Two American soldiers march with an angel overhead. In the background, a woman with a Red Cross flag leads ships, tanks, planes, soldiers marching and hauling cannon. The postcard by Arthur Mayeur for the August, 1918 Pas-de-Calais Days was to raise funds for widows in the Département Pas-de-Calais in northwestern France. The first fundraisers were held on August 13 and 15, 1916, the second two years later on August 13, 18, and 23, 1918. Mayeur illustrated fundraising postcards on both occasions, with three in 1918. America entered the war in April, 1917, but did not join the battle till May of 1918. Thanks to fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journée_du_Pas-de-Calais, August 7, 2018, for information.

La Journée du Pas-de-Calais; Pas-de-Calais day, août 1918.

Nous gagnerons la guerre!

We shall win the war.



Reverse:

Imp. Lafontaine, 27 Rue Froideveaux - Visé Paris.

Other views: Larger

The armed forces of the United States arrived on the Western Front as the American Expeditionary Force and fought its first engagements under French and British command. The first American units in combat fought at Catigny on May 28, 1918 and at Château-Thierry from May 31 to June ?.

The First American Army was formed on August 10, 1918 by General John Pershing under his own command and took over its own portion of the front on August 30 in the Toul / St. Mihiel sector southeast of Verdun.

The First Army fought St. Mihiel Offensive from September 12 to 16, and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive from September 26 through the November 11 armistice.

On October 12, 1918 Pershing divided the First Army into two with the First Army under General Hunter Liggett on the left of the American line and the Second Army under General Robert Bullard on the right.

See some notes under AEF. Should be here

Some units continued to serve with French and British armies, notably in the Second Battle of the Marne (the Aisne-Marne Offensive) and in the Battle of Amiens.