Map of United States troop sailings from Canada and the United States to Great Britain, France, and Italy. Over 2,000,000 Americans sailed, divided roughly equally between Britain and France.
"This was done at Abbeville, on May 1st and 2d, when the following arrangements were agreed to:(1) The British Government undertook to furnish the tonnage necessary to transport from the United States to France 130,000 men in May, and 150,000 in June, consisting solely of infantry and machine-gun detachments.(2) The American tonnage would be used for the transport of artillery, engineers, services, etc.(3) A further examination of the situation would be made at the beginning of June and the program for the future decided upon."
Allied Commander-in-Chief Ferdinand Foch's summary of the key decision at the Abbeville Conference of May 1–2, 1918. United States Commander in Chief John Pershing resisted putting American troops into the line to fill gaps suffered by the French and especially the British in Operation Michael and Operation Georgette, the German offensives of March and April, 1918. The agreement reached at Abbeville meant the Britain would reduce shipments of food to the United Kingdom, but instead transport the American soldiers desperately needed on the Western Front.
The Memoirs of Marshal Foch, translated by Col. T. Bentley Mott by Ferdinand Foch, page 308, copyright © 1931 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., publisher: Doubleday, Doran & Co., publication date: 1931
1918-05-02, 1918, May, Abbeville, transport, troop transport, American troop transport, American troop sailings map
