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WORLD WAR I
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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
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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.
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Europe By 1914
Almost exactly a century before, a meeting
of the European states at the Congress of
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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
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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,
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tueSDAY • May 20 • 2014 | A newspaper in education supplement TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES
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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.
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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
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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,