Traduction en anglais Sommaire - Summary L’ENTRÉE EN GUERRE DES ETATS-UNIS PAGE 5 THE ENTRY OF THE UNITED STATES INTO THE WAR LES AMERICAINS EN REGION CENTRE ET DANS LE PAYS D’ISSOUDUN PAGE 7 THE AMERICANS IN THE CENTRE REGION AND IN ISSOUDUN COUNTRYSIDE LES CAMPS AUTOUR D’ISSOUDUN PAGE 9 & 11 CAMPS AROUND ISSOUDUN LES CAMPS N°1, 2 ET 3 PAGE 13 FIELDS 1, 2, 3 LE CAMP PRINCIPAL OU MAIN FIELD PAGE 15 THE MAINFIELD INSTALLATIONS TECHNIQUES ET MATERIELS PAGE 17 TECHNICAL AND EQUIPMENT INSTATLLATION VIE QUOTIDIENNE DANS LE CAMP PAGE 19 EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE CAMP YMCA ET CROIX ROUGE OU «RED-CROSS» PAGE 21 YMCA AND RED CROSS SANTE ET HOPITAUX PAGE 23 HEALTH AND HOSPITALS LE PLANE NEWS PAGE 25 THE PLANE NEWS LES POPULATIONS DANS LE CAMP PAGE 27 POPULATIONS IN THE CAMP LES AMERICAINS ET LES POPULATIONS LOCALES PAGE 29 THE AMERICANS AND THE LOCAL PEOPLE LE CAMP N°13 – LE CIMETIERE AMERICAIN PAGE 31 FIELD N°13 – THE AMERICAN CEMETERY LE DEPART DES AMERICAINS ET COMMEMORATIONS PAGE 33 AMERICANS DEPARTURE AND COMMEMORATIONS Traduction en anglais par Hélène Felci Page 4 THE ENTRY OF THE UNITED STATES INTO THE WAR 1917, the troops and the country were exhausted by the war. 460 000 soldiers were killed in The Battle of the Somme, 150 000 more dead persons than in Verdun. In April 1917, the offensive of “The Chemin des Dames” (“Ladies’Way”) was a complete failure with huge losses : 40 000 dead for the first assault and 350 000 soldiers were killed, injured or disappeared after the end of the fight. In 1917 many mutinies happened and were severely punished, in the meantime the French soldiers were exasperated. Therefore, when the first American soldiers arrived on the national territory, it gave hope once again to the Allied troops. When the U.S. became involved in the war, on the 6th April 1917, the American army was very small. It had no battle experience and no significant modern equipment. Thanks to the U.S. tremendous human and industrial capacity, 4 millions of men were mobilized in a year, and the expedition of two millions of “Sammies” in Europe would contribute to the victory of France. The Americans decided to create vast infrastructures, camps, harbours, stations, railways…in order to ensure the supplies and provisions for the soldiers, and to have tons of material, ammunitions and weapons, all that in less than 18 months. Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique departement) was chosen as a landing base. The 26th April 1917, a first convoy landed in this harbour, with 14 750 men arriving from New-York. A 2nd base was created in Bassens (Gironde department) in August, then in September it was in Pontanézen, near Brest, where a town would spring up out of earth and housed 70 000 soldiers on their way to the front. All these harbours and camps had been rapidly linked by a dense network of railway line. From 1917, the American army settled in the Centre Region. In Gièvres ( Loir-et-Cher department), a huge controlling station is created with 145 hectares for storage, a cold store factory, an arsenal, and a workshop of 200 locomotives. Hospitals and camps would be settled in the Loiret and Indre-et-Loire departments. In Tours there would be The Service of Supply (Logistic and coordination service) and then The US Air Service staff : in Avord, Bourges, Foecy, Mehun-sur-Yèvre, Saint-Amand-Montrond, Saint-Florent-sur-Cher, Sancerre(Cher Department), and in Châteauroux, Le Blanc, Montierchaume and Issoudun (Indre department). Page 5 Page 6 THE AMERICANS IN THE CENTRE REGION AND IN ISSOUDUN COUNTRYSIDE As soon as May 1917, it was planned to create an airforce camp in the Indre department. Issoudun countryside was chosen. The camp was at 11 km from Issoudun, sub-prefecture of the department, and located on the municipalities of Lizeray, Paudy, Ménétréols-sous-Vatan, Saint-Valentin, La Champenoise and Issoudun (Volvault). From August 1917 to March 1919, 11 runways were used, and connected to a telephone network and and a railway of 10 miles (16 km). This land, called “Champagne Berrichonne”, with cereals-growing plains, limestone soil, and large areas without any buildings was a good place to settle military activities, and in particular to build aerodromes. Moreover, this location was a strategic zone because it was closed to the French flying school of La Martinerie and to the American warehouses of Montierchaume (logistic), Gièvres and Romorantin (Loir-et-Cher department). In addition, on the railway line, Issoudun was midway between the port of landing for American equipments in Bordeaux (Bassens) and the American troops position on the battlefront (Source Gorrell). The first American officers arrived at Issoudun Town Hall on the 28th June 1917. The following days, American staff officers could be seen in the Champagne Berrichonne, with a map in their hands and looking for appropriate lands. On the 31st July, around 200 American soldiers, called “Sammies” arrived in Issoudun. That was the beginning of the 3rd American Aviation Instruction Centre (3rd AIC) history : As soon as January 1918, the main camp of the Centre, became a small modern town with electricity, sewage system, a 40 m high water tower, a mess, a laundry, a mending workshop, showers and Turkish baths, a technical and recreational library, sport fields…The roads were paved and were given the names of main streets or districts of New York (source Cap. De La Vaulx). As many as 8000 men lived in that Centre (Officers, students, employees, prisoners, Chinese workmen). This is the biggest Centre among the 9 American Aviation centres: the training program was to improve the fighter and observation pilots ‘competences. More than 2000 pilots were trained here, some of whom became the US Airforce aces or famous pilots such as Quentin Roosevelt (son of the former president Theodore Roosevelt) or Eddie Rickenbacker. Hiram Bingham (who discovered Machu Picchu in Peru in 1911) was the last commanding officer of the camp from 31st August to December 1918. Page 7 Page 8 CAMPS AROUND ISSOUDUN On Thursday 21st June 1917, The Issoudun newspaper announced the establishment of the American aviation school. “We are pleased to announce our readers that the great aviation centre of our American allies will be settled at the doorstep of Issoudun, between Neuvy-Pailloux and La Champenoise, in the vast plains of our “Champagne Berrichonne”. This school represented the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center of the American expeditionary force, which was sent to Europe in 1917, also called «Third Aviation Instruction Center» of the A.E.F. This Air Service school is exclusively an American creation, unlike Tours school (2nd A.I.C.) 1st AIC (around Paris), 4th (Avord), 5th (Bron), 6th (Pau), 7th (Clermont-Ferrand). The first plans were drawn in the United States, and were made for 250 officers, 900 students and 4300 troops. 2000 men would eventually be graduated (Source H. Bingham). Equipments and materials are directly shipped from the United States. The first Americans arrived in Issoudun on 1rst August 1917 and belonged to the « 29th Construction Squadron ». They worked alongside a detachment of the French engineering to build the railway line, which would serve the future camps (14 km built in 14 days) and called the “American Railroad”. The railway would later be strengthened by the Americans. The building of the barrack camps began at the end of August, under the direction of Captain F.D. Huntington. During the construction of these barrack camps and staff buildings, the first soldiers on site, mostly coming from Pennsylvania, were temporarily housed in small hexagonal khaki tents, on two rows along the road. They struggled against mud and weather conditions to build roads and remove stones for the future aviation runways. At that period, 1000 men lived in the camp and around 600 German prisoners of war were assigned to the work. The first Nieuport aircrafts arrived from the United States on 1st October 1917. The aviation school officially opened its doors on 15th October with Captain Prosper Pélissier. He was a fighter pilot in the French Air Force army, who received the Legion d’Honeur medal, and who was named chief instructor (23 French instructors were in the camp during the first months). The courses began at the end of October and the aircrafts were assembled on site by the American mechanics. In 6 months a real “town” with military infrastructures was created on more than 2000 hectares, with Lt Colonel W.G. Kilner as commander of the army. Page 9 Page 10