Inventory of the United States Army American Expeditionary Forces records
Finding aid prepared by Sarah Giffen West, 2006
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 1998, 2006
434 Galvez Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
hoover-library-archives@stanford.edu
Title: United States Army American Expeditionary Forces records
Date (inclusive): 1917-1920
Collection Number: XX546
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
4 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize folder
(1.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Intelligence reports, news summaries, bulletins, orders, instructions, memoranda, proclamations, and miscellany, relating
to military operations of the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Siberia during World War I and the Russian Revolution
Creator:
United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces
Access
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
Use
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquisition Information
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives .
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], United States Army American Expeditionary Forces records, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover
Institution Library & Archives.
Historical Note
American Expeditionary Force
The American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was the U.S. military force in Europe during World War I. Although a division commanded
by General John J. Pershing was sent to France in June 1917, most of the AEF was manned as a result of passage of the Selective
Service Act (40 Stat. 76) by the U.S. Congress on 18 May 1917, creating the Selective Service System. The Act gave the president
the power to draft soldiers. The system eventually inducted 2.8 million men of the total 3.6 million men who served in the
military from September 1917 to November 1918.
American Expeditionary Force (Siberia)
In July 1918 President Woodrow Wilson decided to intervene in Russia and ordered eight thousand AEF troops to Siberia to protect
U.S. supplies along the Trans-Siberian railroad. Chaos and uncertainty prevailed in Russia at this time. The Russian tsar
had been overthrown by the revolution led by Alexander Kerensky in February-March 1917 (eventually to be ousted by the Bolsheviks
in November 1917), raising Wilson's hopes for democratizing Russia and spreading capitalism. After the fall of the tsarist
government the U.S. recognized the Russian Provisional Government, providing it with money and aid. Railroad officers, skilled
technicians under the Russian Railway Service Corps, and railway equipment were sent to assist in operating the Trans-Siberian
railroad. Control of the railroad was extremely important because it served as the only major logistics and communication
line across Russia. The eastern port of Vladivostok held more than $1 billion of supplies and material that had been sent
to Russia as support for that country's eventually unsuccessful war effort. Both the French and British actively pressed Wilson
to send troops to Siberia to create diversions on the Eastern front that could lessen German and Austrian troop strength on
the Western front.
Commander of the U.S. forces in Siberia was Major General William S. Graves, a training officer in California. Graves' orders
(an aide memoire drafted by Wilson) instructed him to facilitate the safe exit of the forty-thousand-man Czech Legion from
Russia, guard the nearly $1 billion worth of American military equipment stored at Validvostok and Murmansk, and help the
Russians organize their new government. The first troops arrrived in Vladisvostok in August 1918 and Graves followed in September.
Japan also sent seventy thousand troops to protect supplies and communication and destablize the Russian government as a means
to acquire Siberian and Manchurian economic resources. Conditions were extremely chaotic along the railroad as a result of
the Russian civil war. An agreement to operate the railroad was reached by the Allied governments participating in the Siberian
intervention in November 1918. It was implemented in April 1919. Three countries, Japan, the United States and China, were
given a sector of the railroad to guard.
The end of World War I in November 1918 did not mean homecoming for the AEF forces in Siberia. Wilson wanted to pursue a "wait
and see" policy until the Paris peace conference concluded before deciding which of several Russian governments to recognize
and whether to withdraw the AEF from Vladisvostok.
The AEF spent two years in Siberia hampered by larger Japanese and Cossack forces, unclear and incomplete instructions, and
Graves' own commitment to strict political neutrality. The eventual defeat of White Army forces by the Bolshevik Red Army
led to demands from the U.S. Congress for complete withdrawal of American troops. The AEF forces left Siberia beginning in
March 1920; Graves left with the last troops on April 1, 1920. The American Expeditionary Force (Siberia) served under combat
conditions longer than any force involved in World War I and was the first and only American military unit sent to Russian
soil.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Soviet Union -- History -- Allied intervention, 1918-1920
Siberia (Russia) -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- France
Headquarters American Expeditionary Forces (Siberia). Intelligence Section
Official newspaper summaries
box 1, folder 1
May
1919
Scope and Contents note
Taken from Echo, Golos Primorya, Dalny Vostok, Dalnevostochnoe Obozrenie, Russian Daily News, Russky Economist, Vestnik Manchuria,
Sviet (Svet), Golos Rodini, Amurskoe Slovo, and others. Also includes anti-Bolshevik poster drafts with handwritten edits,
extract from an inquiry by French Captain F. E. Paris, Red Cross memorandum, overseas and local press reports from USS
Albany and USS
Orleans, and Field Censorship Regulations Memorandum No. 4
box 2, folder 1
December
1919
Scope and Contents note
Taken from Svobodny Krai, Echo, Golos Rodini, Russky Economist, Dalnevostochnoe Obozrenie, Dalny Vostok, Osaka Asahi, Novi
Put, and others. Also includes memorandum from the Japanese Publicity Bureau, Vladivostok, Siberia; The News Summary (F. W.
French, publisher), Vladivostok memoranda; newspaper summaries from USS
Albany and USS
South Dakota; Note to the Diplomatic Representative of Japan in Siberia from the Temporary Government in the Far East; U.S. Naval Intelligence
Office Newspaper Summary
Headquarters American Expeditionary Forces (France)
box 3, folder 1
"Questions for the Examination of Prisoners, etc.," Army War College, Office of the Chief of Staff, U.S. War Department
1917 September
Scope and Contents note
Includes Memorandum No. 34, Headquarters, 30th Division, 1919 February 19, and unidentified address by division commander
box 3, folder 2
Reports, bulletins, and brief histories of enemy divisions, Intelligence Section, General Staff, Headquarters, AEF.
Scope and Contents note
Consists of intelligence reports on German army and positions
box 3, folder 3
"Instructions for the Intelligence Service of an Infantry Regiment," Office of the Chief of Staff, U.S. War Department
1918
box 3, folder 4
"Instructions for Intelligence Duties, Second Army," Office of the Chief of Staff, U.S. War Department
1916 September 20
box 3, folder 5
"Summary of Intelligence Reports (information about the enemy)," 2nd Section, General Staff, Headquarters, Second Army, AEF
1918 October-November.
Scope and Contents note
Also contains 90th Division, AEF, Plan of Defense, handwritten and corresponding typed notes on enemy observations; U.S. Signal
Corps telegram with instructions to cease all hostilities due to Armistice signing, 1918 November 11
box 3, folder 6
General information, Intelligence School, Third Army
box 3, folder 7
Bulletins, 2nd Section, General Staff, First Army Corps, AEF
1918 May-August.
Scope and Contents note
Includes intelligence summaries and notes on recent fighting
box 3, folder 8
Memorandum, Headquarters, 29th Division, AEF
1919 January 10
box 3, folder 9
"Summary of Intelligence," Headquarters, 92nd Division, AEF
1918 September 1
box 3, folder 10
Charts and maps pertaining to AEF activities in Western Europe
Scope and Contents note
Includes AEF distinctive cloth insignia, enemy order of battle
drawer I03
Charts and maps pertaining to AEF activities in Western Europe (continued)
box 4, folder 1
Ration card and postcards
box 4, folder 2
Chart depicting silhouettes of common German planes
drawer I03
Chart depicting silhouettes of common German planes (continued)
box 4, folder 3
Memoranda on organization and logistics
box 4, folder 4
AEF and German telephone directories
box 4, folder 7
Summary of Information, 2nd Section, General Staff, General Headquarters, AEF
1919 January 11
box 4, folder 8
Memoranda, 2nd Section, General Staff, General Headquarters, AEF
box 4, folder 9
Programme of Fourth of July fete
box 4, folder 10
War Department Circular No. 6
1919 January 6
box 4, folder 11
Memoranda, Statistical Division
box 4, folder 12
"Second Course, 1918 March-June," Army General Staff College, AEF
1918 May
