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The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo was the event that started World War I. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia for the assassination. Austria-Hungary relied on Germany to deal with any Russian involvement, which caused Germany to declare war on Russia. After a few weeks, the conflict in Europe got worse, and multiple countries were at war and making alliances. -
Germany started to put U-boats in the Atlantic and shot down any boats that came close, passenger or not. This is because Britain was blocking off Germany's food supplies. This was Germany's only advantage over Britain. This is one of the factors that led the U.S. to join the Allied Powers in the war. Germany sank the ship Lusitania, which had 128 Americans on board. They claimed that the boat was carrying materials for the war, and that is why they sank it. -
This was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of World War 1. The battle lasted for 10 months and had about 300,000 casualties. Germany thought the best chance they had of winning the war would be to take out France. Germany was doing well at the beginning of the battle, capturing many locations. The Battle of Somme started in July 1916 and caused German forces to redirect some of their resources. The battle ended on December 18th of 1916. -
America joins the Allied Powers due to the discovery of the Zimmermann Telegram and Germany's continuing submarine warfare. Germany had sunk many ships, during this time killing many Americans on board. The coded telegraph was a proposed alliance between Germany and Mexico if the U.S. entered the war. America's entry into the war was a major turning point in the war. It gave the Allied Powers fresh troops. This also made it very hard for Germany to win. -
On the 13th, Earl M. Bill delivered all of his freight to the dock at Long Island. He arrived at Yaphank Camp around 8:50 AM. Over the next few days, he went through many medical inspections. He also mentioned hearing about a new disease a few days later, which made him feel worried. Not long after, Earl was off on a train traveling somewhere else.
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Earl has been put in charge of censoring the mail in the camp. He wrote, "The things that are to be deleted from the letters are bits of information that would be of use to the enemy should the letter accidentally fall into unauthorized hands." He notes that he will be careful with his own letters, even though he censors them. He also writes about looking at the sea and how the water looked beautiful.
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Earl is getting over a cold and writes about how he ate a bunch of raw onions. He did not enjoy the onions, but they did the job. It had been rainy at the camp, but it had cleared up, and he talked about how pretty the land is. Earl wrote, "The rainy weather has stopped to a certain extent and the days are pretty fair. The full moon is on the job every night now and the country is very beautiful".
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He is getting a bit afraid that he might not get to see the battlefield. He writes, "New from the front is more encouraging every day. The line is moving so fast and peace talk and threats of parlays so plentiful that I'm afraid the whole business will end without my seeing the least bit of action..." He is getting frustrated that he might start cussing out people. Earl also wants to get a turkey for his camp because Thanksgiving is coming; he is getting sick of the beef that they are eating.
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They had left on the Monday of Thanksgiving and passed through Paris. The day before Thanksgiving, Earl had marched to the worst camp that they had been to, Brest. He said that it was built with mud and that it was very disgusting. There was water where they were meant to sleep. They had many false alarms about stuff, and he was getting frustrated.
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This was the official end of World War 1. It was signed in France at the Palace of Versailles. The "Big Four" leaders from France, America, Italy, and the United Kingdom controlled the conversation, leaving out the defeated countries. The treaty gave harsh punishments to Germany for its part in the war. They ended up losing some territory and were made to take responsibility for the war.