Seventy-five years ago the United States entered World War I and left forever its position as a bystander in global affairs. The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), sent to France in 1917 and eventually numbering more than two million. was the strategic counterweight that tipped the scales toward victory for the Allies. The AEF's battle experience was not recorded in an official narrative history. Rather, its deeds, like those of its Civil War forebear, were recounted in published volumes of records and await the attention of students, historians, and writers. For soldiers, however, the lessons of battle were then, as now, of immediate interest. Therefore, at war's end, General John J. Pershing's headquarters began a series of battlefield tours for officers whose staff duties kept them from combat or who may have arrived in theater too late to participate. These tours acquainted them with the actual battlefields and became the basis for early pamphlets sponsored by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). In 1927 the commission published "A Guide to the American Bartle Fields in Europe" to commemorate the tenth anniversary of America's entrance into the "war to end all wars." But research and writing on the AEF and its battlefields did not stop. One of the early authors assigned to the commission to continue this work was Maj. Dwight D. Eisenhower. By 1938 the American Battle Monuments Commission had expanded its guidebook, both to provide visitors with a detailed, documented, itinerary for visits and to serve as a history of the AEF's accomplishments. Although out of print since World War II, this guidebook has been avidly sought after by historians, students of the Great War, and veterans and their descendants wishing to find battle sites of long ago. To commemorate the AEF's seventy-fifth birthday, we are honored to republish this work in its original format. This book can still be used easily today. Few road changes have occurred, and though new forests or farms may require minor modifications to the itineraries or viewpoints detailed in the book, the original work remains the most authoritative and easily usable source for visitors to the AEF's battlefields. By supplementing it with either a contemporary Michelin road map or one of the topographic maps published by France's Institut Geographique National (IGN), any visitor to America's Great War battlefields can easily navigate in France. Similarly produced road maps simplify visiting the AEF battlefields in Italy. For the scholar or student, this book also provides a starting point for studying the AEF. This fine work now joins the reprinted United States Army in the World War, 1917-1919, series and its accompanying volumes of the Order Of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War to complete the Center of Military History's World War I series. We are proud to offer this long out of print work, both to commemorate the AEF's anniversary and to assist visitors studying the fields where Americans fought and died for freedom.

CMH Pub 23-24 Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited