One Century Ago: Bringing 'Em Back after "The Navy Put 'Em Across"

Front side of a postcard featuring an artwork by Norman Rockwell, used by returning troops to report their arrival in the United States from Europe. This example was sent on May 28, 1919, by Private Howard P. Moyer, of the 111th Engineer Regiment, 36th Division, who was embarked on USS Great Northern (ID # 4569). It was mailed to his sister, Mrs. Edith Folger of Richmond, Indiana. (Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski/ Naval History and Heritage Command image)

By M.C. Farrington
HRNM Historian

Naval historians of the First World War tend to gravitate towards great battles such as Jutland and the ferociously frustrating Dardanelles campaign, but these dramatic naval and littoral actions had nothing to do with the U.S. Navy's most decisive contribution to the war, delivering the two-million-man American Expeditionary Force (AEF) to Europe. By this time one hundred years ago, what was then known as the Great War had been over for months, but many of the American Soldiers and Marines who fought its final, bloody campaigns were still coming home.

Front side of a postcard used by returning troops to report their arrival in the United States from Europe. This example was sent on August 6, 1919, reporting the arrival of a member of the 34th Engineer Regiment at Norfolk, Virginia, on USS Texan (ID # 1354). It was mailed to his mother, Mrs. Arthur Dean of Nevada, Iowa. (Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski/ Naval History and Heritage Command image)

Although many different kinds of American surface combatants played important roles in containing the German submarine threat and saving Great Britain from potential starvation, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet's Cruiser and Transport Force, consisting of 45,000 U.S. naval personnel manning 24 cruisers and 42 transport vessels (many of which were German passenger liners confiscated after the American entry into the war) put an entire American army across the Atlantic, a feat inconceivable to European leaders on all sides of the conflict before the Navy actually accomplished it.

Postcards for virtually every troopship in the Cruiser and Transport Force were produced by enterprising entrepreneurs in 1919 for returning members of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), plus the warships that were also pressed into service to bring soldiers back to America. USS DeKalb, which brought 8,949 AEF personnel back to America after the Armistice, served as the German auxillary cruiser Prinz Eitel Friedrich, sinking 11 vessels before its crew sought refuge at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1915. (Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski/ Naval History and Heritage Command image)

Even after American troops irrevocably tipped the balance against Germany and the Cental Powers and the war was ostensibly over, the Navy had much more to do. Even battleships and cruisers were pressed into the effort to bring home the Soldiers and Marines as quickly as possible, which stretched into the summer of 1919.

This hastily-made postcard shows USS Virginia (BB-13), which brought back 5,784 members of the AEF to American shores before resuming its regular duties in July, 1919. (Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski/ Naval History and Heritage Command image)

"After the signing of the Armistice," wrote Vice Admiral Albert Gleaves, Cruiser and Transport Force commander, "the United States Transport Fleet expanded still more, and developed into a fleet of 149 ships manned by 4,238 officers and 59,030 men, with the gratifying result that 86.7 per cent[sic] of our overseas army was brought home under the Stars and Stripes."

Such an unprecedented feat was accomplished largely to an unprecedented recruiting effort, one which artists contrubuted to by accentuating the great fun to be had by those who volunteered.  A recruiting poster in our collection by the famous maritime artist Henry Reuterdahl shows a smiling, cheerful Sailor bearing a Soldier across the waves.

(Hampton Roads Naval Museum collection)

Despite the vital job Sailors performed in making sure the AEF returned home safe and sound, many of the volunteers who made it possible felt that the returning Doughboys were basking in the public's adulation at their expense.

Don't take my word for it.  Check out this editorial cartoon from a magazine published at Naval Operating Base Norfolk (now Naval Station Norfolk) during the war:

This editorial cartoon was made as part of a contest for the readers of Navy Life, but so far the issue of the magazine announcing the winner has not been found. (M.C. Farrington/ Courtesy of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum) 

The similarity between the recruiting poster and the cartoon might be coincidental, but probably not.  The cartoonist, Ensign Adolph Goodwin, had probably seen Reuterdahl's poster. The magazine he worked for, Navy Life, was a short-lived contemporary of The Stars and Stripes, published by the AEF in France by uniformed service members. Although official publications, the editorial policies of Navy Life and Stars and Stripes didn't necessarily adhere to official United States Government policy.

Adolph Goodwin made charactures of Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, among other luminiaries, in a book about his hometown, Who's Who in Raleigh (1916). (Libraty of Congress via Internet Archive/ Hathi Trust)

While famous artists like Henry Reuterdahl produced well-received work presenting the Navy to the public as its leaders wished it to be seen, some lesser-known artists in uniform have bequeathed work that shows us how members of the Navy saw themselves.