Of the 164 graduates in the class, 102 (62 percent) served overseas during World War I before the armistice of 11 November 1918, although only 56 (34 percent) saw actual combat. This was not unusual; nearly 60 percent of the Army's regular officers did not serve overseas. A widespread belief that those who had served overseas would receive preferential treatment, including faster promotion, was not borne out by subsequent events. Promotion was by seniority, and glacially slow. Officers commissioned between November 1916 and November 1918 made up 55.4 percent of the Army's officers in 1926. This "hump" constituted a major personnel problem that was solved only by the Army's rapid expansion after 1940 in response to World War II. Much of the success of the class is attributable to the coincidence of being just ahead of the hump, but not too old to assume positions of great responsibility during World War II.