File:The causes and meaning of the great war (1919) (14781284012).jpg

Identifier: causesmeaningofg00gord (find matches)
Title: The causes and meaning of the great war
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Gordy, Wilbur Fisk, 1854-1929
Subjects: World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: New York, Boston, Scribner
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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s achievement of building up, training,and transporting her huge armies to the fightingline in France, 3;000 miles away. When, early in April, 1917, we went to war withGermany, our army numbered only 9,500 officersand 202,600 men. A year later, the number hadincreased to nearly 124,000 officers and 1,529,000men. Early in July, 1918, there were 1,019,115overseas or on their way over. Late in the sum-mer means of transportation for 250,000 per monthwere provided; and before the signing of the armis-tice on November 11, 1918, there were on Euro-pean soil 2,000,000 American troops. Had the warlasted until the summer of 1919, this number wouldprobably have risen to nearly 4,000,000. But we are ahead of our story, for in the springof 1918 the number of American troops that hadreached France was small. We had barely fourdivisions ready to go into battle. 141. German Military Leaders Still Hope thatAmerican Troops Will Reach France too Late.—TheGerman military leaders still hoped—and with
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114 THE CAUSES AND MEANING Our ship-buildingarmy550,000strong good reason, as they believed—that Americantroops could not reach France in time to play aneffective part in determining the military decision.According to their theory, the submarines hadbeen so destructive and would continue to be sucha menace that the transportation problem couldnot be solved. They knew what the world learnedfrom an official British statement made on March21, 1918, namely, that from August, 1914, toJanuary, 1918, 11,800,000 gross tons of allied andneutral shipping had been sunk, and that onlyabout 6,600,000 tons had been built to take theplace of the loss. They knew also that theAllies had a pressing need for every vessel thatcould be brought into service to transport foodand other supplies for their soldiers and civil-ians. 142. Wonderful Success of Our Emergency FleetCorporation.—But again the German high com-mand made a serious mistake in its reckoning. Forour Emergency Fleet Corporation, spurred

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