Foreign Military Records of World War I in the National Archives CHARLES B. BURDICK The First World War remains a highly viable scholarly topic. Despite the continuing flow of books devoted to that event, the success of recent publications indicates an abiding interest in the subject. Manifestly, the majority of these tomes are compilations of old, published information synthesized into popular narrative. The historian seeking fresh, new materials must turn to the recently opened archival depositories for unique, untapped sources. In many cases time's erosion, war's destruction, and human error have created vast gaps in the documentary files. Fortunately, copies of many European military records are stored in a most unusual place, the National Archives of the United States. The story of the acquisition of these materials is one of professional anticipation, human perseverance, and historical accident. The United States entered the field of military history very late for a major power. In January 1918 Newton D. Baker, secretary of war, approved the idea for a Historical Section within The author wishes to express his gratitude to John Taylor of the National Archives and Detmar Finke of the Center for Military History for their help in preparing this paper. the Army General Staff. Orders issued the following month set down its basic missions as the collection and filing of the records and the preparation of monographic studies drawn from these sources. This new organization, formed in March 1918, came under the control of Lt. Col. Charles W. Weeks. Laboring with great energy, Weeks quickly collected a staff of twenty-six military and civilian personnel. He developed, as well, an extraordinary plan for a sixty-volume history of the war. Weeks anticipated the need for a detailed military account of the battle actions, but he went beyond that goal to include additional subject areas.2 Acting in accordance with the recommendations of John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, Weeks sent his Operations Section, under Maj. 1 War Department, General Order no. 14, Feb. 9, 1918. 2 Weeks envisaged diplomatic relations, economic mobilization, military organization, general operations, and photographic materials as significant subjects for the publication program. He organized subsections of his office for each of these subject divisions to collect data, organize the findings, and write the final study. John R. M. Taylor, "The History of the War of 1917," The American Historical Review 24 (July 1919):638-640. Robert M. Johnston, to France. While the group achieved important results in terms of document selection and the surveying of battlefields for physical evidence, Major Johnston's activities were not entirely successful. As an emergency commissioned officer and university professor, the forthright Johnston proposed numerous reforms in military procedures and recordkeeping to his superiors. Not everyone appreciated his suggestions. Johnston, undaunted, tasked his colleagues with a large, general history of the American forces in Europe. They quickly discovered that they could appreciate the requirement but that they could not locate the documentary support. The available files had extensive omissions of important orders, minutes, and instructions. Any solution to these gaps involved obtaining copies from the Allied forces-not an easy task given the circumstances of the war's final tumultuous months. In fact the Allies rebuffed any requests for aid. They had greater interests in finishing the war. Shortly after the Armistice various senior officers, relieved from tactical assignments, joined the group, expanding its size a good deal. They continued their field activities, without resolving the issue of the missing records. Subsequently everyone returned to Washington, D. C., with the headquarters elements of the AEF. Almost immediately two events made profound changes in the organization of the Historical Section. On August 4, 1919, the secretary of war issued a new directive which sharply curtailed the staff, limited the scope of the undertaking (explicitly eliminating the projected writing of an extensive history), and ordered the section to concentrate on "... the collection, indexing, and preservation of records, and the preparation of such monographs as are purely military in character and are designated to be of use to the War Department." 5 3 For a brief account of Johnston, who taught military history (and was a major force in developing that field) at Harvard, see Arthur L. Conger, "Robert Matteson Johnston, 1867-1920," Journal of the American Military History Foundation 1 (Summer 1937):71-72. 4 For a detailed explanation, see Elizabeth B. Drewry, "Historical Units of Agencies of the First World War," Bulletins of the National Archives 4 (July 1942):8-9. Johnston wrote a small book First Reflections on the Campaign of 1918 (New York, 1920). The title is misleading since the book gives a brief, analytical, and acerbic view of the American military leadership and organization. 5 A copy is in Drewry, "Historical Units," p. 11. At the same time the section suffered major manpower cuts. Obvi ously Baker's directive was, in part, responsible for the reduction, but the return of various officers to their civilian occupations and a general budget curtailment further limited personnel. Between January and December 1920 the staff strength fell from 81 to 29 people. See the pertinent papers in HRC 314.71 AWC, Hist. Sect., vol. 6, Center for Military History, Department of the Army. In the same file is a detailed report on the personnel problems of the office. 6 A good account of these early events is Oliver L. Spaulding, Jr., "War Department," in Newton D. Mereness, "Amer f As he did so his associates renewed their interest in Allied records to complete their own files. In October 1919 they proposed that a linguistically qualified liaison officer be assigned to France to search for documents to fill these gaps. Simultaneously, a retired first lieutenant, Henry Du R. Phelan, called upon the War Plans Division in Washington, looking for employment. Quickly the local authorities combined the two needs. Phelan was fluent in French, socially agreeable, and a man of considerable tact. Spaulding wanted his aid in locating the missing French sources, establishing a link ican Historical Activities During the World War," Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1919 (Washington, 1923), vol. 1, pp. 141-144. See also Spaulding, 'Memorandum: Organization and Plan for Historical Work," File 3336, Hist. Sect., Army War College. In this report Spaulding detailed his plans for a small, streamlined organization. Although clearly under consideration for the leadership position, he asked for an assignment as a historian. Spaulding had a fine personal reputation and wide professional respect. He served with the Historical Section twice, 1919-24 and 1941-45. His rapid shift in rank makes it difficult to know his position at any given time. Often writers list him as a brigadier general, a temporary rank he held from June 1918 to June 1919 and with which he retired in 1939. During his second tour in the office, he served with with the French authorities, and expanding the Historical Section's documentary collection.7 He ordered Phelan to work. Phelan obviously agreed with this sentiment and hurried to France. He called upon the director of the Musée et Bibliothèque de la Guerre, M. Bloch, who provided a warm personal welcome and accepted the American as an informal representative. He would not, however, allow Phelan to copy any documents. Without official status Phelan must go through the French minister of war for everything, Bloch explained. Acting with some haste the War Department activated Phelan as a first lieutenant, attached him to the American military attaché's office in Paris, and assigned him as the foreign representative of the American Historical Section. At the same time Spaulding wrote Phelan, we want to have on file all documents relating to American units which served under French command.” 8 " ... With his position in order and his instructions clearly stated, Phelan started his new assignment. He quickly encountered new obstacles. The French authorities refused him complete access to many files and restricted his copy work.9 Despite these initial setbacks, Phelan used his social persuasiveness, good will, and persistence to win a cordial, if not overly profitable, relationship with the French the rank of colonel. Dr. Stetson Conn, who is preparing an account of army historical activities, explained this problem. "Spaulding to Henry Du R. Phelan, Oct. 10, 1919, as cited in R. S. Thomas, "A Compilation." Thomas, a long-term member of the section, organized the eventual collection of original documents and prepared monographs and miscellaneous reports in their final form during World War II. As part of his effort he drew up several brief historical accounts using selected portions of various reports and letters. This one, dated May 8, 1944, is from File 1096, Hist. Sect., Army War College correspondence file. Many of the papers employed in his report are no longer in these files. Tragically, he purged many files which included correspondence as well as some original monographs. A copy of this survey (hereafter cited as Thomas, "1096 compilation") is in the Center for Military History. The Thomas Collection is an incredibly rich collection of source material on World War I. It is currently in the Center for Military History with a microfilm copy on deposit at the U. S. Army History Research Collection, Carlisle Barracks, Pa. Phelan to Spaulding, Oct. 29, 1919, Spaulding to Phelan, Dec. 10, 1919, ibid.; War Department, Special Orders nos. 279 and 280, Nov. 29, 1919. 9 While Phelan could not discover any explanation for the French negativism, there are obvious reasons varying from historical traditions through official secrets to harsh opinions. See, for example, Lee Kennett, "The A.E.F. Through French Eyes," Military Review 52 (Nov. 1972):3-11. bureaucracy. During the next eighteen months he arranged for the copying of some 2,000 documents for Spaulding. When he departed, on October 15, 1921, he left a good working relationship but no successor. 10 Phelan did bring the Historical Section its first professional success while planting a useful idea for future activity. Phelan's accomplishments, despite their obvious limitations, excited Spaulding's desire for additional supporting papers, sources, and ideas elsewhere. On July 6, 1920, he solicited a report from the American military attaché in London concerning British historical activity. He thought that their example, in addition to their reported coordination with the Germans, might provide helpful insights and directions for the American program. The desired report came back in November with a brief résumé of British activity, 11 10 The War Department lacked the funds for continuing Phelan. Memo for the assistant chief of staff, G2, Mar. 25, 1922, File 2444, Hist. Sect., Army War College correspondence file. Thomas, "1096 compilation," contains serious errors in listing the service dates of Phelan and his successors. 11 W.P.D. 6741; M.I.D. 2573-81, as cited in Thomas, "A On August 25, Spaulding filed a letter concerning the possible acquisition of documents from German sources. While he could foresee no reason for a long-term acquisition program, he did want various key documents. 12 In October 1920 Lt. Col. Edward Davis, the American military observer on duty in Berlin, suggested that the War Plans Division give him the American plans for the St. Mihiel offensive as trading material. With these records Davis proposed to ask the Germans for their withdrawal orders from the same operation. Two Compilation"; this account (hereafter cited as Thomas, "2600 compilation"), dated May 9, 1944, is from File 2600, Hist. Sect., Army War College correspondence file. The account of Spaulding's efforts with the British is the poorest of the Thomas surveys. There is no information on the rumored British-German historical cooperation (C. A. Potts, Ministry of Defence, Great Britain, to author, Oct. 29, 1973). The report itself is in M.I.D. 2573-81, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs, Record Group 165, National Archives (hereafter cited as RG 165, NA). See also Garry D. Ryan, "Disposition of AEF Records of World War I," Military Affairs 30 (Winter 1966-67):212-219. 12 W.P.D. 7640, as cited in Thomas, "A Compilation"; this account (hereafter cited as Thomas, "2444 compilation"), dated May 3, 1944, is from File 2444, Hist. Sect., Army War College correspondence file. months later the American authorities dispatched copies of the documents to Germany where Davis completed the trade with the German archivists. 13 This mutually beneficial exchange prompted the German officials to solicit additional documentary material concerning American operations against the German army. The German proposal reached the office of the American secretary of war in July 1921 where the authorities, after careful discussion, decided to cooperate with German archivists in a documentary exchange program. The American government felt it had no reason to deny the Germans access to American records, and it believed that the exceptional opportunity to obtain historical papers from the archives of the former enemy was too valuable to be bypassed. Davis understood the implications of the exchange. He quickly proposed that an officer, fluent in German, be assigned to Berlin to bring order to a program that was already disorganized. 14 13 [?] D. 732, Oct. 14, 1920, M.I. [D.] 2553-38, Nov. 15, 1920, ibid. 14 Military observer, Berlin, to director, M.I.D., Oct. 3, 1921, ibid. The exchange proposal gave Spaulding the rationale he needed to argue for a more extensive mission for his program, greater operational freedom, and an expanded collection capability. He obtained approval for the shift of the Historical Section to the Army War College. Equally important, he managed a shift of organizational emphasis. The Historical Section would now have twelve officers, including three assigned for duty in London, Paris, and Berlin. This expanded staff would collect, preserve, and administer an historical archive, prepare monographs on various subjects of the war, supervise all historical work in the War Department, and answer questions relating to military history. 15 Clearly, Spaulding's Historical Section had finally achieved an adequate organization and staff and a properly defined mission. Because of the advanced state of the German exchange program, Spaulding decided to pursue this assignment first. Through his efforts the adjutant general ordered Col. Walter Krueger to Berlin. Krueger, a native-born German, 15 Memo, Brig. Gen. William Lassiter, assistant chief of staff, to the chief of staff, Dec. 10, 1921, ibid. |