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WORLD WAR I at Remembering the War to End All Wars A Newspaper in Education Supplement to To the teacher: Teaching about World War I offers both challenges and opportunities. The transformative nature of the war is without question. When Europe exploded into conflict in July 1914, few people predicted that the war would pull dozens of nations into the fray over the course of four years. More than 9 million soldiers lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were affected by the conflict. Yet the United States did not enter the war until 1917, and in many ways the historical cognizance of this conflict within the U.S. has been eclipsed by World War II.. The story of the war is intricate, and it can be difficult to find ways of making the war compelling for students. One of the most effective ways of engaging students is to present them with first-person perspectives on the conflict. This supplement and many of the primary sources linked within provide some of those voices and perspectives. This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the start of the war, giving educators the opportunity to revisit World War I and take advantage of some of the excellent new educational resources developed for the commemoration. tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Overview of World War One 2 On the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918, World War One came to an end.The world over, this date is called Armistice Day in commemoration of the peace that finally arrived after four years of conflict. In the United States November 11 is celebrated as Veterans Day, a day to honor the sacrifices of our veterans from all wars. The first global conflict to entangle dozens of nations throughout the world, the “Great War” pitted the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire against the Allied forces of Great Britain (as well as Dominion nations of the British Empire — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and others), the United States, France, Russia, Italy and Japan. It was also called The War to End All Wars, with the hope that the world would never again see this level of death and destruction in warfare. The introduction of modern technology to warfare resulted in unprecedented carnage and destruction. Over 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians died and another 20 million were wounded in the slaughter by the time the war ended on November 11, 1918. As the 20th century entered its second decade, it seemed a time in history of relative peace among the world’s most powerful nations, when threats of war could be averted by diplomatic compromise. But below the surface lurked a sense that war could break out at any time. All the great world powers were expanding their militaries with huge standing armies and modern technology that would grow to include machine guns, large cannons, high accuracy rifles, machine guns, powerful ships and submarines. The countries of Europe were increasingly hostile to each other. Each country developed powerful military alliances to establish a balance of power between them.The two key alliances were between France and Russia and between Germany and Austria-Hungary (Austrian Empire ruled by the Habsburg Dynasty).There were other alliances between various nations. After the defeat of Napoleon and his French Empire in 1815, the system of alliances and efforts at compromise between rival nations were fairly successful in keeping the peace for a century. Despite increasing efforts to settle war through diplomacy, World War One erupted in July 1914.The war revealed the fragile nature of 20th century politics and showed how the powder keg of nationalism could result in enormous conflict and upheaval. One hundred years after the start of the war, it is important to reflect on the events, outcomes, and legacies of this transformative era in world history. What Started the Course Toward War On June 28, 1914, a young Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Taking place against a backdrop of escalating tensions in the Balkans, the assassination set off a chain of events that would lead to the start of World War I barely one month later.To many people, the Great War seemed to come out of the blue, as the European continent was enjoying a long stretch of unparalleled peace and prosperity. In fact, the seeds of the devastating conflict had been planted long before Princip fired those fatal bullets. 1 Europe By 1914 Almost exactly a century before, a meeting of the European states at the Congress of 2 Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany (1), King George V of England, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia (2) were related as first cousins. Wilhelm & George were grandsons of Britain’s great Queen Victoria (3), and Nicholas was her grandson by marriage. Unfortunately, being related did not help them solve the issues that led to World War I Magyars in Hungary) attempted to control large populations of restless Slavic peoples, worried for its future as a great power, and in 1908 it annexed the twin Balkan provinces of Bosnia-Herzogovina.This grab for territory and control angered the independent Balkan nation of Serbia, which considered Bosnia a Serb homeland, as well as Slavic Russia. Upstart Serbia then doubled its territory in back-to-back Balkan wars (1912 and 1913), further threatening Austro-Hungarian supremacy in the region. Meanwhile, Russia had entered into an alliance with France – angry over German annexation of French lands in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870- 71 – and Great Britain, whose legendary naval dominance was threatened by Germany’s growing navy.This Triple Entente, squared off against the German-Austro-Hungarian alliance, meant that any regional conflict had the potential to turn into a general European war. Assassination of Franz Ferdinand Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a great friend of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, met with him in mid-June 1914 to discuss the tense situation in the Balkans.Two weeks later, on June 28, Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were in Sarajevo to inspect the imperial armed forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. When 19-yearold Gavrilo Princip and his fellow members of the nationalist Young Bosnia movement learned of the archduke’s planned visit, they took action. Supplied with weapons by a Serbian terrorist organization called the Black Hand, Princip and his cohorts traveled to Sarajevo in time for the archduke’s visit. The royal couple was touring the city in an open car, with surprisingly little security. One of the nationalists threw a bomb at their car, but it rolled off the back of the vehicle, wounding an army officer and some bystanders. Later that day, the imperial car took a wrong turn near where Princip happened to be standing. Seeing his chance, Princip fired into the car, shooting Franz Ferdinand and Sophie at point-blank range. He then turned the gun on himself, but was tackled by a mob of bystanders who restrained him until the police arrived.The archduke and his wife were rushed away to seek medical attention, but both died within the hour. The Road to World War I In order to maintain its credibility as a force in the Balkan region (let alone its status as a great power), Austria-Hungary needed to enforce its authority in the face of such an insolent crime. However, with the threat of Russian intervention looming and its army unprepared for a large-scale war, it required Germany’s help to back up its words with force. Austrian Emperor Franz Josef wrote a personal letter to Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm requesting his support. On July 5, Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. Mapping Activity: Ask students to view a map of Europe during World War I and also become familiar with national boundaries in 2014. Then, have them create a chart of the Allied and Central powers. This will be useful to refer back to as they study World War One. Visit PBS, The Great War maps and battle page at www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 3 Vienna had established an international order and balance of power that lasted for almost a century. By 1914, however, a multitude of forces were threatening to tear it apart.The Balkan Peninsula, in southeastern Europe, was a particularly tumultuous region. Formerly under the control of the Ottoman Empire, this region’s status was uncertain by the late 1800s, as the weakened Turks continued their slow withdrawal from Europe. Order in the region depended on the cooperation of two competing powers, Russia and AustriaHungary.The slumping Austria-Hungary, in which small minorities (Germans in Austria, 3 tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES 4 Wilhelm II (1859-1941), the German Kaiser (emperor) and king of Prussia from 1888 to 1918, was one of the most recognizable public figures of World War I (1914-18). He gained a reputation as a swaggering militarist through his speeches and ill-advised newspaper interviews. While Wilhelm did not actively seek war, and tried to hold back his generals from mobilizing the German army in the summer of 1914, his verbal outbursts and his open enjoyment of the title of Supreme War Lord helped bolster the case of those who blamed him for the conflict. His role in the conduct of the war as well as his responsibility for its outbreak is still controversial. Some historians maintain that Wilhelm was controlled by his generals, while others argue that he retained considerable political power. In late 1918, he was forced to abdicate. He spent the rest of his life in exile in the Netherlands, where he died at age 82. On July 23, 1914, the Dual Monarchy sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept. It required the Serbian government to take steps to wipe out terrorist organizations within its borders, suppress anti-Austrian propaganda and accept an independent investigation by the Austro-Hungarian government into Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, or else face military action. “To try to avoid such a calamity as a European war, I beg you in the name of our old friendship to do what you can to stop your allies from going too far.” — Telegram from Russian Czar Nicholas II to his cousin Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, July 28, 1914 Convinced that Austria was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize, and appealed to Russia for assistance. After Serbia’s appeal for help, the Russian Czar’s government began moving towards mobilization of its army, believing that Germany was using the crisis as an excuse to launch a preventive war in the Balkans. On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war Newspaper Activity: Ask students to search for newspaper accounts of the outbreak of World War I. Students can also search for articles about the entry of the United States into the war in 1917. How were these events discussed in U.S. newspapers? What is surprising about these accounts? on Serbia. On August 1, after hearing news of Russia’s general mobilization, Germany declared war on Russia.The German army then launched its attack on Russia’s ally, France, through Belgium, violating Belgian neutrality and bringing Great Britain into the war as well.The tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun. The legendary Krupp’s Big Bertha, a German 42cm howitzer of the type used to crush the Belgian fortresses in 1914. World War I — Western Front (1914-17) According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting mighty Russia in the east. On August 4, 1914, German troops under Erich Ludendorff crossed the border into Belgium, in violation of that country’s neutrality. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege, using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal – enormous siege cannons – to capture the city on August 15. Leaving death and destruction in their wake, including the shooting of civilians and the deliberate execution of Belgian priests, whom they accused of inciting civilian resistance, the Germans advanced through Belgium towards France. In the First Battle of the Marne, fought in early September Fortifications of Verdun “What a bloodbath, what horrid images, what a slaughter. I just cannot find the words to express my feelings. Hell cannot be this dreadful.” — Albert Joubaire, French soldier at Verdun The Germans staged a massive attack against the French fortress of Verdun. The German goal was to capture Verdun and kill so many French soldiers that it would break the French morale and force them to abandon the fight. The French stubbornly defended Verdun and inflicted horrific casualties on the Germans, while suffering many of their own. Nearly 40 million artillery shells were exchanged during the battle leaving masses of craters. The French battle cry was, “They shall not pass!” The French suffered 542,000 casualties and the Germans 435,000. 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading Germany army, which had penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. Under the French commander Joseph Joffre, the Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back north of the Aisne River.The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. The Allies called it the “Miracle on the Marnes.” Despite the Allied victory, the battle was a costly one; the Allied forces suffered 263,000 casualties, and the Germans 220,000. Both sides dug into trenches, and began the bloody war of attrition that would characterize the next three years on World War I’s Western Front. Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (FebruaryDecember 1916) and the Somme River (JulyNovember 1916); German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone. hostility towards the imperial regime.This discontent culminated in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. One of Lenin’s first actions as leader was to call a halt to Russian participation in World War I. Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the other Allies on the Western Front. Gallipoli Campaign (1915-16) and Battles Of The Isonzo (1915-17) Thousands of Russian Prisoners After the Battle of Tannenberg resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the East ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win with the Schlieffen Plan. World War I at Sea (1914-17) World War I’s Eastern Front And Revolution In Russia (1914-17) Paul von Hindenburg was the German general that won the major German victory against Russia at the Battle of Tannenberg. This battle was at the very beginning of the war, and the German army destroyed almost all of the Russian Second Army. Hindenburg was then promoted to commander in chief of the German land armies. After World War I, he was elected as the second president of the German Weimar Republic. After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to base the bulk of its strategy at sea on its lethal U-boat submarines.The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break the Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war. Allied troops line the shore at “ANZAC Cove” on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The cove was named after the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops that were part of the Allied forces. The Dardanelles Campaign against the Turks was a bloody defeat for the Allies. British-led forces also combated the Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia. In northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations. The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side; in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, or the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped AustriaHungary win a decisive victory. After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French, and later American, troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the initiative on the Italian Front. Over the next two years, the Russian army mounted several offensives on the Eastern Front but were unable to break through German lines. Defeat on the battlefield fed the growing discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants, feeding a growing Battle of Jutland, Over 250 British & German Ships Engaged Germany’s policy of unchecked submarine aggression against shipping interests headed to Great Britain ultimately helped bring the United States into World War I in 1917. America had maintained a position of neutrality toward the war. Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion steadfastly against Germany, and in February 1917 Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war. Germany sunk four more Additional Resource: The Stanford History Education Group has an online lesson plan with primary source documents focused on the entry of the United States into World War One. View this lesson plan here: http://sheg.stanford.edu/us-entry-wwi Reading Comprehension Activity: Students can read sections of this supplement as a way to build their reading comprehension skills. Ask students to read one of the paragraphs in this section and answer the following questions: 1) What is the primary topic of this passage? 2) What were three important facts you learned from reading this passage? 3) What is the most interesting thing you learned from reading this passage and why? A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded East Prussia and German Poland (Galisia), but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.Tannenberg was a crushing defeat for Russia and the greatest German victory of the war.The Germans took 92,000 prisoners.The Russians lost another 30,000 killed or wounded, while the Germans sustained a total of only 13,000 casualties. Despite that victory, the Red Army assault had forced Germany to move two Army corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne. Combined with the fierce Allied With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which had entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914. After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain’s Winston Churchill launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915.The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces were forced to stage a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula, after suffering up to 250,000 casualties. 5 U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 President Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. Over 4 million American troops participated in World War I with 2 million in combat.The U.S. suffered an estimated 371,000 casualties, including 127,000 killed in action and 234,000 wounded. tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES German Spring Offensive & Allied Forces 100 Day Offensive 6 Known as the Ludendorff Offensive or the kaiserschlacht (Kaiser’s battle), the Spring Offensive was launched in the Spring of 1918. Germany’s back was against the wall.The country was suffering from a British blockade of its ports, and it had lost so many men that the German army was recruiting old men and young boys to fight at the front lines.The arrival of thousands of fresh troops from the United States was paving the way for a certain Allied victory. The German high command knew the only way to win the war was to defeat the Allies with a major offensive before the Americans could be fully deployed.The plan was for a major push against the Somme front held by the British, with three other attacks intended to divert Allied attention from the main push.The goal was to break the Allied lines, crush the British army and force the Allies to seek armistice terms. Using fast moving “stormtroopers,” the Germans initially made significant advances, pushing the Allies back.The Germans moved so fast they were unable to transport enough supplies.The Allies eventually dug in and halted the German advance.The Germans suffered 680,000 deaths, while the Allies lost a combined total of 850,000 men.The attack failed in its goal to break the Allied forces. The Germans were left in a weak position, having gained ground that they could not adequately defend and having lost most of their These are horrendous days... The infantry have lost about half their men, if not more. Some of those who have survived are no longer human beings, but creatures who are at the end of their tether... — Albrecht von Thaer, German Lieutenant-Colonel best troops trying to break the Allied lines.The Allies had the advantage of thousands of fresh troops from the United States under General John J. Pershing.The Allied supreme commander, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, decided that the Allies should go back on the offensive, and agreed to a plan proposed by British commander Sir Douglas Haig to attack the weakened German Second Army at Amiens.The attack, known as the Battle of Amiens, was a success.The Allies launched another series of offensives, including the battles of Second Somme, Second Noyons and Second Arras.The result was a spectacular success.The German lines were eventually broken and the Germans were forced to retreat back to the Hindenburg Line, a series of defensive works protecting the German homeland.The Allies then started attacking the Line with a series of offensives directed at achieving final breakthrough. The weakened, exhausted Germans put up a fight, but were unable to defend the lines.The Allies broke through the Hindenburg Line at the Battle of Cambrai.The Germans eventually sued for peace, and the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, bringing the bloody battles of World War I to an end.The Hundred Days offensive was a spectacular success for the Allies, but they paid for it dearly.The Allies lost a total of 1,069,636 casualties, including 127,000 Americans.The Germans lost 785,733 casualties, but perhaps the greatest loss was the collapse of the German Empire and the crushing peace terms the Germans were later forced to accept. Credit: Justin Jurek, Adapted, www.toptenz.net Toward an Armistice (1917-18) With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive. On July 15, 1918, German troops under Erich von Ludendorff launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne.Thanks in part to the strategic leadership of the French commander-in-chief, U.S. Army general John J. Pershing U.S. Army general John J. Pershing (1860-1948) commanded the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe during World War I. The president and first captain of the West Point class of 1886, he served in the Spanish- and Philippine-American Wars and was tasked to lead a punitive raid against the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson selected Pershing to command the American troops being sent to Europe. Although Pershing aimed to maintain the independence of the AEF, his willingness to integrate into Allied operations helped bring about the armistice with Germany. Pershing said of his troops: “No commander was ever privileged to lead a finer force; no commander ever derived greater inspiration from the performance of his troops.” Philippe Petain, the Allies pushed back the German offensive, and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later. After suffering massive casualties, Ludendorff was forced to call off a planned German offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which he had envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory. By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts. Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt had combined to destroy the Ottoman economy and devastate its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918. Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the home front and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I. World War I’s Legacy World War I took the lives of more than 10 million soldiers and 7 million civilians and another 20 million were wounded, while millions of other people fell victim to the Spanish influenza epidemic that the war helped to spread.The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.The war also marked the fall of four imperial dynasties – Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey. At the peace conference in Paris in 1919, Allied leaders would state their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such devastating scale. The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve this objective. Saddled with war guilt and heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations, Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918. As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles Treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be among the causes of World War II. The United States Enters the Great War Lusitania On May 7, 1915, less than a year after World War I (1914-18) erupted across Europe, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. Of the more than 1,900 passengers and crewmembers on board, more than 1,100 perished, including more than 120 Americans. Nearly two years would pass before the United States formally entered World War I, but the sinking of the Lusitania played a significant role in turning public opinion against Germany, both in the United States and abroad. Prelude To Lusitania: Germany Announces Unrestricted Submarine Warfare When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain was one of America’s closest trading partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter’s attempted quarantine of the British Isles. Several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in the waters around Britain. simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel’s course. The Lusitania Sinks: May 7, 1915 The captain of the Lusitania ignored the British Admiralty’s recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. A larger explosion, probably of the ship’s boilers, followed the torpedo blast and the ship sank off the south coast of Ireland in less than 20 minutes. It was revealed that the Lusitania was carrying about 173 tons of war munitions for Britain, which the Germans cited as further justification for the attack.The United States eventually protested the action, and Germany apologized and pledged to end unrestricted submarine warfare. However, in November of that same year a U-boat sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing more than 270 people, including more than 25 Americans. Public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany. Opposition to Entering the War America Enters World War I President Woodrow Wilson In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German Embassy in Washington, D.C., that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk.The announcement was placed on the same page as an advertisement of the imminent sailing of the Lusitania liner from New York back to Liverpool. The sinking of merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or take auto but misses. Undaunted, they continue their visit only to be shot and killed a short time later by a lone assassin. Believing the assassin to be a Serbian nationalist, the Austrians target their anger toward Serbia. •July 23, 1914 - Austria-Hungary, with the backing of Germany, delivers an ultimatum to Serbia.The Serbs propose arbitration as a way to resolve dispute, but also begin mobilization of their troops. •July 25, 1914 - Austria-Hungary severs diplomatic ties with Serbia and begins to mobilize its troops. •July 26, 1914 - Britain attempts to organize a political conference among the major European powers to resolve the dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. France and Italy agree to participate. Russia then agrees, but Germany refuses. •July 28, 1914 - The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Serbia. •July 29, 1914 - Britain calls for international mediation to resolve the worsening crisis. Russia urges German restraint, but the Russians begin partial troop mobilization as a precaution. The Germans then warn Russia on its mobilization and begin to mobilize themselves. •July 30, 1914 - Austrian warships bombard Belgrade, capital of Serbia. On January 31, 1917, Germany, determined to win its war of attrition against the Allies, announced it would resume unrestricted warfare in war-zone waters.Three days later, the United States broke diplomatic relations with Germany, and just hours after that the American ship Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. On February 22, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war. In late March, Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships, and on April 2 President Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany. On April 4, the Senate voted to declare war against Germany, and two days later the House of Representatives endorsed the declaration. With that, America entered World War I. •July 31, 1914 - Reacting to the Austrian attack on Serbia, Russia begins full mobilization of its troops. Germany demands that it stop. Chronology of the Start of the Great War •August 7, 1914 - The first British troops land in France.The 120,000 highly trained members of the regular British Army form the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) commanded by Field Marshal John French. •June 28, 1914 - Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, visit Sarajevo in Bosnia. A bomb is thrown at their •August 1, 1914 - Germany declares war on Russia. France and Belgium begin full mobilization. •August 3, 1914 - Germany declares war on France, and invades neutral Belgium. Britain then sends an ultimatum to withdraw from Belgium that Germany rejects. •August 4, 1914 - Great Britain declares war on Germany.The declaration is binding on all Dominions within the British Empire including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa. •August 4, 1914 - The United States declares its neutrality, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. •August 6, 1914 - The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Russia. A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 There was significant opposition to the United States entering the war from many quarters. Many felt it was a European War and the U.S. should stay isolated from it. Progressives thought it was a war wrought by the ruling classes, but was being fought by the working class. U.S. citizens of German descent, the largest immigrant group in America, were naturally opposed to fighting against their homeland. Conscientious objectors were against war under any circumstance. Even President Woodrow Wilson campaigned on an anti-war platform.The Democrats built his 1916 reelection campaign around the slogan,“He Kept Us out of War.” Wilson won by a very narrow margin. U-Boat Sinking Ship by Willy Stover, German Marine Painter, 1917 7 •August 7-24, 1914 - The French desire to score a quick victory ignites the first major FrenchGerman action of the war.The French Army invades Alsace and Lorraine according to their master strategy known as Plan XVII. However, the French offensive is met by effective German counterattacks using heavy artillery and machine-guns.The French suffer heavy casualties including 27,000 soldiers killed in a single day, the worst one-day death toll in the history of the French Army.The French then fall back toward Paris amid 300,000 total casualties. •August 12, 1914 - Great Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary. Serbia is invaded by Austria-Hungary. •August 17, 1914 - Russia invades Germany, attacking into East Prussia, forcing the outnumbered Germans there to fall back.This marks the advent of the Eastern Front in Europe in which Russia will oppose Germany and Austria-Hungary. Source: www.historyplace.com Life in the Trenches Undoubtedly, trench life and warfare was entirely unexpected for those young, eager recruits who signed up for war in August 1914. The Great War, a phrase coined even before it had begun, was expected to be a relatively short affair and, as with most wars, one of great movement.The First World War was typified, however, by its lack of movement, the years of stalemate exemplified on the Western Front from autumn 1914 until spring 1918. Not that there wasn’t movement at all on the Western Front during 1914-18; the war began dramatically with sweeping advances by the Germans through Belgium and France en route for Paris. However stalemate — and trench warfare soon set in — and the expected war of movement wasn’t restored until towards the close of the war, although the line rippled as successes were achieved at a local level. Daily Death in the Trenches tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES What was life actually like for the men serving tours of duty in the line, whether front line, support or reserve trenches? 8 It is estimated nearly a third of Allied casualties on the Western Front were sustained in the trenches. Aside from enemy injuries, disease took a heavy toll. I saw men dead from exhaustion from their efforts to get out of the mud... We were pitchforked into a quagmire in the dark and there was no possibility of a man helping the one next to him... It was the worst instance I came across of what appeared to be a cruel useless sacrifice of life. — L.W. Kentish, British officer Rat Infestation Rats in the millions infested trenches.There were two main types, the brown and the black rat. Both were despised, but the brown rat was especially feared. Gorging themselves on human remains that could not be retrieved from the battlefield, they could grow to the size of a cat. Men, exasperated and afraid of these rats (which would even scamper across their faces in the dark), would attempt to rid the trenches of them by various methods: gunfire, with the bayonet, and even by clubbing them to death. Cannon shell explodes in no-man’s land Death was a constant companion to those serving in the line, even when no raid or attack was launched or defended against. In busy sectors the constant shellfire directed by the enemy brought random death, whether the victims were lounging in a trench or lying in a dugout (many men were buried as a consequence of such large shell-bursts). Similarly, novices were cautioned against their natural inclination to peer over the top of the trench into No Man’s Land. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper’s bullet. infection and contaminating food.The rat problem remained for the duration of the war. Lice, Frogs and Trench Foot Rats were by no means the only source of infection and nuisance. Lice were a never-ending problem, breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing men to itch unceasingly. Even when clothing was periodically washed and deloused, lice eggs invariably remained hidden in the seams. Within a few hours of the clothes being re-worn, the gerneration of body heat would cause the eggs to hatch. Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. Recovery, away from the trenches, took up to twelve weeks. Lice were not actually identified as the culprit in Trench Fever until 1918. Frogs by the score were found in shell holes covered in water; they were also found in the base of trenches. Slugs and horned beetles crowded the sides of the trench. Many men chose to shave their heads entirely to avoid another prevalent scourge: head lice. British soldiers up to their knees in mud Soldier in a trench taking a photograph with a camera attached to a periscope. Credit: Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library It was futile. A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring in a year, spreading Trench Foot was another medical condition peculiar to trench life. It was a fungal infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench conditions. It could turn gangrenous and result in amputation.Trench Foot was more of a problem at the start of trench warfare; as conditions improved in 1915, it rapidly faded, although a trickle of cases continued throughout the war. The Trench Cycle A battalion would be expected to serve a period in the front line.This would be followed by a stint spent in support, and then in reserve lines. A period of rest would follow, generally short in duration, before the whole cycle of trench duty would start anew. In reality the cycle was determined by the necessities of the situation. Even while at rest, men might find themselves tasked with duties that placed them in the line of fire. Others would spend far longer in the front line than usual in the busy sectors. Stand To and the Morning Hate The daily routine of life in the trenches began with the morning “stand to.”An hour before dawn everyone was roused from slumber by the company orderly officer and sergeant and ordered to climb up on the fire step to guard against a dawn raid by the enemy, bayonets fixed. it persisted throughout the war, but was more prevalent in quieter sectors of the line. Inspection and Chores With breakfast over, the men would be inspected by either the company or platoon commander. Once this had been completed, Non-Commissioned Officers would assign daily chores to each man (except those who had been excused duty for a variety of reasons). Daily chores included the refilling of sandbags, the repair of the duckboards on the floor of the trench, and the draining of trenches. Particularly following heavy rainfall, trenches could quickly accumulate muddy water, making life even more miserable for its occupants as the walls of the trench rapidly became misshapen and prone to collapse. Pumping equipment was available for the draining of trenches. Men would also be assigned to the repair of the trench itself. Still others would be assigned to the preparation of latrines. Dusk: Stand To, Supply and Maintenance With the onset of dusk the morning ritual of stand to was repeated, again to guard against a surprise attack launched as night fell. This over, the trenches became a hive of activity. Supply and maintenance activities could be undertaken, although danger invariably accompanied these, as the enemy would be alert for such movement. Men would be sent to the rear lines to fetch rations and water. Other men would be assigned sentry duty. Generally men would be expected to provide sentry duty for up to two hours. Any longer and there was a real risk of men falling asleep on duty — for which the penalty was death by firing squad. Patrolling No Man’s Land Patrols would often be sent out into No Man’s Land, the area between each side’s trenches. Some men would be tasked with repairing or adding barbed wire to the front line. Others however would go out to assigned listening posts, hoping to pick up valuable information from the enemy lines. Daily Boredom Soldiers go over-the-top across no-man’s land This policy of stand to was adopted by both sides, and despite the knowledge that each side prepared itself for raids or attacks timed at dawn, many were actually carried out at this time. Accompanying stand to, as the light grew, was the daily ritual often termed the “morning hate.” Both sides would often relieve the tension of the early hours with machine gun fire, shelling and small arms fire, directed into the mist to their front: this made doubly sure of safety at dawn. Sometimes enemy patrols from each side would meet in No Man’s Land.They were then faced with the option of hurrying on their separate ways or else engaging in hand-to-hand fighting. They could not afford to use their handguns while patrolling in No Man’s Land for fear of machine gun fire it would attract from both trenches that would be deadly to members of both patrols. Relieving Men at the Front Men were relieved of front-line duty at nighttime too. Relieving units would wind their weary way through numerous lines of communications trenches, weighed down with equipment and trench equipment such as shovels, picks, corrugated iron, duckboards, etc.The process of relieving a line could take several frustrating hours. And the Smell Rum, Rifles and the Breakfast Truce With stand to over, in some areas, rum might then be issued to the men.They would then attend to the cleaning of their rifle equipment, which was followed by its inspection by officers. Breakfast would next be served. In essentially every area of the line at some time or other each side would adopt an unofficial truce while breakfast was served and eaten.This truce often extended to the wagons, which delivered such sustenance. Truces such as these seldom lasted long; invariably a senior officer would hear of its existence and quickly stamp it out. Nevertheless, Soldiers Patrol No-Man’s Land. Soldiers slept and rested in the trenches No overview of trench life can avoid the aspect that instantly struck visitors to the lines: the appalling reek given off by numerous sources. Rotting bodies lay around in the thousands. For example, tens of thousands of men were killed on the Somme battlefields, many of which lay in shallow graves. Overflowing latrines would similarly give off a most offensive stench. Men who had not been afforded the luxury of a bath in weeks or months had terrible body odor.The feet had the worst odor.Trenches would also smell of creosol or chloride of lime, used to stave off the constant threat of disease and infection. Add to this the smell of explosives, the lingering odor of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke and cooking food. While the smells thoroughly overcame first-time visitors to the front, the soldiers got used to it.They didn’t have much choice. Credit: www.firstworldwar.com A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 I can still see the bewilderment and fear on the men’s faces when we went over the top. All over the battlefield, the wounded were lying there — English and German, all asking for help... — Harry Patch, British private Given that each side’s front line was constantly under watch by snipers and lookouts during daylight, movement was logically restricted until night fell.Thus, once men had concluded their assigned tasks they were free to attend to more personal matters, such as reading and writing letters home. Meals were also prepared. Sleep was snatched wherever possible, although it was seldom that men were allowed sufficient time to grab more than a few minutes rest before they were detailed to another task. 9 The Bolshevik Revolution & the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Vladimir Lenin Russia’s involvement in World War I alongside its allies, France and Britain, had resulted in a number of heavy losses against Germany, offset only partially by consistent victories against Austria-Hungary. Defeat on the battlefield fed the growing discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants, and hostility toward the imperial regime, led by the ineffectual Czar Nicholas II (1868-1918). This discontent strengthened the cause of the Bolsheviks, a radical socialist group led by Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924) that was working to harness opposition to the czar and turn it into a sweeping revolution that would begin in Russia and later, Lenin hoped, spread to the rest of the world. The February Revolution broke out in early March 1917. Nicholas abdicated later that month. After Lenin’s return from exile (aided by the Germans) in mid-April, he and his fellow Bolsheviks worked quickly to seize power from the provisional government, led by Alexander Kerensky, Russia’s minister of war. In early November, aided by the Russian military, they were successful. One of Lenin’s first actions as leader was to call a halt to Russian participation in the war. An armistice was reached in early December 1917 and a formal cease-fire was declared December 15, but determining the terms of peace between Russia and the Central Powers proved to be far more complicated. Negotiations began at Brest-Litovsk on December 22. Leading their respective delegations were foreign ministers Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) of Russia, Richard von Kuhlmann of Germany and Count Ottokar Czernin of Austria. In mid-February, the talks broke down when an angry Leon Trotsky deemed the Central Powers’ terms too harsh and their demands for territory unacceptable. Fighting resumed briefly on the Eastern Front, but the German armies advanced quickly, and both Lenin and Trotsky soon realized that Russia, in its weakened state, would be forced to give in to the enemy terms. Negotiations resumed later that month and the final treaty was signed on March 3, 1918. By the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Russia recognized the independence of Ukraine, Georgia and Finland; gave up Poland and the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Germany and Austria-Hungary; and ceded Kars, Ardahan and Batum to Turkey.The total losses constituted some 1 million square miles of Russia’s former territory; a third of its population or around 55 million people; a majority of its coal, oil and iron stores; and much of its industry. Lenin bitterly called the settlement “that abyss of defeat, dismemberment, enslavement and humiliation.” The treaty ended Russia’s involvement in World War I. It allowed Germany to focus its resources on the Western front against the Allied Forces. tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES The War in the Air 10 When Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated on the 28th of June 1914, it was just over a decade since the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, NC. In the intervening years, advances in range and reliability proved that the airplane was a viable means of transport. In 1909, Louis Bleriot made the first flight across the English Channel. In 1913. legendary French aviator Roland Garros made the first cross-Mediterranean flight, from the south of France to Tunisia. Pilots used their hands to fire their machine guns while also flying the plane. There was also an understanding of the military implications of the airplane. After Bleriot’s flight, H. G. Wells wrote, prophetically, “…this is no longer, from a military point of RAF Sopwith Camel. In April 1917, the average life expectancy of a British pilot on the Western Front was 93 flying hours. view, an inaccessible island.” In 1911 the Italians, at war with Turkey in Libya, became the first to make military use of the airplane, dropping grenades from a German-built monoplane. In 1912 they also dropped bombs from an airship. When war broke out, the number of aircraft on all sides and all fronts was very small. France had less than 200 aircraft at the start of the war. During the war France produced 68,000 aircraft of which 52,000 were lost in battle, a horrendous loss rate of 77%. The period between 1914 and 1918 saw not only tremendous production, but also tremendous development in aircraft technology. A typical British aircraft at the outbreak of the war was the general purpose BE2c, with a top speed of 116 km/h (72 mph). Powered by a 90 hp engine, it could remain aloft for over three hours. By the end of the war, aircraft were designed for specific tasks. Built for speed and maneuverability, the SE5a fighter of 1917 was powered by a 200 hp engine and had a top speed of 222 km/h (138 mph). Britain’s most famous bomber, the HandleyPage O/400, could carry a bomb load of 900kg (2000 lb) at a top speed of 156 km/h (97 mph) for flights lasting eight hours.Two 360 hp engines powered it. In 1914 it was important that aircraft be easy to fly, as the amount of training that pilots received was minimal. Louis Strange, an innovative pilot from the opening stages of the war, was an early graduate of the RFC (Royal Flying Corps) flight school. He began flying combat missions after completing only three and a half hours of actual flying time. For this reason aircraft were designed for stability. By the end of the war stability had given way to maneuverability.The famous Sopwith Camel was a difficult aircraft to fly, but supremely agile. Not only did aircraft become faster, more maneuverable and more powerful, but a number of technologies that were common at the start of the war had almost disappeared by the end of it. Many of the aircraft in 1914 were of “pusher” layout.This is the same configuration that the Wright brothers used, where the propeller faced backwards and pushed the aircraft forward. The alternative layout, where the propeller faces forwards and pulls the aircraft provided better performance. World War One marked the end of pusher aircraft. The rapid pace of technological innovation was matched by a rapid change in how aircraft were used. In 1914 there were few generals who viewed aircraft as anything more than a tool for observation and reconnaissance (and many of them had great reservations even about that use). By the end of the war both sides were integrating aircraft as a key part of their planned strategies. While the plane did not play the decisive role that it would play in later conflicts, the First World War proved its capabilities. It was during this period that the key tasks that aircraft could perform were discovered, experimented with, and refined: observation and reconnaissance, tactical and strategic bombing, ground attack, and naval warfare. Credit: www.firstworldwar.com Weapons of War - Poison Gas British 55th Division troops blinded by tear gas await treatment at an Advanced Dressing Station during the Battle of Estaires April 10, 1918. Introduction of Poison Gas The first poison gas, chlorine was used April 22, 1915 at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres. After a bombardment, French and Algerian troops noticed a curious yellow-green cloud drifting slowly towards their line. British Vickers machine gun crew wearing PH-type anti-gas helmets during the Battle of the Somme, July 1916. The French suspected that the cloud masked an advance by German infantry and ordered their men to ‘stand to’ — mount the trench fire step in readiness for probable attack. The effects of the chlorine gas were severe. Within seconds of inhaling its vapor, it destroyed the victim’s respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks. Panic-stricken, the French and Algerian troops fled in disorder, creating a four-mile gap in the Allied line. Had the Germans been prepared for this eventuality, they could potentially have effected a decisive breakthrough. The Germans’ use of chlorine gas provoked immediate widespread condemnation, and damaged German relations with the neutral powers, including the U.S.The attacks also fueled propaganda campaigns against Germany. Once the Allies recovered from the initial shock of the Germans’ practical application of poison gas warfare, they were determined to exact retaliatory revenge.The British were the first to respond. Raising Special Gas Companies in the wake of the Germans’ April attack (1,400 men) operating under the command of LieutenantColonel Charles Foulkes, instructions were given to prepare for a gas attack at Loos, France in September 1915. They were not allowed to refer to the word “gas” in their operations, due to the stigma attached to its use.They referred to their gas canisters as “accessories”; use of the word “gas” brought the threat of punishment. On the evening of September 24, 1915, 400 chlorine gas emplacements were established among the British front line around Loos.The gas was released by turning a cock on each cylinder. The retaliatory attack began the following morning at 5:20 a.m. A mixture of smoke and chlorine gas was released intermittently over a period of about 40 minutes before the infantry assault began. The wind shifted and quantities of the smoke and gas were blown back into the British trenches. It has been estimated that more British gas casualties were suffered than German. The Need for a New Delivery Mechanism Experiments were undertaken to deliver the gas payload in artillery shells.This provided the additional benefits of increasing the target range as well as the variety of gases released. Following on the heels of chlorine gas came the use of the more deadly phosgene that poisoned and killed soldiers up to 48 hours after inhalation. Both the Allies and Central Powers used it. Mustard Gas Remaining consistently ahead in terms of gas warfare development, Germany unveiled an enhanced form of gas weaponry against the Russians at Riga in September 1917: mustard gas (or Yperite) contained in artillery shells. Mustard gas, an almost odorless chemical, caused serious blisters both internally and externally. Protection against mustard gas was more difficult than against either chlorine or phosgene gas because soldiers often couldn’t smell or see it. As with chlorine and phosgene gas before it, the Allies promptly reciprocated by copying the Germans’ use of mustard gas. By 1918, the use of use of poison gases had become widespread, particularly on the Western Front. If the war had continued into 1919. both sides were planning to insert poison gases into 30%-50% of manufactured shells. Other types of gases produced by the belligerents included bromine and chloropicrin.The French army occasionally made use of a nerve gas obtained from prussic acid. However three forms of gas remained the most widely used: chlorine, phosgene and mustard. A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 Considered uncivilized prior to World War One, the development and use of poison gas was necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of unexpected trench warfare. Although it is popularly believed that the German army was the first to use gas, the French initially deployed it. In the first month of the war, August 1914, they fired tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans. But it was the German army that seriously studied development of chemical weapons for large-scale use. In the capture of Neuve Chapelle in October 1914, the German army fired shells at the French which contained a chemical irritant that induced a violent fit of sneezing.Three months later, on January 31, 1915, the Germans employed tear gas for the first time on the Eastern Front. 11 German infantrymen operating a Maxim machine gun Credit: Imperial War Museum railway compartment and wait until an express train passes you at sixty miles an hour. There is no explosion which, for sheer gut-stabbing ferocity, is quite like that of a minenwerfer.The bursting of one close at hand was like one’s conception of the end of the world, but although their local effect was terrific they did not do much damage laterally. The German shell, which arrives with the sound of a woman with a hare-lip trying to whistle, and makes very little sound when it bursts, almost certainly contains gas. We know when to ignore machine-gun and rifle bullets and when to take an interest in them. A steady phew-phew-phew means that they are not dangerously near. When on the other hand we get a sensation of whips being slashed in our ears we know that it is time to seek the embrace of Mother Earth. When we started firing we just had to load and reload. They went down in their hundreds. You didn’t have to aim, we just fired into them. — German machine gunner Diminishing Effectiveness of Gas tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Although gas claimed a notable number of casualties during its early use, once the crucial element of surprise had been lost, the overall number of casualties diminished.This was because of the increasing effectiveness of the methods used to protect against poison gas. Filter respirators using charcoal or antidote chemicals were highly effective, although working in a trench while wearing respirators was difficult and tiring. 12 Casualties From Gas Country Total Gas CasualtiesDeaths Austria-Hungary100,000 3,000 British Empire 188,706 8,109 France 190,0008,000 Germany 200,0009,000 Italy 60,0004,627 Russia 419,34056,000 USA 72,8071,462 Others 10,0001,000 Credit: www.firstworldwar.com effectiveness of the machine gun.They placed their machine guns slightly in front of their lines to ensure that the machine gun crews were given a full view of the battlefield. At the Battle of the Somme, their efficiency lead to the deaths of thousands of British troops within minutes of the battle starting. Cannons and Mortars “Eight days out and sixteen days in... We are becoming acclimatized to trench warfare. We know by the singing of a shell when it is going to drop near us, when it is politic to duck and when one may treat the sound with contempt... We know the calibers of the shells, which are sent over in search of us.The brute that explodes with a crash like that of much crockery being broken, and afterwards makes a ‘cheering’ noise like the distant echoes of a football match, is a five-point-nine.The very sudden brute that you don’t hear until it has passed you, and rushes with the hiss of escaping steam, is a whizz-bang. For a perfect imitation of a whizz-bang, sit by the open window of a Machine Guns Machine guns inflicted appalling casualties on both war fronts in World War One. Men who went over-the-top of the trenches stood little chance when the enemy fired their machine guns.They could shoot up to 500 rounds of ammunition per minute and had a range of up to 2 ½ miles. Machine guns were one of the main killers in the war and accounted for many thousands of deaths. To ensure that the machine gun’s barrel did not overheat, the weapon was cooled using a large water-cooling jacket. Later models were air-cooled. An ammunition belt fed bullets. At the start of the war, senior British army officers were less than sure about the effectiveness of the machine gun, so most battalions were only issued two. The Germans were very sure of the German Troops with Minewerfer ShortRange Mortar British Troops Loading Cannon We have learned to have an awesome respect and fear of our own artillery and machine-gunners. When we are out at night on working-parties in No Man’s Land we fear our own machine-guns as much as we do those of the Boche (German). Credit: War is War by A.M. Burrage Tanks The development of tanks in World War I was a response to the stalemate that trench warfare had created on the western front. Although initially termed “land ships” by the Landships Committee, production vehicles were named “tanks,” to preserve secrecy.The term was chosen after factory workers referred to the first prototype as “the tank” because it resembled a steel water tank. Just before Zero Hour (midnight) we heard this damned racket, and I remembers saying, ‘What the hell is this?’ Then these tanks appeared. …It was an amazing sight. …They swung round and went straight for the German line. …They scared the guts out of the Germans. They bolted like rabbits. — British Corporal Edward Gale at Battle of Somme Most of us were cowards - I was certainly one - but there are as many degrees of cowardice as there are shades of a primary color. I could respect my own brand of cowardice, and that of others like me, because we laughed at it and owned to it and didn’t expect anybody else to take any interest in our own personal reactions. But the really repulsive coward... was the complete egotist who felt that his skin was too precious to be punctured, and expected the next man — also in the same boat — to sympathize with him. Credit: War is War by A.M. Burrage The mud which was our enemy was also our friend. But for the mud none of us would have survived. A shell burrowed some way before it exploded and that considerably decreased its killing power. While the British took the lead in tank development, the French were not far behind, fielding their first tanks in April 1917 and going on to produce more tanks than all the other combatants combined.The Germans were slower to develop tanks, concentrating on anti-tank weapons to use against British and French tanks, and producing only 20 of their own A7V tanks The first tanks were highly unreliable mechanically and frequently broke down during combat deployment.The heavily shelled terrain was impassable to conventional vehicles, and only highly mobile tanks such as the British Mark I and French FT performed reasonably well.The Mark I’s rhomboid shape, caterpillar tracks, and 32 feet length meant that it could navigate obstacles, especially wide trenches, that wheeled vehicles could not. Along with the tank, the first self-propelled gun, the Gun Carrier Mk I, and the first armored personnel carrier were also constructed in World War I. The British Mark I tank could cross trenches Harlem Hellfighters, 369 Infantry ranks.” During World War I, 380,000 African Americans served in the wartime Army. Approximately 200,000 of them were sent to Europe. More than half of those sent abroad were assigned to labor and stevedore battalions, but they performed essential duties nonetheless, building roads, bridges, and trenches in support of the front-line battles. Roughly 42,000 saw combat. The 369th Infantry helped to repel the German offensive and to launch a counteroffensive. General John J. Pershing assigned the 369th to the 16th Division of the French Army. With the French, the Harlem Hellfighters fought at Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood. All told they spent 191 days in combat, longer than any other American unit in the war.“My men never retire, they go forward or they die,” said Colonel Hayward.The 369th was the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine River. The extraordinary valor of the 369th earned them fame in Europe and America. Newspapers headlined the feats of Corporal Henry Johnson and Private Needham Roberts. In May 1918 they were defending an isolated lookout post on the Western Front, when a German unit attacked them.Though wounded, they refused to surrender, fighting on with whatever weapons were at hand.They were the first Americans awarded the Croix de Guerre (French Cross of War).They were not the only Harlem Hellfighters to win awards; 171 of the division’s officers and men received individual medals and the unit received a Croix de Guerre for taking Sechault. In December 1917, when Colonel Hayward’s men had departed from New York City, they had not been permitted to participate in the farewell parade of New York’s National James Reese Europe won respect with his superb military band, the 369th Infantry “Hells Fighters” Band, and for his jazz concerts given in France. His war songs “On Patrol In No Man’s Land” and “All Of No Man’s Land Is Ours” offered an authenticity lacking in other popular music of the day. Guard, the so-called Rainbow division.The reason Hayward was given was that “black is not a color in the Rainbow.” Now Colonel Hayward pulled every political string he could to assure his men would be rewarded with a victory parade when they came home in February 1919. Crowds of more than one million thronged New York City’s Fifth Avenue as the 369th marched to the music of their now-famous regimental jazz bandleader, James Reese Europe. Source: National Archives A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 While America was on a crusade to make the world safe for democracy abroad, it was neglecting the fight for equality for African Americans at home.The Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) had established that the 14th Amendment allowed for “separate but equal” treatment under the law. Leaders of the African American community differed in their responses to the war. A. Philip Randolph was pessimistic about what the war would mean for black Americans. He pointed out that Negroes had sacrificed their blood on the battlefields of every American war since the Revolution, but it still had not brought them full citizenship. W.E.B. DuBois argued that “while the war lasts [we should] forget our special grievances and close our ranks shoulder to shoulder with our own white fellow citizens and allied nations that are fighting for democracy.”And in full force, America’s black population “closed 13 World War I: Women and the War tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES When the United States entered the European War on April 6, 1917, it marked the first time in the history of the country that regular Army and Navy military nurses served overseas—although without rank—and the first time, women who were not nurses were allowed to enlist in the Navy and Marine Corps. A handful of women also served in the Coast Guard.The US Army, however, refused to enlist women officially, relying on them as contract employees and civilian volunteers. Negative public opinion and hesitant military leaders limited women’s roles, but the country needed their skills to pursue the war effort and to move male soldiers out of office jobs and onto the battlefield. By war’s end, American military women had served stateside and overseas on the eastern and western war fronts. Over 230 bilingual civilian telephone operators working with the Army were organized and trained by AT&T and took the same oath of allegiance as male soldiers. Dubbed the “Hello Girls,” they maintained communications in numerous French localities, sometimes working under combat conditions. From the outset of World War I, long before American troops arrived on foreign soil, American women were “over there,” volunteering with civilian organizations to 14 provide nursing, transportation and other war relief services. Women aligned themselves with humanitarian organizations such as the American Red Cross,YMCA, Salvation Army and others to meet wartime needs. Military nurses arrived in Europe before the American Expeditionary Forces. At the outset of World War I, 403 women were on active duty in the Army Nurse Corps, founded in 1901. By Armistice Day on November 11, 1918, 21,480 nurses had enlisted and over 10,000 had served overseas.They served with distinction: three were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, 23 received the Distinguished Service Medal, and numerous nurses received meritorious awards from allied nations. Several were wounded; more than 200 died in-service. War service was hard, uncomfortable and heartbreaking.The nurses treated shrapnel wounds, infections, mustard gas burns, and medical and emotional trauma. Dealing with amputations was a daily event. World War I marked a new era in women’s movement from the home and into the public sphere.Their call to service by the military establishment was hesitant, limited and unequal in treatment and benefits.Yet they went to war anyway. As the peace process unfolded and they were removed from wartime work, many remained in the public realm taking on new roles in the workplace and seeking higher education. Others resumed traditional places in the home. Women’s service in World War I may have helped the Women’s Suffrage Movement leading to the 19th Amendment and women’s right to vote in 1920. But when the call came for service in World War II, women’s successful participation in World War I was an important precedent for expanding roles of American women in the military and for developing the military establishment’s acceptance of women’s service in the US Armed Forces. Source: www.womensmemorial.org Surprising Aspects of War Christmas Truce of 1914 During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies. On December 7, 1914, Pope Benedict XV suggested a temporary hiatus of the war for the celebration of Christmas.The warring countries refused to create any official cease-fire, but on British and German soldiers talk during the famous Christmas truce in 1914. Christmas, the soldiers in the trenches declared their own unofficial truce. Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing. At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers.The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs.There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a goodnatured game of soccer. Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines. The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured. During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destroy the Christmas spirit. Sergeant Stubby, Military Dog Although dogs were highly utilized in Europe, America was reluctant to use dogs in World War One. It did make use of a few hundred that belonged to the Allies, but did not employ nearly the same number of dogs as European countries did. However, one dog, a bull terrier cross affectionately named Stubby became the crowning glory of the U.S. army. Stubby remained with the 102nd Infantry, 26th Division, known as the Yankee division. He was present at many battles. Over time, he survived a number of injuries, including those from shrapnel and gas attacks. It is said he became so well known and admired that he was treated in Red Cross hospitals, as human soldiers were. Having survived gas attacks, he became very sensitive to the smell of gas, and with his sensitive dog nose, was able to detect gas much earlier than his human comrades and alert them in time. His acute doggy hearing allowed him the advantage of hearing even the quietest sounds from advancing enemy, and so Stubby proved excellent at silently alerting his comrades when he could hear the enemy was near. His major triumph was hearing a German spy who had tried to sneak into camp during the dead of France during World War I. Although radio had been invented, small radios for communications by soldiers on the battlefield had not. Pigeons carried important battlefield information to the military headquarters. On October 2, 1918, 554 U.S. soldiers found themselves trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest.Targeted by the Germans and under friendly fire from unknowing allies, they seemed marked for death. But six days later, salvation came from a most unlikely source… their carrier pigeon named Cher Ami. night.The loyal and diligent Stubby managed to grab the intruder’s leg and immobilize him until troops came to investigate and imprison the German. He also asserted himself as a ‘mercy’ dog, scanning the battlefields for injured soldiers and comforting them whilst they lay dying or alerting paramedics to the wounded. Stubby was named a hero. After the liberation of Chateau Thierry, the women of the town made him a special chamois blanket, for which his many medals and service awards were displayed. Stubby returned home an American hero and became a celebrity. He received more medals than any other soldier dog in World War I. Cher Ami, World War I Carrier Pigeon, and the Lost Battalion American Protective League Citizens spying on other Americans & pushing to crush dissent The U.S. Justice Department secretly empowered private associations as volunteer spy-hunters.The American Protective League (APL), earned semi-official status in the national surveillance game, in time growing to enormous size. Founded by a Chicago advertising man, the APL had twelve hundred units functioning across America, all staffed by business and professional people. It was a genuine secret society replete with oath and rituals. Membership gave every operative the authority to be a national policeman.The first location placed under surveillance in every neighborhood was the local public school. Assignments were given by the old (Federal) Bureau of Investigation and by the War Department’s Intelligence Division to report on “seditious and disloyal” conversation. During World War I, some 250,000 volunteers joined the units that made up the American Protective League (APL). APL worked with the Justice Department’s Bureau of Investigation to identify war saboteurs and alien spies. Wearing badges that looked official, the volunteers soon expanded their mission.They conducted surveillance, and harassed, intimidated and “arrested” people whose loyalty was questioned, perhaps because they refused to buy Liberty Bonds. The APL staged raids on factories, union halls, and private homes, and detained more than 40,000 people, including draft dodgers, for the War Department.The League claimed to have found 3 million cases of disloyalty. APL also supported the concept of eugenics, including the idea that certain “racial stock” was superior to others in such traits as intelligence, hard work, cleanliness, and other traits. Additional Activity: Many poets in Europe and the United States captured the chaos and destruction of World War One through powerful poetry. Ask students to read and analyze one of these poems. (Notethere are some websites listed at the end of this supplement that feature World War One poetry.) A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 “Cher Ami” was a registered Black Check Cock carrier pigeon, one of 600 birds owned and flown by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in The “Lost Battalion” seemed doomed from the start. Due to a lack of communication, the troops advanced beyond the other allied forces and were quickly cut off by the Germans.They lacked ample food and ammunition.To get water, the soldiers were forced to crawl to a nearby stream, dodging fire along the way. Major Charles Whittlesey dispatched several runners to alert the allies to his predicament. But none of them broke through the line. As a last ditch effort, he sent several carrier pigeons aloft with messages tied to their ankles. The first carrier pigeon reached its destination. Now on full alert, the allies struck out to rescue the Lost Battalion. But unfortunately, this backfired in horrendous fashion.The carrier pigeon’s message contained the wrong coordinates and the Lost Battalion found itself under artillery attack from its own allies. Major Whittlesey desperately sought to correct the mistake. He sent two additional carrier pigeons into the air, but they were shot down.Then, on October 4, he sent out his last carrier pigeon. This pigeon, an American Black Check by the name of Cher Ami, contained a note attached to his left leg. The Germans took aim at Cher Ami and shot him down. But Cher Ami proved up to the challenge. Somehow, he managed to regain flight and flew 25 miles back to division headquarters. He was severely wounded and blind in one eye. However, Cher Ami still had his message: “We Are Along The Road Parallel 276.4. Our Artillery Is Dropping A Barrage Directly On Us. For Heavens Sake Stop It.” The allies quickly called off the artillery assault and subsequently, rescued the Lost Battalion.The cost was steep. About 200 men were killed in action. Another 150 were taken prisoner or reported lost. In the aftermath, Cher Ami became a celebrity, especially to the 194 soldiers who survive the incident.They nursed him back to health and he was eventually awarded the French Croix de Guerre (Cross of War). Cher Ami died as a result of his wounds in New Jersey on June 13, 1919. He’s a member of the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame and his stuffed body (pictured above) is on display at the American Museum of Natural History. 15 Propaganda Propaganda was used in World War One as in any war — and the truth suffered. Propaganda ensured that the people only got to know what their governments wanted them to know. In World War One, the lengths to which governments would go to in an effort to blacken the enemy’s name reached a new level. To ensure that everybody thought in the way the government wanted, all forms of information were controlled. Newspapers were expected to print what the government wanted the reader to read. In fact, though this would appear to be a form of censorship, the newspapers of Britain, effectively controlled by the media barons of the time, were happy to play ball.They printed headlines that were designed to stir up emotions regardless of whether they were accurate or not.The most infamous Allied headlines included: “Belgium child’s hands cut off by Germans” “Germans crucify Canadian officer” These were designed to develop and strengthen the hatred that was already strong in Britain.The same thing was done in Germany – untrue headlines were tolerated and even U.S. Propaganda Poster encouraged by the German authorities. Some headlines were: “French doctors infect German wells with plague germs” “German prisoners blinded by Allied captors” One of the most infamous stories changed the further it got from the Western Front.The story went from monks in Antwerp being forced to ring bells to celebrate the German occupation of the city to the monks refusing to do this and being tied to the clappers of the bells and being used as human clappers – and being killed. It was all nonsense but to the minds of the British it seemed to encapsulate the evil of the Germans and justify why the fight was going on.The one thing that suffered in the war was the truth.There were numerous untrue stories in Britain of German soldiers parading round Belgium towns with babies on their bayonets. In the U.S., the Committee on Public Information, also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government created to influence U.S. public opinion regarding American participation in World War I. From April 13, 1917, to August 21, 1919, it used every medium available to create enthusiasm for the war effort and enlist public support against foreign attempts to undercut America’s war aims. It primarily used propaganda techniques to accomplish these goals. Additional Resource: Ask students to view additional World War One propaganda posters and lead a class discussion about them. Students can also design their own posters in small groups. (Students can view propaganda posters on the Learn NC website at www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ww1posters) tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES President Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points 16 President Wilson Addresses Congress In his January 8, 1918, address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proposed a 14-point program for world peace.These points were later taken as the basis for peace negotiations at the end of the war after the Armistice on November 11, 1918. In this speech on War Aims and Peace Terms, President Wilson set down 14 points as a blueprint for world peace that was to be used for peace negotiations after World War I. The details of the speech were based on reports generated by “The Inquiry,” a group of about 150 political and social scientists organized by Wilson’s adviser and long-time friend, Col. Edward M. House.Their job was to study Allied and American policy in virtually every region of the globe and to analyze economic, social, and political facts likely to come up in discussions during the peace conference.The team began its work in secret and in the end produced and collected nearly 2,000 separate reports and documents plus at least 1,200 maps. In his speech, Wilson directly addressed what he perceived as the causes for the world war by calling for the abolition of secret treaties, a reduction in armaments, and an adjustment in colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and colonists, and freedom of the seas. Wilson also made proposals that would ensure world peace in the future. For example, he proposed the removal of economic barriers between nations, the promise of “selfdetermination” for those oppressed minorities, and a world organization that would provide a system of collective security for all nations. Wilson’s 14 Points were designed to undermine the Central Powers’ will to continue and to inspire the Allies to victory.The 14 Points were broadcast throughout the world and were showered from rockets and shells behind the enemy’s lines. When the Allies met in Versailles to formulate the treaty to end World War I with Germany and Austria-Hungary, most of Wilson’s 14 Points were scuttled by the leaders of England and France.To his dismay, Wilson discovered that England, France, and Italy were mostly interested in regaining what they had lost and gaining more by punishing Germany. Germany quickly found out that Wilson’s blueprint for world peace would not apply to them. However, Wilson’s capstone point calling for a world organization that would provide some system of collective security was incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles.This organization would later be known as the League of Nations. Though Wilson launched a tireless missionary campaign to overcome opposition in the U.S. Senate to the adoption of the treaty and membership in the League, the Senate never adopted the treaty, and the United States never joined the League of Nations. Wilson would later suggest that without American participation in the League, there would be another world war within a generation. He was correct. World War II broke out twenty-years later. President Wilson’s 14 Points Speech (excerpts) All the peoples of the world are in effect partners in this interest, and for our own part we see very clearly that unless justice be done to others it will not be done to us.The programme of the world’s peace, therefore, is our programme; and that programme, the only possible programme, as we see it, is this: I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view. II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants. III. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance. IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety. V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined. VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity for the independent determination of her own political development and national policy and assure her of a sincere welcome into the society of free nations under institutions of her own choosing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of every kind that she may need and may herself desire.The treatment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to come will be the acid test of their good will, of their comprehension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy. VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated and restored, without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other single act will serve as this will serve to restore confidence among the nations in the laws which they have themselves set and determined for the government of their relations with one another. Without this healing act the whole structure and validity of international law is forever impaired. VIII.All French territory should be freed and the invaded portions restored, and the wrong done to France by Prussia in 1871 in the matter of Alsace-Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order that peace may once more be made secure in the interest of all. IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality. X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development. XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia accorded free and secure access to the sea; and the relations of the several Balkan states to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically established lines of allegiance and nationality; and international guarantees of the political and economic independence and territorial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered into. XII. The Turkish portion of the present Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nationalities which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested opportunity of autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and commerce of all nations under international guarantees. XIII.An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant. XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate partners of all the governments and peoples associated together against the Imperialists. We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end. Full speech at: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc. php?flash=true&doc=62 Armistice, World War I Ends On the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918 At The Front There Was No Celebration Colonel Thomas Gowenlock served as an intelligence officer in the American 1st Division. He was on the front line that November morning and wrote of his experience a few years later: “On the morning of November 11 I sat in my dugout in Le Gros Faux, which was again our division headquarters, talking to our Chief of Staff, Colonel John Greely, and Lieutenant Colonel Paul Peabody. A signal corps officer entered and handed us the following message: Official Radio from Paris - 6:01 A.M., Nov. 11, 1918. Marshal Foch to the Commander-in-Chief. 1. Hostilities will be stopped on the entire front beginning at 11 o’clock, November 11th (French hour). 2. The Allied troops will not go beyond the line reached at that hour on that date until further orders. [signed] MARSHAL FOCH, 5:45 A.M. ‘Well, fini la guerre!’ [end of war] said Colonel Greely. ‘It sure looks like it,’ I agreed. ‘Do you know what I want to do now?’ he said.‘I’d like to get on one of those little horsedrawn canal boats in southern France and lie in the sun the rest of my life.’ My watch said nine o’clock. With only two hours to go, I drove over to the bank of the Meuse River to see the finish.The shelling was heavy and, as I walked down the road, it grew steadily worse. It seemed to me that every battery in the world was trying to burn up its guns. At last eleven o’clock came — but the firing continued.The men on both sides had decided to give each other all they had — their farewell to arms. It was a very natural impulse after their years of war, but unfortunately many fell after eleven o’clock that day. All over the world on November 11, 1918, people were celebrating, dancing in the streets, drinking champagne, and hailing the armistice that meant the end of the war. But at the front there was no celebration. Many soldiers believed the Armistice only a temporary measure and that the war would soon go on. As night came, the quietness, unearthly in its penetration, began to eat into their souls.The men sat around log fires, the first they had ever had at the front.They were trying to reassure themselves that there were no enemy batteries spying on them from the next hill and no German bombing planes approaching to blast them out of existence.They talked in low tones.They were nervous. After the long months of intense strain, of keying themselves up to the daily mortal danger, of thinking always in terms of war and the enemy, the abrupt release from it all was physical and psychological agony. Some suffered a total nervous collapse. Some, of a steadier temperament, began to hope they would someday return to home and the embrace of loved ones. Some could think only of the crude little crosses that marked the graves of their comrades. Some fell into an exhausted sleep. All were bewildered by the sudden meaninglessness of their existence as soldiers — and through their teeming memories paraded that swiftly moving cavalcade of [the battles of] Cantigny, Soissons, St. Mihiel, the Meuse-Argonne and Sedan. What was to come next? They did not know — and hardly cared.Their minds were numbed by the shock of peace.The past consumed their whole consciousness.The present did not exist — and the future was inconceivable.” A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 The final Allied push towards the German border began on October 17, 1918. As the British, French and American armies advanced, the alliance between the Central Powers began to collapse.Turkey signed an armistice at the end of October, Austria-Hungary followed on November 3. Germany began to crumble from within. Faced with the prospect of returning to sea, the sailors of the High Seas Fleet stationed at Kiel mutinied on October 29. Within a few days, the entire city was in their control and the revolution spread throughout the country. On November 9, the Kaiser abdicated and slipped across the border into the Netherlands and exile. A German Republic was declared and peace feelers extended to the Allies. At 5:10 a.m. on the morning of November 11 an armistice was signed in a railroad car parked in a French forest near the front lines. The terms of the agreement called for the cessation of fighting along the entire Western Front to begin at precisely 11 a.m. that morning. After over four years of bloody conflict, the Great War was at an end. 17 Treaty of Versailles Preamble: The Covenant of the League of Nations THE HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES, In order to promote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations not to resort to war by the prescription of open, just and honourable relations between nations by the firm establishment of the understandings of international law as the actual rule of conduct among Governments, and by the maintenance of justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the dealings of organised peoples with one another Agree to this Covenant of the League of Nations. From Soldiers of Darkness by Colonel Thomas R. Gowenlock (1936), Armistice,The End of World War I, EyeWitness to History, www. eyewitnesstohistory.com Terms of the Armistice tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES The terms of the Armistice were harsh on Germany. When the German peace delegation arrived at a railway siding in Compiegne Forest to negotiate the terms for an armistice on November 8th, they found that the Allies were in no mood to negotiate at all. Allied Supreme Commander, Ferdinand Foch, believed that there was no need to discuss terms whatsoever as he simply wanted to tell the Germans, led by Matthias Erzberger, what they were going to sign with the expectation that they would have to sign. In this effort, the German government ironically helped Foch.The situation in Germany was so bad that the government feared major social unrest caused by a chronic food shortage. They issued an order to Erzberger that he should sign whatever the Allies placed in front of him.Therefore at 5:10 a.m. on November 11th 1918, he signed the 34 terms of the Armistice – as harsh as he may have believed them to be. 18 Much of Europe was destroyed during World War I The main terms were: 1. All occupied lands in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France–plus Alsace-Lorraine, held since 1870 by Germany–were to be evacuated within fourteen days. 2. The Allies were to occupy land in Germany to the west of the River Rhine and bridgeheads on the river’s east bank up to a depth of thirty kilometers. 3. German forces had to be withdrawn from Austria-Hungary, Romania, and Turkey. 4. Germany was to surrender to neutral or Allied ports 10 battleships, 6 battle cruisers, 8 cruisers, and 160 submarines. 5. Germany was also to be stripped of heavy armaments, including 5,000 artillery pieces, 25,000 machine guns, and 2,000 airplanes. 6. The naval blockade would continue. 7. 5,000 locomotives, 150,000 railway cars, and 5,000 trucks would be confiscated from Germany. 8. Germany would be blamed for the war and reparations would be paid for all damage caused. Many of these terms were to form the basis of the Treaty of Versailles. Treaty of Versailles, June 28, 1919 The Peace Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 by Germany and the Allied powers at the Palace of Versailles, France. It was a huge document featuring 440 Articles and numerous Annexes. It was hundreds of pages long. Negotiations began early 1919 and were completed in April after several months of hard bargaining. It was presented to Germany for consideration on May 7, 1919. The German government was given three weeks to accept the terms of the treaty (which it had not seen prior to delivery). Its initial response was a lengthy list of complaints, most of which were simply ignored. Many perceived the treaty as too great a departure from U.S. President Wilson’s Fourteen Points; and by the British as too harsh in its treatment of Germany. The Versailles treaty deprived Germany of about 13.5% of its 1914 territory (including some seven million people) and all of its overseas possessions. Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France, and Belgium was enlarged in the east with the addition of the formerly German border areas of Eupen and Malmedy. An area of East Prussia was handed over to Lithuania, and the Sudetenland to Czechoslovakia. The German army was limited to a maximum of 100,000 men, and a ban placed upon the use of heavy artillery, gas, tanks and aircraft.The German navy was similarly restricted to shipping less than 10,000 tons, with a ban on submarines. The punitive terms of the treaty helped support the rise of the Nazis and the Third Reich in 1930s Germany, which in turn led to the outbreak of World War II. The full Treaty can be accessed at: www. firstworldwar.com/source/versailles.htm A Letter Home From A U.S. Serviceman in Paris Armistice Day, November 11, 1918 Dear Folks: Arrived here last night, and was on the street today when the armistice with Germany was signed. Anyone who was not here can never be told, or imagine the happiness of the people here.They cheered and cried and laughed and then started all over again. Immediately a parade was started on the Rue De Italiennes and has been going on ever since. In the parade were hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the U.S., England, Canada, France, Australia, Italy and the colonies. Each soldier had his arms full of French girls, some crying, others laughing; each girl had to kiss every soldier before she would let him pass. The streets are crowded and all traffic held up.There are some things, such as this, that never will be reproduced if the world lives a million years.They have taken movies of the crowds, but you can’t get sound nor the expression on the people’s faces, by watching the pictures. There is no where on earth I would rather be today than just where I am. Home would be nice, and is next, but Paris and France is Free after four years and 3 months of war. And oh, such a war! The hearts of these French people have simply bursted with joy. I have had many an old French couple come up to Major Merrill and me and throw their arms about us, cry like children, saying,“You grand Americans; you have done this for us.” It is impossible to buy a flag in Paris today. Everyone has one it seems and the old streets are one solid mass of colors from all the allied nations. Paris, that grand old city that has been dark for so long, is now all lighted up. Listen - my window is open - and somewhere there has been an American band assembled.They are playing My Country ‘Tis of Thee. Folks! It’s wonderful! So full of feeling and meaning. Thank God, thank God, the war is over. I can imagine all the world is happy. But no where on earth is there a demonstration as here in Paris. I only hope the soldiers who died for this cause are looking down upon the world today. It was a grand thing to die for.The whole world owes this moment of real joy to the heroes who are not here to help enjoy it. I cannot write any more. Lovingly, your boy, Chas. Contributed by Lois Normington Haugner Credit: www.firstworldwar.com In January 1921, the total amount due was decided by an Inter-Allied Reparations Commission and was set at 269 billion gold marks (equivalent to 100,000 tons of pure gold), or $64 billion, a sum that many economists at the time deemed to be excessive. The yearly amount paid was reduced in 1924, and in 1929 the total to be paid was reduced by over 50%. Payments ceased when Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers’ Party took power in 1933, with about one-eighth of the initial reparations paid. The final payment of $95 million was made on October 4, 2010, the twentieth anniversary of German reunification. Writing Activity: Ask students to write a letter from the perspective of a World War One soldier. Students can write from the perspective of a soldier from any nation involved in the war and should remember that their viewpoint would differ based on their location, country of origin and position in the war. Websites World War I on History.com www.history.com/topics/world-war-i Centennial Commemoration of The United States in World War I http://worldwar-1centennial.org/ National World War I Musuem http://theworldwar.org/ First World War Centenary http://www.1914.org/ Women in World War I from the National Women’s History Museum: www.nwhm.org/online-exhibits/progressiveera/ worldwarI.html Edsitement from the NEH: African American Soldiers in World War One http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/africanamerican-soldiers-world-war-i-92nd-and-93rddivisions Library of Congress: Guide to Materials on World War I www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/wwi/wwi.html Library of Congress World War I Posters and Photos www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wwipos/related. html www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/wwicoll.html World War I Records from the National Archives www.archives.gov/research/military/ww1 Learn NC: World War I www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/3.0 BBC Schools: World War One www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/ PBS: The Great War www.pbs.org/greatwar Multimedia History of World War One www.firstworldwar.com Timeline www.firstworldwar.com/timeline Gutenberg Free Online WWI Books www.gutenberg.org/wiki/World_War_I_(Bookshelf) In THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS, bestselling author Max Brooks and acclaimed illustrator Caanan White bring this history to life. From the enlistment lines in Harlem to the training camp at Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the trenches in France, they tell the heroic story of the 369th in an actionpacked and powerful tale of honor and heart. A newspaper in education Supplement to THE WASHINGTON TIMES | tuESDAY • May 20 • 2014 In 1919, the 369th infantry regiment marched home triumphantly from World War I. They had spent more time in combat than any other American unit, never losing a foot of ground to the enemy, or a man to capture, and winning countless decorations. Though they returned as heroes, this African American unit faced tremendous discrimination, even from their own government. The Harlem Hellfighters, as the Germans called them, fought courageously on and off the battlefield to make Europe, and America, safe for democracy. 19 Trim: 9.550000000000001 Show our veterans how much we value their service. LET’S SUPPORT OUR VETS! Get involved. Visit veterans.com. ©2013 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. 1175A. tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES Trim: 11.5 20 FROM THE GREATEST GENERATION TO THE LATEST GENERATION,