A poem beneath a United States flag calls on American boys to show the Kaiser.
Show the KaiserShow the Kaiser plainly When you meet him over there,That from now on and forever He must treat us on the square,Just go and make him settle For the cursed submarine,Or prove that you're the toughest boys A Kaiser's ever seen.2212
"During the middle of April, at a time when the crisis in both French and British effectives was particularly acute, the American Army in France comprised only five fighting divisions. One of these, the 1st was about to join the French First Army, three others (2d, 26th, and 42d) were holding quiet sectors of the front, and the remaining one (32d) had temporarily distributed its infantry among French divisions to complete its training.This infantry constituted, therefore, the sole direct help which the American Army was furnishing to fill the gaps in the French Army. Counting the black troops which were serving with our divisions, the total amounted to 23,000 infantrymen, which, as can be seen, was far from meeting such pressing needs as ours."
French General and Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch on the state of the American Expeditionary Force in mid-April, 1918, after Operation Michael and during Operation Georgette, the first and second of five German offensives in 1918, both of which had driven British forces back from ground they had taken at great cost in 1916 and 1917. British commander Douglas Haig looked to newly appointed Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch for reinforcements. Foch had for months pressed for a unified command and a reserve force that could seize the offensive when the opportunity presented itself, and was sparing in providing troops from his reserve.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 306, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1918-04-18, 1918, April, Foch, Ferdinand Foch, AEF, American Expeditionary Force, black troops
