American History-- The Great War

Good morning scholars.

I was disappointed to read the following in your texts: "Allied". Not Entente... Allied. Allied is a term used for the coalition of forces that fought the Axis in the Second World War. The countries that the US fought on the side of should be called the Entente.

Further, on page 267 of your text it says this about the German spring offensive in 1918: "At this critical moment, General Pershing promised Allied commander Ferdinand Foch: 'Infantry, artillery, aviation-- all that we have... The American people would be proud to be engaged in the greatest battle of history.' Two divisions of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force) joined the French forces.

"The Germans were unprepared for the fresh energy and fighting skills of the Americans. The US soldiers succeeded in stopping the German advance less than 50 miles from Paris..." United States History; Civil War to the Present. by History Channel. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2015 p. 267.

These two paragraphs give the impression that the two American divisions (probably about 50,000 men in total) were able to stop the German spring offensive of 1918 and that without those troops the Entente would have lost Paris.

As Americans we look to World War II more than the Great War for our national identity. The American entry into that war and its black and white nature, forgetting about the Soviet Union, is understandable. The mire and the muck of the Western Front, losing millions for the gain of a few yards of dirt... incomprehensible now and at the time.

But this text by History Channel gives the wrong impression of the 1918 use of American troops. Nearly from the beginning the Central Powers and the Entente sought American aid. The Americans adopted a policy of neutrality. However because they sold goods, including armaments and food, on a cash and carry basis, their neutrality policy greatly favored the Entente. The Central Powers were unable to access the American markets, for the most part, due to a blockade of the Central Power ports.

In addition to American industry manufacturing arms and supplying food to the Entente, the Entente were able to successfully tap the American financial markets, selling bonds to finance the war. The efforts of the Central Powers were never as well organized, nor did they enjoy the support of the financial markets that countries such as the United Kingdom had.

So, the Germans reacted.

I should note that the Germans were starving. By 1918 there were 500 deaths of starvation a day in Germany. By comparison, there were about 500 deaths a day last week due to Covid-19 and you are experiencing how that is being perceived by people.

So, the Germans wanted to stop shipments of food and armaments to France and the United Kingdom. They used a number of tactics, the one that nearly worked was unrestricted submarine warfare.

The submarine was a new weapon. And, it was held to the same rules of engagement as surface ships in 1914. However, a submarine isn't a destroyer, a corvette or other surface vessel. It has a single deck gun, torpedos and stealth. At first the German navy enforced the rules of war, having submarines surface, inspect cargo ships, and then, after having the crew evacuate, the cargo ship could be sunk. Those were the rules of engagement by international law.

The British navy quickly armed its merchant ships. And the navy created special navy ships that resembled cargo ships but were heavily armed. With these tools the British navy was able to turn the battle against the German U-boats. U-boat losses began to climb. Shipping to Great Britain and France was safer.

In response, the German navy declared that the waters near Great Britain, Ireland and in the Bay of Biscay were war zones. Any ship in those areas could be sunk on sight. That was called unrestricted submarine warfare.

Through unrestricted submarine warfare German sinkings of cargo vessels increased and the losses of U-boats declined. However, the US protested vigorously. To appease the Americans, the Germans ended unrestricted submarine warfare.

Other events also influenced American attitudes to entering the war. It should be remembered that a significant population of recent immigrants to the US were Germans. The immigrant Germans and also the Irish opposed the Entente. There were three additional events that had a significant effect on American attitudes.

• In May 1915 the ocean liner Lusitania was sunk off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives. There were 198 Americans aboard, as well as over a million rounds of ammunition. 128 of the Americans died.
• In January 1917 the Germans applied unrestricted submarine warfare against the United Kingdom and France despite American protests.
• In February 1917 British intelligence leaked a cable (a form of telegraph) between the German government and its ambassador to Mexico. The cable, which came to be known as the Zimmerman Telegram, promised Mexico Germany would support the return of the Southwest states seized from Mexico by the US in the Mexican-American war of 1846.

Now one quick point about that last item. The British were very concerned with American public opinion. You don't easily decide to reveal you've cracked your enemy's diplomatic codes. You may remember I mentioned the Irish, another large ethnic group in the US. When the Irish Easter Rebellion started in April 1916, the British government considered its response in light of the requirement not to enrage Irish immigrants in the US. And there is more evidence of Entente efforts to have the US join it in the war.

Where is my opinion coming from? Good question. Here is a list of my reading (and other scholarly research) on American entry:

• The National Experience; A History of the United States. Blum, McFeely, Morgan, Schlesinger, Stampp, Woodward. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
• The First World War. Keegan. Knopf
• World War I: A Compact History. Hayes
• The Guns of August; Tuchman
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to World War I
• To End All Wars. Hochschild. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• The Great War; Real Time Histo-Drama. Neidel (YouTube)

America officially declared war on Germany and some of the other Central Powers (interesting fact: not all of the Central Powers were at war with the US) in April 1917.

Time to talk about something else for a moment. The American army in April 1917 was authorized to have between 100,00 and 230,000 men. It had been used most recently (and unsuccessfully) in Mexico in pursuit of Poncho Villa. It had also been used in the Spanish-American war of 1898, the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee, during the Philippines insurrection of 1899-1902, and the following Latin American interventions:

Argentina	1890	Troops	Buenos Aires interests protected
Chile	1891	Troops	Marines clash with nationalist rebels
Haiti	1891	Troops	Black workers revolt on U.S.-claimed Navassa Island defeated
Nicaragua	1894	Troops	Month-long occupation of Bluefields
Panama	1895	Naval, troops	Marines land in Colombian province
Nicaragua	1896	Troops	Marines land in port of Corinto
Cuba	1898-	Naval, troops	Seized from Spain, U.S. still holds Navy base at Guantanamo
Puerto Rico	1898-	Naval, troops	Seized from Spain, occupation continues
Nicaragua	1898	Troops	Marines land at port of San Juan del Sur
Nicaragua	1899	Troops	Marines land at port of Bluefields
Honduras	1903	Troops	Marines intervene in revolution
Dominican Republic	1903-04	Troops	U.S. interests protected in Revolution
Cuba	1906-09	Troops	Marines land in democratic election
Nicaragua	1907	Troops	"Dollar Diplomacy" protectorate set up
Honduras	1907	Troops	Marines land during war with Nicaragua
Panama	1908	Troops	Marines intervene in election contest
Nicaragua	1910	Troops	Marines land in Bluefields and Corinto
Honduras	1911	Troops	U.S. interests protected in civil war
Cuba	1912	Troops	U.S. interests protected in Havana
Panama	1912	Troops	Marines land during heated election
Honduras	1912	Troops	Marines protect U.S. economic interests
Nicaragua	1912-33	Troops, bombing	20-year occupation, fought guerrillas
Mexico	1913	Naval	Americans evacuated during revolution
Dominican Republic	1914	Naval	Fight with rebels over Santo Domingo
Mexico	1914-18	Naval, troops	Series of interventions against nationalists
Haiti	1914-34	Troops, bombing	19-year occupation after revolts
Dominican Republic	1916-24	Troops	8-year Marine occupation
Cuba	1917-33	Troops	Military occupation, economic protectorate

In other words, the US Army was a colonial force, used to enforce American will on people who were not as well equipped or organized as the Americans. That meant it was somewhat on par with the forces of France in 1914 with regard to training and doctrine.

Another fact here. The US forces in April 1917 were about equivalent to the total casualties of the British army ONLY on the first three days of the Battle of the Somme. 

The French, the Italians and the British were bleeding out in this war. They wanted American troops deployed as quickly as possible. French General Foch, the commander-in-chief of the Western Front, wanted American troops to be used as replacements for battered French units immediately.

US General Pershing refused.

Read that text paragraph again. Pershing refused to allow the US troops to be used as replacements. He said that first, the Americans would join the fight AFTER they were properly trained. Second, that the American troops would enter the war under American command, not as replacements into French units. Third, that the American troops would enter the war as an American army, not in a piecemeal fashion.

Those elements were not in place early in the German spring offensive.

That should give you a different outlook on what happened in the spring of 1918.