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53 Giving Advice As the AEF began to take on proportions, what with appearance of such divisions as the Thirty-second, its complexity really required more advice, and the individual divisions needed help too, for, as General Haan said of his own Thirty-second, the men were all right but the officers hardly knew what to do. In some sense the officers, wearing proudly their new overseas belts that crossed their right shoulder and pointed out their possession of rank, needed reinforcement, pressure, forcing them to prove that they deserved rank. Some of what the officers needed was in the army’s technical manuals, most of them copied from French originals. They also needed plain common sense—the ability to determine when their ordering of the days of the men under their command made sense and when their daily orders merely wasted time, in which the Old Army, the prewar Regular Army, was expert. The time was short in which the AEF could learn the basic tactics of a complicated war—increasingly complicated because the Germans in their great spring and summer offensives introduced the tactics of the flexible battlefield, of open—rather than trench—warfare. This indeed was not in the tactical manuals but needed instruction from the perhaps few American officers who had heard from British and French instructors and others what had gone on in the western front since March 21, 1918. In all of this the intelligent General Liggett, who seemed headed toward high command as the AEF divisions came over, was almost helpless, beyond advice, and he had to be careful in dispensing that, for he could make himself ineffective if he came up against laggards such as General Edwards. The latter was not merely a laggard but possessed all of the Old Army skill at balancing advice against his own instincts and then, the result, doing little or nothing. 4 54 In the Company of Generals The mission of General Liggett was further limited by the fact that as the veteran divisions—the First, Second, Twenty-sixth, and Forty-second— took over parts of the line, they were not under his control as a corps commander . His authority was titular rather than real. He had to wait out the assignment of authority, which, he sensed, coming from Pershing, who enjoyed holding all the authority he could get his hands on, was likely to be little more than titular. And so Liggett and his smart, observant staff members, Craig, Heintzelman , and Stackpole, were reduced to watching what was happening, giving advice if they could, and otherwise storing in their minds the abilities and inabilities of the divisions that came to their attention. In the end, too, they found themselves almost wasting time listening to the complaints and watching Colonel Mitchell of the Air Service as he maneuvered against Brigadier General Foulois, who possessed the power that Mitchell himself was determined to obtain. Thursday, May 2 Inspected 1st Observation Squadron with Colonel Mitchell at Ouches, squadron in operation with A.R.S. Spads and photographic and information departments in operation. Lieutenant Myer in charge of maps, photographs, etc. Major Roger, squadron commander. The field, etc., was getting into shape and everything seemed to be running well, with commendable esprit. Returned via Vaucaleurs, Houdelaincourt, Dainville , Febrecourt. A problem developed with Mitchell when promoted to brigadier general and placed in charge of the Air Service squadrons during the Meuse-Argonne. Brigadier General Dennis E. Nolan, G-2 (intelligence) in GHQ, desired observation and photographs during the Meuse-Argonne and was certain that Mitchell was denying them. The Air Service commander claimed, and there was something to this, that the weather in the Meuse-Argonne was poor, cloudy and rainy, and observation and photography difficult. Nolan felt he was denying them, for his interest was in bombing and in aerial combat. Whether showing off the photography squadron was a part of Mitchell’s game to impress Liggett is difficult to say. Giving Advice 55 Friday, May 3 All day at terrain exercises for Thirty-second Division conducted by Heintzelman. The performance was an improvement on the last. General Liggett and I were with division headquarters. Notable failure to keep in touch with airplanes while division headquarters were moving. Saturday, May 11 Went to Robert-Espagna via Bar-le-Duc to see General Bundy and Colonel Malone of 23rd; General Lewis of 3rd Brigade at Fain; General Harbord of 4th Brigade (Marines) at P.C. Moscow, but about to move...

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