It was the high privilege of the United States of America to enter the World War in defense of the ideals for which it stands at a moment when it seemed possible, if not probable, that the powers which initiated this crime against civilization might triumph. Unquestionably, its success in transporting an army of over two million men and vast quantities of supplies across three thousand miles of submarine infested ocean played a great part in bringing about that break-down of morale which inevitably precedes surrender. This was possibly fully as much a factor in the success of the Allied arms as was America's actual military participation. In the prosecution of a modern war, however, the forces are fundamentally divided into two distinct parts: first, the combat troops which engage the enemy in the field, and second, the supply troops which procure and transport everything needed to carry on the war.

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