1. 12.2 & 12.3 The US Enters The Great War 1917-1918

2. Unterseeboot February 1915 – German U-boat blockade
May 7, 1915 – Lusitania crisis
September 1, 1915 – Arabic pledge
March 24, 1916 – Sussex crisis
Sussex pledge: warn ships before Germans attack
Woodrow Wilson is pleased to have “kept us out of war.”

4. 1 Road to War Zimmermann Telegram February 25, 1917
Telegraph from Germany to Mexico
German-Mexican alliance
Intercepted by British intelligence
Wilson asks Congress for authority to arm merchant ships.

5. 2 Road to War Russian Revolution March 15, 1917
Autocratic Russia bothered Wilson.
Revolutionaries declare a republic.
(This would later turn Communist.)

8. Escalation of U-boat attacks3
Road to War
Escalation of U-boat attacks
First weeks of March 1917
German U-boats sink 5 unarmed US merchant ships.
Breaking the Sussex Pledge
We break off diplomatic relations with Germany
Pro-war demonstrations all over US
Unrestricted submarine warfare was the main cause for US joining the war.

9. America Declares War
April 6, 1917
The United States declares war on Germany.
“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.”

10. Now what?

12. “Blackjack” Pershing

13. The Draft
May 1917
Selective Service Act drafts young men for military service
Any man (later 18-45)
4.7 million Americans served as part of the AEF (American Expeditionary Force)
Known as the “doughboys”

14. Alvin York Medal of Honor Recipient Pacifist before the war
Killed 25 Germans, captured 125 more AT ONCE
Was shouting at them to “Give up!” the whole time

15. "And those machine guns were spitting fire and cutting down the undergrowth all around me something awful. And the Germans were yelling orders. You never heard such a racket in all of your life. I didn't have time to dodge behind a tree or dive into the brush... As soon as the machine guns opened fire on me, I began to exchange shots with them. There were over thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off just as fast as I could. I was sharp shooting... All the time I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."

16. Billy Mitchell Earliest American Air Strategist
Many American and Foreign Decorations.
Called the “Father of Air Force”.
Most of his peers and commanders did not like him

17. African Americans Segregated units, rarely allowed to fight
Worked as cooks, laundrymen, etc.
369th US Infantry served with distinction
First & longest service of any US regiment
Awarded Croix de Guerre by France

19. Protecting Paris The Argonne Offensive Spring 1918
Russian-German peace treaty
German offensive toward Paris
Americans save the day!

22. Protecting Paris
“We dig no trenches to fall back on. The Marines will hold where they stand.”
They did just that.

23. Ending the War German sailors mutinied 10-29-18
Central Powers collapsed 1 by 1
Germans begged for peace
The Allies refused.
German sailors mutinied
Kaiser fled to Holland
Armistice signed
Fighting stopped at 11:00am

24. Results of the War AEF Total 48,909 dead 230,000 wounded
112,000 more dead to influenza
Total
8 million soldiers/sailors dead
Millions of civilians

25. Tomb of the Unknowns