585 Days, if you're lucky

In time, the true costs of World War I were revealed. Wounds of war included fourteen million people—civilians and combatants—killed; over $3 billion spent; four empires destroyed; the world map changed by revolution and treaty; and an unknown loss of spirit for many. Twenty years after the Armistice, many World War I soldiers felt the need to look back over their shoulders and wonder. Was the world really safe for democracy? Had the war ended all wars? The questions were answered, and their idealism was shattered when war broke out again in Europe in 1939.

Although many soldiers did not come home following World War I, the number of U.S. casualties was small compared to that of European armies. Still, the 585 Days between Declaration of War on April 6, 1917, and the Armistice of November 11, 1918, comprised a deadly period in American military history. In the first years following the war, most veterans believed that the losses were justified and essential in the struggle to defeat Germany and end the war. They wanted to believe with all their hearts that they had truly secured a lasting peace for the world.

After the war some women continued their war-time jobs and others returned to pre-war reform efforts. President Woodrow Wilson, impressed with women’s war-time efforts, addressed the U.S. Congress on September 30, 1918, saying “This war could not have been fought if it had not been for the services of the women wherever men have worked and upon the very edges of battle itself. We shall deserve to be distrusted if we do not enfranchise them with the fullest possible enfranchisement.” In other words, he said, “Give Women the Vote.”

Behind the lines, the long wait for war’s end came abruptly. But there were still wounded to tend and work to do. And another kind of waiting began—would loved ones come home?

In the last weeks of war, mass desertions and a naval mutiny caused Germany to concede defeat. The German government had asked President Wilson for terms to end the war as early as mid-October, while the fighting was still raging. Unaware of these events, the soldiers heard rumors about a possible German surrender. The talk was of peace, but the fighting continued.

The horrors of war wore on everyone, everywhere. Millions of European refugees created a humanitarian and political crisis that would last for years. Russia withdrew from the Allied forces after the Bolshevik Revolution broke out in 1917. This ended the Eastern Front as a war zone. By autumn, masses of hungry, defeated, and dispirited soldiers forced German leaders to seek a way out of war. At home and in Europe, women continued their work and waited for war’s end.

After a brief rest following the breakthrough of the Hindenburg line at Bellicourt, the Americans, including North Carolina troops, renewed their drive against the battle-weary Germans. Allied Commander Foch saw his opportunity and pushed the Allied armies to the limit in order to win a decisive victory before winter weather stopped the advance. One front would be the Meuse-Argonne, far to the south of the Hindenburg line, where the American First Army faced three lines of German trenches.

About one-third of the U.S. Army in World War I, over 600,000 men, worked behind the lines in the Services of Supply organization to keep the war going. Engineers, dock workers, and railroad men were joined by thousands of troops in the ranks who served as the last link in the supply organization. About 31,000 German prisoners worked with the Supply Services. Together, they fought the war from behind the front.

A week later and miles away from the Allied victory at Saint Mihiel, North Carolina soldiers serving with the British were placed in the frontline trenches facing the Hindenburg Line, a formidable German trench system. The battle began with North Carolina doughboy engineers erecting and repairing barbed-wire entanglements in no-man’s-land followed by three days of artillery bombardment. The main attack came a few days later. Within three hours of attacking, North Carolina soldiers were the first troops to capture the “insurmountable” German trenches. Soon Allies captured the remnants of the village of Bellicourt.

In September 1918, World War I Allies initiated several offensives that would help bring about an end to the war, at St. Mihiel and against the German Hindenburg Line, while holding the line in other sectors. The Battle of St. Mihiel was a significant Allied victory and the first major battle organized and fought by a united American army. In 1918, the German lines crumbled under the weight of the surge of Allied soldiers.

After spending weeks at the front fighting the Germans and the elements, doughboys welcomed the order to return to camp during World War I. Rest camp gave the soldiers an opportunity to, well, rest, while the officers got the chance to bring in replacements for men lost in battle. At rest camp, the first orders of business were to get clean, find new clothes, or failing that, to clean what they were wearing.

A defining element of World War I was trench warfare and in the trenches, the cooties and bad weather were joined by boredom, mud, and rats. Terrible weather was almost as common as the rodents and with each rainstorm the trenches increasingly became quagmires. Nothing caused as much anxiety among new recruits as rats.

In addition to waging war against the soldiers of Kaiser Bill, American soldiers also fought against the terrible “cootie.” Cooties, the soldiers’ name for body lice, were tiny insects that lived in the seams of uniforms and, like the rainy weather, seemed to be ever present. Some blamed the Germans. Others blamed the French. No matter who was blamed, it was almost impossible to eliminate the vermin from their clothing and avoid being bitten.

Without a doubt, World War I doughboys’ biggest concerns were when the next meal would arrive and when it did, whether it would be edible. In most cases, the soldiers would try to eat what was offered, particularly if they had not eaten for a long time. Sometimes food and water were not available. Most of the time, enlisted men were served “slumgullian,” or slumgully.

While some North Carolina doughboys fought with the French against the Germans in France, Tar Heels were also in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium with British troops who had been fighting for years. Heartened by the presence of American soldiers, the British started a battle near Ypres in August 1918 which lasted weeks.

The Red Cross created portable base hospitals for the Army, consisting of staff, tents, and supplies. In North Carolina some $2 million was raised by individuals, as well Red Cross groups, to pay for the hospitals. North Carolinians also contributed almost two million surgical dressings, over 100,000 hospital garments, and about 100,000 knitted socks, hats, and gloves. In field units just behind the lines and at base hospitals further back, nurses worked endless days and nights to help mend the sick and wounded.

While some nurses traveled to Europe on their own as volunteers before the United States entered the war, other nurses were part of the Army’s Corps of Volunteers. Despite great need, when around 1,800 African American women volunteered to nurse, their service was declined. Children, college students, and men and women at home grew home gardens, worked in factories, sold bonds, conserved food, gathered refugee supplies, knitted, sewed, helped farmers with crops, canned food, and gathered nuts used to make gas mask filters. Everyone had worries.

The German offensive that began in May 1918 struck the French front. In five days, the Germans advanced 37 miles and were only 37 more miles from Paris. The village of Cantigny which was held by the Americans, including North Carolina doughboys, was the only exception to the Germans’ forward march.

As United States soldiers arrived in France, they were struck with the realities of a war that had been raging for three years. The war had not gone well for the Allies in 1917 and many leaders believed that the Americans had arrived too late to offset French and British losses. In April 1918, supreme Allied commander Marshal Ferdinand Foch warned General Pershing of potential disaster. Pershing was more optimistic: more American doughboys were arriving and they came determined to defeat Germany and end the war.

Women helped during World War I as well. Some women volunteered as nurses while others worked in factories, shipyards, and on farms. Women helped at training camps at home and at rest camps and with refugees overseas. The Army Nursing Corps gained 12,000 women volunteers, including 195 from North Carolina. 13,000 American women joined the Marines and Navy, as clerical workers. No matter their circumstances, women at home did their best for the sons, husbands, brothers, and sweethearts who went to war.

Most soldiers aboard British troop ships headed to the front in World War I got seasick. Some of them became ill on the first day out and remained sick until they died or completed the voyage, whichever came first. There were burials at sea, and even though the cause of death was probably influenza, it was easy for the survivors to blame the food and voyage.

On board British cattle boats crossing the Atlantic American soldiers strongly objected to the poor quality of food served, although the possibility of being sunk by a German U-boat was also a concern. The U.S. Navy, including Tar Heel sailors, helped protect shipping lanes and convoys of troops and supplies against such threats. The doughboys were given two meals daily, while orange marmalade, an English favorite, was served three times a day. It generally went overboard; they thought it tasted bitter!

World War I was fought overseas so the cross-Atlantic voyages were a first for most Americans. The trip northward from the training camps and the voyage overseas were experiences shared by all the North Carolina soldiers, called “doughboys.” The soldiers were packed into troop trains, night and day, rain or shine. About half of all American soldiers transported to France travelled in British-controlled ships, which were old cattle boats.

World War I training camps were being built as the first soldiers arrived. For many young men, the camp was their first extended away-from-home experience. Officers handling the men generally were patient with new recruits and left a favorable impression. This is not to say, however, that the officers were always quiet or good natured. Occasionally a soldier would gamble that an officer would be lenient.

Before going overseas World War I soldiers trained to fight, although some men volunteered for the Allies before the United States entered the war. One volunteer, Kiffin Rockwell of Asheville helped form the Lafayette Escadrille, a unit of American flyers for the French Air Force in 1916, without knowing how to fly! Back home, soldiers at camp knew that qualifying as a marksman was difficult, especially when trying to hit a target without a rifle. Soldiers also trained to protect themselves from poison gas, a weapon used for the first time during World War I.

In addition to the Tar Heels in the Wildcat and Old Hickory Divisions, others served throughout the army, and in the navy and marines too. African American soldiers were separated into other units; many serving in the 92nd or 93rd Infantry Divisions. The 93rd Division was assigned to the French Army, which was known as “The Red Hand.” North Carolina American Indians also volunteered. For every man, volunteer or draftee, the call to arms meant leaving home for an uncertain future—which began at camp.

North Carolina National Guard members joined draftees to form part of the Thirtieth Division, nicknamed the “Old Hickory” Division, and were sent to train at Camp Sevier near Greenville, South Carolina. Another group of Tar Heels were in the Eighty-first Division, the “Wildcat Division” organized at Camp Jackson, near Columbia, South Carolina. For each recruit, the journey to the western front began when he boarded the train.

For three years, the United States stayed out of the European war. By 1917, however, German submarines regularly attacked American ships and U.S. leaders worried that their longtime friends, France and Britain, were losing the war and would be unable to repay their loans of money. So, in April 1917, President Wilson asked for a declaration of war to “to end all wars.” Asked to register for the draft, North Carolina men responded enthusiastically. North Carolina sent more than 86 thousand soldiers overseas to fight for the United States.

World War I, or the “Great War” was triggered by the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir of the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Serbian separatists on June 28, 1914. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia one month later. Germany immediately sided with Austria while Russia sided with Serbia. War soon broke out bringing France, Belgium and Britain against Germany, while Bulgaria and Turkey joined with Austria and Germany. Confused? So were most Americans who wanted to stay out of the messy European war. President Woodrow Wilson agreed and promised to keep the United States out of the war.