August 1918

August 1918 marks the beginning of the 100 days offensive that will bring an end to the war on the Western Front.  An Allied army under British command mounts a successful offensive east of Amiens.  The attack advances up to nine miles the first day, a day General Ludendorff will later call “the black day of the German Army.”  As the Allies follow up with a series of frequent attacks at different locations along the front, the Germans fall back to the Hindenburg Line. In a Crown Council at Spa, the leaders of the Central Powers agree that they must seek a negotiated settlement, but only “after the next success in the west.”  On the recommendation of his Jewish superior officer, Corporal Adolf Hitler is decorated for bravery.  In the United States, outspoken opponents of the draft are sentenced to long prison terms.  The Bolshevik revolution in Russia is under intense pressure as British, French and American troops land in Vladivostok on the Pacific coast of Siberia and in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk in the Russian Arctic, and as British forces move north from Persia and India to secure the Baku oil fields and lines of communication in the Caucasus and Turkestan.  Lenin makes additional concessions to Germany and barely survives an assassination attempt.

*****

 The Battle of Amiens

Operation Michael, the first of the German offensives made possible by Russia's exit from the war, was mounted in March.  It fell short of its goal of capturing the important railroad center of Amiens, and left the Germans defending a large salient east of the city.  In the early morning hours of August 8 Allied forces under the command of General Sir Henry Rawlinson mounted a major attack on the salient.  Preparations for the attack were undertaken with the greatest secrecy, and the Germans, who were expecting an attack near Ypres, were taken by surprise.  British, Canadian, Australian and French infantry left their trenches without any preliminary artillery bombardment and, following tanks and a rolling artillery barrage, advanced along the Somme battlefield of two years ago.  Unlike the protracted and largely futile battle of 1916, however, this time the Allies advanced as much as nine miles the first day and took thousands of prisoners, reflecting a significant weakening of German discipline and morale.  The Allied offensive was marked by the most successful use to date of combined infantry, armored, and air power, with even mounted cavalry deployed successfully to exploit breakthroughs on the relatively level, solid ground.  By August 10 the Germans had recovered from the initial surprise and managed to reestablish a defensive line.  Field Marshal Haig, commanding the British forces, told Marshal Foch that a pause was necessary, advice that led to a clash with Foch, who wanted the offensive to continue.  After a brief pause, British and French forces renewed the offensive on August 20-21, and on August 31 Australians under the command of General John Monash crossed the Somme and captured Peronne and Mont St. Quentin.  Ludendorff ordered a general withdrawal on the Somme front, pulling back to the defensive fortifications of the Hindenburg Line, and also withdrew from the Lys salient in Flanders that resulted from April's Operation Georgette.

 Crown Council at Spa, August 13-14

In the immediate aftermath of the initial German defeat on the Somme, Kaiser Wilhelm convened a conference of the Central Powers at Spa, the resort town in Belgium where he has established his headquarters.  After a pessimistic briefing by General Ludendorff, the Kaiser responded "We are at the end of our effectiveness; the war must be ended."  Ludendorff agreed, but told the Kaiser that by assuming a defensive strategy Germany might eventually force the Allies to sue for peace.  Foreign Minister von Hintze argued for an immediate diplomatic initiative.  Chancellor von Hertling attempted to summarize the group's conclusion by announcing that Germany must be prepared to seek peace, but only "after the next success in the west," an event no one present was willing or able to predict with confidence.  When the Austro-Hungarian leaders arrived later that day, they were told that while "the possibility of a decisive blow does not exist," it was not a good time to try to open negotiations.  Later in the month, however, Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Burian advised Germany that his government would make a separate peace overture to the Entente.

Lieutenant Gutmann

 Corporal Hitler

The Iron Cross is a German military award for valor.  On August 4, following the German retreat from Soissons following the Blucher-Yorck Offensive, the German regimental commander presented the Iron Cross, First Class, to Corporal Adolf Hitler, who among his other duties had served as a messenger carrying dispatches to and from the front lines.  The award, an unusual honor for a soldier of Hitler's low rank, was given for "personal bravery and general merit."  It had been approved on the recommendation of Lieutenant Hugo Gutman, Hitler's Jewish company commander.

Assistant Secretary Roosevelt at Verdun

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the American Assistant Secretary of the Navy, has been in Europe since July 21, when he was greeted in Portsmouth by Vice Admiral William Sims, the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, and Rear Admiral Sir Allan Frederick Everett, the Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty.  After ten days in England, during which he was received by the King at Buckingham Palace, Roosevelt and his party were taken across the English Channel to Dunkirk aboard a British destroyer.  They traveled by train to Paris, where they were received by President Poincare, Premier Clemenceau and other dignitaries.  On August 4 Roosevelt embarked on a tour of the front, which included stops at Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Wood and Verdun.  On August 8 he continued by rail to Rome where he conferred with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando and Foreign Minister Baron Sonnino.  Returning to France, he toured anti-submarine bases on the Atlantic coast and inspected a battery of naval guns being prepared for use in land warfare.  He visited King Albert in Belgium before returning to Great Britain, where he traveled to Inverness and inspected the North Sea mine barrage and the British and American battleship squadrons in the Firth of Forth.  He is scheduled to return to the United States in early September.

 Judge Landis with His Wife and Son

In Chicago on August 30, the largest federal criminal case in American history came to an end when Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis returned verdicts of guilty against William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood and other leaders of the  International Workers of the World ("I.W.W." or "Wobblies") for urging its members and others to oppose the war and resist the draft.  Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis sentenced Haywood and fourteen of his chief deputies to twenty year prison terms.  Other sentences ranging from ten years to ten days were imposed on other defendants.

The next day, President Wilson signed the new manpower bill into law.  All men between the ages of 18 and 45 must register for the draft by September 12.  The new law greatly expands the pool of potential draftees from the previous age range of 21 through 31.

The Century Theatre

Irving Berlin's musical revue "Yip Yip Yaphank" opened last month at Camp Upton, the Army recruit depot at Yaphank, Long Island that forms the backdrop for the songs in the show.  On August 19 it moved for a limited run to the Century Theatre on Central Park West.  To the delight of the audience, the cast, including the "chorus maidens," is made up entirely of soldiers from Camp Upton.  Here Arthur Fields sings one of the most popular songs in the show, every soldier's lament, "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" (click to play):

 *****

 American Soldiers En Route to Northern Russia

The Bolshevik revolution in Russia is under siege on many fronts.  When the month began, Japanese troops occupied the Pacific Coast port of Vladivostok, and anti-Bolshevik Russians assisted by the Czech Legion controlled most of the Trans-Siberian Railroad.  In its weakened state following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and Russia's withdrawal from the war, Lenin's government has turned increasingly to Germany for protection against domestic and foreign threats.  Russia's erstwhile allies, in turn, have moved to support anti-Bolshevik forces, to protect large supplies of war materiel stockpiled in Russian ports in Siberia and the Russian Arctic, and to secure Russian oil fields and lines of communication with British India.  British, French and American troops occupied the ports of Arkhangelsk and Murmansk on the White Sea on August 3 to safeguard Allied supplies and defend against a threatened German attack on the Murmansk-Petrograd Railroad.  On August 15, as Allied forces advanced up the Dvina River and Bolshevik forces withdrew from Arkhangelsk, another Allied contingent was put ashore at Onega Bay to block their retreat.

British Soldiers in Baku

On August 16 British troops stationed in Persia occupied the port of Baku on the Caspian Sea, the center of an important oil producing region, with the goal of forestalling its occupation by the Ottoman Turks and gaining control of the Trans-Caucasian Railroad.  Other British troops moved north from India to Turkestan, where they joined forces with anti-Bolshevik forces in central Asia.  American and Japanese forces landed in Vladivostok.  The American mission is to safeguard Allied war supplies, but the Japanese, under separate command, view their mission more expansively.  On August 26 they joined Czech troops in attacking the Red Guard and driving them back from the Ussuri River.

Lenin and His Wife

Under pressure from Germany following the assassination of the German ambassador last month, Lenin's government has agreed to a demand by Germany that German troops be allowed to guard its diplomatic posts in Russia.  On August 27, conceding further German demands, Lenin entered into a Supplement to the Brest-Litovsk Treaty agreeing to give Germany control of all Russian naval assets in the Black Sea, to recognize the independence of Georgia, and to withdraw from Estonia and Livonia, thereby ceding control of the remainder of the Baltic coast to Germany.  Russia also agreed to pay Germany an additional indemnity of six billion marks and to supply 25 percent of Baku's oil production to the Central Powers once the oil fields are back in Russian hands.  Germany agreed that it will not attack Petrograd if Russia drives Entente forces from the country, but in a secret clause Russia agreed that if it fails to do so Germany may intervene.
 

 Fanny Kaplan

Domestic threats to the Bolshevik regime are not limited to factions supported by the Allies.  Its most dangerous enemy might be the Left Socialist Revolutionaries (LSR), who advocate continuing the war against the Entente and bitterly oppose the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.  The LSR was responsible for last month's assassination of the German ambassador and its opposition grew more intense this month with the additional humiliation of the Supplementary Treaty.  Its threat to the regime peaked on August 30 when an LSR member shot Lenin as he was leaving the Mekhelson Armament Works in an industrial suburb of Moscow.  The Cheka, the Soviet Secret Police, arrested Fanny Kaplan, who has confessed to the crime and insisted she acted alone.  Lenin was seriously wounded, and his survival is uncertain.  Less uncertain is the fate of Miss Kaplan.

*****

August 1918 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, September and October 1918

New York Times, August and September 1918

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson

Britain at War Magazine, The Fifth Year of the Great War: 1918
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

John Dos Passos, Mr. Wilson's War

Kenneth S. Davis, FDR: The Beckoning of Destiny

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922

Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume IV: The Stricken World 1916-1922

Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace, Hope and Fear in America, 1919

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography
John Keegan, The First World War
David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society
Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 

Anthony Lewis, Make No Law, The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment

W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians In War and Revolution 1914-1918

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra
Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter

G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

G.J. Meyer, The World Remade: America in World War I 

Ted Morgan, FDR: A Biography
William Mulligan, The Great War for Peace

Michael S. Neiberg, The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America

Patricia O'Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made 

Edward J. Renehan, The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War

Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

David Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War As Political Tragedy 

David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War
Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-193

Geoffrey C. Ward, A First Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The West Point Atlas of War: World War I

July 1918

In July 1918, four years after the July Crisis that started it all, the tide of war begins to turn in favor of the Allies.  Germany's last major offensive effort falls short and is followed by a French and American counterattack that forces the German Army to surrender much of the ground it has gained since Russia left the war.  Russia is in chaos as a civil war gains momentum: opponents of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk assassinate the German ambassador, anti-Bolshevik forces take control of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and the Bolsheviks murder the former Tsar and his family.  In the United States President Wilson observes the Fourth of July at Mount Vernon, where he declares that there can be no compromise peace.  Americans celebrate Bastille Day as well as the Fourth of July.  John Purroy Mitchel, the former mayor of New York City who joined the Army's Air Service after his defeat for reelection, dies when he falls from his aircraft during a training flight in Louisiana.  Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest son of former President Theodore Roosevelt, is shot down and killed in an aerial battle in France. 

*****

The Western Front, Showing the German Offensives Since March

The German Army mounted the latest of its offensive operations on the Western Front with attacks in the vicinity of Reims.  The Champagne-Marne offensive (Operation "Marneschutz-Reims" or “Friedensturm”) had two goals.  First, the Germans sought to expand the salient resulting from the Blucher-Yorck offensive by capturing the important communications and railroad center of Reims, occupying the heights to the south of the city, and advancing to the Marne.  Second, they hoped to draw Allied forces to the south from Flanders, facilitating another offensive thrust toward the channel ports (Operation "Hagen").  The attack began during the night of July 14-15 with a ferocious artillery bombardment.  The French and Americans defending that portion of the front had good intelligence, however, and their own artillery went into action first., disrupting the German preparations.  In addition, they had withdrawn to strong defenses out of German artillery range, leaving the front lines lightly defended.  After the initial artillery barrage, the German attack found mostly empty trenches and faltered when it came under intense fire as it approached the heavily defended lines.  The Germans briefly succeeded in establishing a bridgehead across the Marne at Epernay, but abandoned it the next day.  The Germans halted their offensive on July 17 without achieving either of their objectives.

 The Aisne-Marne Offensive

Following the failed German offensive, French and American forces under the command of French General Philippe Petain mounted a counteroffensive, attacking the western side of the Blucher-Yorck salient between the Aisne and Marne Rivers. The attack achieved almost complete surprise, beginning with a 2,000-gun artillery bombardment in the early morning hours of July 18, followed by an infantry advance of eighteen divisions supported by some five hundred tanks and over one thousand aircraft.  The Germans fell back, abandoning Chateau-Thierry on July 21.  On July 27 they withdrew to the River Vesle, abandoning much of the Blucher-Yorck salient.

***** 

Count Wilhelm von Mirbach

The turmoil in Russia reached a crescendo this month.  Lenin's attempt to forge a closer relationship with Germany has drawn the ire of the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who supported the revolution but opposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and continue to resist any accommodation with Germany, which they regard as representative of the imperialist world order the revolution was meant to overthrow.  At the Fourth All-Russian Congress of Soviets meeting in Moscow on July 4 and 5, the announcement of Lenin's new policy of accommodation with Germany was met with strong opposition from the Left Socialist Revolutionaries, who despite Lenin's personal plea were numerous enough to cause disruption by loudly demanding renunciation of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.  They were particularly infuriated by the presence in a place of honor in the room of the new German ambassador, Count Wilhelm von Mirbach, which they saw as a symbol of Russia's subservience to Germany.  The next day, Left Socialist Revolutionaries entered the German Embassy and shot the ambassador to death.  Germany, in response, has demanded even more humiliating concessions from Lenin, and Lenin has adopted a policy of merciless repression against his political opponents.

 The Tsar with His Family Before his Abdication . . .

In Yekaterinburg, where they had been held since May, the former Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were awakened at midnight on the night of July 16.  Told that there was unrest in the area and that it was necessary to move them for their own safety, they were instructed to get dressed and go downstairs.  Gunfire could be heard in the distance as anti-Bolshevik forces of the White Army reinforced by members of the Czech Legion approached the town.  The Tsar and his family were taken to a small unfurnished ground floor room where, at the Tsar's request, two chairs were brought in for the Tsar's wife and their young son Alexis, who suffered from a severe case of hemophilia.  The family was told to stand in a row against a wall, ostensibly for a photograph.  Instead of a photographer, however, eleven armed men entered the room.  Yakov Yurofsky, the Bolshevik in charge, then drew a paper from his pocket and began to read: "In view of the fact that your relatives are continuing their attack on Soviet Russia, the Ural Executive Committee has decided to execute you."  Before Nicholas could react the men began firing, and within a few minutes the former imperial family lay dead.  On July 20 the Ural Regional Council issued the following announcement:

"Recently Yekaterinburg, the capital of the Red Urals, was seriously threatened by the approach of Czechoslovak hands and a counter-revolutionary conspiracy was discovered which had as its object the wresting of the ex-Czar from the hands of the Council's authority.  In view of this fact, the President of the Ural Regional Council decided to shoot the ex-Czar, and the decision was carried out on July 16.  The wife and son of Nicholas Romanoff have been sent to a place of security.  Documents concerning the conspiracy which was discovered have been forwarded to Moscow by a special messenger.  It had been recently decided to bring the ex-Czar before a tribunal to be tried for his crimes against the people, and only later occurrences led to delay in adopting this course.  The Presidency of the Central Executive Committee, having discussed the circumstances which compelled the Ural Regional Council to take its decision to shoot Nicholas Romanoff, decided as follows: The Russian Central Executive Committee, in the person of its President, accepts the decision of the Ural Regional Council as being regular. . . ."

The statement that only the Tsar had been shot was false, as was the implication that the execution had been carried out on the orders of the Regional Council which had informed Moscow only later.  In fact, the murder of the Tsar and his family had been approved in advance by Vladimir Lenin in Moscow.  White and Czech Army forces entered and occupied Yekaterinburg on July 25, but the bodies of the Tsar and his family had been removed.

*****

 

   President Wilson at Mount Vernon

President Wilson visited Mount Vernon on the Fourth of July.  He traveled down the Potomac aboard the Presidential Yacht Mayflower, accompanied by Mrs. Wilson, his daughter Margaret, Secretary of State Lansing, Postmaster General Burleson, Senator Thomas Martin (Dem., Va.), the famous tenor John McCormack, and representatives of thirty-three nationalities including British Ambassador Lord Reading, who brought wreaths to lay on Washington's tomb.  The crowd, which began to gather in the morning, numbered some 2,000 by noon and was much larger by the time the Mayflower dropped anchor shortly after 3:00.  Intermittent outbursts of applause greeted the presidential party as it made its way along the winding paths through the estate, and American soldiers in uniform rose to their feet and saluted the commander-in-chief.

In his speech, President Wilson rejected any idea of a compromise peace, saying that the nations allied in the cause of liberty must struggle to defeat "an isolated, friendless group of governments, who speak no common purpose, but only selfish ambitions of their own, by which none can profit but themselves, and whose peoples are fuels in their hands; governments which fear their people, and yet are for the time being sovereign lords, . . . governments clothed with the strange trappings and the primitive authority of an age that is altogether alien and hostile to our own."  He said "There must be but one issue.  The settlement must be final.  There can be no compromise.  No half-way decision would be tolerable.  These are the ends for which the associated peoples of the world are fighting and which must be conceded them before there can be peace."  He said the war's objectives "can be put into a single sentence.  What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind."

Before the President's address, McCormack sang The Star Spangled Banner.  When he reached the line "For conquer we must," he held the last ringing note and the President extended his hand.  Before he began speaking, the President asked "Where is McCormack?," but he had left the stage.  Later as they were returning to the Mayflower the President asked for him, shook his hand and expressed his thanks.

John McCormack sang The Star Spangled Banner in this recording made last year (click to play):

John McCormack: The Star Spangled Banner

*****

Americans at the Statue of Joan of Arc

In recognition of their common cause with France in the World War, Americans turned out in great numbers on July 14 to celebrate Bastille Day.  In New York, warships fired salutes in the harbor, flyers performed acrobatics in the air, and a crowd gathered at the statue of Joan of Arc on Riverside Drive.  Formal ceremonies took place in military and naval bases and many churches held special services.  A great meeting took place that evening at Madison Square Garden, where speakers including ambassadors of the Allied nations paid tribute to France and the French spirit of liberty.  In his opening address Charles Evans Hughes, the chairman of the meeting, pledged "To the people of France that France shall be restored and that Alsace-Lorraine shall be returned to her."  Other American speakers led by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels spoke of Rochambeau, Lafayette, de Grasse, and the support France gave to the young American republic when it was struggling for its own liberty.  Ignace Paderewski, head of the Polish National Committee in America, drew enthusiastic applause when he hailed "great and glorious France, invincible, triumphant, immortal."  After paying tribute to the traditional friendship between France and Poland and noting that Poland now has its own army fighting under French supreme command, Paderewski turned to French Ambassador Jules Jusserand and said he did not speak for the Poles alone but for the Czechs, the Jugoslavs, and all oppressed nations that had ever found in France their surest friend.  Jusserand in his address expressed the hope of all Frenchmen that at the war's end the "Marseillaise" would be heard again in Strasbourg, where it was composed and first sung.  He noted the presence of the Russian ambassador, which he said was "a token that Russia is still alive, and we shall not forget her."

Mayor Mitchel Reviewing Troops with General Leonard Wood

Former Mayor Mitchel

John Purroy Mitchel was elected mayor of New York City in 1913 as a reform candidate on the Republican ticket.  His term as mayor included a number of controversial reforms, drawing the enmity of many in the political establishment, including Tammany Hall.  When war broke out in Europe he became a leader of the Preparedness movement, arguing for American support for the Allies and universal military training, and personally undergoing voluntary military training at the Plattsburg Military Training Camp in upstate New York (see the August 1915 installment of this blog).  His controversial stands caught up with him last year when in his campaign for reelection he was narrowly defeated in the Republican primary.  In the general election, running as an independent, he out-polled the Republican and Socialist candidates but lost decisively to Democrat John F. Hylan, Tammany Hall's candidate (see the October and November 1917 installments of this blog).  When his term as mayor ended, he joined the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps and undertook flight training in San Diego and Lake Charles, Louisiana.  On July 6, he was flying near Gerstner Field in Lake Charles when he was killed instantly after falling from his aircraft at an altitude of about 500 feet.  It appears that his seat belt was unfastened.  Mayor Mitchel's wife accompanied his body back to New York, where on July 11 a military funeral was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral after a procession from City Hall.  Among the honorary pallbearers was former President Theodore Roosevelt.

Quentin Roosevelt

Lieutenant Roosevelt In His Nieuport

Less than a week after attending Mayor Mitchel's funeral, President Roosevelt was notified by General Pershing that his youngest son Quentin had been reported missing in action on July 14.  Shortly it was confirmed that he had been shot down and killed near Chateau-Thierry while defending his squadron of Nieuports against an attack by the "Flying Circus," the German fighter squadron that was led before his recent death by Baron Manfred von Richthofen and was led that day by its new commander Lieutenant Hermann Goering.  When he learned of his son's death, President Roosevelt issued a statement: "Quentin's mother and I are very glad that he got to the front and had a chance to render some service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his fate befell him."

*****

July 1918 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, August and September 1918

New York Times, July and August 1918

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson

Britain at War Magazine, The Fifth Year of the Great War: 1918
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

John Dos Passos, Mr. Wilson's War

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922

Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume IV: The Stricken World 1916-1922

Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace, Hope and Fear in America, 1919

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography
John Keegan, The First World War
David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society
Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 

Anthony Lewis, Make No Law, The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment

W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians In War and Revolution 1914-1918

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra
Robert K. Massie, The Romanovs: The Final Chapter

G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

G.J. Meyer, The World Remade: America in World War I

Michael S. Neiberg, The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America

Patricia O'Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made 

Edward J. Renehan, The Lion's Pride: Theodore Roosevelt and His Family in Peace and War

Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

David Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War As Political Tragedy 

David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War
Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The West Point Atlas of War: World War I

June 1918

It's June 1918.   Four years have passed since Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, triggering the most destructive war the world has ever seen.  This month, United States Marine Corps and Army units expel the Germans from Belleau Wood.  The German Army's spring offensive continues with an attack at the River Matz.  Addressing the Reichstag in Berlin, Foreign Minister von Kuhlmann tells the deputies they should not expect a victory by military effort alone, advice that angers the German military.  In Italy, a two-pronged offensive by Austria-Hungary is turned back by Allied forces led by the new Italian commander, General Armando Diaz.  In the United States, Eugene V. Debs, the leader and three-time presidential nominee of the Socialist Party, delivers a speech criticizing the war and the draft; a speech that leads to his arrest two weeks later for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts.  The Supreme Court strikes down a federal law banning interstate shipment of the products of child labor.  Former Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks dies at his home in Indianapolis.

*****

Marines Attacking in Belleau Wood

As the German Army pushed south in Operation Blucher-Yorck, they were halted at Chateau-Thierry at the end of May by French units reinforced by the American Third Division.  Moving to the right, the Germans advanced through nearby Belleau Wood on June 3 in an attempt to reach the Marne and establish a bridgehead.  When the American Second Division, which included the Fifth and Sixth Marine Regiments, arrived to halt the German advance, the French commander on the scene advised them to retreat and dig into stronger positions.  An American officer replied "Retreat, hell! We just got here!"  As the Germans emerged from the trees and across the adjacent grain fields on June 6, the Marine units halted their advance and launched a counterattack.  Two weeks of bloody fighting later, the Marines had succeeded in driving the Germans from Belleau Wood and holding it against repeated counterattacks.


Elsewhere on the Western Front, the Germans began Operation "Gneisenau" on the river Matz with an artillery bombardment on June 9.  Its objectives were to shorten the German lines by connecting the salients created by the Michael and Blucher-Yorck offensives, to draw Allied forces south from Flanders, and to occupy the road between Compiegne and Montdidier.  The German attack advanced up to nine kilometers the first day, but French reinforcements were sped to the front, bridges across the River Oise were destroyed, and a French counterattack was mounted on June 11, stalling the German advance.  None of the operation's objectives were achieved.

Foreign Minister von Kuhlmann

German Foreign Secretary Richard von Kuhlmann addressed the Reichstag on June 24 on the occasion of the second reading of the budget for the Foreign Office and the Chancellorship.  Reviewing the military situation and the prospects for peace, he told the deputies "the deeper we go into the causes of this war the clearer it becomes that the power which planned and desired the war was Russia; that France played the next worse role as instigator, and that England's policy has very dark pages to show."  He said Germany's "roughly sketched [war] aims, the realization of which is absolutely vital and necessary for Germany," are to achieve "for the German people and our allies a free, strong, independent existence within the boundaries drawn for us by history, . . . overseas possessions corresponding to our greatness and wealth, . . . [and] the freedom of the sea, carrying our trade to all parts of the world."  He added that "in view of the magnitude of this war and the number of powers, including those from overseas, that are engaged, its end can hardly be expected through purely military decisions alone and without recourse to diplomatic negotiations."  He expressed the hope "that our enemies will perceive that in view of our resources the idea of victory for the Entente is a dream, an illusion, and that they will in due course find a way to approach us with peace offers which will correspond with the situation and satisfy Germany's vital needs."

German military leaders and the right-wing German press greeted von Kuhlmann's speech with contempt, denouncing the foreign minister for absolving England from principal responsibility for the war and for his apparent eagerness to negotiate a compromise settlement of the war.  His assertion that an end to the war cannot be expected through "military decisions alone" is a particular focus of the military's anger, which may force his resignation.

General Armando Diaz

Like Germany, Austria-Hungary has been freed by Russia’s withdrawal from the war to concentrate its forces elsewhere.  The closer alliance forged last month at Spa included a commitment by Emperor Charles to support the German offensive in France by attacking in Italy.  The Italian Army, supplemented by French and British reinforcements, is commanded by General Armando Diaz, who replaced General Luigi Cadorna in the wake of the disastrous Italian defeat last fall in the Battle of Caporetto (see the October and November 1917 installments of this blog).  On June 15 the Austrians mounted a two-pronged attack, one from the mountains onto the Asiago Plateau and another across the Piave River.  The attack from the mountains achieved an initial breakthrough, but the British units defending in that area were able to regain the lost ground by the next day.  At the Piave the Italians, aided by excellent intelligence, blunted the force of the Austrian attack by an intensive artillery bombardment in the hours before the attack began.  The Allies' successful defense in the mountains made it possible for Diaz to concentrate his reserves on the Piave, where their presence along with the swollen river and the Italians' success in destroying the bridges made it impossible for the Austrians to advance.  On June 24 they withdrew.  Back in Vienna, political pressure on the Dual Monarchy intensified as reduction of the bread ration led to strikes and riots demanding a speedy end to the war. 

Czechoslovak Troops in Vladivostok

Masaryk Signs the Pittsburgh Agreement

On June 29, the Czech Legion reached and occupied Vladivostok, overthrowing the city's Bolshevik government. The next day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Czech leader Tomas Masaryk signed an agreement with members of the Czech and Slovak communities in which the signatories stated their intent to create an independent Czechoslovak state in which Slovaks are to have an autonomous administration, their own law courts, and recognition of Slovak as their official language.  In London on June 29, an article by former Russian Premier Alexander Kerensky was published in the National News.  He wrote "Russia is not beaten, . . . although temporarily her powers are paralyzed by what has happened," and insisted that "the nation will never accept Germany's terms, and the people will repudiate the treaty of Brest-Litovsk."  Kerensky then traveled to Paris, where he conferred at length with the Russian ambassador.  

Meanwhile, former Tsar Nicholas II remains imprisoned with his family in Yekaterinburg.  Repeated rumors that he has been assassinated following a trial by a revolutionary tribunal have been denied by the Russian ambassador in Berlin based on information received from the Soviet government in Moscow.  Nicholas and his family are reported to be in good health.

Debs Speaking in Canton, Ohio

Eugene V. Debs, the presidential candidate of the Socialist Party in 1904, 1908 and 1912, was arrested on June 30 on his way to a meeting of the Ohio State Socialist Council in Cleveland.  In an indictment handed down the day before, Debs was charged with violation of the Espionage Act, a statute originally enacted last year and strengthened last month by the Sedition Act.  The charges are based on a speech Debs delivered on June 16 in Canton during the Socialist Party's state convention in which he charged that the Allies are in the war for the same reason as the Central Powers -- plunder -- and that Americans are fit for something better than cannon fodder.  The indictment charges Debs with ten specific violations of the Act, including making false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the armed forces; attempting to obstruct recruiting or enlistment; and uttering disloyal language about the country's form of government, language intended to bring the flag or the uniform of the armed services into contempt or disrepute, and language intended to promote the cause of the nation's enemies.

Children At Work

The Supreme Court

Among the issues important to the progressive movement of the last several years has been federal regulation of child labor.  National regulation is considered necessary because states that enact prohibitions or restrictions on child labor place themselves at a competitive disadvantage.  In 1916 Congress passed by substantial majorities, and President Wilson signed, the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, named for its sponsors, Representative Edward Keating (Dem., Colo.) and Senator Robert Owen (Dem., Okla.).  The law barred goods produced by factories employing children under fourteen years of age from interstate commerce. The law was challenged by the father of boys employed by a cotton mill in North Carolina.  On June 3, in Hammer v. Dagenhart, the Supreme Court handed down its decision, ruling 5-4 that Congress had exceeded its powers under the Commerce Clause.  Justice William Rufus Day, writing for the Court, held that to uphold the statute would be to "sanction an invasion by the Federal power for the control of a matter purely local in its character, and over which no authority has been delegated to Congress in conferring the power to regulate commerce among the states."  He distinguished between manufacture and commerce, writing that if "the mere manufacture or mining were part of interstate commerce, all manufacture intended for interstate shipment would be brought under Federal control to the practical exclusion of the authority of the States, a result certainly not contemplated by the framers of the Constitution."  Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing for the dissenting justices, expressed surprise that the question of federal supremacy should even be an issue.  Citing previous cases in which the Supreme Court had upheld the right of Congress to override state laws in the general interest of the nation, he accused the majority of allowing its personal judgment on questions of policy and morals to control over sound constitutional analysis.  Even so, he wrote, "I should have thought that if we were to introduce our own moral conceptions where, in my opinion, they do not belong, this was preeminently a case for upholding the exercise of all its powers by the United States."

Charles W. Fairbanks

There is no provision in the Constitution for replacing a vice president who succeeds to the presidency.  After Theodore Roosevelt became president following President McKinley's assassination in September 1901, therefore, the nation had no vice president.  If the office of president had become vacant between then and the beginning of the next presidential term in March 1905, Secretary of State John Hay would have become president.  In 1904 the Republican convention nominated Roosevelt by acclamation for a full term and chose Senator Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana, also by acclamation, as his running mate.  The Roosevelt-Fairbanks ticket won in a landslide that November.  Fairbanks's term as vice president ended with Roosevelt's term in 1909.  In 1916 he was nominated again, this time as Charles Evans Hughes's running mate.  After Hughes's narrow defeat, Fairbanks left public life and returned to his home in Indianapolis.  He died there on June 4.

*****

June 1918 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, July and August 1918

New York Times, June and July 1918

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson

Britain at War Magazine, The Fifth Year of the Great War: 1918
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

John Dos Passos, Mr. Wilson's War

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922

Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume IV: The Stricken World 1916-1922

Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace, Hope and Fear in America, 1919

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography
John Keegan, The First World War
David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society
Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 

Anthony Lewis, Make No Law, The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment

W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians In War and Revolution 1914-1918

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra

G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

G.J. Meyer, The World Remade: America in World War I

Michael S. Neiberg, The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America

Patricia O'Toole, The Moralist: Woodrow Wilson and the World He Made

Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

David Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War As Political Tragedy 

David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War
Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The West Point Atlas of War: World War I

May 1918

In May 1918, the Central Powers claim a victory over another of their Eastern Front enemies when they sign the Treaty of Bucharest with Romania.  The Czech Legion, trying to reach Vladivostok on the Trans-Siberian Railway, comes into open conflict with the Bolsheviks.  In a conference at Spa, Kaiser Wilhelm and Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary agree to a long-term alliance, economic agreements, and a common high command. On the Western Front, the German Army mounts its third major offensive in as many months, attacking the Allied lines on the Chemin des Dames and advancing to the Marne, where the American Army's Third Division helps halt the German advance at Chateau-Thierry.  Americans conduct their first offensive operation of the war at Cantigny.  In Great Britain, the House of Commons defeats a motion by former Prime Minister Asquith to conduct a parliamentary inquiry into charges made against the government in a letter from a British general.  RMS Moldavia, a British transport carrying American soldiers, is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the English Channel.  The Royal Navy tries again to block U-Boat access to the sea at Ostend, this time with more success.  The United States Congress enacts the Sedition Act, forbidding the use of disloyal or abusive language about the government in time of war, and the Overman Act, giving the President broad authority to reorganize federal agencies by executive action.  Declaring that “politics is adjourned,” President Wilson urges Congress to stay in session through the campaign season.  Air mail service begins between New York City and Washington, D.C.

*****

Signing the Treaty of Bucharest

Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary on August 27, 1916, and invaded Hungary the next day.  It enjoyed some initial success advancing through the Carpathian passes, but within days Germany declared war and Bulgaria invaded from the south.  By October the German Army had gained the upper hand, and by December it had occupied Bucharest (see the August, September, October and December 1916 installments of this blog).  With Russian assistance, Romania was able to remain in control of much of the country including the mouth of the Danube, but last year's Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's exit from the war earlier this year has forced Romania to agree to terms largely dictated by the Central Powers.  Under the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest, signed May 7, the Romanian Army is to be demobilized except for skeleton forces on the frontiers of Bessarabia and Moldavia.  The provinces of Southern and Northern Dobrudja are to be separated from Romania, the former to be restored to Bulgaria and the latter to be occupied by the Central Powers.  Territorial disputes between Romania and Austria-Hungary, including the Carpathian passes, are resolved in Austria-Hungary's favor.  The treaty provides for free navigation of the Danube, including by warships of the Central Powers.

Czechoslovak Soldiers on a Troop Train in Siberia

As the Czech Legion struggles to reach the Pacific Coast of Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway, it has been hindered by the limited capacity and poor condition of the tracks, with traffic congestion made worse by German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners heading west on the same tracks to be repatriated.  On May 14 a confrontation at Chelyabinsk led to the storming of the railway station and occupation of the city by the Czech Legion.  From there the Legion is moving east, overthrowing local Bolshevik governments and occupying key points along the railway.

General Petain

Continuing his push to win the war in the west while Germany still has a manpower advantage, General Ludendorff attacked the Allied positions on the Chemin des Dames.  Beginning with a 4,000-gun artillery barrage in the early morning hours of May 27, Operation “Blucher-Yorck” pushed the Allied forces back fifteen miles by the end of the following day.  By May 29 the German Army had crossed the Aisne and Vesle Rivers and captured the railway center of Soissons, though not before the French had destroyed an important railway tunnel leading into the city.  By May 30 Ludendorff's army had reached the Marne River at Chateau-Thierry, where French forces under the command of General Philippe Petain, with the help of the American Third Division, have so far succeeded in stalling the German advance.

On May 12, Kaiser Wilhelm hosted a conference at his Spa headquarters with Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary. The emperors agreed on a long-term alliance including economic coordination and a military convention establishing a common high command and standardization of uniforms and weapons.  Charles agreed to an early offensive in Italy timed to support the German campaign in France.  A military and customs union of the two nations is contemplated, but the political chaos in Austria makes that impractical at present.

American Soldiers Going Over the Top at Cantigny

While Operation Blucher-Yorck was unfolding on the Chemin des Dames, the American Army mounted its first major offensive action on the salient created in March by Germany's Operation Michael.  The village of Cantigny, strategically located on high ground on the western edge of the salient, provides a commanding view of the surrounding countryside.  Units of the First Division attacked in the early morning hours of May 29 after a two-hour artillery barrage.  Before the day was over they had driven the Germans from the village, and over the next two days successfully defended it against numerous German counterattacks.  

General Wood

Major General Leonard Wood is a medical doctor and career Army officer who served as Army Chief of Staff from 1910 to 1914.  In the Spanish-American War he was the officer in command of the First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, nicknamed the "Rough Riders," which attacked and occupied Kettle and San Juan Hills.  Theodore Roosevelt was his second in command and rode his resulting fame to the presidency.  After the outbreak of war in Europe, General Wood was a leader of the "preparedness" movement in the United States, which President Wilson resisted until political pressure forced him to endorse it in 1916.  After the declaration of war on Germany, General Wood was a leading candidate to command the American Expeditionary Force, but was passed over in favor of General Pershing.  The highest ranking officer of permanent grade in the regular Army, General Wood commanded the 89th Division at Camp Funston as it trained for deployment to Europe, and in preparation for that deployment undertook a military mission to Europe to observe and inspect military operations on the Western Front.  On the eve of his division's planned departure, however, he received new orders to assume command of the Western Military Department in San Francisco, a purely administrative office that does not include command of any troops.  His personal appeal to President Wilson on May 28 was unavailing.  Many believe that political considerations, including General Wood's close relationship with former President Roosevelt and his prominent identification with the preparedness movement, played a part in the decision to deny him a combat command.

 Major Lufbery

The foremost American "ace" died in action this month.  Raoul Lufbery was born in France, immigrated to the United States, and joined the United States Army.  After his Army service, he returned to France, and when war broke out he joined the French Air Force.  When the United States declared war, he joined the United States Army Air Service, received a major's commission, and was given command of the 94th Aero Squadron.  On May 19, flying a French Nieuport, he was shot down and killed in an aerial fight with a large, heavily armored German biplane over the Moselle River.  Called a "flying tank," the two-engine German aircraft was manned by two machine gunners in addition to the pilot.  Apparently impervious to bullets fired by the Americans, it was attacked without success by six American planes in addition to Lufbery's.  Since the beginning of the war, including his service with the French Air Force, Major Lufbery is credited with seventeen victories over enemy aircraft.

 General Maurice at the Allied Conference in Paris Last Year

In Great Britain, the Lloyd George government has survived a serious cabinet crisis.  On May 6, Major General Sir Frederick Barton Maurice, until recently Director of British Military Operations, sent a letter to the editor of the Daily Chronicle in which he challenged the accuracy of several answers given in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Lloyd George and Chancellor of the Exchequer Bonar Law to questions about British Army troop levels in France and the Near East.  He said his letter "is not the result of a military conspiracy. . . .  the last thing I desire is to see the government of our country in the hands of soldiers," and he asked that it be published "in the hope that Parliament may see fit to order an investigation."  In the House of Commons, former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith moved for the appointment of a special committee to inquire into General Maurice's statements.  The government replied that Asquith's motion would be regarded as one of censure, requiring the government to resign.  In presenting his motion on May 9, Asquith denied that he was seeking censure of the government.  He pointed out that in the almost eighteen months since he had left office he had "given no adverse vote on any question against the government," and that if he wanted to ask the House to censure the government "I hope I should have the courage and candor to do so in a direct and unequivocal manner."  In a fiery response, Lloyd George insisted that the credibility of the government was at stake and insisted that General Maurice and his office were the source of any misinformation.  Apparently unwilling to undermine the government at a critical point in the war, the House defeated Asquith's motion 293-106, a margin made more comfortable by the decision of Conservative backbenchers to support the government and of Irish Nationalist members, who would likely have supported the motion, to stay in Dublin.

RMS Moldavia

RMS Moldavia, a British troopship carrying American soldiers en route to France, was torpedoed and sunk in the English Channel on May 23.  The ship was in convoy, and nearby destroyers were able to rescue most of those on board, but fifty-three lives were lost.

 HMS Vindictive Scuttled in Ostend Harbor

Last month's attempt by the Royal Navy to block U-Boat access to the English Channel and the North Sea at Ostend failed because the buoys marking the approach to the harbor had been moved, causing the blocking ships to run aground before reaching their destination.  Another attempt was made on May 9 using two obsolete cruisers, HMS Sappho and HMS Vindictive, the latter a veteran of last month's raid on Zeebrugge, as blocking ships.  This time the attacking force ignored the buoys, using the land for navigation.  Despite a boiler explosion that forced Sappho to retreat to Denmark and artillery fire that destroyed Vindictive's bridge and killed her commanding officer, Vindictive was able to reach the harbor entrance where she was scuttled, blocking access to the sea for all but small boats.

Uncle Sam's New Powers

On May 16 President Wilson signed a "sedition bill" strengthening last year's Espionage Act (see the June 1917 installment of this blog).  Among other things, the new legislation imposes severe criminal penalties for the use of "any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, contemptuous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States, or the flag of the United States, or the uniform of the Army or Navy of the United States, or any language intended to bring [any of those] into contempt, scorn, contumely, or disrepute."  The new legislation passed the Senate on May 4 by a vote of 48-26 over the objection of a number of Republicans led by Henry Cabot Lodge who argued that it violated the Constitution's guarantee of free speech.  It had easier going in the House, where it was approved on May 7 with only one member, Socialist Meyer London of New York, voting no.

Shortly after Senator George Chamberlain (Dem., Ore.) introduced legislation to create a "war cabinet" and a new cabinet position of Director of Munitions, President Wilson announced his strong opposition to that proposal and supported instead legislation introduced by Senator Lee Overman (Dem., N.C.) giving the President broad powers to reorganize the Executive Department by executive order.  (See the February 1918 installment of this blog).  The Overman Act became law on May 20.

Representative Kitchin

President Wilson made a surprise visit to Capitol Hill on May 27 to address a joint session of Congress. He urged new tax legislation to raise additional revenue for the war effort, focusing on war profits, incomes and luxuries as the principal targets.  He said that taxation was preferable to borrowing to finance the war, and that the request was particularly urgent because he had just been informed that "the expected drive on the western front" had begun.  "The consideration that dominates every other," he said, "is the winning of the war."  He told the Congress it should remain in session through the summer and fall, rejecting the suggestion of some that revenue legislation should be postponed until after the November elections.  He said "politics is adjourned.  The elections will go to those who think least of it, to those who go to the constituencies without explanations or excuses, with a plain record of duty faithfully and disinterestedly performed."  After the President's appearance, Representative Claude Kitchin (Dem., N.C.), the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he would convene the Committee within the next few days.  "The commander in chief has spoken," he said.  "It is our plain duty to do as he asks."

 Taking Off From Washington

The first regular airplane mail service was inaugurated on May 15 between New York and Washington, D.C.  Simultaneous flights in both directions were scheduled by the U.S. Army using Curtis "Jenny" biplanes.  Lieutenant Torrey Webb departed Belmont Park, on Long Island just outside New York City, at 11:30 a.m with 144 pounds of mail.  He arrived at 12:30 in Philadelphia, where he relayed the mail to Lieutenant J.C. Edgerton, who flew it to Washington, landing at the Polo Grounds in Potomac Park at 2:50 p.m.  The flight in the other direction was less successful.  Lieutenant George Boyle got lost after taking off from Potomac Park and crash landed in Maryland, twenty-five miles from Washington.  The plane waiting for him in Philadelphia, piloted by Lieutenant Howard Culver, departed on schedule without the mail from Washington.  It arrived at 3:37 at Belmont Park, where the mail was transferred to a special train that delivered it at 4:12 to the main Post Office at 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue.

With less fanfare the next day, the New York to Washington mail flight took off from Belmont Park and headed toward Philadelphia.  This time it encountered fog that forced an emergency landing at the old Bridgeton race track in New Jersey.  The mail was picked up by a motor truck and carried to the nearest railroad.

The Post Office has announced that the Washington-New York air route will be in operation every day except Sundays and when weather conditions make flying dangerous.  The 24-cent postage includes special delivery after the letter's arrival in the destination city.

*****

May 1918 – Selected Sources and Recommended Reading

Contemporary Periodicals:

American Review of Reviews, June and July 1918

New York Times, May and June 1918

Books and Articles:

A. Scott Berg, Wilson

Britain at War Magazine, The Fifth Year of the Great War: 1918
Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918
John Milton Cooper, Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography
John Milton Cooper, Jr., The Warrior and the Priest: Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt

John Dos Passos, Mr. Wilson's War

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922

Martin Gilbert, Churchill: A Life
Martin Gilbert, The First World War: A Complete History

Martin Gilbert, A History of the Twentieth Century, Volume One: 1900-1933
Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume IV: The Stricken World 1916-1922

Ann Hagedorn, Savage Peace, Hope and Fear in America, 1919

August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Godfrey Hodgson, Woodrow Wilson's Right Hand: The Life of Colonel Edward M. House

Roy Jenkins, Churchill: A Biography
John Keegan, The First World War
David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society
Ian Kershaw, To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 

Anthony Lewis, Make No Law, The Sullivan Case and the First Amendment

W. Bruce Lincoln, Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians In War and Revolution 1914-1918

Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era, 1910-1917

Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra

G.J. Meyer, A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918

G.J. Meyer, The World Remade: America in World War I

Michael S. Neiberg, The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America

Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

David Stevenson, Cataclysm: The First World War As Political Tragedy 

David Stevenson, With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918

J. Lee Thompson, Never Call Retreat: Theodore Roosevelt and the Great War
Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931

Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The West Point Atlas of War: World War I