The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, nearly three years after the fighting in Europe began. The army that existed at the time was small, roughly 130,000 regulars, and almost everything that followed had to be built from nothing: a draft, training camps, a shipping programme, and an officer corps.
The Selective Service Act registered some 24 million men and inducted about 2.8 million. In all, just over four million Americans served, and roughly two million of them reached France as the American Expeditionary Forces under General John J. Pershing. Their first substantial actions came in the spring and summer of 1918 (Cantigny, Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry) as the Allies absorbed and then turned back the last German offensives.
Much of what reached France was French or British in origin. An American doughboy’s helmet was usually a British pattern; his machine guns and artillery were largely French.
The Meuse-Argonne offensive, begun on September 26, 1918 and running until the armistice, was the largest operation in American military history to that point: more than a million American soldiers engaged across forty-seven days of fighting in difficult ground. It accounted for a substantial share of American casualties in the war.
Fighting ended with the armistice on November 11, 1918. Around 116,000 Americans died, close to half of them from disease. The 1918 influenza pandemic moved through the camps and troopships as efficiently as it moved through civilian cities. Another 200,000 were wounded.
For collectors, the period is defined by scarcity and by paper. A century has thinned the surviving material considerably, and textiles from the era are fragile. What tends to endure are documents, photographs, and metal: discharge certificates, unit histories printed after the war, and the Victory Medal with its campaign clasps.
What you typically encounter
Uniforms
Wool service coats and breeches, often heavily moth-damaged. Look for the collar disc insignia and any hand-applied unit patches; both were frequently swapped or added after discharge.
Insignia
Collar discs, rank chevrons worn point-up, and the earliest shoulder sleeve insignia, which appeared late in the war. Early patches were often locally made in France and vary considerably.
Documents
Honorable discharge certificates, service records, embarkation and casualty paperwork, and studio portraits taken before shipping out. Paper is the most common survivor and usually the best-documented.
Field gear
M1917 helmets (a British Brodie pattern made under American contract), gas mask bags, mess kits, and cartridge belts. Dates and maker's marks are typically stamped on the hardware.
A note on these pages. These are short educational overviews, written to give context to the objects I sell. They are not exhaustive histories. For serious research, start with the National Archives and the service branch historical centers.