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Chapter 24:. The Nation at War, 1900-1920 #3. Over There. the US entered a war its new allies were in danger of losing were mutinies in the French army costly British drive in Flanders stalled. Germany had developed a first-strike strategy
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Chapter 24: The Nation at War, 1900-1920 #3
Over There • the US entered a war its new allies were in danger of losing • were mutinies in the French army • costly British drive in Flanders stalled
Germany had developed a first-strike strategy • the Schlieffen Plan – called for a quick sweep through France to knock the French out of the war • swept through Belgium and northern France
Mobilization • US was not prepared for war • Wilson – named John J. “Black Jack” Pershing (leader of the Mexican campaign) to head the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) • troops would be called doughboys by the Europeans • may have been for the white adobe dust that stuck to the boots of soldiers during the Mexican War • could have been from Civil War times when uniform buttons looked like flour dumplings • or from the white flour they used to keep their belts white
armed forces had two war plans: • War Plan Orange – for a defensive war against Japan in the Pacific • War Plan Black – to counter a possible German attack in the Caribbean • Wilson – had ordered military commanders not to plan, because it violated neutrality
Wilson – turned to conscription • he believed it was both efficient and democratic • Selective Service Act – provided for the registration of all men between the ages of 21 and 30 (later changed to 18 and 45) • 24.2 million registered, 2.8 million were drafted • “selection from a nation which has volunteered in mass”
draft included black men as well as white • 4 African American regiments were among the first sent into action • most never saw combat, they were used mainly for manual labor and menial tasks • no black soldiers though were allowed to march in the victory celebrations that eventually took place in Paris
369th Infantry Regiment – known as the Harlem Hell Fighters • persuaded their white officers to loan the regiment to the French, who then integrated them into the French army • entire regiment would receive France’s highest combat medal, the Croix de Guerre
War in the Trenches • World War I – may have been the most terrible war of all time • after early offensives, the European armies dug themselves into trenches • were only hundreds of yards apart in places
a stalemate had developed – a situation where neither side is able to gain the advantage • Germans had become concerned about the advancing Russian army and had pulled troops from the Western front ahead of schedule • the early transfer of troops may have prevented a German victory in the west
holed themselves up in the trenches across an empty field referred to as “no man’s land” • neither side was able to gain more than a few miles and then it was at an appalling human cost • mud, rats, cold, fear, and disease took a heavy toll • was a high incidence of shell shock • troops would go “over the top” of the trenches in an effort to break through the enemy’s lines • but the costs were high
in the trenches, they faced new killing machines like machine guns and rapid-fire artillery • new machine guns could fire 450 rounds a minute • at the Battle of the Somme the British lost some 20,000 deaths in a single day of combat • hand grenades, artillery shells, and poison gases
morale sank and the armies became desperate • began burning fields, killing livestock, and poisoning wells • tunneled under no man’s land to plant bombs below enemy trenches • German subs torpedoed any ship they believed was carrying arms to the Allies • the British naval blockade starved the German people • none of this brought an end to the conflict
Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, and led by V.I. Lenin, signed a separate peace treaty with Germany • Russia’s exit from the war freed the Germans from the two-front war they had been forced to fight • German and Austrian forces then routed the Italian army on the southern flank, and the Allies braced for a spring 1918 offensive • the Germans broke through the trenches and advanced deep into Allied territory
Admiral William S. Sims – pushed through a convoy plan that used Allied destroyers to escort merchant vessels across the ocean • a group of unarmed ships surrounded by a ring of destroyers, torpedo boats, and other armed naval vessels equipped with hydrophones to track and destroy subs • plan soon cut shipping losses in half
Germans had advanced to the Marne, about 50 miles from Paris • American forces would come to the rescue • Brigadier General James G. Harbord – “We dig no trenches to fall back on. The Marines will hold where they stand.”
American forces blocked the Germans at the town of Château-Thierry • helped the French save Paris, blunted the edge of the German advance, and began to turn the tide of the war • then forced them out of Belleau Wood – a crucial stronghold • July 15 – the Germans threw everything into a last drive for Paris, but they were halted at the Marne • in three days of battle they were finished
about 250,000 new American soldiers were arriving in France each month • had a new weapon – the tank – which could cross trenches and roll through barbed wire • the Allies began to break the German lines
with the German drive stalled, the Allies counterattacked along the entire front • September 12 – 500,000 Americans and a small group of French drove the Germans from the St. Mihiel salient • was the first major military effort entirely in American hands • then attacked between in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive – began the drive to expel the Germans from France • American troops broke through in early November, cut the line, and drove the Germans back along the whole front
War in the Air • Americans entered the war with only 55 planes • US quickly manufactured hundreds of planes to match the technology used by the Allies • World War I planes were built from wooden frames covered with cloth • the pilot, and copilot, sat in an open-air cockpit
aircraft were first used to scout enemy positions • flyers soon started dogfights – with pistols and later machine guns • pilots also shot down hot-air balloons that were used for observation and fired on individual soldiers on the ground • German zeppelins – floating airships were also used
bombing was not very effective at destroying targets • but frequent bombing raids frightened and confused enemy soldiers • this would become a devastating weapon in the future
German Balloons Shot Down: This February 1918 photograph shows two German observation balloons going down.
Manfred von Richthofen, known as the "Red Baron," was the most successful German fighter pilot during World War I, with 80 downed planes. He was killed at age 25 in aerial combat April 21, 1918.
by the end of October the Central Powers collapsed: • Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire made a separate peace • Austria-Hungary splintered as Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, and Slovaks declared their independence from the emperor
German commanders begged for peace • the Allies refused • sailors in the German port of Kiel mutinied and the revolt spread to other ships and ports as well as factories and industrial cities • the Kaiser fled to Holland
German high command knew that the war was lost • Germany began talks of arranging an armistice in early October • signed on November 11, 1918 in a French railroad car • six hours later, the guns finally fell silent
The railroad car in the Compiegne forest in which the armistice of France's surrender to Germany was signed. The ceremony took place at the same location where Germany signed its surrender at the end of the First World War.
overall the American contribution – although small in comparison to European nations was vital • fresh, enthusiastic American troops raised Allied morale • helped turn the tide at a crucial point in the war
