The American Expeditionary Forces, Communications and the First World War: A Case Study in Inter-Allied Learning

Abstract

Abstract By adopting an inter-organisational learning model to the case study of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) Signal Corps during the First World War, this article seeks to position the neglected subject of inter-allied learning within the broader context of the contentious debates surrounding the AEF’s training and military operations. Employing American, British, and French sources, the article examines the experiences of the AEF Signal Corps, an organisation whose role and influence historians of the AEF have largely overlooked and failed to fully appreciate. It argues that although recent interpretations of the AEF’s receptivity to certain British and French methods are generally correct, they underestimate the varied and interconnected nature of the driving influences that shaped the AEF’s learning processes, as well as the collaborative and reciprocal characteristics of inter-allied learning more broadly.