World War I : New Technology and U.S. Involvement

World War I: New Technology and U.S. Involvement

The History Channel on 'Trench Warfare'

* Today’s focus will be on the use of new methods and technology in World War I and the United States’ Involvement on the Western Front *

German trenches at the right, British at

the left.

* “Going over the top”

* Problems in the trenches

* Problems in the trenches: “Trench Foot” and “Trench Mouth”

* Problems in the trenches: Rats

* Problems in the trenches: Body Lice

* Problems in the trenches: Snipers

* New Weapons: Tanks

* New Weapons: Poison Gas

* Chlorine, Mustard Gas

* New Weapons: Poison Gas

* New Weapons: Poison Gas

* New Weapons: Flamethrower

* New Weapons: Barbed Wire

Americans Arrive on the Western Front * Arrival of Americans changed course of war and helped Allies pull off a “victory” *

* The U.S. troops were escorted by a convoy system across the Atlantic *

* June – July 1917, American troops supplemented Allied powers on the Western Front (“doughboys”)

* July 1917, John J. Pershing and the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) arrive in Paris – Pershing’s VIEWS on the U.S. involvement were different than other Allied Powers’…

* AEF troops arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, Germans could NOT sustain fighting!

* Different tech. from the British

Americans Arrive on the Western Front * Germans launch HUGE offensive in March 1918 (July) – AEF troops played large role in preventing Central powers from taking Paris *

*September 1918, AEF under Pershing launch the Meuse-Argonne Offensive – aka the Battle of Argonne Forest * Argonne Forest was CRUCIAL to the Allied war effort because it caused the Germans to begin their final retreat!

* November 11, 1918 – Armistice Day signaled the end of World War I *

* By October 1918, the Central powers had fallen apart (Ger., A-H, Ott.)

Battle of Argonne - "Trench Warfare"