World War I

World War I, also known as the Great War and the War to End All Wars, engulfed the world from 1914 to 1918 in bloody conflict among numerous nations driven by European imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and entangling alliances. The Allies—Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and Serbia—fought the Central Powers of Imperial Germany, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, and a total of 30 nations were involved. For three years the United States suffered violations of its rights, including neutrality and freedom of the seas, through Imperial Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare. On April 6, 1917, the United States joined the Allies by declaring war on Imperial Germany, and on December 7, 1917, it declared war on the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. President Woodrow Wilson insisted that the U.S. would have its own American sector at the front, and General John J. Pershing commanded the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in Europe. During the war, 2,000,000 people volunteered and 2,800,000 were drafted under the Selective Service Act of 1917. The Western Front was marked by multiple parallel zig-zagging trenches that divided the armies by an average of just 250 yards, or 750 feet, and trench warfare in Europe was dominated by artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons used by both sides. U.S. forces were instrumental in turning the tide during subsequent offensives, including the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which ended in Germany's desire for an armistice. Germany's submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships thought to contain munitions for the Allied forces forced the United States to become involved, and at sea the war was dominated by submarine attacks on convoys and anti-submarine warfare. America's entry into the war provided the industrial and military strength needed to bring victory to the Allies. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, the guns went silent and fighting ended after Germany signed an armistice agreement. Today, this is celebrated as Veterans Day. Although the Treaty of Versailles ended the war among the Allies and Central Powers, the U.S. was not a party to it. The U.S. Congress and President passed the Knox-Porter Resolution on July 2, 1921, declaring the war over, and this was celebrated by minting the only coin dedicated to peace, the 1921 Silver Peace Dollar. It is estimated that 116,516 American soldiers were killed, 204,002 were wounded, and 3,350 were missing. Many of the wounds could not be seen and were not understood; they called it shell shock at the time, and today it is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD. Sadly, the War to End All Wars was not the last war, something U.S. veterans and their families know well.

East Glenville, New York · United States