2.  The U.S. had never sent large numbers of troops overseas before to fight.  President Wilson planned to do just that.  In order to send large numbers of troops, many Americans were drafted into the military.

3.  Before WWI, the army had a volunteer army of about 200,000.  Selective Service Act: created the national draft.  Required all males 21- 30 to register for military service.

4.  The U.S. were training men quickly, but the Allied Powers were on the verge of losing the war to the Central Powers.  The British and French forces were suffering heavy losses.

5.  The first troops arrived in Europe in June 1917.  Their official name: the Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF).  Their nickname: Doughboys.

6.  The AEF leader was General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing.  He commanded the infantry.  Infantry: soldiers who fight on foot.

7.  About the same time that the U.S. began fighting, Russia withdrew from the fight.  Russia signed a peace treaty with Germany.  Germany was free to send all its troops to the Western front against the U.S.

8.  The Russians had lost a lot of troops in the fighting.  The people were starving.  Morale was low.  Solution: Germany secretly sent Vladimir Lenin into Russia, where he was living in exile.

9.  Lenin took over as leader of Russia.  He overthrew Czar Nicholas II and had him and his entire family massacred.  Lenin signed the treaty with Germany and led the country.

10.  As you can see, the U.S. had its hands full when Russia exited the war.  In groups, hypothesize how the U.S. army helped to win the war.

11.  The Allied Powers wanted the AEF to fight in the trenches.  The U.S. said no.  They wanted to fight riskier battles to try to end the war.  Pershing got his way.

12.  At this time, African- American and white fighting units were segregated.  Most African- American soldiers served under white officers or in supply units.

13.  Was an African- American unit under French command.  They were one of the few African-American units who took part in active combat.  They were one of the most decorated Allied units for their fierce fighting.

14.  The fighting in WWI was more impersonal.  In wars before WWI, you had to be up close to attack your opponent.  With improved weapons, it made war far more impersonal…and deadly.

15.  Machine guns allowed guns to fire as many as 600 bullets per minute.  To put that in perspective, a veteran soldier could fire 3 shots in a minute in the Revolutionary War!

16.  Flamethrowers and howitzers were also invented during this time.  Howitzer: a large cannon.  Flamethrowers were effective in trenches, but not at long distances.

17.  Howitzers: fired heavy artillery shells.  The Germans had powerful guns called Big Berthas.  They weighed 75 tons and could hit an enemy target from 9 miles away.

18.  How it worked:  Each side dug multiple lines of trenches, and digging at different angles so sharpshooters couldn’t hit enemy soldiers easily.

19.  The closest trenches were the frontline trenches.  Soldiers would hurl grenades and fire machine guns at each other.  Behind frontline trenches were supply trenches.

20.  Supply trenches held ammo, & communication equipment.  Reserve trenches were behind the supply trenches.  Here, soldiers could rest before returning to the front lines.

21.  The trenches were horrible to live in.  Bugs and rats were everywhere.  It smelled of rotting bodies, sweat, and overflowing latrines.  The men suffered from trench foot too. Trench foot: a painful foot infection.

22.  Poison gas would be used by soldiers in the frontline trenches.  However, the wind could shift, blowing the gas back towards the sender.  Inhaling the gas would usually be fatal.  Even if one survived a gas attack, they suffered lifelong effects from it.

23.  Tanks were finally used in WWI to solve the stalemate of trench warfare.  They could plow through the barbed wire and go across no man’s land.

24.  At the beginning of the war, airplanes were used to spy on the enemy.  As the war waged on, the airplanes were used in battle.  Dogfights, or fights between airplanes, were common.

25.  In order to be considered an ace, you had to shoot down 5 enemy planes.  The Red Baron, Captain Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen, was considered to be the deadliest pilot on either side.  He had 80 confirmed kills.

26.  The convoy system was a way to defeat the U- Boat torpedoing.  A group of four to five ships sailed together in order to protect one another.  Most times, destroyers would accompany supply ships.

27.  Meuse-Argonne Offensive: AEF led. The goal was to capture Germany’s rail line.  If the AEF could do this, Germany’s communications and supplies would be disrupted.  It worked.

28.  On November 11, 1918, Germany agreed to an armistice, or a truce.  The war was over.  More than 8 million soldiers died, and another 21 million were wounded.