Activation of new aaa units - Air Defense Artillery

19-+8 GE;..JERAL DEVERS URGES COLLEGE LANGUAGE TRAINING 35
hospitals, rooms ror billets, etc. Q.l\1. Co,Ws, Medical
Corps, and mess officers were plagued by their hourly unpleasant
contacts with French help, be they charwomen,
LlUndrv 'workers, waiters, etc. Militarv Railwav officers of
the T~ansportation Corps had to solve countless thorny
problems with their French counterparts; Port Officers had
daily squabbles 'with the French stevedores in charge of
thousands of .i\loroccan longshoremen. And what was
true of our officerswas true also of our noncoms, who, once
the policies had been set at higher levels, had to carry out
their execution "ith French or Arab subordinates. Thus,
because most of our army technicians did not know French,
they had to depend, for ~very little thing, on the services of
a liaison officer,or a civilian interpreter.
"\Vhen we landed in Italy new problems arose, since
\yc were forced to bring along a very large Italian-speaking
personnel to handle what was called 'Civilian Affairs.'
Those AMGOT officers had to take care of thousands of
problems connec~ed with the daily needs of the civilian
population and a pitifully small number of them was prep~1redto
do so. In Italy also, a new headache was added
by the fact that se\'eral French divisions were part of the
U.S. 5th Army. A number of our older French-speaking
liaison officers",ho had seen service in \\'orId \Var I, \yere
sent to the headquarters of the generals commanding each
division, while some of us \rere attached to the general
commanding the French Supply Base 901. All of us had to
be jacks-of-all-trades, handling problems connected \vith
everybranch of the service; the \vorst came \vhen a French
mou'ntain division disembarked \vith thousands of mules
\\,hich had to be taken care of.
"Then, 'when we started preparing for the im'asion of
Southern France, more French divisions' arrived. Naples
\\'as like a tower of Babel with U.5., British, French, Polish
and Moroccan soldiers filling the streets. One should
not forget that Air Force ground officerswent through the
samethroes as Army officerswhen it came to language problems.Add
to this the fact that Red Cross personnel had to be
found \'\'ho spoke Italian as \.vell as French. And U.S.
nurses who spoke French were at a premium since some
wards in our hospitals were used exdusiyely for \munded
men from the French diYisions.
"'Ye landed in France. The French didsions had been
\\'ithdrawn from the 5th Armv and, with new ones added,
formed the French 1st Arm)'. This time, an important
French liaison section under Brigadier' General Schwinn
and Colonel Chamberlain (\\'ho had tauoht French at
\rest Point before the ,,'ar) was attached'"to the Headquarters
of General de Lattre de T assigny to handle all of
the liaison \vork with the U.5. 7th Armv, since both
formed the 6th Army Group under comma~d of General
Jacob L. Devers whose liaison officer \yas no other than
~.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. From this central
haison section, French-speaking US. Army officeG were
detached to the Headquarters of e.flchFrench diyision. On
the supply echelon, the organization had been completely
re\-amped; the French Base 901 had been integrated into
COXAD Base: French and U.S. officers and enlisted men
\\'orkedside by side in every serdce~ but, for lack of enough
French-speaking u.s. personneL most of the liaison \york
was carried on by English-speaking French personnel.
"\Ve had a great deal of security work to do in the Proyost
]\larshal Section, and a thorough knowledge of French
was more important than ever before: we had seven l\lilitary
Police companies scattered behind the front line of
the 6th Army Group, and everywhere the security as well
as the GI.C. and GI.D. work was done in close liaison
with city police, and especially with the Gendarmerie
Nationale whose help proved invaluable in our daily quest
for German parachutists and saboteurs. Since the l\1.P.
actiyities include establishing and guarding Prisoner of
\Var cages, a large number of men speaking German \"as
required; many more were needed on the teams which
questioned the P.W.s. Also, German was priceless for
the men in the GI.G groups who, very often, had to enter
German cities ahead of the infantry. But German never
was so complicated a problem as French since manv of our
men from all sections in the U.S. spoke it Huently: having
learned it at home.
"-;\lanyother problems presented themselves: serious ones
like the coaching of men who were parachuted behind the
lines, and the training of men for G-2, Gr.e. and O.S.S.
work; trivial but important ones nevertheless like those of the
Red Cross Personnel who had to establish G.I. clubs, snack
bars, movie houses, etc., in hundreds of towns and cities
where our men were bivouacked 011 sent to rest. These Red
Cross organizers had to speak Frenah to be able to get along.
This should be enough to give you an idea of the complexity
of the task for which foreign language speaking personnel
was in great demand oyerseasduring World War II.
"One should also remember that each one of our men
~peaking the language of the country he is invading is a
potential ambassador of good ,yill. Since, usually, he is a
college educated man, he is able, in his conversations with
the inhabitants, to explain to them many points about our
military, political and social problems. It is he \.... ho builds
the opinion that these people have of us. After VB-Day,
\yhen I was brought back from Germany to become Dean
of Studies in charge of 450 US army students at the Universitv
of Nancv, I realized more than eyer the \wnderful
unde~standing ~reated by a group of fine young men speaking
a foreign language. Not only did they make a great
impression on the man in the street because of their fine
appearance, their nice manners and good behavior, but the
uniyersitv teachers were amazed at their knowledue and
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their \yillingness to learn more.
"'Ye must keep in mind that if we must fight a new war,
the students 1.'\;hoare in our classrooms at present will be
the officers of tomorrO\L College graduates formed the
majority of the officersin \\'orld \Var I, and it was truer still
in \\'orld \Var II. \\'ith the increasing need for technicians
in the army, the demand for men with college degrees will
be still ooreater
if there is a \\'orId \Yar III.
"In the last war. , the army_ learned to make 0good
use of its
men according to their qualifications, and it is probable
that carefully selected liaison personnel \wuId be sent and
kept in the countries of our Allies, the language of which
they \'.'ould be familiar \.\ith.
"But in my opinion, liaison officers and interpreters are
not the proper solution to the problem of foreign languages