The Great War - WW1
America Enter the War
When US president Woodrow Wilson narrowly won a second term in November 1916, the slogan of his party, the Democrats, had been 'He kept us out of the war'. However, American isolation was not to last much longer.
Unrestricted German submarine warfare drew the United States into the war. On the 31st of January 1917 Germany announced that all shipping, including that of neutral countries would be sunk on sight by U-boats in the Atlantic war zone. On the 2nd of February Wilson broke off relations with Germany. The U-boats immediately began sinking US ships. Shortly afterwards, American newspapers revealed a German scheme, outlined in the 'Zimmerman telegram' to help the Mexicans recover New Mexico from the United States. Reluctantly, Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany on the 6th of April 1917.
America's entry into the war brought almost unbounded manpower and material resources to the Allies, but it would take time for them to be mobilised. In France the American build up was painfully slow!. By the 1st of May 1918 there were scarcely 8 US divisions in France, the bulk of them unprepared for action. Their commander, General John Joseph Pershing, wanted to form them into a seperate Army Group and was reluctant to see his small force dissipated by detachments to help the British and French forces staggering under the impact of the Ludendorff offensive launched in the previous March.