Free Custom «American Troops at the Second Battle of the Marne» Essay Paper

The Second Battle of the Marne marked the revolving of tide and a turning point in the First World War which started with the German offensive conflict. The Germans made a great effort to learn tactical lessons for the battle. The greatest advantage was that the Germans had effective organization that was responsible for reporting and learning lessons of the combat. It was then quickly followed by the first associated offensive, which resulted into a major victory in the year 1918. The expeditionary force played an important role in the defense. The Marne offensive came as a result of the launch out of an earlier push to the parish recapturing a position held and lost by Germans in 1914. America’s adaptation for the Second World War displayed the ability of an extraordinary innovation and preparation for the next war.

American troops stiffened their position and played a key role in the Battle of Marne when the German forces had been exhausted through a counter offensive Foch during the war. This led to the start of withdrawal of the German defensive without reverse. The Americans were able to demand and get a separate army which involved a million of men and Pershing was assigned a Swiss border stretch towards the French line. Pershing undertook Meuse and the Argonne offensive lasted for almost two months from September to November in the same year 1918. The heavy American engagement led to the deaths and wounding of almost 120,000 of the Americans involved, and this came in autumn as a part of the offensive thus ending the war. The Americans were thrown into the war and fought around Amiens in order to advance and stem the Germans. Similarly, the American troops were used to staunch the final offensive of the German in the war in the City of Cathedral where the attempts to take the offensive by the Germans had failed.

 

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Soldiers used a number of weapons during the World War including machine guns, bayonets, artillery, flame throwers, smokeless gunpowder, torpedoes, rifles and pistols. Besides their usage in the trenches, tanks were used for weapons, planes, zeppelins and U-boats among others. The bolt-action rifles were used in the trenches by the British soldiers to enable them fire an approximate of 15 rounds in a minute, which this could kill a person in approximately 1400 meters away. They also used machine guns to fire an approximate number of 400 rounds in a minute. Machine gun was the main weapon used by at least 4-6 soldiers in one machine in order to fire. Large caliber guns with mounted fields, also known as Artillery, were also used with at least 12 men working on each. The war also attracted the use of chlorine gas together with the mustard gas in the year 1915. However, the chlorine was weather conditioned, and it was disadvantaged by the easy neutralization of the soaking urine pads of the cotton which became difficult in fighting. The odorless gas of the mustard in the trenches was discovered to be a deadly weapon in the fight and was able to take effect in just 12 hours. The gas was more powerful with little amount required for the addition to the shell in order for it to remain active for a number of weeks on landing on the ground. This gas was effective since it made the enemies have blisters on their skins, both internal and external bleeding, sore eyes, nausea, and lung problems with a maximum duration of five weeks to die.

Among the war machines used was the zeppelin, which was also known as the blimp. This machine was used in war bombing by the Germans, and it was the airstrip which could weigh up to twelve tones with capacity oxygen of four hundred cubic feet. The zeppelins were propelled by the two Daimler at the speed of 136 mph carrying a machine gun and bombs of around 4,400 lb.

Since the armored cars could not manage the terrains, tanks were used to facilitate the exercise as a substitute for the cars. The tanks had a maximum speed of 3mph with a caterpillar track in its Daimler engine which required three men to operate it. A modern tank was finished many weeks later before the war ended, and it could carry a maximum number of ten men with a revolving turret and a speed of 4mph. The war also contributed to the evolution of the first plane, which became the aircraft fighter carrying bombs, cannons and machine guns. These aircrafts could be used for reconnaissance and in the fighting of the enemies on the air and hence protecting the fighters who were on the ground.

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The soldiers suffered from shell shock while on the trench lines with many registering a post trauma stress and other disorders which made them to be referred to as cowards. During the fight, the trenches did not give the soldiers any comfort and therefore they experienced floods full of mud and water, which causing trench-foot. Apart from lice, they also encountered rats, and, besides, when a soldier could enter the trenches, the first thing to experience was a strong smell. The rats could grow to a size of cats thus feasting off the laying of corpse around the place. If one could raise a head above the parapet of the trench, then the expectation was to get a bullet from the snipers. The food was scarce and not prepared to the appetizing standards with waters being transported inside the fuel tanks. Regardless of the thorough cleaning of the tanks, the water was tainted with the smells of fuel since this was the only means of carrying it, and thus it had no taste when drunk.

Soldiers who could manage to trek for a long distance found themselves in a mess of finding hard to pass through a barbered wire raid by the enemy, which was otherwise supposed to be destroyed by the artillery hence falling victims to the enemy through lacking a place to escape but into the shell hole. As a result, they then could be attacked just only to respond by using their weapons which were more powerful thus superseding the enemy.