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Remembered Today:

American Troops on the Western Front - Photocards


Black Dudley

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I've a number of postcards with the theme American Soldiers on the Western Front, thought perhaps start a thread for American Forces postcards and photos on the Western Front - First shows American soldiers advancing along the road. Belleau - Wood - France

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Hi BD

Yes would love to see your collection of postcards

Keep them comming

(Men in #3 wearing hats similar to the Kiwi's lemon squeezer)

Wendy

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Wendy, Bob,

Thanks for the posts. Bob, I too wondered about the "soft" hats the american soldiers were wearing, doesn't seem feasible that they would be wearing them under a artillery bombardment. I think, we can take it, that this particular photo was a posed for picture. Perhaps the American photographers were new to taking war pictures - overlooked the obvious. Here's another colour postcard from the "Defenders of Humanity on Land" series again the troops are wearing soft felt hats in camp, this time the attire is entirely appropriate to the setting.

Regards

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Hi BD!

Have pm d you....sorry re delay!

Re the Americans evacuating a wounded soldier. I suspect a mock shot. After arrival in france the campagne hat proved unsuitable and the Americans adopted a french style garrison / bonnet du police cap! I suspect the photo to be a training shot perhaps and relatively early if taken in france.

Nice images though.

TT

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  • 2 weeks later...

American Soldiers using flame throwers under the watchful eyes of French officers

Actually those are French soldiers using the flamethrowers. What happened was that this was a demonstration by the French to American officers in France in 1917, and somehow the caption was garbled.

Here's a photo of the same flamethrower troops moving into position before firing. You can see the American officers in the background with their campaign hats.

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Bavarian Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 7 displays men of Company F, 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, the first American prisoners taken in the war. The doughboys were captured during a night attack on the Rhine-Marne Canal, November 3, 1917, carried out by a 200-man shock troop. One of the shock troopers stands on the left, holding his rifle, bandolier, and hand-grenade bags.

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American, French, and Italian soldiers, date and place unknown. The American's collar disks both say "USA," and his cap has "13 A" in metal. The Frenchman is from the 289th Infantry Regiment, and the Italian from the 79th. Prisoners?

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"My buddy Joe during the World War, near where he got 9 machine gun bullet wounds, shrapnel, liquid fire, and mustard gas, resulting to[sic] nine months in a French hospital.

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Then there is this photo of Sergeant John Letzing, 104th Infantry, 26th Division, with German POW Robert Fröhlich. Official US picture made on February 17, 1918.

prisoner.jpg

I wonder what became of both these fellas?

-Daniel

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Engineers with camouflaged helmets, some displaying an unidentified unit badge on the front, France, 1918.

That 'unidentified unit badge' is a tad too close to a 'this is a bullseye target - please aim here' for my liking!:unsure:

Trajan

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  • 2 weeks later...

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