Where necessary the English telephones are linked up with trunk lines of the French government, for which interpreters are placed in the exchanges. To-day it would be quite possible for theCommander-in-Chief, if he so desires, to call up London from beyond Fricourt. Marching with the army and linking up a thousand essential points is a telephone system that cannot be bettered. The poles and wires are in everyway as good as those of the Post Office at home. Our article from today 100 years ago quotes Lord Northcliffe, the politically powerful British newspaper magnate, who was fond of scientific and technical inventions, and who spoke highly of the use of this invention: In giving his personal impressions of a visit he had just made to the British front in France, Lord Northcliffe recently said of the British telephone system behind the lines: ‘It is no mere collection of temporary wires strung from tree to tree. In the static trench warfare that prevailed in 1916, a web of telephone and telegraph wires crisscrossed the battlefields and the areas behind the front lines, allowing real-time conversations. Radio was on the way, but the large, heavy receiver/transmitter units had limited range and were just barely portable. By the time the Great War in Europe had broken out, telephones and telegraph machines had been incorporated into the command, control and communication infrastructure of the military. Additionally, Germany wanted Mexico to help convince Japan to come over to its side in the conflict.The first long-distance telephone conversation in the world had occurred in 1876. The so-called Zimmerman telegram proposed an alliance between Germany and Mexico-America’s southern neighbor-if America joined the war on the side of the Allies.Īs part of the arrangement, the Germans would support the Mexicans in regaining the territory they’d lost in the Mexican-American War- Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Meanwhile, in January 1917, the British intercepted and deciphered an encrypted message from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German minister to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckhart. merchant ships, resulting in multiple casualties.
During February and March, German U-boats sank a series of U.S. severed diplomatic ties with Germany on February 3. However, on January 31, 1917, the Germans reversed course, announcing they would resume unrestricted submarine warfare, reasoning it would help them win the war before America, which was relatively unprepared for battle, could join the fighting on behalf of the Allies. In response, the Germans issued the Sussex pledge, promising to stop attacking merchant and passenger ships without warning. threatened to cut diplomatic ties with Germany. In March 1916, a German U-boat torpedoed a French passenger ship, the Sussex, killing dozens of people, including several Americans. Germany’s U-Boat Submarine Warfare Resumes
In response, Wilson signed the National Defense Act in June of that year, expanding the Army and the National Guard, and in August, the president signed legislation designed to significantly strengthen the Navy. In 1916, as American troops were deployed to Mexico to hunt down Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa following his raid on Columbus, New Mexico, concerns about the readiness of the U.S. Roosevelt promoted the Preparedness Movement, whose aim was to persuade the nation it must get ready for war. Some Americans disagreed with this nonintervention policy, including former president Theodore Roosevelt, who criticized Wilson and advocated for going to war. should take military action against Germany. President Wilson demanded that the Germans stop unannounced submarine warfare however, he didn’t believe the U.S. The incident strained diplomatic relations between Washington and Berlin and helped turn public opinion against Germany. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the British ocean liner Lusitania, resulting in the deaths of nearly 1,200 people, including 128 Americans. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. officially entered the conflict on April 6, 1917. Along with news of the Zimmerman telegram threatening an alliance between Germany and Mexico, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. However, public opinion about neutrality started to change after the sinking of the British ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in 1915 almost 2,000 people perished, including 128 Americans. When World War I broke out across Europe in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the United States would remain neutral, and many Americans supported this policy of nonintervention.