American occupation troops cross the Rhine at Coblenz, Germany, January 1919.
ed rapidly as divisions departed the bridgehead for the United States. Yet, under the terms of occupation, the entire bridgehead had to remain under American supervision. By the summer of 1919 American divisions had left for home, and the military government functions moved from the tactical units to an area command, the Office of Civil Affairs. With the departure of the divisions, only brigade-size or smaller units remained in Germany, and they too departed by January 1923.[1]
As the Third Army grappled with occupation duty, officials in Washington confronted the problem of demobilizing the wartime army. On 11 November 1918 a quarter of a million draftees had been under orders to report for military duty. With the signing of the armistice the War Department immediately halted the mobilization process, but it had no plans for the Army's transition to a peacetime role.[2]
One man, Col. Casper H. Conrad of the War Plans Division, had begun to study demobilization, and he submitted his report eleven days after the armistice. From Conrad's several proposals on disbanding the forces, Chief of Staff March decided to discharge soldiers by units rather than by individuals. Because National Guard and National Army divisions originally had geographical ties, he also ruled that units returning from overseas would be demobilized at the centers nearest to where their men had entered the services.[3]
Demobilization began in November 1918. March first disbanded the partially organized divisions in the United States, making their camps available as dis-
- ↑ General Headquarters, Armies, pp. 399–404; Irwin L. Hunt, American Military Government of Occupied Germany 1918–1920 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1943), pp. 76–84; Robert S. Thomas, "The United States Army 1914–1923," pt. 1, pp. XIX–48–49, Ms in Historical Resources Branch, Center of Military History, hereafter cited as DAMH-HSR.
- ↑ Second Report of the Provost Marshal General to the Secretary of War on the Operations of Selective Service System to December 20, 1918 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1919), p. 239.
- ↑ Rpt of the CofS, ARWD, 1919, pp. 451–52; John W. Sparrow, History of Personnel Demobilization of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1952), pp. 11–19.
