Download Chapter 12: Section 4

Chapter 24:
The Nation at War, 1900-1920 #3
Over There
• the US entered a
war its new
allies were in
danger of losing
– were mutinies in
the French army
– costly British
drive in Flanders
stalled
• Germany had
developed a
first-strike
strategy
– the Schlieffen
Plan – called
for a quick
sweep through
France to
knock the
French out of
the war
• swept through
Belgium and
northern
France
• Mobilization
– US was not prepared for war
• Wilson – named John J. “Black Jack” Pershing (leader of
the Mexican campaign) to head the American
Expeditionary Force (AEF)
• troops would be called doughboys by the Europeans
– may have been for the white adobe dust that stuck to the
boots of soldiers during the Mexican War
– could have been from Civil War times when uniform buttons
looked like flour dumplings
– or from the white flour they used to keep their belts white
• armed forces had
two war plans:
– War Plan Orange –
for a defensive war
against Japan in the
Pacific
– War Plan Black – to
counter a possible
German attack in the
Caribbean
• Wilson – had
ordered military
commanders not to
plan, because it
violated neutrality
• Wilson – turned to
conscription
– he believed it was
both efficient and
democratic
• Selective Service Act
– provided for the
registration of all
men between the
ages of 21 and 30
(later changed to 18
and 45)
– 24.2 million
registered, 2.8
million were drafted
• “selection from a
nation which has
volunteered in mass”
• draft included black
men as well as white
– 4 African American
regiments were among
the first sent into
action
• most never saw combat,
they were used mainly
for manual labor and
menial tasks
– no black soldiers
though were allowed to
march in the victory
celebrations that
eventually took place
in Paris
• 369th Infantry
Regiment – known
as the Harlem Hell
Fighters
– persuaded their
white officers to
loan the regiment
to the French, who
then integrated
them into the
French army
• entire regiment
would receive
France’s highest
combat medal, the
Croix de Guerre
• War in the Trenches
– World War I – may
have been the most
terrible war of all
time
– after early
offensives, the
European armies
dug themselves into
trenches
• were only hundreds
of yards apart in
places
• a stalemate had developed – a situation where
neither side is able to gain the advantage
– Germans had become concerned about the
advancing Russian army and had pulled troops
from the Western front ahead of schedule
• the early transfer of troops may have prevented a
German victory in the west
• holed themselves up in
the trenches across an
empty field referred to
as “no man’s land”
– neither side was able to
gain more than a few
miles and then it was at
an appalling human cost
• mud, rats, cold, fear,
and disease took a
heavy toll
– was a high incidence of
shell shock
• troops would go “over
the top” of the trenches
in an effort to break
through the enemy’s
lines
– but the costs were high
• in the trenches, they
faced new killing
machines like
machine guns and
rapid-fire artillery
– new machine guns
could fire 450 rounds
a minute
– at the Battle of the
Somme the British lost
some 20,000 deaths in
a single day of combat
• hand grenades,
artillery shells, and
poison gases
• morale sank and the armies became desperate
– began burning fields, killing livestock, and poisoning
wells
– tunneled under no man’s land to plant bombs below
enemy trenches
– German subs torpedoed any ship they believed was
carrying arms to the Allies
– the British naval blockade starved the German people
• none of this brought an end to the conflict
• Bolsheviks seized power
in Russia, and led by V.I.
Lenin, signed a separate
peace treaty with
Germany
– Russia’s exit from the war
freed the Germans from
the two-front war they had
been forced to fight
• German and Austrian
forces then routed the
Italian army on the
southern flank, and the
Allies braced for a spring
1918 offensive
– the Germans broke
through the trenches and
advanced deep into Allied
territory
• Admiral William S.
Sims – pushed
through a convoy
plan that used Allied
destroyers to escort
merchant vessels
across the ocean
– a group of unarmed
ships surrounded by a
ring of destroyers,
torpedo boats, and
other armed naval
vessels equipped with
hydrophones to track
and destroy subs
• plan soon cut shipping
losses in half
• Germans had
advanced to the
Marne, about 50
miles from Paris
– American forces
would come to
the rescue
• Brigadier
General James
G. Harbord –
“We dig no
trenches to fall
back on. The
Marines will
hold where they
stand.”
• American forces
blocked the Germans
at the town of
Château-Thierry
– helped the French save
Paris, blunted the edge
of the German
advance, and began to
turn the tide of the
war
– then forced them out
of Belleau Wood – a
crucial stronghold
• July 15 – the Germans
threw everything into
a last drive for Paris,
but they were halted
at the Marne
– in three days of battle
they were finished
• about 250,000
new American
soldiers were
arriving in France
each month
– had a new weapon
– the tank – which
could cross
trenches and roll
through barbed
wire
• the Allies began
to break the
German lines
• with the German drive
stalled, the Allies
counterattacked along
the entire front
– September 12 – 500,000
Americans and a small
group of French drove
the Germans from the
St. Mihiel salient
• was the first major
military effort entirely in
American hands
• then attacked between
in the Meuse-Argonne
Offensive – began the
drive to expel the
Germans from France
– American troops broke
through in early
November, cut the line,
and drove the Germans
back along the whole
front
• War in the Air
– Americans entered
the war with only
55 planes
• US quickly
manufactured
hundreds of planes
to match the
technology used by
the Allies
– World War I planes
were built from
wooden frames
covered with cloth
• the pilot, and
copilot, sat in an
open-air cockpit
• aircraft were first used to scout enemy
positions
– flyers soon started dogfights – with pistols
and later machine guns
• pilots also shot down hot-air balloons
that were used for observation and fired
on individual soldiers on the ground
– German zeppelins – floating airships were
also used
• bombing was not very effective at
destroying targets
– but frequent bombing raids frightened
and confused enemy soldiers
• this would become a devastating weapon in
the future
German Bomber Gunner: A German
bomber gunner, dressed for high-altitude
flight and sucking on an oxygen tube
mans his machine gun. The plane is a
Gotha G-IV bomber. Powered by two 260
horsepower engines, it could carry
between 660-1100 pounds of bombs to a
maximum range of 305 miles.
German Balloons
Shot Down: This
February 1918
photograph shows
two German
observation balloons
going down.
Manfred von
Richthofen, known
as the "Red Baron,"
was the most
successful German
fighter pilot during
World War I, with 80
downed planes. He
was killed at age 25
in aerial combat April
21, 1918.
• by the end of October the Central
Powers collapsed:
– Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire made a
separate peace
– Austria-Hungary splintered as Poles,
Hungarians, Czechs, and Slovaks declared
their independence from the emperor
• German commanders
begged for peace
– the Allies refused
• sailors in the German
port of Kiel mutinied
and the revolt spread
to other ships and
ports as well as
factories and
industrial cities
– the Kaiser fled to
Holland
• German high
command knew
that the war
was lost
– Germany began
talks of
arranging an
armistice in
early October
• signed on
November 11,
1918 in a
French railroad
car
– six hours later,
the guns finally
fell silent
The railroad car in the Compiegne forest in
which the armistice of France's surrender
to Germany was signed. The ceremony
took place at the same location where
Germany signed its surrender at the end of
the First World War.
• overall the American
contribution – although
small in comparison to
European nations was vital
– fresh, enthusiastic American
troops raised Allied morale
• helped turn the tide at a crucial
point in the war