Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72/5224

M. Hovelaque, for the French Special Mission, to the Assistant Secretary of State ( Phillips)

Washington, April 27, 1917.

Dear Mr. Phillips: I enclose brief notes from Marshal Joffre and Admiral Chocheprat and their staff. I extremely regret that in spite of most strenuous efforts I could not get them together sooner but the officers were scattered and it was hard to get them to coordinate their statements. Mr. Simon will send you his note separately.

Believe me [etc.]

Hovelaque
[Enclosure—Translation]

Memorandum from the French Special Mission

Programme

Convinced, on the one hand, that the military effort of the United States will be considerable, corresponding to her strength, and, on the other hand, that that effort is capable of hastening the victorious termination of the war, France expresses the following desires:

immediately

A. The dispatch of an expeditionary corps

With a view to showing the American flag on the French front as soon as possible, the dispatch of an expeditionary corps constituted on the basis of the studies made in common by Major Logan and the French General Staff. On this basis, the expeditionary corps would take the form of a division of nine regiments with the artillery and services corresponding to those of a French army corps, France undertaking to furnish, moreover, in case of need, all or part of the armament.

This expeditionary corps so organized would be assembled in one or more camps of the French zone of the armies, where the American troops would find, from both the material and moral point of view, the most favorable conditions for completing their instruction with all the resources of the French front.

simultaneously

B. The organization of an American army

1.
Choice of a type of large unit: It would be advantageous for the United States to adopt in the organization of her army a type of large unit (division) closely resembling the type accepted by all the belligerents at the present time (division of three or four regiments).
2.
Organization and instruction of the army: It would be advantageous to admit the principle that these large units are to be organized and given preliminary instruction in America with the assistance of a French mission and that their instruction is to be completed in France, in immediate contact with the French front, under the supreme direction of the American command.
3.
Measures of execution: It appears that a set of preparatory measures designed to facilitate the assembling of American units on French soil and their instruction should be taken at once, particularly:
(a)
The organization of a base (La Pallice, for example).
(b)
Cadres: The immediate dispatch of the officer personnel intended to be made familiar with present fighting methods and ultimately to take over the command and instruction of the American army. A general officer of the American army (the commander of the expeditionary corps, for example) would have charge of this instruction, the programme of which would be arranged by him in accord with the French command.
(c)
The dispatch to France of all the military formations and all the matériel utilized by the general services of the armies (front and rear) designed for cooperation with the corresponding French units for the common services of the French and American armies:
(1)
Units already constituted in the United States: engineer battalions; signal corps battalions; railway construction battalions; aviation squadrons with or without planes; artillery groups with or without guns but with horses or tractors and equipment; artillery batteries for the service of heavy guns; automobile sanitary sections; automobile transport sections.
(2)
Military formations to be constituted for cooperation in the following services: sanitary service (hospital orderlies and stretcher-bearers); field telegraph service; motor service (chauffeurs and mechanics); railway service (construction), standard gauge, narrow gauge; road service (construction); artillery park service; remount service; water supply and forest service; subsistence service.
4.
Transport: Independently of this military cooperation, the United States should continue and intensify if necessary the industrial cooperation of all kinds which she is now extending us; from this point of view, as well as from the purely military point of view, the question of transportation remains the one of prime importance which must be solved as quickly as possible. It is particularly advisable to accelerate the delivery of railway matériel (rails and cars).