his implication is that the men paid the price for the victory, and that he was honoring those who had served, died or been wounded to achieve that victory. > > -XT That’s how I read it, too.