Le touriste des troupes: qui peut nous aider à résoudre ce mystère de la guerre des Pyrénées?

This group of “Doughboys” were likely in the Pyrenees in 1919 to visit Lourdes, which is a few hundred kilometres from Bordeaux, where many American forces headquarters were. It was reported in early April, 1919, that close on 3,000 American soldiers and their chaplains visited Lourdes for the Festival of the Annunciation – 1,000 marched in the procession to the Basilica of the Rosary. April,1919, was also the 40th anniversary of the death of the Blessed Virgin Bernadette who founded the shrine.

Another report in July, 1919, said: “DOUGHBOY'S MITE AT LOURDES. A large number of American soldiers made a pilgrimage to Lourdes recently. They attended Mass on their arrival at the shrine of Our Lady, then visited the Grotto and Shrine. and in the evening chanted a solemn Vespers and the Rosary. On their departure they suggested that each would give a Doughboy's mite, and the proceeds will be used towards placing a statue of Joan of Arc above the Rosary Church."

Howard Divelbiss Sr’s 333rd Regiment was part of the 167th Infantry Brigade of the 84th Division of the US National Army, which arrived in Liverpool between 6 September and 25 October 1918. Parts of the Division moved to Le Havre (25 September), to Neuvic, Dordogne (28th September), Le Mans, Sarthe (6 November), Camp de Souge, Gironde (25 November) and lastly, awaiting repatriation, Bordeaux (26 November 1918).

As it relocated, the Division was broken up and elements such as some artillery, machine-gunners and engineers were reassigned as replacements in other divisions but the untested remainder boarded ships at Brest and Bordeaux to return to Camp Taylor, Kentucky between 31st December 1918 and 26th July 1919. Its Trench Mortar Battery left Brest first, the Divisional Headquarters staff left from Bordeaux on the SS Wilhelmina on the 6th January 1919, arriving home via Hoboken, New Jersey by 26th January. Ammunition handlers left Bordeaux 2nd February, signallers 21st April and the remaining engineers from there reached New York 18th July 1919.

It's unlikely Divelbiss did the driving. In the photo, there is a liveried chauffeur leaning on the car’s radiator who, having ten passengers on board, has taken the precaution of fitting a detachable dual-tyre rim at the rear.

One legacy the American Army left in France, apart from an extensive telephone network, several new docks and the world’s most powerful radio transmitter at Bordeaux, was reportedly 100,000 automobiles, which the French government refused to allow to be sold to the public—they were all burned to scrap.

You say it's undated! What enough the date, 1919, below the Pyrenees description clearly visible on the actual photo?I

I've got that horn here at home, still trying to get the durn thing to toot right... Some progress...

BJ
Ça ressemble a un bus torpédo Lorraine Dietrich 1907. Les roues sont idem capot jonction capot carrosserie et calandre.
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Hello,
It looks like a 1907 Lorraine Dietrich torpedo bus. The wheels are the same, as are the junctions of the body, bonnet and radiator.