“The War to End All Wars” Part 3

Flander’s Field (then)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
- John McRae the most popular English poem of the Great War"
 On the second dismal day of May, one
death in particular touched John McCrae. A
close friend, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was
killed early that morning when an enemy
shell exploded at this feet.
John McCrae, doctor, could do nothing
to save him; but John McCrae, soldier and
friend, recited prayers as Helmer's remains
were lowered into the Flanders soil and the
grave marked with a wooden cross.
McCrae sat on the back of an
ambulance, writing within sight of the
new grave. Helmer's death inspired
McCrae to write “In Flanders Fields,” a
poem that to this day relays the images
of war, loss, love, and renewal.
After he completed the poem, John
McCrae was back at work in the
dressing station. The war was to
continue for three more years - in
Flanders fields and beyond.
Flander’s Field Now
A group of VAD Ambulance drivers with a British Red
Cross St John's Ambulance at Lady Murray hospital,
Le Treport on the Channel Coast in France, 1916.
Ronald Morton, a rifleman of the London Rifle Brigade,
stands with his parents outside Victoria Station,
before setting off for France at the end of his
leave in June 1915.  
All their faces betray what they were feeling at the time.
The Last Year of the War
• During 1917, the Allies had been defeated in their offensives
on the Western Front, and the Russians had withdrawn from
the war.
• The Central Powers appeared to have the advantage.

• The German military official

Erich von Ludendorff decided
to take a military gamble.
• In March 1918, the Germans
launched a large offensive on
the Western Front and came to
within 50 miles of Paris.
• The Germans were stopped at
the Second Battle of the
Marne by French, Moroccan,
and American troops and
hundreds of tanks.
The Last Year of the War (cont.)
• In 1918, the addition of more than one
million American troops helped the Allies
begin to advance toward Germany.
• By the end of September, General
Ludendorff told German leaders that the war
was lost.
• The Allies were not willing to negotiate
with the German government under Vintage US World War One Military
Emperor William II. Poster by Charles Livingston Bull, 1917.
Join The Army Air Service. Be An
American Eagle!

Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and Ludendorff in January, 1917

Battles of the
Marne
Monuments
 Put
Strength
in the
FINAL
BLOW
 NOW
IS THE TIME.

Will YOU Answer

the call?
Video: US Arrives Just in time… (2:00)
The Last Year of the War (cont.)
• The German people were angry and
exhausted by the war. On November 9,
William II left the country.
• On November 11, the new German
government signed an armistice with the
Allies that ended the war.

This photograph (above) was taken after reaching an

agreement for the armistice that ended World War I. This
is Ferdinand Foch's own railway carriage and the location is in
the forest of Compiègne. Foch is second from the right.
The Peace Settlements (cont.)
• President Woodrow Wilson outlined his “14 Points”:
• open treaty negotiations,
• reducing military strength,
• and ensuring self-determination, or the right of each people to have its
own nation.
• League of Nations: Wilson proposed a new world order based on
democracy and cooperation among nations. He suggested creating an
association of nations to guarantee political independence for all
countries.

Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of

the United States. Won the Nobel
Peace Prize for his efforts in
negotiating peace after World War I.

United States Senator Henry Cabot

Lodge opposed ratification of the Treaty
of Versailles.
The Peace Settlements (cont.)
• The United States, Britain, and France (Big 3) made
most of the important decisions at the Paris Peace
Conference.
• Germany was not included. Russia was in a civil war and could not
attend, and Italy was not given a large role.
• Treaty of Versailles – It was actually five
separate treaties with the defeated nations:
Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and
Turkey.
• The treaty declared that the Germans were
guilty of starting the war. Wilson returning from the
Versailles Peace Conference,
• It ordered Germany to pay reparations for all 1919.

damages suffered by the Allies.

Picture to left Mass demonstration in front of the Reichstag

against the Treaty of Versailles
The total cost of these reparations was assessed at $31.4 billion in
1921 which is roughly equivalent to $385 billion in 2011, a sum that
many economists at the time, notably John Maynard Keynes, deemed
to be excessive and counterproductive and would have taken
Germany until 1988 to pay.
The Peace Settlements (cont.)
• Germany had to greatly reduce its
military forces and return Alsace
and Lorraine to France.
• Sections of eastern Germany became part of
a new Polish state.
• German land on both sides of the Rhine
was turned into a demilitarized zone to
prevent future aggression toward France.

Europe 1914 Europe After WWI

Before WWI
Before and After World War I
The Peace Settlements (cont.)
• The peace treaty also broke up the Ottoman
Empire.
• In return for Arab support during the war, the Allies
had promised Arab states within the Ottoman
Empire that they would be independent after the
war.
• France and Britain changed their minds and took
over control of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and
Palestine. Called them “mandates” not “colonies”
The surrender of Jerusalem by the Ottomans to the British
on 9 December 1917 following the Battle of Jerusalem

Emir Faisal's delegation at Versailles, during the Paris Peace

Conference of 1919.
Left to right: Rustum Haidar, Nuri as-Said, Prince Faisal, Captain Pisani
(behind Faisal), T. E. Lawrence, Captain Hassan Khadri