 On 26 June 1917, during World War I, the first 14,000 U.S. infantry troops landed in France at the port of St. Nazaire. The landing site had been kept secret because of the menace of German submarines. By the time our troops lined up for their first salute on French soil, an enthusiastic crowd welcomed them. However, the doughboys, as the British referred to our green troops, were untrained, ill-equipped, and far from ready for fighting on the Western Front. But they got trained and equipped.