Ch. 23, Section 3: Americans Join the Allies

• Main Idea: With the help of American troops and supplies, the Allies turned the tide against Germany.

• Key Terms:– Convoy– Front– Armistice

Supplying the Allies• The American forces were

greatly needed by the Allies.

• The existing Allied Army was tired of fighting, and the British had started to run out of war supplies and food.

• German submarines were sinking one of every four ships that left British ports.

Turning the tide• The U.S. navy took two steps

to be sure supplies reached Britain.

– 1. It helped the British find and destroy German submarines.

– 2. Navy destroyers escorted groups of merchant ships, or convoys, across the Atlantic. The convoy system reduced Allied shipping losses and protected ships bound for Europe so that no American soldier was lost to submarine attack.

Supplying the Allies

• A second revolution in Russia caused Russia to withdraw from the war in March 1918.

– 1. In November 1917, the Bolsheviks, a group of Communists led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the democratic government.

Vladimir Lenin

• Lenin wanted to focus on setting up a new communist state, so he took Russia out of the war.

Bolshevik Revolution

• The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed with Germany surrendered Poland, the Ukraine, and other territory to the Germans.

• In return Germany promised to stop fighting Russia.

German Offensive• Germany now had a new offensive.

• It transferred hundreds of thousands of troops from Russia and the Eastern Front to the Western Front in France.

• Now Germany had a more powerful army to fight the Allies.

• Germany moved closer to Paris. It looked as if Germany might win the war.

Supplying the Allies • The American troops needed months before they were ready

to fight.

• General John J. Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), or American troops, in Europe.

American Aid

• The first serious fighting in June 1918 helped turn back a German offensive at Chateau-Thierry on the Marne River east of Paris.

• By the middle of July the Allies stopped the Germans.

Saint Mihiel

• In September the Allies defeated the Germans at Saint Mihiel, east of Verdun, in an Allied offensive.

Argonne Forest• Later in the month, more than one million American troops

joined the Allies in the Battle of Argonne Forest, west of Verdun.

• They fought for almost seven weeks.

• The Allies were victorious, pushing the Germans back and breaking through enemy lines.

The End of the War

• The Germans saw their defeat coming.

• Americans boosted the number of Allied troops, while Germans suffered from shortages of food and supplies.

• The Germans requested an armistice, or an agreement to end fighting, in October 1918.

• President Wilson consented under certain conditions.

Terms of Armistice

• 1. Germany must accept his peace plan and promise not to renew hostilities.

• 2. All German troops must leave Belgium and France

• 3. Negotiations were to be with civilian, not military leaders.

Armistice

• In the meantime Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was forced to give up his throne.

• Germany became a republic and its new leaders agreed to the armistice.

• In November 1918, the armistice began and the Great War ended.