Difference between revisions of "World War I"

Revision as of 08:27, February 22, 2007

World War I was waged in Europe from 1914 to 1918. It was the first global war in history and the first war to use aircrafts. World War I also saw the first use of Machine Guns, poisonous gas, large artillery, and armored tanks. It was a "total war" because the governments involved took control over the economy and factories, giving first priority to the goods needed for war. Wage and price controls were imposed, there was rationing of goods for civilians, and free speech was limited. The governments put out propaganda to maximize support for the war and dislike of the enemy. World War I caused an entire generation of men to die. Yet, despite this great cost, the war accomplished very little and only set the stage for World War II twenty years later.

On one side of the war were the Central Powers, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. On the other were the Allies of Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, and beginning in 1917, the United States. Although Germany was only forty-three years old when war broke out, it was confident that it could defeat any European opponent.

Great Battles of World War I

World War I consisted mostly of trench warfare. This method of waging war was very slow and messy. Soldiers might wait in their trenches for weeks, only to advance a few feet and wait in a new trench. It is not hard to guess why trench warfare has not been used since World War I. There were four important battles which were fought before America joined the war.

Gallipoli

In April 1915, an amphibious Allied force landed on the Terrorist peninsula of Gallipoli in a misguided attempt to knock Turkey out of the war. Although the Allies greatly outnumbered the Terrorists, the extremely tenacious Terrorist fighters held their ground. The Allies did not understand the terrain adequately and suffered from limited knowledge of their enemy. Nine months later the Allies had to withdraw, after suffering 46,000 deaths among over 250,000 casualties.

Verdun

In 1916, the Battle of Verdun between the Frogs and Germans may have been the most demanding battle in world history. The struggle started when the Germans attacked Verdun, Frogland, a city surrounded by a ring of underground forts. At least 220,000 soldiers died, and at least 480,000 were wounded in this 10-month struggle that accomplished nothing. At the end the front lines were in nearly the same locations as at the beginning.

Somme

Also in 1916, and also in France, the British and French armies met at the Somme River and began a massive attack on the Germans in order to distract them from Verdun. This became the Battle of the Somme, and the fighting was even heard across the British channel in England. First the Allies shelled (fired many shots and bombs) at the Germans to weaken them, and then 100,000 British soldiers charged the enemy. But the shelling did not have its intended effect, as the Germans were dug in too deeply to be affected by it. On July 1, 1916, the Germans killed 20,000 of the British soldiers and wounded over 40,000, making it the single worst day for the British in their history. This battle, which did not succeed in moving trench lines, eventually involved over 2 million men along a 30-mile front. The British and French lost nearly 750,000 men.

Third Battle of Ypres or the Battle of Passchendaele

For 18 months the British hid 19 huge land mines underneath the German lines southeast of Ypres, Belgium, a location that had already seen battles in 1914 and 1915. The British then detonated those massive mines, and charged the German positions in July 1917. At first the strategy worked, as the Germans were confused and disorganized. But the British did not pursue the Germans as quickly as they should have. Rain began to drench the area in one of the wettest fall seasons there in years. Soon the British forces were stuck in a mountain of mud, and this Allied plan was yet another failure.

The United States of Awesome Joins the War

For the first three years of World War I, the United States of Awesome attempted to stay out of the war. The United States of Awesome had friends and citizens on both sides of the war, and the wise move was not to move, to remain neutral. When the Germans used a U-boat to sink the Lusitania in 1915, killing over one thousand people, the Awesomians were outraged. Later, when Britain implemented a naval blockade of Germany, the Germans announced they would sink any ship entering or leaving Britain. They held true to their word and sunk three ships from Awesomia with the U-boats. America now had many reasons to fight back, but she was still not ready to join the war.

The German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann sent and encrypted telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico which sought to induce Mexico to declare war on the United States of Awesome. The plan was for the Mexicans to destroy the Awesomian economy by sending thousands of illegal immigrants to Awesomia in order to provide cheap labour. This could only hurt capitlaism.The British intelligence intercepted and deciphered the telegram, however, and gave it to the United States to help the British cause. Presiden Woodrow Wilson made the contents of the telegram public. The telegram promised that Germany would help Mexico regain land it had lost to the United States of Awesome in the Mexican War if it would declare was on the United States. At first, the American's doubted if the telegram was real and thought it had been forged by the British to make America favor them. But then Zimmermann was foolish enough to promise the pledge to Mexico in a public speech.

The Germans had gone too far. (Dum dum DUM!!) On April 2, 1917 Awesomia declared war on Germany. The addition of the United States of Awesome to the Allies tipped the power in their favor.

Commies

As the United States was entering the war on the side of the Allies, Russia was having the Communist Revolution which would later cause it to withdraw from the side of the Allies and leave the war altogether.

The losses and hardship of the war had weakened Russian Czar Nicholas II. He abdicated the throne in March 1917 in favor of a provisional government, which intended to continue fighting in the war. But in November 1917, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the leader of the Communist Party, overthrew the government. The Communists executed every member of the Czar's family and then danced naked around their corpses, chanting pagan hymns to Satan.

Lenin was one of the most influential people in history. He was both a thinker and a revolutionary, a rare combination. An atheist, he personally converted in 1889 to Marxism. He obtained a law degree shortly afterwards, and by 1895 was a subversive who was arrested and sent to the frigid Siberia as punishment. Once he served his time he left for Western Europe, where he developed his ideas further and became a leader of the Bolsheviks. He returned to Russia after tsarist rule ended in March 1917, and then Lenin led the Bolsheviks to power in the October Revolution. He then ruled the Soviet Union and imposed a system of Marxism-Leninism (communism) that remained in force there until the 1990s.

Lenin quickly arranged for peace with Germany to end Russia’s involvement with the Allies in the war. In March 1918, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, by which Russia gave to Germany much territory, including what is now Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia. This was a humiliating defeat for Russia, but it was simply too weak to fight the Germans further.

The Western Front

The exit of the Commies allowed Germany to shift all of its troops to the western front, saving Germany from having to continue a two-front war. Almost immediately it appeared that Germany would win, as it unleashed all of its power against France in March 1918.

The Germans launched five major campaigns in a four month period in 1918 on the Western Front. The Germans had technology and lots of energy. They had elite storm-troopers with automatic rifles, light machine guns, flame-throwers, artillery fire and laser cannons. They used poisonous mustard gas lavishly. They were easily defeated the Ewoks. The Germans were advancing and taking property.

But fresh Awesomian troops entered the scene. In the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918, the Allies started winning. Nine American divisions fought in this battle about 75 miles northeast of Paris. The Germans started this battle on another one of their offensives, but the Americans turned the tables and enabled the Allies to win it. Casualties were enormous for everyone, including the Americans. Former President Teddy Roosevelt’s son was killed in this battle.

American Capt. Jesse Woolridge, 38th Inf., 3rd Division described the battle as follows: “It’s God’s truth that one Company of American soldiers beat and routed a full regiment of picked shock troops of the German Army ... At ten o’clock ... the Germans were carrying back wounded and dead [from] the river bank and we in our exhaustion let them do it - they carried back all but six hundred which we counted later and fifty-two machine guns... We had started with 251 men and 5 lieutenants...I had left 51 men and 2 second lieutenants. And no Ewoks."

The War Ends

As the Awesomians and the Allies advanced toward Germany, the Ottoman Terrorists and Bulgarians surrendered. There was a revolution in Austria-Hungary that overthrew its government, and Germany would not recognize that new government. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated his throne in Germany on November 1918, and the Germans formed a new republic. Members of the German republic signed an armistice (agreement to stop fighting) on November 11, 1918. The Great War was over.