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When the Americans Finally made it to Europe, they showed up in flooding numbers. By November 11, 1918 over 2 million military personnel had arrived in France and half of then were combat effectives and the remaining men had already become casualties. At the busiest month of July in 1918, more than 300,000 American troops arrived at French ports ready for action. Out of the 4.7 million Americans that contributed to the war, 4 million were serving in the Army, 600,000 served in the Navy, and 79,000 were in the Marine Corp. By the end of the war the Doughboys had controlled and commanded 83 miles of the 392 mile long western front while Belgian Army controlled 25 miles, the British controlled 70 miles and the French were in control of 214 miles worth. .
Life wasn't easy for the American solder during World War 1. The average soldier on the front line had to deal with lack of food and water, deadly gases, and the constant annoyance of lice and rats. The soldiers started to refer to the lice as "cooties" and they had given up on ever ridding themselves of the ever-agitating pests. The rats for the most part, were almost unbearable to most of the troops. Many claimed that in the middle of the night the rats would wait until they were sleeping and chew a hole through their sack or pocket to get to any available food they could find on them. They also claimed that the rats would become bloated off the amount of human flesh they consumed as more bodies had piled up. Many soldiers would tie a piece of bacon to the end of their rifle as to entice a rat close enough for an easy shot (ww1.com). .
Many soldiers also suffered from exposure from gas attack on the trenches. Although these were not always fatal thanks to the advent of the gas mask, if a soldier did inhale some of the poisonous gas he would be much more susceptible to a flu or pneumonia. It is unknown how many troops died as a result of post gas inhalation but the number must be high.