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Rex V Bixby: 1
When WWI started Rex V Bixby spent those two years in the National Guard. -
Archduke Assassination
Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo. His death sparked the WWI. Archduke and his wife were killed by a man named Garvillo Princip. Princip was a Serbian Nationalist he became the catalyst for WWI after he assassinated The Archduke and his wife. Two years later after he killed The Archduke he died from a disease. -
Russians Mobilize
The Russians Mobilize was one of the biggest reasons why WWI started. After the Russians defeated the Franco Prussian War Russia didn't want to get destroyed or noticed by any of the European countries. So instead they were given support and protection with France after they found out that Germany declared war on France. France urged Russia to mobilize because they were afraid that German were going to attack. The German ended up attacking anyway -
Germany Invades Belgium: WWI Begins
The German Army bombarded Belgian defenses. King Albert had no other choice but to move his government to Le Havre in France. Belgian Army resisted more than the German Army expected. This help to confuse the Schrieffer Plan. By September 1914. The Germans took down most of Belgium. -
German's Fire
The German's fire was called The Reichstag's Fire. The Germans fire shells were filled with chlorine gas. This is the first time that large amounts of gas were used in battle/war. The result was that the French nearly died. The Germans were unable to take advantage of the breach. The German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down due to arson. -
Lusitania Sinks
The British ocean liner Lusitania was tattacked without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland (20 min away). The vessel sank into the Celtic Sea. The attack alerted the United States. Germany defended their action. Keeping tabs that it had issued warnings of its intent to attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. -
Germany Limits Submarines
Germany agrees with the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson about limiting its submarine warfare in order to avoid conflict with the United States. All the merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be attacked by the German navy. A string of German attacks on merchant ships made President Wilson to put pressure on the Germans to curb their navy. Scared of messing with the Americans, the German government agreed to put restrictions on the submarine policy. -
First Tanks
The British employ the first tanks ever used in battle, at Delville Wood.They are called the first deployments. They are useful for breaking through barbed wire and clearing a path for the infantry. Tanks are still primitive and they fail to be the decisive weapon, as their designers thought they would be. Many broke down by over half of them broke through successfully! -
Rex V Bixby: 2
In 1917 he enlisted into the regular army. -
The Submarines Are Back
Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare in European waterways. This act, more than any other, draws the United States into the war and defeats Germany. -
Zimmerman Telegraph
British gives Wilson the so-called Zimmerman Telegram. Arthur Zimmerman (German Secretary) sent a message suggesting that Mexico should make an alliance with Germany in case of war between Germany and the United States. Germany promised to return to Mexico the "lost provinces" of Texas. Mexico declined the offer, but the outrage at this interference in the Western Hemisphere pushes American public opinion to support entering the war. -
Wilson for War
President Wilson outlines his case for war to Congress. Served in office from 1913 to 1921 and led America through World War I. He was an advocate for democracy and world peace. Wilson is often ranked by historians as one of the nation’s greatest presidents. Wilson was a college professor, university president and Democratic governor of New Jersey before winning the White House in 1912. ` -
U.S Enters War
Congress confirms a declaration of war against Germany. The United States enters World War I on the side of France and Britain. Two days after the U.S. Senate votes 82 to 6 to declare war against Germany, the U.S. House of Representatives endorses the decision by a vote of 373 to 50, and the United States formally enters the First World War. -
Selective Service Act
Congress passes the Selective Service Act authorizing the draft. They were judged for destroying democracy at home while fighting for it abroad. President Wilson says he sees no other option and signs the bill into law. Six weeks after the United States formally entered the First World War, the U.S Congress passes the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917, giving the U.S. president the power to draft soldiers. -
Russian and German Peace
The Germans signed a peace treaty with the new Bolshevik government of Russia. The terms of the treaty give Germany huge tracts of land that had been the Ukraine and Poland, and peace on the Eastern Front allows Germany to shift soldiers to the Western Front, causing serious problems for the French, British, and Americans. -
Rex V Bixby: 3
He then transferred to the School of Military Aeronautics in Texas in 1918 for pilot training. Though he never left the U.S. for service in the Great War -
Rex V Bixby: 4
Bixby did assemble a scrapbook of photos from his time in Texas, most of which are accompanied by humorous comments cut out from newspapers. It might seem that Bixby enjoyed his time in the service, but he was injured in a crash and one of his fellow pilots was killed during a training mission, according to the newspaper accounts pasted into his book. -
Rex V Bixby: 5
His scrapbook is also filled with early aviation shots and rare aerial photos of his group flying in formation. -
Battle of Cantigny
The Battle of Cantigny is the first major American reason of the war. The Americans fight and soon go on to larger attacks against German positions. -
Chateau-Thierry
The Americans attack the Germans at Chateau-Thierry. This battle would morph into the larger Battle of Belleau Wood. This battle is one of the first actions of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) under General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing. It was a battle in World War I as part of the Second Battle of the Marne an expeditionary force consisting of troops from both the Army and Marine Corps, and the newest troops on the front. -
Battle of Belleau
The third German offensive of the year succeeded in forcing their way into the Western Front to within 45 miles of Paris. U.S. forces under General John J. Pershing helped stop the German advance. John Pershing ordered a counteroffensive to drive the Germans out of Belleau Wood. U.S. Marines under General James Harbord led the attack against the four German divisions positioned in the woods and by the end of the first day suffered more than 1,000 casualties. -
Belleau Wood Ends
Part of the 1918 German Spring Offensives, the Battle of Belleau Wood was won by American forces after twenty-six days of combat. Fought by US Marines, the battle stopped the German offensive and began another attack in the area. Fighting in the forest was popular especially, with the Marines clearing the wood six times before it was finally secured. -
Battle of St. Mihiel
John Pershing was given responsibility for the St. Mihiel sector. The same day Foch and Pershing discussed plans for how to use the AEF next in the St. Mihiel salient. Foch wanted to split up the American army. Pershing wanted to keep the US Army intact to operate as a single mass and throw its increasingly great weight around. In the upcoming days, The trio compromised by committing the Americans to the Meuse, just two weeks after St. Mihiel was to start. -
WIlhelm Abdicates
Kaiser Wilhelm failed. Ending all German hope for a victory. He and his groups of advisers quietly slip over the border into the Netherlands where he lives out the remainder of his life in relative peace and writes a self-promoting memoir defending his actions. Germany actively seeks an revolution threatening. Wilhelm was himself deeply refusing to make such a sacrifice, instead expressing a preference to lead his armies back into Germany from the Western Front. -
Armistice Day
On the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice, was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War, then known as “the Great War.” Commemorated as Armistice Day beginning the following year, November 11th became a legal federal holiday in the United States in 1938. In the aftermath of World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day, a holiday dedicated to American veterans of all war.
