The Course and Conduct of World War I - Tipp City...NEW TECHNOLOGY •Heavy artillery “big guns” •Gunners loaded them with shells and small lead balls •Used big guns to deliver

The Course and Conduct of World

War I

How was World War I different from

previous wars?

Chapter 7 Section 3 Pages 194-199

Introduction • 1917 – How did Americans view our

country’s entry into WW I?

• Great Adventure

• Noble or heroic cause – we can

demonstrate our courage

• Idealism – make the world safe for

democracy

• “War to end all wars”

Introduction • William Langer – enlisted

• “Here was our one great chance for

excitement and risk. We could not afford

to pass it up”

• Henry Villard “There were posters

everywhere. ‘I want you’ ‘Join the

Marines’ ‘Join the Army’ and there was a

irresistible feeling that you should do

something”

Introduction • Villard joined army to drive ambulances in

Italy

• Realized how little he knew of war

• “The first person I put in my ambulance

was a man who had just had a grenade

explode in his hands”

• “I changed very quickly… It was the real

world”.

A WAR OF FIRSTS • 1ST time the US government committed a

large # of troops overseas

• When US first declared war many

Americans thought we would provide

money, food, and equipment to the war –

not troops

• Could the US train and get to Europe

quickly enough to stop Germany?

A WAR OF FIRSTS • First Selective Service –

• 200,000 volunteers prior to US entry into

WW I • Low pay

• Lacked equipment

• Few had ever seen combat

• Military needed tens of thousands more

soldiers and quick


• May 1917 – Selective Service Act –

national draft

• Men 21-30 to register

• US launched a major propaganda

campaign to encourage Americans to

comply with the draft


• Nearly 10,000 men registered

• Many towns held parades to honor the

draftees

• More than 500,000 draftees began training

• Allies were anxious for our troops –

needed help

• Britain “the difference in even a week in

the date of arrival may be absolutely vital”

A WAR OF FIRSTS • Americans reach French soil

• June 1917 – Americans land in France

• American Expeditionary Force (AEF) • Nicknamed doughboys

• Found under command of General John J

Pershing

• Most were infantry soldiers who fought on

foot

• American presence boosted Allies morale


• When Americans reached France the war

was not going well for the Allies

• Armies were suffering staggering losses

of men, even when winning battles

• Battle at Passchendaele – November 1917

cost Allies 300,000 soldiers just to regain

control of 5 miles in German held territory


• Russian Revolution was causing trouble

for Allies as well

• Russian troops were able to occupy the

Central powers on the eastern front

• When Russia’s new leaders took control

of the government they were making plans

to withdraw Russia from the war


• 1918 – Russia peacemakers met with

German and Austrian officials

• Treaty of Bret-Litovsk

• Treaty hurts Russia

• Forces them to give up large amount of

land – Finland, Poland, Ukraine as well as

Baltic State – Estonia, Latvia and

Lithuania


• After this treaty the Central powers gained

not only territory but ended the fighting on

the eastern front

• Germany could now put all of its troops in

the western front


• Allies asked General Pershing to put his

troops in the Allied forces where men had

died or were wounded

• Pershing declined this and kept the AEF

together

• 1. He didn’t like the Allied military strategy

• 2. If US does well as a separate Army the

US could demand more in the peace

making process after war

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Unlike wars of the past

• Before combat was hand to hand and face

to face

• Before troops only fired at targets they

could see

• WWI became more impersonal thus more

deadly

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Killing Machines:

• Machine Gun – automatic and rapid fire.

600 bullets per minute

• Flame Thrower

• Large cannons

(howitzers)

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Machine gun changed military strategy

• Well placed machine guns cold stop a

large force

• Allied armies didn’t learn this well at first

and would plow across a field and get

picked off by the enemy’s machine guns

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Flame thrower

• Old weapon

• Tubes of burning fuel hurdled at one

another

• Could attack nearby trenches but not be

fired long distances

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Heavy artillery “big guns”

• Gunners loaded them with shells and

small lead balls

• Used big guns to deliver poison gas

• Used to blast through barbed wire, knock

out enemy machine gun nests and lob

poison gas shells on enemy trenches

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Germany’s Big Berthas – “big guns” –

most famous

• Weight 75 tons and could fire 2100 pound

shells a distance of more than 9 miles

• Largest mobile guns on a battlefield

• Used these to sweep through Belgium

• Heavy Artillery caused more than half the

battle casualties of World War I

NEW TECHNOLOGY • Even though there were great changes,

the rifle was the most used weapon of

World War I

• Lighter and easier to carry

• Good aim = sharpshooters

• Rifles were key in trench warfare

TRENCHES • Ground attacks were too dangerous with

machine guns and heavy artillery

• Open fields and charging each other were

too dangerous

• Dug trenches for protection

TRENCHES • Multiple lines of trenches

• Zig zag patterns to make it hard for

sharpshooters to hit soldiers

• Frontline trenches were closest to the

enemy

• Hurled grenades and fired machine guns

in the front lines

TRENCHES • Behind the front line were the supply

trenches

• Ammo, supplies and communication

equipment were here

TRENCHES • Third line of reserve trenches – weary

soldiers rested before going back to front

lines

• Soldiers rotated through the three

categories of trenches

TRENCHES • Trenches were 6 – 8 feet deep

• Wide enough for 2 people to stand side by

side

• Short trenches connected front lines to

the others

• Trench systems had kitchens, bathrooms

and supply rooms

• Nurses were there for medical care

TRENCHES • Barbed wire circled the front line and in

the open area between the opposing

trenches

• No Man’s Land

• 250 yard wide (2.5 football fields)

• Crossing this could be deadly

• Going into no man’s land meant you could

be shot or blown up

TRENCHES • Stalemate because both side stayed in

trenches, firing when could

• Neither side could safely pass no man’s

land and it was difficult to gain an upper

hand

TRENCHES • Trenches were muddy

• Conditions terrible

• Smelled of rotting bodies, sweat and

overflowing latrines

• Trench foot – painful foot infection

• Fevers were common

• Lice, frogs and rats often surrounded the

men

TRENCHES • “One got used to many things, but I never

overcame the horror of the rats. They

abounded in some parts, great loathsome

beasts gorged with flesh… About the

same time every night the dug out was

invaded by swarms of rats. They gnawed

holes in our backpacks and devoured our

rations” – Everyone at War

Chemical Weapons • Chemical weapons

• Poison gas to kill the enemy

• Germany was the first to use it

• Odorless mustard gas is the most

dangerous and deadliest

• Huge painful blisters, blindness and lethal

damage to the lungs

• If you survived you had life long injuries

Chemical Weapons • Release mustard gas from can and relied

on the wind to carry to the enemy

• Shifting winds could be an issue

• Put the gas in shells and fired at one

another

• Gas masks – help troops survive these

attacks

Tanks • Could drive over barbed wire and crush it

• Steer up steep embankments and across

ditches

• Germany was slow to develop a tank

• Allies developed tanks first

Airplanes • Planes were easier to fly and could travel

further than ever before.

• 1st used planes to scout enemy territory

• Next pilots would lean out of the plane and

shoot at enemy pilots or drop bombs by

hand

• Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker – built a

device that timed the firing of a machine

gun with rotation of a plane’s propeller.

Airplanes • Pilots could safely fire a machine gun

mounted on the front of the plane

• Zeppelins – high flying, gas filled airships

• Used these in bombing raids – Germany

bombed London with these • Often missed targets though

• British countered with planes that could

fly just as high and fire bullets sharp

enough to blow up the zeppelins

War at Sea • Battleships – Britain had built the biggest

and most heavily armored ship

• 1916 – German and British navies fought a

major naval battle with their battleships –

neither side was a clear winner

• Germany’s new strategy – U-boats • First four months of 1917, German U-boats sank

more than 1,000 ships

War at Sea • Allied warships tried to escort supply ships

across the sea

• Helped decrease the loss of merchant ships

• 1918 Allies laid an underwater barrier of mines

across the North Sea and English Channel to

combat U-Boats

War Comes to a Close • 1918 – Allies knew Germany would launch an

offensive to try to end the war in the West

• “We should strike before the Americans can

throw strong forces into the scale” – Kaiser

Wilhelm II

War Comes to a Close • Spring 1918, Germans began their final push

• Advanced to within 50 miles of Paris

• Americans were arriving at the rate of 300,000

per month

• This was enough to make a difference in the war’s

outcome

• July 15- Aug 5, 1918 American’s joined the

French at the Battle of the Marne

• Allied forces counter attacked and German

troops fell back

War Comes to a Close • Late Sept 1918 Allies launched Meuse-Argonne

Offensive

• Goal was to break through the German line and

reach the Sedan railroad in northern France

• The rail line was Germany’s main line of

communication and supplies

• 6 weeks of hard fighting in the Argonne forest

and the American’s achieved their goal

• Nov 11, 1918 Germany agreed to an armistice –

a truce

Costs and Casualties • Costs were immense

• 8 million soldiers died

• 21 million injured

• Millions of civilians throughout Europe starved

or died from disease or other war related

causes

• US – 116,000 soldiers killed and twice as many

wounded or missing

Costs and Casualties • Horrific damage to farms, forests, factories,

towns and homes through Europe

• Destroyed roads, bridges, railroads and other

transportation facilities

• Economic recovery in Europe would be slow

and painful

• Human Spirit – hard to measure, but real

World War I Comes

to an End

A Flawed Peace

• January 1919

• 27 countries

• Treaty of Versailles

• Lasted 5 months

• Big Four: US, France, Italy, Britain

• Russia not invited to conference – others

refused to recognize this as a legitimate

government

Fourteen Points

• Wilson believed this would bring lasting

peace

• “The principle of justice to all people and

nationalities”

• First 5: eliminate the causes of war through

free trade, freedom of the seas,

disarmament and impartial adjustment of

colonial claims, open diplomacy

Fourteen Points

• Next 8 points: National Self Determination

• Borders should be based on ethnicity and

national identify

• No nation can keep territory taken from

another nation

• 14th Point – League of Nations

Treaty of Versailles

• Wilson was popular in Europe

• Was willing to give up some of 14 points to

get the League of Nations

• Other Allied Powers wanted to punish

Germany


• Treaty included many terms to weaken

Germany

• Army forces were greatly reduced in size

• Germany was not allowed to put troops

west of the Rhine River

• Treaty blamed Germany for the war


• When Germany signed the treaty they

admitted they were responsible for the war

• Reparations – made Germany pay for

damages during the war

• Would keep Germany’s economy weak for

a long time


• Wilson had some success with self-

determination

• Four empires were dismantled

• Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russian Empire,

German Empire, Ottoman Empire

• 9 new nations: Austria, Czechoslovakia,

Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,

Poland and Yugoslavia


• Many of Wilson’s 14 points were left out of

treaty

• He did achieve his primary goal though and

the League of Nations was included

Senate Rejects Treaty

• Need 2/3s of Senate to sign Treaty

• Senate was now Republican

• Irreconcilables – opposition to treaty, no matter

what

• Reservationists – willing to support if some

changes to League of Nations were made


• Reservationists were worried that they

would be forced to war without Congress’

consent

• Congress never signed treaty

• When Wilson left office the US negotiated

peace with each Central Power

• League of Nations existed, just without the

US

Documents

The Course and Conduct of World War I - Tipp City...NEW TECHNOLOGY •Heavy artillery “big guns” •Gunners loaded them with shells and small lead balls •Used big guns to deliver