PEACE MOVES IN
EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES POLICY UP TO FEBRUARY 1917
The first two years of the war did not witness any
significant peace moves. By 1916 however the only two notable people, talking
about peace were the United States president Woodrow Wilson and the German
Chancellor Bethman. The United States policy of neutrality enabled President
Wilson to send a representative Colonel Edward M. House to London and Paris to
sound out the Allies about the possibility of United States mediation.
House’s discussions with the British foreign Secretary
Sir Edward Grey brought about a memo of understanding, that should Germany
reject United States mediation, the United States could enter the war on the Allied
side, and that the United Kingdom had the right to reject the US mediator
moves. The elections of 1916 caused Wilson to momentarily suspend the peace
initiatives.
The German Chancellor Bentham in deference to the US
peace initiative had prevailed on the German military to suspend the policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare. Following Wilson’s victory in November 1917, a
month passed by without any follow-up US action, meanwhile Germany had scored
the victory over Romania.
This victory induced the German leaders into thinking
that Germany could dictate the peace terms with the Allies which Bentham was
persuaded to announce; the failure of which was meant to pave way for the
resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. The terms to say the least, were
wholly unacceptable to the Allies. Amongst other things, the Germans insisted
on the outright annexation of Belgium and the parts of North East France under
German occupation.
On December 18th, 1916 President Wilson asked
both parties to state their war aims. The Allies were however induced by the
United States Secretary of State to outline war aims that would be too sweeping
for Germany to accept. The Germans suspected collusion between the Allies and
the US and chose to remain inflexible about their earlier stated war aims and
decided privately to no longer engage Wilson in any further negotiation.
Wilson on January 22nd, 1917 made a speech
calling for “peace without victory” which had a favorable hearing from London,
Austro-Hungary and on the face of the paper from Bentham, the German Chancellor
who ironically while exhorting Wilson to continue the peace overtures also
announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.
President Wilson reacted immediately by breaking
diplomatic relations with Germany and announcing a policy of arming merchant
ships and taking of measures to protect American commerce. While Americans
still abstained from the war, and the Germans still avoided American ships, the
situation came to a head over the publication of the Zimmerman telegram.
Arthur Zimmerman, the German foreign affairs minister had
stirred the hornets’ nest when he urged the Mexican president whose nation had
a strained relationship with the United States to promise an alliance with
Germany should the US enter the war against Germany. He had promised Mexico the
recovery of the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona from the US
as part of the deal.
The British Admiralty incidentally intercepted and decoded
the message passing it on to the United States president on February 24. After
its publication in the United States press on 1st March 1917, there
was an immediate outcry for a declaration of war against Germany.
THE UNITED STATES
IN WORLD WAR I
After the severing of diplomatic relations on 3rd
February 1917, events leading to war took on an unstoppable momentum. On the 9th
of that same month, President Wilson president ordered the arming the merchant
ships against German submarines. In the period March 16-18, German submarines sank
three American merchant ships with heavy loss of lives.
On March 20th, 1917 President Wilson with the
support of the cabinet, the press and a large segment of public opinion went to
seek a Congressional resolution for the declaration of war against Germany.
This followed his request for a joint session of Congress on the 12th
of April on which day; he made a forceful speech calling for a declaration of
war by a joint resolution of both houses.
The Senate passed the resolution on April 3 while the
House of Representatives passed the resolution on April 16; presidential
declaration of war followed immediately.
The entry of the United States into the war was a turning
point morally, psychologically and financially because both Britain and France
had run out of money to continue to finance imports of food and war material
from the United States by April 1st, 1917, so America’s entry into
the war was a boon to the Allies.
The entry of the United States was also providential
because it was difficult to see how Britain and France could have survived
without the seven billion dollars in credit supplies that America’s entry into
the war provided them.
Though America’s direct military involvement took time to
make its impact felt, the system of conscription instituted by the introduction
of the selective service Act of May 18th, 1917 made the raising,
training and sending to Europe of an expeditionary force possible.
Battle of the Argonne
A machine-gun nest is set
up by the Allied forces to blast the Germans in the Battle of the Argonne in
France in 1918. This large-scale offensive destroyed highly fortified German
defense positions in western Europe, forcing the Germans to accept an
armistice.
Corbis
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Although there only 85,000 American soldiers in France in
March 1918, when the Germans launched their last major offensive of the war, by
September of that year, over 1.2 million American troops were in action in
France under the command of General John .J Pershing and they were to play a
decisive role in the last Allied offensives that forced Germany to sue for
peace.
The US Navy was
the world’s second largest Navy in the world when America entered the war in
1917 and its priorities soon shifted from the building of battle ships to the
building of destroyers involved in convoying and escort duties that greatly
helped to relieve the pressure on the British Navy. By the end of the war over
380 US warships were involved in the naval operations against Germany.
The US declaration
of war was also followed by similar declaration of war by many other countries
in North and South America like Cuba, Panama, Haiti, Brazil, Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras. This provided a moral and diplomatic boost
for the Allies.
THE RUSSIAN
REVOLUTION AND THE EASTERN FRONT, MARCH 1917-MARCH 1918
The Russian Revolution of February –March 1917 brought
the despotic rule of Czar Nicholas II to an end but the provisional government
that replaced it was as weak and incoherent in policy as the Tsarist regime
that it replaced.
The revolutionary forces of communists, workers groups,
soldiers’ deputies fiercely contested the rights and legitimacy of the new
government. The pressure for a full Worker’s Revolution was on and the strikes,
rallies and protests that followed, crippled the nation.
Its effect was demoralizing on the Russian military, its
commanders and the morale of the fighting men. Russia’s military cohesiveness
and capabilities were severely weakened by the wrangling at home.
Not even the
appointment of General F.W Brusilov as the overall supreme commander could hold
back the tide of discontent that had spread to the rank and file of the army.
The Allies were confounded by this turn of events while the Central Powers rejoiced
over the turmoil in Russia.
The new provisional government while aware of the turmoil
at home, felt obliged to continue with the war, both to save Russia’s prestige
and borders alongside its obligations to the Western Allies. The forces of the
Revolution on the other hand were bent on under mining the legitimacy of the
regime by calling on workers and soldiers to disobey the new government and
work towards its overthrow.
The fighting
spirit of the troops sagged with the issue of the notorious order number 1 of
the Petrograd Soviet of 14th March 1917, calling on soldiers and
sailors to take over control of their units and ignore lawful authority. Discipline
and morale dipped in the ranks of the army.
A fresh offensive against
the Austrians launched in July 1917 by General L.C Kornilov made spectacular
progress for 10 days before being halted by a German counter attack and
reinforcement of the Austrian lines by the German army.
Soon after the Russian advance was halted, its retreat
turned into a rout that extended for the next three weeks and saw the Germans
taking control of most of Latvia and of the approaches to the Gulf of Finland
by October 1917.
Defeat on the battle field spurred revolt in many of the
Russian satellite states that had been forcefully inculcated into the empire to
begin to push and agitate for freedom, revolt and subversion of the authority
of the Russian state.
The Germans saw this as their moment of opportunity and
continued to press on and indirectly incite these non-Russian people to agitate
for freedom. Finns, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians Poles were all by 1917
actively involved in the agitation for freedom. The Ukrainians, Georgians,
Armenia and Azerbaijanis were in no less way active in their own nationalist
aspirations.
All these combined to undermine the authority and
influence of the provisional governments which soon began to give way, especially
in the wake of the Bolshevik mutiny and revolution that broke out in October
1917, and saw the rise to power of the Marxist leadership of Vladimir I. Lenin
and Leon Trotsky. The Bolshevik revolution brought about the end of Russia’s
participation in World War I.
The Bolshevik government’s policy of redistribution of
land to the peasants caused many soldiers to desert and return home to benefit
from the policy thereby disorienting the army.
On November 8
Lenin likewise issued his decree on peace with the belligerents, which
disavowed annexations and indemnities while stipulating the right to
self-determination for all the oppressed people agitating for freedom. Finally
on November 26, the Bolshevik government ordered a unilateral cessation of
hostilities against the Central Powers and Turkey.
This resulted in the Brest-Litovsk armistice signed on
December 15th, 1917 between Lenin’s government and the Central
Powers. The resulting treaty was humiliating to Russia as it stripped the
country of the regions of Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
and most of Byelorussia while giving Poland over to Germany. Russia also ceded
Kars, Adahan and Batumi to Turkey.
GREEK INVOLVEMENT
IN THE WAR
Greek’s policy towards the war was clearly undefined, as
King Constantine I and General Stood were in favor of neutrality whereas Eleutherious
the leader of the liberal party was in favor of joining the Allies.
In 1910 during the
Dardanelles campaign, Eleutherious Venizelos who at this time was Prime
Minister wanted Greek forces to be involved in the campaign but was overruled
by the General Staff. This did not stop the Allies from occupying Limnos and
Lesbos.
Meanwhile, the King had dismissed Venizelos twice from
government in 1915 in spite of the fact that the Prime Minister commanded the
majority in parliament. The Bulgarians took advantage of Greek disunity to
occupy Greek Macedonia in the summer of 1916. The former Prime Minister
Venizelos then, of his own initiative decided to leave Athens for Crete where
he formed a parallel government which he eventually transferred to Salonika in
October 1916.
Eleutherios Venizelos
In June 1917 Eleutherios
Venizelos became prime minister of Greece. Under Venizelos, Greece declared war
against Germany and Bulgaria and began actively participating in the Allied war
effort.
Library of
Congress/Corbis
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rights reserved.
In November of the same year, his government declared war
on Germany and Bulgaria. Finally on June 11th, the Allies deposed
King Constantine II. Venizelos then returned to Athens to head a unitary
government which eventually declared war on the Central Powers on June 27th
1917.
CAPORETTO AND THE
ITALIAN FRONT
On the Italian front, Cadorna’s 10th battle of
the Isonzo in May and June of 1917 won very little ground, but his 11th
offensive from
August 17th to September 12 during which
General Luigi Capelo’s 2nd Army captured much of the Bainsizza
Plateau north of Gorizia strained Austrian resistance capabilities very
severely.
To avoid an
Austrian collapse, German General Ludendorff decided that an Austrian offensive
against Italy must be launched; and that he could lend the Austrians six
divisions for this purpose.
With German adroitness and efficiency, the offensive was
planned and launched. It was an audacious exercise involving two Austrian
armies under General Svetozor Borojevic von Bojna attacking the Italians from
the eastern end of the Italians Venetian salient on the Bainsizza Plateau and
on the low ground near the Adriatic shore.
On the other hand,
the German 14th army comprising six German Divisions and nine
Austrian Divisions under Otto von Below on October 24th, 1917 began
to attack over the barrier of the Julian Alps towards Caporetto at the
northeastern corner of the Venetian salient.
The Italians reacted to this double envelopment with
shock and confusion and retreated in a disorganized manner to a defensive line
behind the Piave River north of Venice by November 9. Bellows’ successful
offensive however was not as well capitalized as could have been and the
Italians were able to salvage 300,000 men from the onslaught while losing
250,000 as prisoners and sustaining over 500,000 casualties.
Subsequent attacks on the Italian line from direct
assaults and a flanking movement from Trentino were repulsed with the help of
British and French reinforcements rushed into Italy to save the Italian
position. The Allies subsequently met on this issue in Rapallo in 1917 and
talks of a united command ensued and this led to the setting up of the joint
supreme war council at Versailles.
MESOPOTAMIA,
SUMMER OF 1916-WINTER 1917
The British forces that had suffered neglect after the
debacle of Al-kut received more attention from the government in the second
half of 1916; and with the appointment of Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, the
morale of the troops greatly improved. By December, the British were ready to
attempt the recapture of Al-kut as a first step towards capturing Baghdad.
In a series of deft moves, the British re-opened their
offensive against the Turks in Palestine and Arabia and began to advance along
the banks of the Tigris River forcing the Turks to go on the defensive.
On February 22 1917, British forces made a frontal
assault on Al-kut and simultaneously sought to encircle the Turks by crossing
the Tigris from the west bank behind the town. When Al-kut fell two days later,
the Turks were barely able to escape from the enveloping moves of the British.
The British assault made it difficult for the Turkish
forces to hold a new line on the Diyala River, and the Turks under the command
of Kazim Karabekir evacuated Baghdad and the British entered the city on March
11 1917. In September of that same year, the British strengthened their hold on
Baghdad by capturing Al-Ramadi a town on the Euphrates about 60 miles to the
west.
By early November, the British had established themselves
in Mesopotamia by holding the Turks midway between Baghdad and Mosul. Maude
unfortunately, after his strings of victories died on November 18th 1917.
His successor was Sir William Marshall. In the autumn of 1917, General Allenby
assumed command of British forces in Egypt and moved his headquarters from
Cairo to Palestine where he was planning a major offensive against the Turks.
The Turks were
assisted by the former German Chief of Staff Falkenhayn who was at the time,
commander of the forces of the Central Powers at Aleppo in the Middle East. His
aim was to drive into the peninsula by autumn but he was outwitted in this by
an earlier British move.
The Turkish front in southern Palestine extended from
Gaza by the Sea, southward to Abu Hureira (now known as Tel Haror) and from
there to the strong point at Beersheba. Allenby began his offensive with a
heavy shelling of the Turkish positions from October 20th, 1917.
He soon achieved a breakthrough with the capture of
Beersheba on October 31 and simultaneously struck at Gaza drawing the Turkish
reserves to that sector while diverting his main attack to Abu Hureira where
the weakened Turkish defense soon collapsed and from there, he broke into the
plain of Philistine.
The German General
Falkenhyans’ attempt to counter-attack at Beersheba was frustrated by the
collapse of the Turks in their central position. The resulting retreat, split
the Turkish forces into two and the British took parts of Haifa and made a
flanking movement right- ward that brought their forces directly on the road to
Jerusalem.
The Turks chose to leave Jerusalem an open city and moved
their forces down the coast. On December 9, British forces entered Jerusalem.
THE WESTERN FRONT
JUNE-DECEMBER 1917
British General John Haig took the initiative to go on
the offensive after the French commander General Henri Petain chose to remain
on the defensive on the western front after the failure of Neville’s
offensives. He chose the Flanders province of Belgium as his theatre of
operation.
Haig opened his attack on the Messines ridge north of
Armentieres on the southern flank of his Ypres salient. The attack was led by
General Sir Herbert Plummer’s 2nd army. The attack was a huge
success. Haig was excited by this success, and decided to throw caution to the
wind in his next phase of attack by going for an all-out breakthrough at a time
everyone knew that the Flanders would soon be beset by rain and mud.
The openness of the terrain belied any attempt at
concealment, more so, as the preliminary barrage involved more than 3,000 guns
firing over 4.5 million shells over a fortnight which unfortunately did not
destroy all the German pill boxes.
When the third
battle of Ypres finally took off on July 31st, 1917, the British had
success only on the left wing while the advance on the right wing was checked; notwithstanding
the fact that this was the crucial flank.
Four days into the attack, the rain and mud swept in,
grounding operations. With the clearing of the weather in middle August, Haig
re-launched his offensive but with little progress. He was committed to the
attack however, and further pressure was piled from September 20th-October
4th with little progress to show for the effort.
His persistent efforts however paid off when on November
6 his troops took the abandoned ruins of Paschendael, an advance of five miles
from the starting point of the offensive. He had incurred over 325,000
casualties without any significant change in the strategic equation.
The French obviously more cautious than the British
launched an offensive in Verdun under the direction of General M.L.A Guillemot
leading the French 2nd army who won back all the positions lost to
the Germans in the long running battle of Verdun.
General P.A.M
Maistre’s 10th army also attacked and won the ridge of the Chemin
Des Dames north of the Aisne to the east of Scissions where the front in Champagne
was linked to the front in Picardy south of the River Somme.
The British ended the year with an operation in Cambria
front where a wide expanse of hills and rolling lands gave the British the
opportunity to concentrate their now increased tank forces against the German
trenches.
A column of 324 tanks leading six British divisions were
launched successfully on November 20th. The offensive was without the
normal heavy bombardment that usually gave away any element of surprise. At any
rate, the Germans were caught unawares and the tanks made remarkable progress,
far more than in any previous British offensive and at less costs.
The offensive
could have made a significant dent in the lines of the Germans, if tank
reserves had been brought to bear. When the Germans finally halted the main
offensive, there were no reserves to push on with the attack and as such the
advance was halted just short of Cambria.
Wounded Soldiers in
France
Wounded soldiers are
treated in a bombed-out church in France in 1918. During World War I more than
10 million men were killed, and more than 20 million were wounded.
Corbis
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Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
A German counter attack against the British broke through
on the southern front and could have threatened the whole of Sir Juan Byng’s
third army if not for a further counter offensive by the Guards division, the
bringing in of fresh tanks and nightfall which brought the Germans to a halt.
At the end the
Germans regained three quarters of the ground lost in the initial attack. Cambria
had however shown the potential of massed tanks on the offensive as a means of
breaching the trench barrier.
ALLIED NAVAL
OPERATIONS AGAINST GERMANY 1917-1918
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