Cover to the sheet music for 'Good-bye Broadway, Hello France,' the 'big song hit of 'Passing Show of 1917' at N.Y. Winter Garden,' lyrics by C. Francis Reisner and Benny Davis, music by Billy Baskette. Standing in New York, General John J. Pershing shakes hands over the Atlantic with a Ferdinand-Foch-like French general.
Big song hit of 'Passing Show of 1917' at N.Y. Winter GardenGood-bye Broadway, Hello FranceWords by C. Francis Reisner and Benny DavisMusic by Billy Baskette
". . . received the news of the great capture of stores at Fère-en-Tardenois, and particularly of an American dump of almost fantastic proportions. This gave us our first impression of the American Army. We realised with what prodigious resources of material the U.S. troops were supported. We were destined not long afterwards to make the acquaintance of fresh American troops in action west of Château Thierry and in the Bois de Belleau. There I was to see young regiments coming on in masses, exactly the same as earlier in the war I had seen the Russians advance. The difference was that unlike the Russians, the Americans were supported by a volume of fire we could never have concentrated owing to our diminished resources in ammunition."
Excerpt from an account of the Aisne Offensive, the Third German Drive of 1918, by Major-General A. D. von Unruh, Chief of the General Staff, 4th Reserve Corps. American commander General John J. Pershing planned to field an American Army under American command, and was preparing for the offensives of 1919 when German commander Erich Ludendorff made his bid for victory with repeated offensives in 1918. Pershing had been transporting both arms and men to Europe until Britain, desperate for men, offered to transport American troops, bringing 250,000 of them towards the battle each month. Going into battle in 1918 the Americans relied on British and French tanks and planes.
The Last of the Ebb: the Battle of the Aisne, 1918 by Sidney Rogerson, page 143, copyright © Sidney Rogerson, 1937, publisher: Frontline Books, publication date: 2011
1918-05-30, 1918, May, US troops, supplies, Good-bye Broadway
