VII Corps (United States)
The VII Corps of the United States Army was one of the two principal corps of the United States Army Europe during the Cold War. Activated in 1918 for World War I, it was reactivated for World War II and again during the Cold War. During both World War II and the Cold War it was subordinate to the Seventh Army, or USAREUR and was headquartered at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, West Germany, from 1951 until it was redeployed to the US and inactivated in 1992. VII Corps was organized at the end of World War I on 19 August 1918, at Remiremont and was inactivated on 11 July 1919; the U. S. VII Corps was reactivated as part of the Organized Reserve on 29 July 1921 and inactivated on 18 October 1927. VII Corps was reactivated at Fort McClellan, Alabama 25 November 1940 and participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers staged as the US Army prepared for World War II. In late December 1941, VII Corps HQ was moved to San Jose, California as part of the Western Defense Command and as it continued to train and prepare for deployment.
Its first return to continental Europe took place on D-Day in June 1944, as one of the two assault corps for the U. S. First Army during Operation Overlord, targeting Utah Beach via amphibious assault. For Overlord, the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions were attached to VII Corps. After the Battle of Normandy the airborne units were assigned to the newly created XVIII Airborne Corps. Subsequently, VII Corps participated in many battles during the advance across France and invaded Germany until the surrender of the Third Reich in May 1945; the corps was inactivated in 1946. For the Normandy Operation, VII Corps was part of 21st Army Group under the command of General Bernard Montgomery and the U. S. First Army commanded by Lieutenant General Courtney Hodges; the Corps was commanded by Major General J. Lawton Collins. VII Corps led the initial assault of Operation Cobra, the First Army-led offensive as part of the breakout of the Normandy area, its success is credited with changing the war in France from high-intensity infantry combat to rapid maneuver warfare.
4th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Raymond O. Barton8th Infantry Col. James A. Van Fleet 12th Infantry Col. Russell P. Reeder Lt. Col. Hervey Tribolet 22nd Infantry Col. Hervey A. Tribolet Col. Robert T. Foster 9th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Manton S. Eddy39th Infantry Col. Harry A. "Paddy" Flint 47th Infantry Col. George W. Smythe 60th Infantry Col. Frederick J. de Rohan79th Infantry Division, Maj. Gen. Ira T. Wyche313th Infantry Col. Sterling A. Wood 314th Infantry Col. Warren A. Robinson 315th Infantry Col. Porter P. Wiggins Col. Bernard B. McMahon 82nd Airborne Division, Maj. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway505th Parachute Infantry Col. William E. Ekman 507th Parachute Infantry Col. George V. Millett, Jr. Col. Edson D. Raff 508th Parachute Infantry Col. Roy E. Lindquist 325th Glider Infantry Col. Harry L. Lewis90th Infantry Division, Brig. Gen. Jay W. MacKelvie357th Infantry Col. Philip De Witt Ginder Col. John W. Sheehy Lt. Col. Charles M. Schwab Col. George B. Barth 358th Infantry Col. James V. Thompson Col. Richard C.
Partridge 359th Infantry Col. Clark K. Fales101st Airborne Division, Maj. Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor501st Parachute Infantry Col. Howard R. Johnson 502nd Parachute Infantry Col. George V. H. Moseley, Jr. Lt. Col. John H. Michaelis 506th Parachute Infantry Col. Robert F. Sink 327th Glider Infantry Col. George S. Wear Col. Joseph H. Harper 4th Cavalry Group, Col. Joseph M. Tully4th Cavalry Squadron Lt. Col. E. C. Dunn 24th Cavalry Squadron Lt. Col. F. H. Gaston, Jr.6th Armored Group, Col. Francis F. Fainter70th Tank Battalion Lt. Col. John C. Welborn 746th Tank Battalion Lt. Col. C. G. HupferBattle casualties, 6 June – 1 July 1944 Source: VII Corps, G-1 Reports, June 1944 From reactivation in 1950 and throughout the Cold War, the corps guarded part of NATO's front with the Warsaw Pact. Headquartered in Stuttgart at Kelley Barracks it was one of the two main US combat formations in Germany along with V Corps, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main at Abrams Building. At the end of the Cold War, VII Corps would have commanded the following units in case of war: VII Corps, Stuttgart 1st Armored Division, Ansbach 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas, OPERATION REFORGER unit.
POMCUS Set 1 depots at Mannheim, 4th Battalion 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division at Cooke Barracks, Germany. 1st Canadian Infantry Division, Ontario 3rd Infantry Division, Würzburg 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Nürnberg VII Corps Artillery, Stuttgart 17th Field Artillery Brigade, Augsburg 72nd Field Artillery Brigade, Wertheim 210th Field Artillery Brigade, Herzogenaurach 11th Combat Aviation Brigade, Illesheim 7th Engineer Brigade, Kornwestheim 14th Military Police Brigade, Ludwigsburg 2nd Support Command, Nellingen auf den Fildern 207th Military Intelligence Brigade, Ludwigsburg 38th Infantry Division, Indiana 602nd Air Support Operations Group, USAF Stuttgart After Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait in 1990, the corps was deployed to Saudi Arabia as part of the second major wave of deployments of American forces. Its presence took US forces in theatre from a force capable of defending Saudi Arabia to a force capable of ejecting Iraqi troops from Kuwait. In the Gulf War, VII Corps was the most powerful formation of its type to take to the battlefield.
A corps commands three divisions when at full strength, along with other units such as artillery of various types, corps-level engineers and support units. However, VII Corps had far more firepower under its command, its principal full strength fighting formations were U. S. 1st Armored Division, U. S. 3rd Armored Division
New Georgia Campaign
The New Georgia Campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan. It was part of the Allied strategy in the South Pacific; the campaign took place in the New Georgia group of islands, in the central Solomon Islands from 20 June through 7 October 1943. The Japanese had captured New Georgia in 1942 and built an airbase at Munda Point which began operations in December 1942 to support the Guadalcanal offensives; as it became clear at the end of 1942 that they could not hold Guadalcanal, the Japanese commanders guessed that the Allies would move toward the Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain, that the central Solomon Islands were logical steps on the way. The Imperial Japanese Army believed that holding the Solomon Islands would be unsuccessful and that it would be better to wait for an Allied attack on Bougainville which would be much less costly to supply and reinforce; the Imperial Japanese Navy preferred to delay the Allied advance for as long as possible by maintaining a distant line of defence.
With no effective central command, the two Japanese services implemented their own plans: the navy assumed responsibility for the defence of the central Solomons and the army for the northern Solomons. In early 1943, Japanese defenses were prepared against possible Allied landings on New Georgia and Santa Isabel. By June 1943, there were 10,500 troops on New Georgia and 9,000 on Kolombangara, all under the command of General Minoru Sasaki, well dug in and waiting for an Allied attack. By early 1943, some Allied leaders had wanted to focus on capturing Rabaul, but Japanese strength there and lack of landing craft meant that such an operation was not practical in 1943. Instead, on the initiative of the U. S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, a plan known as Operation Cartwheel was developed, which proposed to envelop and cut off Rabaul without capturing it, by simultaneous offensives in the Territory of New Guinea and northward through the Solomon Islands; the Allied base at Guadalcanal continued to suffer from Japanese bombing raids after the island was declared secured on 9 February 1943.
The Japanese airfield at Munda made these raids easier by giving Japanese planes a convenient place to refuel on the way to and from their main base at Rabaul. The Allies attempted to neutralize Munda with repeated bombing raids and naval shelling, but the Japanese were always able to repair the airfield in short order; the Allied command thus determined. Since the New Georgias lay within the South Pacific Area, the operation would be the responsibility of Admiral William F. Halsey, headquartered at Nouméa on New Caledonia; the Russell Island group, lying between Guadalcanal and the New Georgia group, had served as a troop staging base for the Japanese during the fight for Guadalcanal, Admiral Halsey, Commander South Pacific Force, determined to capture it in preparation for the main action in the New Georgias. In early February, he instructed Rear Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner his Deputy Commander and now his Commander Amphibious Force, to undertake Operation Cleanslate. Beginning 21 February, Admiral Turner landed the 43rd Infantry Division under Maj. Gen. John H. Hester and the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Harry B.
"Harry the Horse" Liversedge on the Russells, a total of 9,000 troops and their equipment. These landings were unopposed because, unbeknownst to the Allies, the Japanese had evacuated the Russells soon after leaving Guadalcanal. In fact, the men landing on nearby Banika Island were greeted by two coastwatchers with the offer of a cup of tea. Alarmed that the Allies were working their way up the Solomons chain, the Japanese bombed the new American base in the Russells and began strengthening their own airfields at Munda and at nearby Vila on Kolombangara Island. In their turn, the Americans continued attempting to subdue Munda field with naval shellings of dubious effectiveness. During the course of one of these overnight bombardment sorties, on the night of 6–7 March 1943, an American force consisting of three light cruisers and three destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral A. Stanton "Tip" Merrill encountered the Japanese destroyers Murasame and Minegumo as they were returning up Kula Gulf from delivering food and supplies to the garrison at Vila.
In the ensuing action, known as the Battle of Blackett Strait, both Japanese destroyers were sunk. The Americans next attempted to interdict the Japanese supply lanes by mining the ocean approaches to Vila and Munda; this proved as ineffective as bombardment had been, since the Japanese were able to sweep up the mines readily. The Allies had plenty of time to plan Operation Toenails, as the invasion of the New Georgias was called; the plan called for simultaneous landings on 30 June at four places. From southeast to northwest, these were: Wickham Anchorage on the southeast coast of Vangunu Island. During the entire New Georgia Campaign, the resolution and resourcefulness of the British Commonwealth coastwatchers proved invaluable to the Allied cause. District Officer Donald Gilbert Kennedy, a New Zealander, set the tone in a message he had had delivered to every native village when occupation by the Japanese was imminent: "These islands are British and they are to remain British; the government is not leaving.
If the Japanese come, we shall stay with you and in th
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge known as the Ardennes Counteroffensive, took place from 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in eastern Belgium, northeast France, Luxembourg, towards the end of the war in Europe; the offensive was intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp and to split the Allied lines, allowing the Germans to encircle and destroy four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. The Germans achieved a total surprise attack on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, poor aerial reconnaissance. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war; the battle severely depleted Germany's armored forces, they were unable to replace them.
German personnel and Luftwaffe aircraft sustained heavy losses. The Germans had attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, taking advantage of overcast weather conditions that grounded the Allies' overwhelmingly superior air forces. Fierce resistance on the northern shoulder of the offensive, around Elsenborn Ridge, in the south, around Bastogne, blocked German access to key roads to the northwest and west that they counted on for success. Columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule and allowed the Allies to reinforce the thinly placed troops; the furthest west the offensive reached was the village of Foy-Nôtre-Dame, south east of Dinant, being stopped by the British 21st Army Group on 24 December 1944. Improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive.
In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left depleted of men and equipment, as survivors retreated to the defenses of the Siegfried Line. The Germans' initial attack involved 410,000 men; these were reinforced a couple of weeks bringing the offensive's total strength to around 450,000 troops, 1,500 tanks and assault guns. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, wounded in action, or captured. For the Americans, out of a peak of 610,000 troops, 89,000 became casualties out of which some 19,000 were killed; the "Bulge" was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the second deadliest battle in American history. After the breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more than anticipated; the Allies were faced with several military logistics issues: troops were fatigued by weeks of continuous combat supply lines were stretched thin supplies were dangerously depleted.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff chose to hold the Ardennes region, occupied by the U. S. First Army; the Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. They had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as a rest-and-refit area for its troops; the speed of the Allied advance coupled with an initial lack of deep-water ports presented the Allies with enormous supply problems. Over-the-beach supply operations using the Normandy landing areas, direct landing ships on the beaches, were unable to meet operational needs; the only deep-water port the Allies had captured was Cherbourg on the northern shore of the Cotentin peninsula and west of the original invasion beaches, but the Germans had wrecked, mined, the harbor before it could be taken. It took many months to rebuild its cargo-handling capability; the Allies captured the port of Antwerp intact in the first days of September, but it was not operational until 28 November.
The estuary of the Schelde river, that controlled access to the port, had to be cleared of both German troops and naval mines. These limitations led to differences between General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, commander of the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, over whether Montgomery or Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, commanding the U. S. 12th Army Group, in the south would get priority access to supplies. German forces remained in control of several major ports on the English Channel coast until the end of the war in May 1945; the Allies' efforts to destroy the French railway system prior to D-Day, were successful. This destruction hampered the German response to the invasion, but it proved hampering to the Allies, it took time to repair bridges. A trucking system nicknamed the Red Ball Express brought supplies to front-line troops, but used up five times as much fuel, to reach the front line near the Belgian border, as it delivered. By early October, the Allies had suspended major offensives to improve their supply lines and supply availability at the front.
Montgomery and Bradley both pressed for priority delivery of supplies to their respective armies so they could continue their individual lines of advance and maintain
Norman Cota
Major General Norman Daniel "Dutch" Cota, Sr. was a senior United States Army officer who fought during World War II. Cota was involved in the planning and execution of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in June 1944, codenamed Operation Neptune, the subsequent Battle of Normandy, he is famous for rallying demoralized troops on Omaha Beach on D-Day, by engaging in combat with them and leading their first successful breakout, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions there. Cota was born in Chelsea, the son of George William Cota, a former railroad telegrapher, Jessie H. Mason, a school teacher, he attended Worcester Academy for three years beginning in the fall of 1910. While playing football there, his teammates nicknamed him "Dutch," and the name stuck with him, although its origins remained unclear. In June 1913, he was accepted to the United States Military Academy at New York, he and the rest of his class graduated seven weeks ahead of schedule, on April 20, 1917, because of the American entry into World War I.
Among his classmates included Matthew Ridgway, J. Lawton Collins, Mark W. Clark, Ernest N. Harmon, Laurence B. Keiser, Bryant Moore, Charles H. Gerhardt, Frederick Augustus Irving, William Kelly Harrison, Jr.. Like Cota, all of these men would become general officers. Cota and Dwight D. Eisenhower got to know one another while playing football at West Point, they remained good friends. Cota was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch of the United States Army, his first assignment was with the 22nd Infantry Regiment. Due to the outbreak of war Cota was promoted to first lieutenant captain after only a few months. By the time he had accumulated 18 months of active duty, he was a major, he was assigned to become an instructor at the USMA shortly before the end of the war on November 11, 1918, serving there until 1920. In 1919, the now peacetime army underwent "massive downsizing" and he was reduced in rank to captain. While Post Financial Officer at Langley Field, Virginia, in 1922, he was held responsible when the post was robbed of $43,000.
It took an appeal to Congress. He served in Hawaii and graduated from the U. S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in June 1931, his student paper "Study of the dispositions of the Turkish 9th Division on the night of April 24–25 and its operations to include the night of April 27–28" was about the Gallipoli Campaign in World War I. He was an instructor at the U. S. Army Infantry School and graduated from the U. S. Army War College in 1936, he was an instructor at the U. S. Army Command and General Staff School, he became the executive officer for the 16th Infantry Regiment at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York. At the outbreak of World War II, he was the G-2 Officer and G-3 Officer of the 1st Infantry Division from March 1941 until June 1942. In June 1942, he was promoted to chief of staff of the division, a position he held until February 1943. In February 1943, right after his involvement in the Allied invasion of North Africa, under the command of Major General Terry Allen, he prepared a report which included suggested revisions to the task organization of assault divisions, his recommendations were adopted during preparations for Operation Husky, the codename for the Allied invasion of Sicily.
He was promoted to the one-star general officer rank of brigadier general and was sent to the United Kingdom, where he served as the American advisor to the Combined Operations Division of the European Theater of Operations. In that capacity, Cota helped supervise the training for amphibious landing operations; as a major advisor in Operation Overlord, he was made the assistant division commander of the 29th Infantry Division, designated to land at Omaha Beach during the Battle of Normandy. The 29th Division, a National Guard formation nicknamed the "Blue and Grey", was commanded by his fellow West Point classmate, Major General Charles H. Gerhardt. During the planning for D-Day, he opposed daylight landings, believing a pre-dawn assault would stand a better chance of success. A year before the invasion, at the Conference on Landing Assaults, Cota had argued in favor of striving for tactical surprise:... It is granted. Tactical surprise is another thing however.... Tactical surprise is one of the most powerful factors in determining success.
I therefore, favor the night landing. I do not believe. Cota was not alone in his opposition. Major General Leonard T. Gerow, commander of V Corps, Admiral John L. Hall, Jr. commander of Amphibious Force "O", both fought to change the Operation Overlord plan, pleading for a nighttime assault. However, the high command decided otherwise, concluding that naval and air bombardment would neutralize, or in the best case, enemy opposition; the plan for Omaha called for hurling infantry directly at a prepared enemy position, a position, enhanced by the concave shape of the beach and man-made obstacles, bad weather and other factors. Most D-Day commanders assured their men that the Germans would be annihilated by the Allies' pre-invasion firepower, that the defenders were, in any case, outnumbered and demoralized. All of these beliefs were to be proved
Guadalcanal Campaign
The Guadalcanal Campaign known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II. It was the first major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. On 7 August 1942, Allied forces, predominantly United States Marines, landed on Guadalcanal and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten Allied supply and communication routes between the United States and New Zealand; the Allies intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases in supporting a campaign to capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Japanese defenders, who had occupied those islands since May 1942, were outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Allies, who captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as the airfield – named Henderson Field –, under construction on Guadalcanal.
Surprised by the Allied offensive, the Japanese made several attempts between August and November to retake Henderson Field. Three major land battles, seven large naval battles, daily aerial battles culminated in the decisive Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in early November, with the defeat of the last Japanese attempt to bombard Henderson Field from the sea and to land with enough troops to retake it. In December, the Japanese abandoned their efforts to retake Guadalcanal, evacuated their remaining forces by 7 February 1943, in the face of an offensive by the U. S. Army's XIV Corps; the Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic Allied combined-arms victory in the Pacific theater. While the Battle of Midway was a crushing defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy, it did not stop Japanese offensives, which continued both at sea and on the ground; the victories at Milne Bay, Buna–Gona, Guadalcanal marked the Allied transition from defensive operations to the strategic initiative in the theater, leading to offensive campaigns in the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Central Pacific, which resulted in the surrender of Japan, ending World War II.
On 7 December 1941, Japanese forces attacked the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. The attack crippled much of the U. S. precipitated an open and formal state of war between the two nations. The initial goals of Japanese leaders were to neutralize the U. S. Navy, seize possessions rich in natural resources, establish strategic military bases to defend Japan's empire in the Pacific Ocean and Asia. To further those goals, Japanese forces captured the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Wake Island, Gilbert Islands, New Britain and Guam. Joining the U. S. in the war against Japan were the rest of the Allied powers, several of whom, including the United Kingdom and the Netherlands had been attacked by Japan. The Japanese made two attempts to continue their strategic initiative, offensively extend their outer defensive perimeter in the south and central Pacific to where they could threaten Australia and Hawaii or the U. S. West Coast; those efforts were thwarted at the naval battles of Coral Midway respectively.
Coral Sea was a tactical stalemate, but a strategic Allied victory which became clear only much later. Midway was not only the Allies' first clear major victory against the Japanese, it reduced the offensive capability of Japan's carrier forces, but did not change their offensive mindset for several crucial months in which they compounded mistakes by moving ahead with brash brazen decisions, such as the attempt to assault Port Moresby over the Kokoda trail. Up to this point, the Allies had been on the defensive in the Pacific but these strategic victories provided them an opportunity to take the initiative from Japan; the Allies chose the Solomon Islands the southern Solomon Islands of Guadalcanal and Florida Island, as the first target, designated Task One, with three specific objectives. The objectives were the occupation of the Santa Cruz Islands, "adjacent positions". Guadalcanal, which became the focus of the operation, was not mentioned in the early directive and only took on the operation-name Watchtower.
The Imperial Japanese Navy had occupied Tulagi in May 1942 and had constructed a seaplane base nearby. Allied concern grew when, in early July 1942, the IJN began constructing a large airfield at Lunga Point on nearby Guadalcanal—from such a base Japanese long-range bombers would threaten the sea lines of communication from the West Coast of the Americas to the populous East Coast of Australia. By August 1942, the Japanese had about 900 naval troops on Tulagi and nearby islands and 2,800 personnel on Guadalcanal; these bases would protect Japan's major base at Rabaul, threaten Allied supply and communication lines and establish a staging area for a planned offensive against Fiji, New Caledonia and Samoa. The Japanese planned to deploy 60 bombers to Guadalcanal. In the overall strategy for 1942 these aircraft could provide air cover for Japanese naval forces advancing farther into the South Pacific; the Allied plan to invade the southern Solomons was conceived by U. S. Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief, United States Fleet.
He proposed the offensive to deny the
American entry into World War I
The American entry into World War I came in April 1917, after more than two and a half years of efforts by President Woodrow Wilson to keep the United States out of the war. Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British, American public opinion reflected that of the president: the sentiment for neutrality was strong among Irish Americans, German Americans, Scandinavian Americans, as well as among church leaders and among women in general. On the other hand before World War I had broken out, American opinion had been more negative toward Germany than towards any other country in Europe. Over time after reports of atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and following the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, American citizens came to see Germany as the aggressor in Europe. Wilson, as president, made all the key decisions over foreign policy. While the country was at peace American banks made huge loans to Britain and France, which were used to buy munitions, raw materials, food from across the Atlantic.
Until 1917, Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war and kept the United States Army on a small peacetime footing, despite increasing demands for enhanced preparedness. He did, expand the United States Navy. In 1917, with Russia experiencing political upheaval, with Britain and France low on credit, Germany appeared to have the upper hand in Europe, while the Ottoman Empire, Germany's ally, held on to its territory in modern-day Iraq and Israel. At this point Germany decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, its goal was to starve Britain into surrender, although it realized that this would certainly bring the United States into the war. Germany made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories lost in the Mexican–American War in an encoded telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, intercepted by British intelligence. Publication of that communique outraged Americans just as German U-boats started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic. Wilson asked Congress for "a war to end all wars" that would "make the world safe for democracy", Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
On December 7, 1917, the U. S. declared war on Austria-Hungary. U. S. Troops began arriving on the Western Front in large numbers in 1918. Britain used its large navy to prevent cargo vessels entering German ports by intercepting them in the North Sea between the coasts of Scotland and Norway; the wider sea approaches to Britain and France, their distance from German harbours and the smaller size of the German surface fleet all made it harder for Germany to reciprocate. Instead, Germany used submarines to lie in wait for, sink, merchant ships heading for enemy ports; the United States insisted on maintaining the traditional rights of ships registered in neutral countries and protested against American ships being intercepted or sunk: the British seized American ships for supposed violations, while the Germans sank them — without warning, in violation of international law that said sailors must be allowed an opportunity to reach their lifeboats. After several violations, Germany stopped this practice but in early 1917 she decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, in the hope that this would starve out the British before the Americans could make any effective military retaliation.
The British Royal Navy stopped the shipment of most war supplies and food to Germany. Neutral American ships that tried to trade with Germany were seized or turned back by the Royal Navy who viewed such trade as in direct conflict with the Allies' war efforts; the strangulation came about slowly, because Germany and its allies controlled extensive farmlands and raw materials. It was successful because Germany and Austria-Hungary had decimated their agricultural production by taking so many farmers into their armies. By 1918, German cities were on the verge of starvation. Germany considered a blockade. "England wants to starve us", said Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the man who built the German fleet and who remained a key advisor to the Kaiser Wilhelm II. "We can play the same game. We can bottle her up and destroy every ship that endeavors to break the blockade". Unable to challenge the more powerful Royal Navy on the surface, Tirpitz wanted to scare off merchant and passenger ships en route to Britain.
He reasoned that since the island of Britain depended on imports of food, raw materials, manufactured goods, scaring off a substantial number of the ships would undercut its long-term ability to maintain an army on the Western Front. While Germany had only nine long-range U-boats at the start of the war, it had ample shipyard capacity to build the hundreds needed. However, the United States demanded that Germany respect the international agreements upon "freedom of the seas", which protected neutral American ships on the high seas from seizure or sinking by either belligerent. Furthermore, Americans insisted that the drowning of innocent civilians was barbaric and grounds for a declaration of war; the British violated America's neutral rights by seizing ships. Wilson's top advisor, Colonel Edward M. House commented that, "The British have gone as far as they could in violating neutral rights, though they have done it in the most courteous way"; when Wilson protested British violations of American neutrality, the British backed down.
German submarines torpedoed ships without causing sailors and passengers to drown. Berlin explained that submarines were so vulnerable that they dared not surface near merchant ships that might be carrying guns and whic
United States Army
The United States Army is the land warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution; as the oldest and most senior branch of the U. S. military in order of precedence, the modern U. S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, formed to fight the American Revolutionary War —before the United States of America was established as a country. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784 to replace the disbanded Continental Army; the United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775. As a uniformed military service, the U. S. Army is part of the Department of the Army, one of the three military departments of the Department of Defense; the U. S. Army is headed by a civilian senior appointed civil servant, the Secretary of the Army and by a chief military officer, the Chief of Staff of the Army, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
It is the largest military branch, in the fiscal year 2017, the projected end strength for the Regular Army was 476,000 soldiers. S. Army was 1,018,000 soldiers; as a branch of the armed forces, the mission of the U. S. Army is "to fight and win our Nation's wars, by providing prompt, land dominance, across the full range of military operations and the spectrum of conflict, in support of combatant commanders"; the branch participates in conflicts worldwide and is the major ground-based offensive and defensive force of the United States. The United States Army serves as the land-based branch of the U. S. Armed Forces. Section 3062 of Title 10, U. S. Code defines the purpose of the army as: Preserving the peace and security and providing for the defense of the United States, the Commonwealths and possessions and any areas occupied by the United States Supporting the national policies Implementing the national objectives Overcoming any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United StatesIn 2018, the Army Strategy 2018 articulated an eight-point addendum to the Army Vision for 2028.
While the Army Mission remains constant, the Army Strategy builds upon the Army's Brigade Modernization by adding focus to Corps and Division-level echelons. Modernization, reform for high-intensity conflict, Joint multi-domain operations are added to the strategy, to be completed by 2028; the Continental Army was created on 14 June 1775 by the Second Continental Congress as a unified army for the colonies to fight Great Britain, with George Washington appointed as its commander. The army was led by men who had served in the British Army or colonial militias and who brought much of British military heritage with them; as the Revolutionary War progressed, French aid and military thinking helped shape the new army. A number of European soldiers came on their own to help, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who taught Prussian Army tactics and organizational skills; the army fought numerous pitched battles and in the South in 1780–1781, at times using the Fabian strategy and hit-and-run tactics, under the leadership of Major General Nathanael Greene, hit where the British were weakest to wear down their forces.
Washington led victories against the British at Trenton and Princeton, but lost a series of battles in the New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776 and the Philadelphia campaign in 1777. With a decisive victory at Yorktown and the help of the French, the Continental Army prevailed against the British. After the war, the Continental Army was given land certificates and disbanded in a reflection of the republican distrust of standing armies. State militias became the new nation's sole ground army, with the exception of a regiment to guard the Western Frontier and one battery of artillery guarding West Point's arsenal. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was soon realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army; the Regular Army was at first small and after General St. Clair's defeat at the Battle of the Wabash, the Regular Army was reorganized as the Legion of the United States, established in 1791 and renamed the United States Army in 1796; the War of 1812, the second and last war between the United States and Great Britain, had mixed results.
The U. S. Army did not conquer Canada but it did destroy Native American resistance to expansion in the Old Northwest and it validated its independence by stopping two major British invasions in 1814 and 1815. After taking control of Lake Erie in 1813, the U. S. Army seized parts of western Upper Canada, burned York and defeated Tecumseh, which caused his Western Confederacy to collapse. Following U. S. victories in the Canadian province of Upper Canada, British troops who had dubbed the U. S. Army "Regulars, by God!", were able to capture and burn Washington, defended by militia, in 1814. The regular army, however proved they were professional and capable of defeating the British army during the invasions of Plattsburgh and Baltimore, prompting British agreement on the rejected terms of a status quo ante bellum. Two weeks after a treaty was signed, Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and Siege of Fort St. Philip, became a national hero. U. S. troops and sailors captured HMS Cyane and Penguin in the final engagements of the war.
Per the treaty, both sides (the United S
