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Period: to
WW1
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Assassination
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand was riding through the city of Bosnian with his wife. Serbian officials wished to start a war to take down the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A member of the Serbian Nationalist group ran to his open car and shot Ferdinand and his wife to death. This assassination started World War 1. -
Trench Warfare
Troops dug trenches to protect themselves from artillery. The troops trenches stretched from the English Channel to the Swiss border. The space between the trenches was called no-mans-land. The troops put barbed wire and obstacles in front of the trenches to prevent troops from crossing no-mans-land. If a troop were to attack the opposing trench they would take a bayonete(a gun with a knife attached) to defend themselves. -
Christmas Truce
Pope Benedict XV suggested a pause in the war to celebrate Christmas on December 7th. The countries would not have an official pause of the war, but on Christmas the soldiers declared an unofficial truce. Many of the German and British soldiers were spreading the Christmas spirit by singing Christmas Carols to each other, going onto no-man's-land and saying "Merry Christmas, and exchanging gifts of cigarettes and plum pudding. There was also a documneted case of the soldiers playing soccer. -
Weapons
WW1 was considered to be the first modern war because of the use of new technology that's still used today. Machine guns were used to defend the trenches from enemy troops. Tanks were used to cross no-mans-land which allowed them to cross easily. Both sides started to use poison gas which caused suffication, vomitting, and blindness. So they then developed gas masks. Airplanes were used to drop small bombs on the enemys trenches. -
Lusitania
The Lusitania entered the war zone on May 7th, 1915. The ship was sunk by a German submarine, killing 128 Americans that were on board. Wilson sent official protests to Germany rather than to go into war. He demanded that noncombatent lives stop being threatened in the war zone. -
Zimmerman Telegram
Arthur Zimmerman, a german official, sent a telegram to the German ambassador in Mexico. Zimmerman promised Mexico "lost land" if they became allies with Germany in a war with the US. The US soon found out about the telegram which brought the US into the war. -
Student Pilot Assignments
Student pilots were given assignments with specific instructions to follow. The instructor would put a barograph with a clock timer and inked needle in a glass case behind the student in the airplane. The glass case was positioned so they could not reach it. When the student finished the assignment the instructor would remove the system and graph sheet to make sure they completed the assignment. The instructor would then put it with their permanent records and files. -
United States Army
On October 17, 1917, at 4:00 pm, Harold Riley was released from the French Army and pledged to the United States Army. Riley was now a trainee in the Air Corps. This was not a good rank for him because these men were not enlisted or officers. Therefore they got kicked around by men of higher ranks. -
Training & Assignments
Riley's training took place in Paris, the camp Issoudon, and the camp Tours. Riley's training and assignments started with guard duty. He was then assigned to build an outdoor toliet. Next he got into flying classes, to become a pilot. After a long while of attending flying classes and learning how to fly he then had to learn how to use a machine gun. Finally, he became a pilot. -
Riley's Plane Shot Down
Harold Riley's plane was shot down by four German airplanes. The crash wounded Riley's leg, which later had to be treated in the hospital. The devastating crash led to the death of his observer, Sam Keesler. Riley stated in his autobigraphy, "He was badly wounded and could not make his feet move" (Riley 25). -
Death Room
After Riley's plane crash, the German soldiers captured him and took him to the hospital because he was wounded. Riley states in his autobiography "My stay in this hospital was uninteresting and had it not been for the constant change of companions it would have been a drab" (Riley 27). He called his room the death room because all the patients that came in died one after another. He stayed happy because he knew he was going to survive. -
Germany Surrendered
The German emperor stepped down because a revolution was spreading in Germany. Germany then became a republic on November 9th. On November 11th, Germany representatives signed the Armistice. At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, 1918, the fighting finally stopped. -
Fourteen Points
President Wilson traveled to Paris and proposed a Peace Plan called the Fourteen Points. Wilson based the points on "the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities". Wilson's goal was to eliminate the causes of war. The fourteenth point created a "general association of nations" which was renamed to the League of Nations. The member nations of the League would help to keep peace between nations. -
A Free Man
Riley was very happy when he boarded the ship that brought him back home. They stopped at Camp Merrit where he was released from within a couple days of arriving. He then went to Garden City, Long Island to be discharged. He finally got discharged after the help of an officer who pushed his papers. In his autobiography Riley says, "So on the afternoon of Saint Patricks Day, 1919, I was discharged and once again a free man" (Riley 36). -
Treaty of Versailles
For the war to be completely over a peace treaty had to be signed, so the Treaty Of Versailles was created. The Treaty used Wilson's fourteen points as the basis of negotiation. The treaty blamed Germany for the war and included terms to punish and weaken them. This included making them pay for the war costs and decreasing their armed forces size.
