Section 11-2

American Power Tips the Balance

America Mobilizes

• Selective Service Act- (1917) required men to register with the government in order to be randomly selected for military service.

America Turns the Tide

• Convoy System- (American Vice Admiral William S. Sims) heavy guard of destroyers escorted merchant ships back and forth across the Atlantic in groups.

Fighting “Over There”

• American Expeditionary Force- (AEF) led by General John J. Pershing. Nicknamed the doughboys. First Americans to land and fight overseas.

• New Weapons:– Machine guns– Tanks– Airplanes (Eddie Rickenbacher- America’s first flying

ace.)– Antiaircraft guns– Poison gas

The War Introduces New Hazards

• Filth, lice, rats, polluted water (dysentery)• Poison gas• Decaying bodies• Lack of sleep• Battle fatigue• Shell shock• Trench foot• Trench mouth

American Troops Go on the Offensive

• Alvin York- American War hero. On October 8, 1918, armed only with a rifle and a revolver, York killed 25 Germans and- with six other doughboys- captured 132 prisoners.

• Conscientious Objector- a person who opposes warfare on moral grounds.

• Armistice- A truce (cease fire).