American Expeditionary Forces
The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front during World War I, comprised mostly of units from the U.S. Army. The AEF was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of then-Major General John J. Pershing. It fought alongside French Army, British Army, Canadian Army, British Indian Army, New Zealand Army and Australian Army units against the Imperial German Army. A small number of AEF troops also fought alongside Italian Army units in 1918 against the Austro-Hungarian Army. The AEF helped the French Army on the Western Front during the Aisne Offensive in the summer of 1918, and fought its major actions in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in the latter part of 1918.
American Expeditionary Forces Commander in Chief, General John J. Pershing in 1917.
Column of American troops passing Buckingham Palace, London, 1917.
Men of the 18th Machine Gun Battalion passing through St. Baussant in advance upon St. Mihiel, September 13, 1918.
AEF officer's identity card belonging to Edwin Hubble, 1918
Western Front (World War I)
The Western Front was one of the main theatres of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The German advance was halted with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, the position of which changed little except during early 1917 and again in 1918.
Clockwise from top left: Men of the Royal Irish Rifles, concentrated in the trench, right before going over the top on the First day on the Somme; British soldier carries a wounded comrade from the battlefield on the first day of the Somme; A young German soldier during the Battle of Ginchy; American infantry storming a German bunker; A German Gotha G.IV heavy bomber; American troops with Renault FT tanks moving in the Argonne Forest to the front line during the
French bayonet charge (1913 photograph)
German infantry on the battlefield, 7 August 1914
German trench on the Western Front, 1915.