The British had started to run out of war supplies and food. German submarines were taking a toll on British shipping With the American navy, Britains.

• The British had started to run out of war supplies and food.

• German submarines were taking a toll on British shipping

• With the American navy, Britain’s shipping losses went from 900,000 down to 300,000 a month due to German U-boats.

• Convoys

• The Bolsheviks, a group of communists, overthrew the new democracy in Russia established six months earlier.

• Vladimir Lenin led the new communist country• Russia surrendered Poland, the Ukraine, and

other territory to the Germans• All the soldiers on the eastern front were now

shipped to the western front and France

• With more troops in France, Germany drove the line back within 40 miles of Paris.

• With new momentum, it looked as if Germany might now win the war.

• The American expeditionary Force (AEF) was the name for the American army in Europe

• The French gave general John J Pershing and his troops a tremendous welcome when they arrived

• Pershing refused to use American soldiers to build up French and British armies, instead wanted to keep them separate from them.

• Which didn’t actually happen. See Château-Thierry

• In June, 1918 The AEF helped turn a German offensive back at Chateau Thierry (While fighting with the French)

• For the next three weeks, Americans fought through constant machine gun fire, 24 hours a day.

• By the middle of July, the Allies had stopped the German offensive and starting pushing the Germans back.

• The Germans now faced an invasion of their own country.

• With the Allies pushing forward, and a lack of supplies, including food, the Germans pushed for an armistice or an agreement to end the fighting

• President Wilson said it would be ok, if • 1. All German troops left Belgium and France• 2. The Germans must accept his plan for

peace.• 3. Wilson would deal with civilian leaders, not

military.

• The German Kaiser (emperor) Wilhelm II faced a revolution in Germany.

• The people threw him out of power and installed a republic.

• The new leaders quickly agreed to Wilson’s terms.

• Germany agreed to an armistice that began on November 11, 1918