04 Uniform of U. S. Army 32nd Infantry Division, 1918

The American Expeditionary Forces joined war operations in Europe on 2 April 1918. Hundreds of Czechs and Slovaks also fought in the ranks of the U.S. Army at this time. The material superiority of the U.S. Army was evident in the quality of the uniforms and equipment with which its soldiers entered trench warfare on the Western Front.

The jacket of the uniform is made of brown-green woollen fabric, the lining is made of sand-coloured cotton twill. The button sewn on the top bears the emblem of the Great Seal of the United States. The overall workmanship is of an incomparably higher standard than that of the war-weary countries. The unit emblem belonging to the 32nd Infantry Division is on the left sleeve. The symbol of an arrow passing through a wall conveys the fact that the unit was one of the first to break through the German Hindenburg Line. On the lower part of the same sleeve is a designation for service overseas (in this case, twice for 6 months). It is not without interest that U.S. uniforms were in the equipment of the Czechoslovak Army in the first post-war years. The purchase of 20,000 sets was arranged by Czech-American Emanuel Voska. The buttons on the jackets and coats with U.S. motifs were removed and replaced with Czechoslovak ones.