It didn't matter. Shipping space, not rifles, was the primary constraint in the first year. The AEF reported that by 31 Dec 17, 183,896 men had arrived in Europe. The rule of thumb in WWI was that a balanced force required one rifle for every two men for initial issuance. Thus, the available trained force (using that term loosely) in Europe on New Years Day in 1918 could have gotten by on 100k rifles. You might recall that the Army had about 600k M1903s at the declaration of war in Apr.Originally Posted by Merc
On 31 Mar 18, the AEF reported 329,005 men had arrived. Of these, an estimated 107,000 were noncombatants. The buildup didn't gather speed until May. By then, the interchangeability issue had been resolved (and you overstated the scope of the problem).
Best I can tell, the 82nd Division was the second National Army division to arrive in Europe (the 77th got there in mid-Apr). The 82nd Division reached full strength on 30 Nov 17. They received their M1917s at the beginning of Feb - that's two whole months. Considering most were raw recruits, two months was barely enough time to begin making soldiers of them. Wooden rifles upset the press, but had no effect on the entry of US troops into combat.
It was six weeks after the arrival of the lead elements of the 82nd before the division was complete on the ground in Britain - shipping priorities. Then another two months of field training with experienced British and French troops. Not until 25 Jun did elements of the 82nd enter the line. There's your 11 months - the division had been organized on 5 Aug 17.
