![]() ![]() Germany, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary had large standing armies and reserve formations in 1914 that the nations could call up in the event of a war. Continental European powers had a universal military service program in place, and when war broke out, reservists – already trained – went to their mobilization points and joined their units. The United States had no process in place to build a mass army, supply it, transport it and fight it. Both the country and the Army were absolutely unprepared for what was going to happen. Army was a constabulary force of 127,151 soldiers. ![]() “That meant building an Army and engaging the enemy on the Western Front.”ĭoing that was no simple task. “For the United States to have a voice at the peace table, it had to make a significant contribution to the war effort,” Neumann said. They saw the war as an inferno that would topple empires so democracy and the will of the people could triumph. Still others believed that going to war had to mean something greater than simply returning to the status quo on the continent, Neumann said. Others felt it was all right to help France, but not to help Great Britain, he said. ![]() Some Americans believed that because a naval provocation led to the war, the proportional response would be a naval campaign against Germany. Neumann, who edited a series on the Army during World War I, said it wasn’t a done deal that Americans would go to France to help man the Western Front. “The United States was in it, but they had to define what ‘it’ meant,” said Brian Neumann, a historian at the Army’s Center of Military History. ![]()
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