the course and conduct of world war i - tipp city...new technology •heavy artillery “big guns”...
TRANSCRIPT
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The Course and Conduct of World
War I
How was World War I different from
previous wars?
Chapter 7 Section 3 Pages 194-199
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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”
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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”
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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”.
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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?
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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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • First Selective Service –
• 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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • First Selective Service –
• 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”
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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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • Americans reach French soil
• 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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • Americans reach French soil
• 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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • Americans reach French soil
• 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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • Americans reach French soil
• 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
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A WAR OF FIRSTS • Americans reach French soil
• 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
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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
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NEW TECHNOLOGY • Killing Machines:
• Machine Gun – automatic and rapid fire.
600 bullets per minute
• Flame Thrower
• Large cannons
(howitzers)
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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
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NEW TECHNOLOGY • Flame thrower
• Old weapon
• Tubes of burning fuel hurdled at one
another
• Could attack nearby trenches but not be
fired long distances
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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TRENCHES • Behind the front line were the supply
trenches
• Ammo, supplies and communication
equipment were here
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TRENCHES • Third line of reserve trenches – weary
soldiers rested before going back to front
lines
• Soldiers rotated through the three
categories of trenches
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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World War I Comes
to an End
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Treaty of Versailles
• 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
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Treaty of Versailles
• 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
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Treaty of Versailles
• 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
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Treaty of Versailles
• 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
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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
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Treaty of Versailles
• 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