Existing comment:
From Homefront to Battlefront
When the United States declared war in April 1917, the U.S. Army had fewer than 130,000 men. By the end of the war, 4.7 million Americans would serve in the military, two million of them in Europe.
While many Americans volunteered or were activated with National Guard units, most were draftees. The "doughboys," as all American soldiers were known, represented nearly every segment of America's population: Ivy League blue bloods and working-class laborers, country boys and city dwellers, grandsons of enslaved people and grandsons of Civil War veterans.
Typical recruits trained for six months, then boarded trains to the East Coast and sailed for Europe. There they received additional training from combat-experienced British and French NCOs and officers before moving up to the front.
On arrival in the war zone, American doughboys entered a war of unprecedented destruction. Armies fought on a scale never seen before, and the fighting included advanced new weaponry such as machine guns, tank, airplanes, and poison gas. Because of increases in range, explosive power, and rate of fire, artillery caused the most casualties. Many soldiers suffered "shell shock," known today as post-traumatic stress.
Adding the more misery to a world devastated by war, a deadly influenza pandemic struck in 1918-1919. The virus traveled overseas with U.S. troops, and spread rapidly across Europe and the rest of the world. Tens of millions died, including some 50,000 doughboys and another 600,000 back home.
The homefront was just as important in supporting Allied victory. For the first time, the scale of the conflict required the government to organize the economy for war. The War Industries Board set production standards and coordinated railroads and shipping. The National War Labor Board secured the cooperation of American workers by setting higher wages and an eight-hour workday. The government financed the war effort with war bonds and a new personal income tax.
Gaining unity on the homefront required almost as much government attention. The Committee on Public Information produced articles, posters, pamphlets, movies, and speeches to promote the Allied cause. The government suppressed dissent, and passing the Espionage Act which gave the government broad powers to inspect mail and the Sedition Act which made it illegal to speak against the war.
"Your soldiers were superb. They came to us young, enthusiastic, and carried forward by a vigorous idealism, and they marched to battle with admirable gallantry. Yes they were superb. There is no other word."
-- French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, January 15, 1919 |