 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ] Next Last |
A long stretch of American isolationism left the United States reluctant to involve itself with what was popularly conceived as a European dispute.
Early in 1917 Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This, combined with public indignation over the Zimmerman telegram, led to a final break of relations with the Central Powers. President Woodrow Wilson requested that the United States Congress declare war, which it did on April 6, 1917 (see: Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany on Wikisource). The Senate approved the war resolution 82-6, the House with 373-50. One member of Congress, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, voted against both World War I and World War II.
Although the American contribution to the war was important, particularly in terms of the threat posed by increased US presence in Europe, the United States was never formally a member of the Allies, but an "Associated Power."
The United States Army and the National Guard had mobilized in 1916 to pursue the Mexican "bandit" Pancho Villa, which helped speed up the mobilization. The United States Navy was able to send a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, and a number of destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland, to help guard convoys. However, it would be some time before the United States forces would be able to contribute significant manpower to the Western and Italian fronts.
The British and French insisted that the United States emphasize sending infantry to reinforce the line. Throughout the war, the American forces were short of their own artillery, aviation, and engineering units. However, General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Force commander, resisted breaking up American units and using them as reinforcements for British and French units, as suggested by the Allies.
The reasons the United States got involved in the war are numerous and much-debated. In 1934, the US government created the Nye Committee to investigate the matter. In 1936, the committee reported that between 1915 and April 1917, the US loaned Germany 27 million dollars ($27,000,000). In the same period, the US loaned Britain and its allies 2.3 billion dollars ($2,300,000,000), or about 85 times as much. They concluded that the US entered the war because it was in its commercial interest for Britain not to lose.
The decisive victory of Germany at the Battle of Caporetto led to the allied decision at the Rapallo Conference to form the Supreme Allied Council at Versailles to co-ordinate plans and action.
The entry of the U.S. into the war the previous year had made the eventual arrival of U.S. troops certain, while Russia's withdrawal and the Italian disaster at Caporetto allowed the transfer of German troops to the West. With German troops arriving from the east to confront American troops arriving in France, it was clear to everyone that the ultimate outcome of the war would be decided on the Western Front.
On March 21 1918 Germany launched a major offensive, " Operation Michael", also known as the " Kaiserschlacht " against British and Commonwealth forces. The German army developed new tactics involving stormtroopers, infantry trained in Hutier tactics (after Oskar von Hutier) to infiltrate and take trenches. Four successive German offensives followed, that of May 27 yielding gains before Paris comparable to the first advance.
With the Supreme Allied Council faltering, the Allies reacted by appointing French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch to co-ordinate all Allied activity in France, and then as generalissimo of all Allied forces everywhere.
The German offensive moved forward 60 km and pressed the British lines so much that the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) commander, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, issued a General Order on April 11 stating "With our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause each one of us must fight on to the end." However, by then, the German offensive had stalled because of logistical problems. Counterattacks by Canadian and ANZAC forces pushed Germany back.
Although German forces penetrated Allied lines to a greater extent than ever before in the war, much of these advances were made across land of little or no strategic value. One of the major tactical adjustments made within the German army was to devolve operational responsibility to lower down the chain of command, allowing more rapid exploitation of initial successes. However, while this led to some impressive tactical successes, they were divorced from the greater strategic picture.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |
|