ength in personnel of 668,000, including 23,000 civilian
employees.

From the first, Pershing had been determined that the American
Expeditionary Force should ultimately operate as an independent unit,
although in close cooeperation with the Allies. During the autumn of 1917
the disasters in Italy and the military demoralization of Russia had led
to the formation of the Supreme Military Council of the Allies, upon
which the United States was represented by General Tasker Bliss, whose
rough visage and gruff manner gave little indication of his wide
interests. Few suspected that this soldierly character took secret
pleasure in the reading of Latin poets. The cooerdination that resulted
from the creation of the Supreme Council, however, proved insufficient to
meet the crisis of the spring of 1918.

On the 21st of March, the Germans attacked in overwhelming force the
southern extremity of the British lines, near where they joined the
French, and disastrously defeated General Gough's army. The break-through
was clean and the advance made by the endless waves of German
shock-troops appalling. Within eight days the enemy had swept forward to
a depth of fifty-six kilometers, threatening the capture of Amiens and
the separation of the French and British. As the initial momentum of the
onslaught was lost, the Allied line was re-formed with the help of French
reserves under Fayolle. But the Allies had been and still were close to
disaster. Complete unity of command was essential. It was plain also, in
the words of Pershing's report, that because of the inroads made upon
British and French reserves, "defeat stared them in the face unless the
new American troops should prove more immediately available than even the
most optimistic had dared to hope." The first necessity was satisfied
early in April. The extremity of the danger reinforced the demand long
made by the French, and supported by President Wilson through Colonel
House, that a generalissimo be appointed. The British finally sank their
objection, and on the 28th of March it was agreed that General Ferdinand
Foch should be made commander-in-chief of all the Allied armies with the
powers necessary for the strategic direction of all military operations.
The decision was ratified on the 3d and approved by President Wilson on
the 16th of April.

General Foch had long been recognized as an eminent student of strategy,
and he had proved his practical capacity in 1914 and later. I