ess of training was a compromise between speed and efficiency.
During the latter months of the war many of the American troops were put
on the battle-line when they were by no means sufficiently trained.
Certain draft units were transported and thrown up to the front after
experience of a most superficial character; there are instances of men
going into action without knowing how to load their rifles or adjust
their gas masks properly. But on the whole the training given was
surprisingly effective in view of the speed with which it was
accomplished. American skill with the rifle won the envy of foreign
officers, and the value of American troops in open warfare was soon to be
acknowledged by the Germans.

[Footnote 10: This plan could not be fulfilled for troops coming to
France in 1918, because of lack of time.]

The same sort of centralization sought by Wilson in America obviously
became necessary in France with the expanding plans for an enormous army.
In February, 1918, the Service of Supply was organized. With its
headquarters at Tours, the S. O. S. was responsible for securing,
organizing, and distributing all the food, equipment, building materials,
and other necessities demanded by the expeditionary force. In order to
provide for the quantities of essential supplies and to avoid the
congestion of the chief ports of France, certain ports were especially
allotted to our army, of which the most important were St. Nazaire,
Bordeaux, and Brest. The first, a somnolent fishing village, was
transformed by the energy of American engineers into a first-class port
with enormous docks, warehouses, and supply depots; Brest rose in the
space of twelve months from the rank of a second-class port to one that
matched Hamburg in the extent of its shipping. In all, more than a dozen
ports were used by the Americans and in each extensive improvements and
enlargements proved necessary. At Bordeaux not more than two ships a
week, of any size, could conveniently be unloaded prior to June, 1917.
Eight months later, docks a mile long had been constructed, concrete
platforms and electric cranes set up; within a year fourteen ships could
be unloaded simultaneously, the rate of speed being determined only by
the number of stevedores. For unloading purposes regiments of negroes
were stationed at each port.

A few miles back from the coast were the base depots where the materials
were stored as they came from the ships. Thence distribution