Final Years of World War I

Final Years of World War I — page 1
A SEPARATE PEACE This is a war to end all wars Woodrow Wilson President Only the dead have seen the end of war George Santayana Spanish American philosopher countering Wilson’s words of the United States After three years of fighting World War I seemed like it could go on forever By the spring of 1917 soldiers had been fighting in the muddy trenches of France and Belgium for almost three years Millions had been killed or horribly wounded Even when thousands of men attacked they seldom gained any ground The war on the Western Front was at a bloody standstill But the stubborn generals on both sides sent their men into battle to an almost certain death By April the fighting spirit of the exhausted French army finally cracked Almost half of the French soldiers refused to fight They threw down their rifles in protest or simply disobeyed orders The French army mutinies were a serious crisis for the Allies It took a change of command and several months of morale building to fix In 1917 more than half of the exhausted French army refused to fight