American Soldiers and Children in a French Village, World War I

During World War I, a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer took this picture of American soldiers and children on a village street in France. The Army typed its caption on the card the photo is mounted on: “With the A.E.F. in France. This shows how our fighting boys are carrying happiness and love of humanity right up to the trenches. The discomfort of the life abroad cannot destroy the American love for children, or the gift of enjoying life, and here we see strong evidence of the appeal which the soldiers make to children, and vice versa.” The A.E.F. was the American Expeditionary Forces, the U.S. Army sent to Europe.

What to Look For

A soldier sits on a big wooden block by the wall with a white cloth around his shoulders, and the soldier behind him is cutting his hair. Next to them, a soldier holds a little girl on his knee, and a small boy in a wide sun hat and suspenders sits on the ground among the men with his legs stretched out. A girl in a dotted dress and dark stockings stands at the left, and behind her a woman sits on a doorstep. An older girl in a long checked smock stands in the big open doorway, under a small picture tacked to the door frame.

The soldiers wear the Army’s broad campaign hats with cords around the crown, wool shirts and canvas leggings. The soldier standing at the right also wears his wool coat, a cartridge belt with ammunition pockets and a bayonet in its scabbard at his side. Behind him, lace curtains hang in the window, and a long-handled tool leans against the wall.

Clues to the Date

The card doesn’t give the date, the village, the unit or anyone’s name, but two clues point to 1917, the first months American troops were in France. Two photos numbered right after this one in the Signal Corps files, 685 and 688, are labeled “With the first AEF troops in France” and “With the first Americans to arrive in France.” And the men in this photo still wear campaign hats. The 1st Division’s history says the division gave up the campaign hat for good at the end of 1917 and switched to the steel helmet and the overseas cap. Both were made in France, and troops who came later got them when they arrived.

The First Americans in France

The first American combat troops in France were men of the 1st Division. Its 16th and 28th Infantry regiments landed at St. Nazaire on June 26, 1917. In July the division moved to the area around Gondrecourt, in the Meuse department of eastern France, to train with the French 47th Division of Chasseurs Alpins, known as the “Blue Devils.”

The men lived in billets in the villages there. They slept in old barns and stables where rain, snow and wind came through the roofs, and they climbed into the lofts on rickety ladders. Men who didn’t fit were put in portable barracks built in empty lots and fields next to the villages. Firewood was saved for cooking, so for much of that time the billets had no heat.

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