First, the government exempted many shipyard workers from the draft and
gave others a “deferred” classification, delaying their participation in the draft.
Second, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined in a public relations campaign to
emphasize the importance of shipyard work. They distributed service flags to fam-
ilies of shipyard workers, just like the flags given to families of soldiers and sailors.
They also urged automobile owners to give shipyard employees rides to and from
work, since streetcars were so crowded. Third, shipyards used prefabrication tech-
niques. Instead of building an entire ship in the yard, standardized parts were
built elsewhere and then assembled at the yard. This method reduced construc-
tion time substantially. As a result, on just one day—July 4, 1918—the United
States launched 95 ships. Fourth, the government took over commercial and pri-
vate ships and converted them for transatlantic war use.
America Turns the Tide
German U-boat attacks on merchant ships in the Atlantic were a serious threat
to the Allied war effort. American Vice Admiral William S. Sims convinced the
British to try the convoy system, in which a heavy guard of destroyers
escorted merchant ships back and forth across the Atlantic in groups. By fall of
1917, shipping losses had been cut
in half.
The U.S. Navy also helped lay a
230-mile barrier of mines across the
North Sea from Scotland to Norway.
The barrier was designed to bottle
up the U-boats that sailed from
German ports and keep them out of
the Atlantic Ocean.
By early 1918 the Germans
found it increasingly difficult to
replace their losses and to staff their
fleet with trained submariners. Of
the almost 2 million Americans who
sailed to Europe during the war,
only 637 were lost to U-boat attacks.
FIGHTING IN EUROPE
After two and a half years of fighting, the Allied forces
were exhausted and demoralized. One of the main contributions that American
troops made to the Allied war effort, apart from their numbers, was their freshness
and enthusiasm. They were determined to hit the Germans hard. Twenty-two-year-
old Joseph Douglas Lawrence, a U.S. Army lieutenant, remarked on the importance
of American enthusiasm when he described his first impression of the trenches.
A PERSONAL VOICE JOSEPH DOUGLAS LAWRENCE
“ I have never seen or heard of such an elaborate, complete line of
defense as the British had built at this point. There was a trench with
dugouts every three hundred yards from the front line in Ypres back
four miles to and including Dirty Bucket. Everything was fronted with
barbed wire and other entanglements. Artillery was concealed every-
where. Railroad tracks, narrow and standard gauge, reached from the
trenches back into the zone of supply. Nothing had been neglected to
hold this line, save only one important thing, enthusiasm among the
troops, and that was the purpose of our presence.
”
—Fighting Soldier: The AEF in 1918
The First World War 589
B
Lieutenant Joseph D. Lawrence
B. Answer
It exempted
shipyard workers
from the draft,
used a public
relations cam-
paign to stress
the importance
of shipbuilding,
used prefabrica-
tion construction
techniques, and
took control of
private ships for
transatlantic
duty.
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
B
Summarizing
How did the
United States
expand its navy
so quickly?
World War I Convoy System
defensive boundary
destroyer
enemy
submarine
cruiser
merchant ships
safe
zone
World War I Convoy System
