Voices of the Great War: America Enters the War

Preparedness Day Parade, New York City, 13 May 1916

From the Imperial War Museum, London

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, the United States of America adopted a policy of strict neutrality. There was little support amongst the American population for entering the war, despite early reports of German atrocities. Benjamin Muse was living in America in 1914.

There was a lot of propaganda and that was disturbing, exaggerated propaganda over that period, which was really outrageous when you look back on it. One got the impression from reading the papers and hearing the talk that the Germans, or the Huns as we called them then, were a hoard of barbarians who were descending on Europe, about to plunge Europe into another Dark Ages. We read about how they slaughtered women and children, threw babies up into the air and caught them on their bayonets, tortured prisoners of war and all that. I didn’t believe all that, in fact I wondered if the Germans were barbarians of that type. And, if they were, why we hadn’t heard more about it before this war started.

The U.S. wanted to stay completely out of the conflict, but found this increasingly difficult due to Germany’s policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. In May 1915, when a German U-boat sank the RMS Lusitania, 128 US citizens lost their lives. This was a key turning point in America’s attitude to the war. Walter Greenwood, a schoolboy in Britain at the time, remembered the anger felt towards Germany after the attack.

Well the news suddenly went round that the Lusitania had been sunk and all the women turned out, furious, cursing the Germans. And suddenly they began to talk about the people running shops who had got German-sounding names. Groups began to form and somebody rushed round and said Keppel’s, pork butcher’s shop had been broken into by a crowd of women and all the eatables stolen.

In response to American outrage, Germany abandoned unrestricted U-boat attacks—but resumed them again early in 1917. This, coupled with the news that Germany had proposed an alliance with Mexico to threaten American interests, finally brought America into the war in April 1917. U.S. Army veteran Harvey Maness remembered the American president, Woodrow Wilson’s, reluctance to enter the war.

Well that was the grand climax. You know, they had the U-boats and that was their secret weapon and they came darn near winning. But that really broke the backbone of American sentiment; on April 6th 1917 President Wilson declared war. We stayed out as long as we could, you know he went in; Wilson went in the second term with the theory he was going to keep us out of war – well, three months later we were in war. But he didn’t declare it; it was forced on us: we had to go, to defend our rights. So, see those U-boats were going to put us out of business; keep America getting in the war. And if we hadn’t gotten in at the last minute, Germany would’ve won that war.

America was not ready for war. The country had to mobilize, and prepare its armed forces for battle. The U.S. Army was small in size, but conscription was soon introduced to expand it. The first US troops arrived in France in June 1917. John Figarovsky, of the 1st Infantry Division, was amongst them.

When we landed one of the first things we did is to parade through the town. We paraded through St. Nazaire and the French people were just so delirious with joy, because in the Americans they saw hope for the future, that we might, you know, end the war quicker with the Americans coming there. As we marched through town, the sidewalks and even the gutters on both sides were full of people, and we felt so proud and important that such a fuss was being made over us. We were most of us young, and looking forward to the fight, and we didn’t know how serious war is because we had never been in war before. To us it was just one big adventure ahead of us.

British officer Richard Tobin remembered his reaction as the new U.S. troops arrived at the front.

When we were out of the line we used to stand by the road and watch the fresh, strong, plump and new American battalions swing by. They waved and laughed and shouted. Our boys stood by the side of the road and grinned back. But we wondered: did they know? Could they do it? Would they do it? But we were pleased to see them.

The United States Navy was also mobilised. U.S. warships joined with the British Grand Fleet to help guard convoys. In November 1917, a battleship division sailed to Scapa Flow. British officer Lennox Boswell recalled the positive relationship between American and British naval personnel during the year they worked together.

The American squadron sailed for home on the first of December: just under a year from their arrival at Scapa. The squadron, on arrival, consisted of the New York; Texas; Wyoming; Florida and Delaware. During the year they were with us, the squadron was completely integrated into the Grand Fleet in every way. For instance, American officers were piped over the side just like our own officers, and not in accordance with the customary courtesies for foreign officers. Some very nice signals were made when the Americans went – on both sides – and everybody obviously hoped that it would be repeated some time.

The arrival of the American troops acted as a much-needed morale boost for the war-weary Allied soldiers. By the spring of 1918, they were arriving on the Western Front in large numbers. Clifford Lane of the Hertfordshire Regiment explained the importance of this, given the depleted state of British forces at that time.

Well, we knew that they were coming. I think it must’ve helped quite a bit really because there’s no doubt that we were getting at the end of our tether, you know. There’s no doubt about that. I mean all the people who’d got the experience were getting tired and nerve-racked and that sort of thing. And the youngsters really didn’t know what it was all about, you know the younger people. And we were running out of troops; they were using boys of 18 and a half, you see, or just over that. I think, myself, it’s only an opinion, that if the Americans hadn’t come in, it would either have been stalemate – because the Germans had had enough too – and there would have had to have been a negotiated peace. That’s what I think. But the fact that these Americans – thousands, hundreds of thousands of them – strong, healthy lads, well-equipped, their strength hadn’t been impaired in any way, they were ready to go just as we were in 1914. You can just imagine what the Germans thought of it, anyway. They must’ve known – they knew what was going to happen, you see.

Part II presented tomorrow