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World War I, also known as the First World War, the
Great War, and The War to End All Wars,
was a global war which took place primarily
in Europe from 1914 to 1918. Over 40 million
casualties resulted, including approximately
20 million military and civilian deaths. The United States
originally pursued a policy of isolationism,
avoiding conflict while trying to broker
a peace. This resulted in increased tensions
with Berlin and London. When a German
U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania
in 1915, with 128 Americans aboard, U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson vowed, "America
was too proud to fight" and demanded
an end to attacks on passenger ships.
Germany complied. Wilson unsuccessfully
tried to mediate a settlement. He repeatedly
warned the U.S. would not tolerate unrestricted
submarine warfare, in violation of international
law and U.S. ideas of human rights. Wilson
was under pressure from former president
Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German
acts as "piracy". Wilson's
desire to have a seat at negotiations
at war's end to advance the League of
Nations also played a significant role.
Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings
Bryan, resigned in protest of the President's
decidedly warmongering diplomacy.
The era of modern warfare begins with World War
I. An arsenal of deadly weapons first
appeared: aircraft filled the air; the first
effective tanks rolled over the ground; machine
guns decimated the enemy; poison gas killed
or maimed thousands of troops.
In January 1917,
after the Navy pressured the Kaiser, Germany
resumed unrestricted submarine warfare.
Britain's secret Royal Navy cryptanalytic
group, Room 40, had broken the German
diplomatic code. They intercepted a proposal
from Berlin (the Zimmermann Telegram)
to Mexico to join the war as Germany's
ally against the United States, should
the U.S. join. The proposal suggested,
if the U.S. were to enter the war, Mexico
should declare war against the United
States and enlist Japan as an ally. This
would prevent the United States from joining
the Allies and deploying troops to Europe,
and would give Germany more time for their
unrestricted submarine warfare program
to strangle Britain's vital war supplies.
In return, the Germans would promise Mexico
support in reclaiming Texas, New Mexico,
and Arizona.
After the British
revealed the telegram to the United States,
President Wilson, who had won reelection
on his keeping the country out of the
war, released the captured telegram as
a way of building support for U.S. entry
into the war. He had previously claimed
neutrality, while calling for the arming
of U.S. merchant ships delivering munitions
to combatant Britain and quietly supporting
the British blockading of German ports
and mining of international waters, preventing
the shipment of food from America and
elsewhere to combatant Germany. After
submarines sank seven U.S. merchant ships
and the publication of the Zimmerman telegram,
Wilson called for war on Germany, which
the U.S. Congress declared on 6 April
1917.
The United States
was never formally a member of the Allies
but became a self-styled "Associated
Power". The United States had a small
army, but it drafted four million men
and by summer 1918 was sending 10,000
fresh soldiers to France every day. In
1917, the U.S. Congress imposed U.S. citizenship
to Puerto Ricans as part of the Jones
Act, when they were drafted to participate
in World War I. Germany had miscalculated,
believing it would be many more months
before they would arrive and that the
arrival could be stopped by U-boats.
The war was ended
by several treaties, most notably the
Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June
1919, though the Allied powers had an
armistice with Germany in place since
11 November 1918. On November 11
an armistice with Germany was signed in
a railroad carriage at Compiègne.
At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918 —
the eleventh hour of the eleventh day
of the eleventh month — a cease
fire came into effect. Opposing armies
on the Western Front began to withdraw
from their positions. Canadian George
Lawrence Price is traditionally regarded
as the last soldier killed in the Great
War: he was shot by a German sniper and
died at 10:58.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_war_I |
TROWBRIDGE
CORPORAL MADISON
ELLSWORTH TROWBRIDGE (West
Virginia), 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, U.S.
Army; killed in action in France on October 9, 1918, one month
before the armistice. There is a marker for Corp. Trowbridge
among the Tablets of The Missing At Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery,
Romagne, France. There is also a headstone in the Maplewood
Cemetery, Kingwood, Preston Co., W. Va. engraved "CORP. M.
E. TROWBRIDGE 1899-1918." It is located in the Trowbridge
plot with Madison's grandparents James McGrew Trowbridge and Sarah
Ann (Snider) Trowbridge. This marker is simply a memorial and does not mark a grave.
Madison was born on May 4, 1899, the son of Joseph Madison Trowbridge
(1865-1941) and Zona Holyfield, nee Farnsworth, (1858-1901). |
WESTFALL
LOY W. WESTFALL, U.S. Navy, Electrician 2nd Class, enlisted in the U.
S. Navy at Cleveland, Ohio on March 28, 1917 at the age of 25.
From April through October 1917 Loy was assigned to a receiving
ship in New York, N. Y. and then to the submarine base at
New London, Connecticut until January, 1918. From March
until May 1918 he was again assigned to ships based out of New
York. From May until Armistice Day on November 11, 1918
he was assigned to the USS Princess Matoika. He was honorably
discharged on October 19, 1919 at the Great Lakes Naval Training
Center near Chicago. When he enlisted his residence was
listed as 555 W. Thornton Street, Akron, Ohio which was the address
for his parents, Nathaniel and Luvenia (Trowbridge) Westfall. Source: Ancestry.com. Ohio Military Men, 1917-18 [database
on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2000.
Original data: Official Roster of Ohio Soldiers, Sailors and Marines
in the World War, 1917-1918. Vol. I-XXIII. Columbus, OH, USA:
F. J. Heer Printing Co., 1926. |
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