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Germans invade Belgium
For the war to begin, Germany needed a free passage to Belgium. The German government even demanded to send a letter to the Belgian government. Attacking France from where Belgium was, gave them a better chance of winning the war since they came from a different country. Once Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, that gave them the thumbs up to declare war on France. Even though Belgium was neutral, Germany invading them Belgium ruined that. -
Lusitania sinks
On May 7, 1915, The Lusitania was attacked by a German submarine. With 1,198 passengers, 128 of them were Americans. They Germans defended themselves by saying it was their intent to attack all ships that entered the war zone around Britain. Because of this, the tension between Germany and The United States grew more. -
After the Lusitania
Reacting to the international outrage of the sinking of The Lusitania and many other ships, Kaiser Wilhelm suspended unrestricted submarine warfare. This was an attempt to try and keep The United States out of the war. All this does is pause the movement of the Germans. While the United States is trying to get supplies to Britain. -
Germans goes back to submarine warfare
Germans stopped using submarine warfare because of the sinking of The Lusitania. The Lusitania getting sunk, caused a lot of problems between The United States and Germany. After a while, the Germans went back to their submarine warfare which influenced the United States to join World War 1. Because of this, The United States and Germany's tension grew even more and there was no going back. -
The United States joins the war
The united states was agreed to be neutral, but Britain was one of America's closest trading partners. So the senate had to take a vote. The US senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany. The tension between Germany and America was already rising so there was no surprise that they continued to sink the US ships going to Britain. The United States entered the war on the side of France and Britain. -
Battle of Cantigny
Battle of Cantigny is the first battle the United States uses their offense in WW1. The US fought bravely and even though it was a small battle, it was preparation for the bigger battles. The Americans had taken about 100 German prisoners. The next 72 hours, the Americans in Cantigny fought seven German counterattacks. Those attacks caused 200 Americans killed, and 200 incapacitated by German gas attacks. By the end, there were 1,000 casualties of that battle. -
Battle of Belleau Wood
The US, told by General John J. Pershing, helped halt the Germans. General Pershing ordered a counteroffensive to drive the Germans out of Belleau Wood. The US marines, told by General James Harbord, led an attack on the four German divisions in the woods and by the first day there were around 1,000 casualties. The Americans weren't holding anything back and just kept going. -
Battle of Belleau ends
For the next couple of weeks, the marines continued their attacks into the forests. But German General Ludendorff was determined and wasn't going to let the Americans win. The Germans continued to attack the US with machine guns, artillery, and gas. The area where the Germans were at had changed hands six times during the short battle and it caused 10,000 casualties. 10,000 Americans that were dead, wounded or missing. -
Hiking in the rain
Harry Frieman was on his second day of hiking. On Sunday the 8th, they hiked again from 3 to 6 p.m. to R.R. station in heavy rain. It had been raining all week and it was probably the worst time to hike. When they boarded to go hike again around 3 a.m. the car was very crowded. Harry got a total of three meals that day and even drank wine 3 times. The soldiers were also treated different when they went shopping, but that didn’t change their mind to shop for food. -
Battle of Mihiel
The battle began with 300,000 American troops under the direct command of General Pershing. Allied tanks across the trenches of St. Mihiel followed closely by the infantry troops. The weather during the battle caused problems for both the Americans and the enemies because the trenches were filled with water. But the Americans changed offense and combined with British forces and both made an attack on the Germans. The Americans took the victory and were even closer to winning the war. -
Going to the Front lines
Harry and all the soldiers had to move from the woods, to the front. For the first all American drive on the 20 mile front in the Argonne Forest, north of Verdun. They reached their front line trenches around 11p.m. at night. The first Platoon was attach to the 1st Battalion and the second Platoon was attached to the third Battalion. The third Platoon was attached to the second Battalion. Harry was the Platoon Agent to Lieut. Schisler-end Platoon. -
Bad weather and new findings
Harry and the rest of the soldiers start again at No Mans Land. The weather continues to be bad like cold, and rainy. They also advanced under artillery and M.G. and it’s raining so much that the shell holes are filled with water up to the soldier’s knees. On the 27th, Harry and some of his friends also captured a lot of prisoners. -
Trying to Leave the Woods
Harry and the rest of the soldiers started the day in the woods. With the Germans attacking all day. They slowly had to make their way out of the woods. While they made their way out, Harry described that there were dead bodies of all kinds lying on the mud. Some bodies had been lying there for weeks because no one gets the chance to remove them. -
Wilhelm Abdicates
Wilhelm had been suffering from depression in 1908 and had been out of touch with international politics. He figured that other European monarchs could handle the situation but then Germany declared war against Russia and France. Wilhelm was commander in chief of the German armed forces. He was the leader of the Germans and could make them change or do what he wanted. He even said “you will regret this. Gentleman.” Germany was a military dictatorship dominated by two generals. -
Firing in the fog
Started the day by going to Chaumont around 7:30 am. They were caught in Huns shell fire so they took their guns and ammunition off the parts and started to walk. They could only see 10 yards in front of them because it was so foggy. At 10:30 am the fog started to get controlled and Harry and the rest of the soldiers received orders to open A.M.G. barrage and start firing if the other side fired. Once everyone stopped firing, they laid there waiting until it was safe to leave.
