[15.b.6] Germans Temporarily Assume Defensive Posture, 1917
The Germans withdrew to the shorter Hindenburg Line February-March 1917. The high command hoped manpower thus saved coupled with the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic Ocean would force the Allies to sue for peace.
[15.e.3] War Enlivened the Economy
Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor (the same from Chapter 12).
[15.e.4] Moblizing Labor Behind the War Effort
Taxes rose during the war but unemployment fell to 1.2%. A half-million African-Americans from the Deep South as well as women also entered the workforce. Union membership doubled from to 2.6 million in 1915 to 5.1 million in 1920.
[15.e.9] Wartime Balance
Last blank is public goals.
[15.f.4] Yanks Stop the German Offensive on Paris, 1918
During the German spring 1918 offensive, “Doughboys” fought on the defense. Forty miles outside Paris the Army 2nd Division and a brigade of Marines stopped the Germans at Belleau Wood (6-25 June 1918). Over 2,700 Doughboys rest in the American cemetery there today.
[15.f.5] Germans Halted on the Marne River-Again
During the fifth of the German Spring Offensives (15-17 July) German troops crossed the Marne River but were halted by the US 3rd Division at Chateau-Thierry.
[15.f.7] Assessing the A.E.F.'s Contribution to Winning the War
By war’s end, two US armies occupied 1/5 of the total allied frontage in France. The most significant impact the American intervention had on the war was that 200,000 troops arriving in France each month confronted the German high command with a war of attrition it could not win.