From neutrality to victory: America’s influence on WWI

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Ending the war Lasting from August to November 1918, the Hundred Days Offensive was a co-ordinated Allied effort across the Western Front that neutralised German defences.

On 26th September, General Pershing and his successor Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett led over one million soldiers in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which remains the largest battle in US history. Over 47 days, AEF soldiers drove German troops back 40 miles to Sedan, a railway hub close to the Belgian border. It resulted in 120,000 US casualties, with 26,000 killed.

Meuse-Argonne ended the Hundred Days Offensive and brought the two sides to the table to finally end the four-year conflict.

The signing of an armistice between Germany and the Allies on 11th November 1918 signalled the end of WWI. A formal peace treaty, the Treaty of Versailles, was signed on 28th June 1919.

Notably, the US did not ratify the treaty due to criticism in some quarters over the perceived role of the League of Nations. The US signed a separate peace treaty with Germany, the Treaty of Berlin, on 25th August 1921.

US impact on WWI AEF was initially unprepared for WWI, lacking troop numbers and training, notably in the trench warfare which was a key feature of the war. However, once they were fully mobilised and engaged, the participation of AEF troops broke the stalemate and turned the momentum of the war in favour of the Allies.

It is worth noting that the US played a wider role in the Allies’ victory as well as the battlefield. This included the use of Native American codebreakers, who helped the Allies keep their communications secret from the Germans. The efforts of these 'code talkers' were credited with bringing the war to an end earlier and in saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

The aftermath of The Great War WWI is referred to as The Great War, due to its extent, severity, and impact. Indeed, to those who lived through it, WWI was 'a war to end all wars'. But just two decades later, Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland led the UK and France to declare war on Germany once again.

In the years following WWI, America leaned towards policies of isolationism and non-interventionism, with Congress passing a series of Neutrality Acts. However, antiwar sentiments were set aside following Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941, which brought the US into WWII.

US sacrifice in WWI Almost 177,000 US soldiers died in WWI, with 53,400 deaths on the battlefield, around half of which occurred during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. The other deaths were caused by accidents and disease, particularly the 1918/19 influenza pandemic, which took the lives of an estimated 25,000 US soldiers.

In comparison, an estimated 750,000 soldiers were killed in total across the Union and Confederate sides in the US Civil War (1861-1865), and over 405,000 in WWII (1939-1945). The Vietnam War (1955-1975) resulted in 58,220 US deaths.

These sobering figures help to underline that while the US only entered WWI in 1917, the country’s involvement was significant, in terms of the outcome and the sacrifice.

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From neutrality to victory: America’s influence on WWI

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