Homeward Bound District of Paris Men circa 1919

[world war I nerd]

Scanned portion of a "Half-Yard Long" (18 inches) photo of District of Paris men waiting to board a troopship bound for the U.S.A. from France in 1919.

 

A careful inspection reveals a few interesting details, such as ...

 

All of the men appear to have identical District of Paris shoulder patches sewn onto the left shoulder of their service coat.

 

Two men have improvised paper visors added to their overseas caps in order to shade their eyes from the unforgiving coastal sun.

 

A number of men still have rifles, many with covers.

 

At least one man is burdened with a barracks bag, while others are carrying bundles or ditty bags.

 

Quite a few also appear to still have gasmasks slung from the right shoulder.

[world war I nerd]

Here's another view from the other side of the same photo.

 

It shows ...

 

Three more men with improvised paper visors added to their overseas caps.

 

A rifle with a cover.

 

A man with a German gasmask bring-back.

 

A number of World War I Victory medal ribbons.

 

And three guys with Engineer PFC chevrons, so I guess the photo is of an Engineer outfit.

 

Also, none of the men seem to be too happy about having their photo taken!

[RustyCanteen]

Great photo WWINERD (and good to see you on the forum!),

 

I would suspect they are less happy waiting to board the ship and come home, than with getting their photo taken. Looks like a sunny day. The use of the makeshift sun visors (paper stuck under the os cap?) is interesting.

[mrwocco]

Nice post WWINERD. It looks like the Doughboy with the gas mask has a grenade vest slung to his right. Also interesting tunic collar on the Doughboy in the center below him with improvised visor & # '55' on his cap. Could possibly be wearing a rain coat or great coat.

[CW4AFB]

The doughboys were skilled at adding paper brims to their O/S hats--I have seen pictures of 80th Div guys doing it at their homecoming in Richmond, soldiers at a boxing match while on occupation duty in Luxembourg doing it, and Third Army Doughboys in German doing it at a baseball game---who would have thought a brim on a soldier's hat would be a useful thing---certainly not the guys who gifted us with the berets in 2001 and took away our patrol caps...same as it ever was..

[CW4AFB]

and here's a couple of examples as I mentioned earlier--

[world war I nerd]

Al, great shots of the AEF paper visor!

 

I'd read about the paper visors, but up until I saw the District of Paris & now your photos, I'd only ever seen one example of the paper brim in use. It was of a soldier firing in the prone position on an AEF rifle range.

[mrwocco]

By chance I have the arrival photo of the same group marching thru town. Doughboy is wearing British SD tunic with '55' on cap badge. I originally thought he had been wearing a great coat.

[mrwocco]

,

[jagjetta]

Nerd: Great image and sleuthing.

MrWocco: Even COOLER connection of the same group marching!

[world war I nerd]

MrWocco - That's amazing that you have a earlier photo of the same group of Doughboys likely taken on the very same day!

 

I'm amazed that you recognized the man, ahh, or rather his cap. It almost looks as if his cap has an actual brim?

 

Also, very neat about the British service jacket - Despite millions of garments being purchased and issued to the AEF, you hardly ever see photos of American Doughboys wearing British clothing.

[world war I nerd]

Here's a better view of the two District of Paris men MrWocco identified as being in his photo & another look at the British service jacket worn by cap No. 55.

 

Note the Engineer's PFC chevron in the upper, left-hand corner.

[littlewilly]

Interesting information. I am still digging through my yard longs and ppc's looking for this visor feature, but have not found any yet. The number of these visible at the ball game was a surprise. MHJ

[world war I nerd]

I recently picked up a couple new photos depicting AEF Doughboys wearing improvised paper visors on their overseas caps from eBay. I also bid pretty high on a third photo but lost it by one dollar! However, I had the foresight to downloaded the image because it was a great photograph.

 

I'll start with the one that got away … It's of a 2nd Division star & Indianhead decorated scoreboard at (presumably) a 3rd Army Baseball game in Germany between the 2nd Division team, who are ahead, by the way, and an unknown visiting team. Two of the rather unhappy men (they must be rooting for the visiting team) beneath the scoreboard have added paper visors to their overseas caps.

 

All-in-all, a wonderful photo ...

[world war I nerd]

The second image is of a boxing match that took place on an unknown troopship carrying AEF personnel back to the U.S.A. sometime in 1919. In it a number of the spectators have fashioned visors out of paper to shade their eyes from the sun.

 

Also of interest are the various expressions of the men watching as the two pugilists pummel each other.

[world war I nerd]

The final photo shows men from the 91st Division waiting to board an American troop train that will carry them on the last leg of their homeward bound journey to the west coast of the United States. Careful scrutiny of the lower, right hand corner will reveal four men with paper visors protruding from the front of their overseas caps.

[world war I nerd]

Close up of the photo's lower left quadrant in which the paper visors appear.

[world war I nerd]

It looks as if most of the men whose left shoulders are facing the camera are wearing the shoulder patch for the 91st Division on their overcoats. It is also worth noting that none of the visible helmets have been painted with the pine tree logo of that division. Here's a close up of the most discernable shoulder patch.