AMERICANS IN FRANCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 20 August 1917, Page 2

AMERICANS IN FRANCE.

CROSSING OF THE ATLANTIC. GERMAN SPIES FRUSTRATED. The arrival in France of the first expeditionary force from the United States on June 25 was announced a week later, when the last of the transports had reached its destination. The failure of attacks, at intervals of days by German submarines has already been described. That Germany was informed of the plans for the transportation of the force is believed from the fact that the first attack was made far at sea before the transports and their convoys reached the point at which a rendezvous had been arranged with the American destroyer flotilla operating in European waters.

Writing on July 2 from the French seaport at which the force disembark, an American correspondent stated: — The last units of the American forces, comprising vessels loaded with supplies and horses, arrived to-day amid the screeching of whistles and moaning of sirens. Their coming, one week after the first troops landed, was greeted almost as warmly as the arrival of the troops themselves because it meant the complete success of the undertaking, Many of the American soldiers crowded down to the wharf to greet the last ships of the expedition, and the American vessels in the harbour which had made up previous contingents of the force joined in the welcome. The late arrival of th e supply ships was due not only to the late departure from America, but to the fact that the vessels were slower than those which had come before. The troops will now proceed to the permanent training camp behind the front. Probably the happiest man in port to-day was Rear-Admiral Glcaves, commander of the coney. From the bridge of his flagship he watched the successful conclusion of his plans with characteristic modesty and insisted upon bestowing the lion’s share of credit for the crossing on the navigation officers of his command. Sketching briefly the plans by which all units of the contingent had to keep a daily rendezvous with accompanying warships, he said that thanks to his navigation officers and despite the overcast skies which made astronomical observations impossible, each rendezvous had been minutely and accurately kept up each unit. The orders he issued at the outset were observed with such exactness that the contingent units and convoy-: iug warships invariably met each other within half an hour of the appointed time.

.. The exactness on the part of the navigation officers, the admiral said, undoubtedly was responsible in no small degree for the brilliant success of the entire undertaking, because thanks to it, the troop and supply ships were never for a moment unguarded.