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First Tanks
The British employ the first tanks ever used in battle, at Delville Wood. Although they are useful at breaking through barbed wire and clearing a path for the infantry, tanks are still primitive and they fail to be the decisive weapon, as their designers thought they would be. -
Submarines Back
Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare in European waterways. This act, more than any other, draws the United States into the war and causes the eventual defeat of Germany. -
Gas Poisoning in Warfare
The primary action of poisonous gases and vapours may be complex, a number of different organs in the body being simultaneously affected to degrees that vary with the concentration of the gas and the duration of exposure. -
Letter August 11, 1917
Letter to mother. He took an electric car and went up to Amy Medical School. At the end of 3rd week they are to sail for England and from there will be sent some where in France. -
Letter August 15, 1917
Letter to mother. Cousin Frank had to go to New York yesterday. He took him out to lunch and cashed the check for him. His father and mother took them down to Asbury Park. -
Letter September 9,1917
Letter to mother and father. He said London is much like American cities except that they do things in smaller way and more leisurely. In trip here from coast we passed thru very pleasant farming country about all the war. -
Field Almanac 1917
The Risings and Settings of the Sun and Moon are calculated for 2.4 degree East Longitude, and for Latitude 50.30 degree North are given in Greenwich Mean Time, which is standard time of France and Belgium, and of the British Expeditionary Force. -
Letter September 12, 1917
Letter to mother. They have seen quite a little of rural England. They were at Salisbury which is a very quaint old thing from live fowl and calves to linen and laces, just as they have for hundreds of years and visit the cathedral of the old parish of Sarum that was built in 1220. -
Letter from Chief Quartermaster to Richard Leith
Richard Leith requested Chief Quartermaster for blank forms but received response that there are no blank vouchers on hand but they will distribute by mail to him as soon as they received. -
Letter September 30, 1917
Letter to mother and father. When he was in London he went into col. Lyster's office and they said that they would forward any mail as soon as recived so he can't understand it. -
Memo recommending new treatment for trench foot
Preventive Treatment of Trench Foot by using French Preventive method of treatment. The necessary materials will be drawn by units and soap and powder with approximate amount required as follows. Potash Soap 50 lbs, Carphor 2 lbs, Sodium Borate 34 lbs, Talo Powder 50 lbs. This method should implement before the unit enters the line. -
Richard Bliss Leith autobiography
Richard Leith was an American physician attached to the British Expeditionary Force in World War I. He arrived in France in October 1917, well ahead of most American combat forces, and his early letters back home reflect the optimistic view that the war would be over by spring; he even tells his brother that he doesn’t think American troops would have to fight. Leith stayed in Europe for several months beyond the November 1918 Armistice, treating refugees and victims of the 1918 influenza epidem -
Letter October 30, 1917
Letter to mother and father. They landed at France port yesterday. They didn't have very comfortable voyage as the ship was cremmed full and without lights. -
Orders to proceed to New York for embarkation
Richard Leith received document to proceed to New York without delay. Report in person to the Commanding General, Port of Embarkation, Army Piers, Hoboken, New Jersey. -
Germany and Russia Peace
The Germans sign a peace treaty with the new Bolshevik government of Russia. The terms of the treaty give Germany huge tracts of land that had been the Ukraine and Poland, and peace on the Eastern Front allows Germany to shift soldiers to the Western Front, causing serious problems for the French, British, and Americans. -
Battle of Cantigny
The Battle of Cantigny was the first major American offensive of the war. Though small in scale, the Americans fight bravely and soon go on to larger attacks against German positions. -
Battle of Belleau Wood
The Battle of Belleau Wood begins as the U.S. Marine Corps attacks the Germans across an open field wheat, suffering huge casualties. -
Wilhelm Abdicates
Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates, ending all German hope for victory. He and his retinue quietly slip over the border into the Netherlands where he lives out the remainder of his life in relative peace and writes a self-promoting memoir defending his actions in the war.
