Description:

World War I 1914 - 1918 An official, period map of the American zone of occupation in Germany after the First World War, produced only days after the Third Army completed its march into the Rhineland and used by a member of Pershing's staff



Printed map in four sheets, with ink and watercolor annotations, 32" x 36", [Trier], December 18, 1918, stamped at upper left: "SECRET SCALE 1/200,000 MAP-ROOM G-E ADV. G.H.Q." An untitled map encompassing the central Rhine Valley in the vicinity of Koblenz with a typed legend on a 4.75" x 2.75" slip affixed below the "SECRET" stamp. Folds, minor creases, some paper reinforcement on verso, light soiling, else very good.


The map, annotated only days after U.S. forces completed its march into Germany for occupation duty, illustrates the corps and divisional boundaries within the zone of occupation controlled by the U.S. Third Army with its headquarters at Koblenz marked by a circled black star. Of interest in this map are revisions of the corps boundary lines noting a decided shift northward as well as a dark green line indicating the new "Front Line" which lay east of the Koblenz bridgehead on the Rhine. During the occupation of the Rhineland, United States forces consisted of 240,000 men in 9 divisions and remained in Germany until January 1923. French forces remained in the Rhineland until 1930 (and did not relinquish the Saar region until a plebiscite in 1935).

The present map was part of a collection kept by General Robert C. Richardson (1882-1954). By the time the United States entered the First World War, Richardson, a captain, assisted in the rapid buildup of training of the American Expeditionary Force (A.E.F.) bound for France. Fluent in French, Richardson served as an aide and observer with foreign armies before being assigned to the Operations Division, General Staff, A.E.F. as a liaison officer in June 1918. In that capacity he was involved in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne Offensives. Following the Armistice of November 11, 1918, Richardson served on the Reparations Board of the Peace Commission in Paris and then as part of U.S. Army occupation forces in Germany stationed at Coblenz and later at Mainz. Richardson, a career Army officer was a member of the West Point Class of 1904, serving in the Philippines and as an instructor of modern languages at the United States Military Academy. During the Second World War, Richardson served as Commanding General of the Hawaiian Department, and was instrumental in training American troops in the fundamentals of jungle warfare and amphibious assaults.

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