ShmoopTube

00:04

The Americans made their grand entrance into it ww1 in 1917 not [Fireworks and US flag appears]

00:10

to toot our own horn but it really was a blessing for the Allied forces and for

00:14

the Germans it was like watching a wrecking ball without Miley Cyrus on it [Wrecking ball strikes Germany flag]

00:18

sail towards them because of the whole trench warfare thing the war had been at

00:22

a stalemate for a while with manpower and short supply everybody was just [Soldiers crouching in a trench]

00:26

crouching in their trenches and occasionally sending men streaming into

00:29

no-man's land to be mowed down by machine guns

00:32

sometimes some enemy ground was taken but for the most part the war was a big

00:36

muddy rat-infested tie still was a tie that the Germans were likely to soon [German flag breaks tie with hammer]

00:41

break the Allies had a lot of things going against them at this point for one

00:45

the French army had mutinied in large numbers in 1917 making many commanding

00:50

officers wish they'd spruced up those trenches of it another major issue was

00:54

that the Allies had lost one of their allies Tsar Nicholas the second was all [Czar nicholas II in a boxing ring]

00:59

about trying to take down Kaiser Wilhelm especially since the Kaiser was the

01:03

Stars own cousin and had still attacked the Russian Empire the trouble was that [Dad aims rifle at man]

01:08

the Russian military leadership was pretty incompetent and had lost a bunch

01:13

of battles and that too the fact that the war totally overextended Russia's [Clock ticking forward]

01:17

resources and that the people already thought Tsar Nicholas was a crappy Tsar

01:22

and the next thing anybody knew well the Russian people house would star Nikolas

01:27

it wasn't long before the Bolshevik Communists took over and signed a peace [Bolshevik communists in discussion]

01:30

treaty with Germany this meant that Germany could say well

01:33

forget about it to the Eastern Front and focus all their

01:37

energy on the trench ridden Western Front they almost won the whole thing

01:42

with the Spring Offensive of 1918 but the Americans over 500,000 strong at

01:47

that point in the war helped to stop the German advance and we're the main force [US flag grows larger]

01:51

start pushing them back this was the time when being a pushy American was a

01:55

plus an Americans kept helping to turn the tide in several battles that [American flag pushing the tide]

01:59

followed there was the Battle of Cantigny in which US soldiers won today

02:04

but lost 10 thousand of their brothers in the process there was also the Battle

02:08

of belleau wood that lasted for 20 days with America suffering lots of [Soldiers fighting in the battle of belleau wood]

02:13

casualties before finally kicking Germans out of the woods and then there

02:16

was the Battle of Sam Mejia in which 300,000 American troops attacked the

02:21

German lines again suffering terrible casualties but despite all the American

02:25

deaths the Germans couldn't hold one thing all these battles have in common

02:30

is that Americans were a big part of why the Allies won the battle stuff another [American soldier appears in a field]

02:34

thing is that a ton of Americans died why were the Germans just that good

02:39

China but also the Americans were just that bad unfortunately most historians

02:44

agree that US military experience with war was low at the time and our tactics

02:49

were outdated also most of our soldiers were freshly drafted civilians with no [Soldier aiming gun at himself]

02:54

battle experience like these no professional soldiers so a big part of

02:58

why America helps turn the tide wasn't necessarily know-how as it was the sheer

03:02

amount of manpower the US had to throw into the meat grinder we're guessing

03:06

they didn't put that fun fact on the recruitment posters where's Uncle Sam [US army recruitment poster on a wall]

03:12

here being real

Full Transcript