American History, Period 2 03/12
"World War I started for Europe in June, 1914," Tyler said, once the class seemed to be assembled and relatively quiet. They were meeting in the danger shop today, with a row of chairs at long tables arranged in front of flight simulators. "Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by a Serbian anarchist." There was the trace of a smirk at that bit of information. "Anyhow, so that lead the Austrian empire to make demands against Serbia, which lead to a bunch of alliances throughout Europe. It's like dominoes falling into place. Russia mobilized troops against Germany, and by August all of the biggest countries in Europe were at each other's throats. Here is a handout about the whole thing, if you want to read how it all went down."
"America, believe it or not, took a pacifist role at first. President Woodrow Wilson tried to avoid war, even after the Germans sunk the civilian British ship the Lusitania in May 1915. Eventually, though, the U.S. was drawn in to defend its allies."
"When America did step in to participate in this war," Algren said, a book in his hand with notes in it that he was making a point not to refer to anyhow, "they were ill-prepared for it. Including the National Guard, the American Army numbered only 300,000 troops. Their arsenal of war supplies was entirely nonexistent, and the rest of the world had an unrealistic view as to the resources that our nation actually had to offer. France expected America to immediately produce over 2,000 airplanes, when America had only ever produced about 800 in total prior to the war. The Allies expected America to be a never ending supply of manpower to replenish their own suffering divisions with."
He gave a tired sort of smile, idly brushing a stray feather from his sleeve.
"It never works that way. The Allies wanted a million men right away. Congress offered 420,000 by spring 1918. The plethora of American military supplies that the Allies had hoped for never did happen, and our men fought most of their battles using European equipment. British helmets and the like. American troops first saw action in May of 1918, fighting along the Marne River in France. September that year, an all-out attack on the Saint-Mihiel area left America with high casualties, but it also left the entire German army retreating. October saw the Americans pushing through the Argonne forest, and German high command started to crumble. German General Ludendorff fled to Sweden, the Kaiser's navy was riddled with mutiny, the Kaiser was forced to abdicate on the 9th of November, and two days later, on November 11th, Germany signed an armistice that ended the war. Almost 1.2 million Americans fought during the length of this war. Casualties numbered 117,000. And when it was over, the nation wanted nothing more than to get back to 'the good old days.'"
"World War I was the first war to involve the new invention, the aircraft," Tyler said. "At the start of the war, no country had done more than experiment with dropping bombs from planes, and most experts thought flying would have to be limited to spy missions. In 1914, the U.S. had eight military aircraft and 14 trained fighter pilots. But war changed that, and by 1918 America had 740 front-line aircraft, most French productions. The greatest American ace of the time period was Eddie Rickenbacker, a chauffer who talked his way into pilot training. He is credited with 26 victories in the air and 300 combat flight hours, both still records. He flew many of his first missions in the French Nieuport 28, and that's what those sims are set up to look like, because today, you're flying planes."
"The Nieuport is a biplane with twin machine guns and a new wing structure." He explained the technical specifications and how the controls worked. "Now, pair up and fly some planes. You can do a tourist mission or combat setting."
"Try not to crash into anything," Algren added dryly. "It might just be the danger shop, but I think we've all had enough divebombing aerial attacks to last us for quite some time, thank you."
[OCD is up! Have at thee!]
"America, believe it or not, took a pacifist role at first. President Woodrow Wilson tried to avoid war, even after the Germans sunk the civilian British ship the Lusitania in May 1915. Eventually, though, the U.S. was drawn in to defend its allies."
"When America did step in to participate in this war," Algren said, a book in his hand with notes in it that he was making a point not to refer to anyhow, "they were ill-prepared for it. Including the National Guard, the American Army numbered only 300,000 troops. Their arsenal of war supplies was entirely nonexistent, and the rest of the world had an unrealistic view as to the resources that our nation actually had to offer. France expected America to immediately produce over 2,000 airplanes, when America had only ever produced about 800 in total prior to the war. The Allies expected America to be a never ending supply of manpower to replenish their own suffering divisions with."
He gave a tired sort of smile, idly brushing a stray feather from his sleeve.
"It never works that way. The Allies wanted a million men right away. Congress offered 420,000 by spring 1918. The plethora of American military supplies that the Allies had hoped for never did happen, and our men fought most of their battles using European equipment. British helmets and the like. American troops first saw action in May of 1918, fighting along the Marne River in France. September that year, an all-out attack on the Saint-Mihiel area left America with high casualties, but it also left the entire German army retreating. October saw the Americans pushing through the Argonne forest, and German high command started to crumble. German General Ludendorff fled to Sweden, the Kaiser's navy was riddled with mutiny, the Kaiser was forced to abdicate on the 9th of November, and two days later, on November 11th, Germany signed an armistice that ended the war. Almost 1.2 million Americans fought during the length of this war. Casualties numbered 117,000. And when it was over, the nation wanted nothing more than to get back to 'the good old days.'"
"World War I was the first war to involve the new invention, the aircraft," Tyler said. "At the start of the war, no country had done more than experiment with dropping bombs from planes, and most experts thought flying would have to be limited to spy missions. In 1914, the U.S. had eight military aircraft and 14 trained fighter pilots. But war changed that, and by 1918 America had 740 front-line aircraft, most French productions. The greatest American ace of the time period was Eddie Rickenbacker, a chauffer who talked his way into pilot training. He is credited with 26 victories in the air and 300 combat flight hours, both still records. He flew many of his first missions in the French Nieuport 28, and that's what those sims are set up to look like, because today, you're flying planes."
"The Nieuport is a biplane with twin machine guns and a new wing structure." He explained the technical specifications and how the controls worked. "Now, pair up and fly some planes. You can do a tourist mission or combat setting."
"Try not to crash into anything," Algren added dryly. "It might just be the danger shop, but I think we've all had enough divebombing aerial attacks to last us for quite some time, thank you."
[OCD is up! Have at thee!]