American Power Tips the
Balance
American Mobilization
• Needed to build up
armed forces
• Only 200,000 soldiers
• Old weapons
• 55 small planes
• 130 pilots
Mobilization
• Selective Service Act
passed in May 1917
• 3 million drafted
• 2 million reached
Europe
Mobilization
• Women Served as
nurses, secretaries
and phone operators
Mobilization
• Blacks served in
segregated units
• Excluded from navy
and marines
• Army trained black
officers for the 1st time
American Success in Combat
• Hard to get troops to
Europe
• BY 1917-U-Boats had
sunk twice as much
ship tonnage as the
Allies built
• U.S. began building
more ships
• Draft reduced number
of skilled ship builders
– Exempted shipyard
workers from draft
– Emphasized
importance of shipyard
work
– Used fabrication
– Converted civilian
ships to war ships
Breaking the Blockade
• Convoy system
• Submarine chasers
• Airplanes
A Submarine Chaser
Breaking the Blockade
• U.S. helped lay
underwater mines in
the North Sea
• U-Boats no longer a
threat by 1918
• U-Boats destroyedhard to replace
Fighting in Europe
• American troops were
fresh
Fighting in Europe
• John J. PershingGeneral in charge of
U.S. forces in Europe
• Aggressive
The Tide Turns
• Russia out of War by
1918
• Germans now
focusing on France
• 50 miles from Paris
by May 1918
The Tide Turns
• By October 1918, the
tide had turned
against the Central
Powers due to
American help
Weapons
of WWI
Big Bertha
• Big Bertha
• German
• Could shoot a
1,800 pound
shell 75 miles
Zeppelins
• Gas filled air ship
• Enabled Germans
to drop bombs on
English cities
• Easy to shoot
down
Machine Guns
• 600 rounds/minute
Poison Gas
• First used in
1915
• Gas masks
became
standard
equipment
Victim of Poison Gas
Mechanized Warfare
• Warfare that relies on machines
powered by gasoline or diesel
engines
Mechanized Warfare
• Tanks- built from steel • Airplanes- flimsylimited to scouting at
• Bullets bounce off
first
• First used by British in
• Early gunfights
1916-Battle of the
resembled duels
Somme
• Eventually got faster
and able to carry
heavier bombs
WWI Airplanes
Medical Care
• Filth, lice, rats,
polluted water
• Stench of gas and
decaying bodies
• Suffered from lack of
sleep
• Shell shock
Collapse of Germany
• November 3, 1918German Grand Fleet
ordered to sea
• Sailors and marines
refused
• Mutiny spread
• November 9-People
of Berlin rebel
• Proclaimed a German
Republic
• Kaiser abdicates
• November 11, 1918
and 11AM-Fighting
stops
The numbers
• 30 nations involved
• 26 million dead-half
civilians
• 20 million wounded
• Cost $350 billion