shredward

from the History Channel: May 14 , 1916 Times Article Sparks Crisis On this day in 1916, a lead article in the Times of London proclaims that an insufficiency of munitions is leading to defeat for Britain on the battlefields of World War I. The article sparked a genuine crisis on the home front, forcing the Liberal government to give way to a coalition and prompting the creation of a Ministry of Munitions. During the British army's attacks at Aubers Ridge in the Artois region of France—led by Sir Douglas Haig as part of an ambitious dual offensive launched by the British and French on the Western Front on May 9, 1916—their artillery had been largely ineffective, with many of the shells fired proving defective and many others too light to cause serious damage. When the attacks failed to break the German lines, Sir John French, the British commander in chief, attempted to shift blame from the army to the government. French claimed that the army lacked sufficient supplies of high-explosive shells to use in its 18-pound field gun, and that this lack had led directly to the failure of Haig's attacks at Aubers Ridge. "NEED FOR SHELLS," the Times headline blared on May 14, picking up on French's claims. "BRITISH ATTACKS CHECKED – LIMITED SUPPLIES THE CAUSE." The article quoted French and stated that "The attacks [at Aubers Ridge] were well planned and valiantly conducted. The infantry did splendidly, but the conditions were too hard. The want of an unlimited supply of high explosives was a fatal bar to our success." Though French's claims contradicted earlier statements made by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, in a speech to munitions workers in Newcastle, they nonetheless set off a full-blown crisis and Asquith's Liberal government, already under fire for its unsuccessful naval policy in the Dardanelles—in protest of which First Sea Lord John Arbuthnot "Jackie" Fisher, the man who had rebuilt the British navy in the years before the war and introduced the famous Dreadnought battleship, resigned on May 15—was forced to accept the formation of a coalition cabinet. To address the shells question, a British Ministry of Munitions was formed, headed by David Lloyd George, a rising member of the Liberal Party who would, seven months later, replace the unpopular Asquith as prime minister. Over the course of 1915, the Ministry of Munitions would answer the army's concerns with an increased emphasis on advanced weapons technology and the production of more powerful artillery, increasing British output of medium-caliber guns by 380 percent and that of heavy artillery by 1,200 percent.

That was a choice on our part. What happened to individual pilots and their effect on the outcome of the war was so insignificant as to be ... insignificant. I can count on one hand the number of times where an individual action by a pilot affected the outcome of a battle, or had a significant effect on the hundreds of thousands of lives in the mud below. Yes, I used to love taking out all of the members of Ja 11 in RB, but OFF is a historical sim. MvR will die on 21 April, and not before. The whistles will blow on the morning of July 1, and 50,000 soldiers will not answer roll call the day after. And the little corporal will survive. We want you to feel, as far as you can, what it was like to be there, to play a tiny part in the cataclysm that was the Great War. Do your duty, survive if you can. Millions did not. shredward

Yeah, I went right away to see it on the big screen. Not to be missed!!! It wasn't the movie that I expected, but it was great nevertheless - it didn't focus entirely on the battlefield. Before it even got to France, it explored the motivations of why people went over, and the world that the Great War interrupted. Don't read 'chick flick' into that, cause it's not. But when it does get to the battlefield, and the horror of Passchendaele - it is the full Monty. Hunker down in your deepest chair, turn off the lights, turn up the volume, and hang on!!! Cheers, shredward

from Wikipedia: May 13 , 1918 Creation of the Independent Air Force The Independent Air Force (IAF) was a strategic bombing force which was used to strike against German railways, aerodromes and industrial centres far beyond the war zone, deep into Germany. Through late 1916 and early 1917 the Royal Naval Air Service had attempted a co-ordinated series of bombing raids on German held targets. Whilst the attacks were generally unsuccessful the principle of deep penetration bombing raids against strategic targets was proved. General Jan Smuts, a member of the War Cabinet, prepared a report that suggested a separate Air Ministry and Air Force should be set up, independent of the Army and Navy, and that a strategic bomber force should be formed whose sole purpose was to attack Germany. Thus following the earlier perceived success of the VIII Brigade in bombing Germany, the British Government decided that it should be expanded into an independent force. After Parliamental approval in November 1917 the Royal Air Force was born on 1 April 1918, and the forthcoming creation of the Independent Air Force was announced on 13 May 1918 with its General Officer Commanding Major-General Trenchard who had recently stepped down as Chief of the Air Staff. Trenchard had only agreed to serve as GOC after he received criticism for resigning his position as professional head of the RAF during a time of war. The deputy commander was Brigadier-General Cyril Newall. The Independent Air Force came into being on 6 June 1918 with its headquarters situated near Nancy in France. The Independent Air Force eventually consisted of nine squadrons of aircraft which were equipped with: de Havilland DH4s de Havilland DH9s and de Havilland DH.9As Handley Page 0/400s Royal Aircraft Factory FE2ds Sopwith Camels for escort duties During the last five months of World War I, the Independent Air Force aircraft dropped a total of 550 tons of bombs, including 390 tons of bombs dropped by night. A considerable portion of the Independent Air Force's efforts was in tactical support of the Allied armies, and the war ended before the IAF could conduct any sustained strategic bombing. It was poised for the first raid on Berlin the day the Armistice came into effect. The Independent Force achieved little material effect on the German war industries, in return for heavy losses in men and machines.

Thanks Catch! Cheers, shredward

If it is ever going to be done right, it will be Peter Jackson who does it. Unfortunately, it may never happen. Cheers, shredward

He's not making that up!!! Cheers, shredward

from the History Channel: May 9 , 1915 Allies Launch Dual Offensive On this day in 1915, Anglo-French forces launch their first combined attempt to break through the heavily fortified German trench lines on the Western Front in France. At Vimy Ridge, a strategically important crest of land on the Aisne River, in northwestern France, French troops launched an attack on German positions after firing shrapnel shells for five hours on the morning of May 9, 1915. On the heels of the artillery barrage, the French soldiers left their trenches to advance across No Man's Land, only to find that the bombardment had failed to break the first German wire. As they struggled to cut the wire themselves, German machine gunners opened fire. Eventually, the French were able to reach their objective, as the Germans withdrew to better lines, but they suffered heavy casualties: one regiment of the French Foreign Legion lost nearly 2,000 of its 3,000 soldiers, including its commanding officer, who was shot in the chest by a sniper, and all three battalion commanders. That same day, British troops under the orders of Sir Douglas Haig, commander in chief of the 1st Army Corps, attacked German lines further north in the Artois region in an attempt to capture Aubers Ridge, where they had failed during the Battle of Neuve Chapelle two months earlier. The British artillery here also proved ineffective, with many of the shells fired proving defective and many others too light to cause serious damage. As a result, when the soldiers attacked, they were completely unable to break through the German defenses. An entry in the German regimental diary about that ill-fated advance recorded that "There could never before in war have been a more perfect target than this solid wall of khaki men, British and Indian side by side. There was only one possible order to give – 'Fire until the barrels burst.'" After the first British assault failed to break the German line, many of the soldiers who had crossed into No Man's Land and been injured by enemy fire were killed by a follow-up British artillery barrage lasting 40 minutes. British troops running back to their own lines came under German fire as they ran; as they had a number of German prisoners with them, soldiers in the British trenches mistakenly believed they were facing a counter-attack, and also fired on their retreating comrades. Despite the initial failure, Haig ordered a second attack, disregarding reports from air reconnaissance of a steady forward movement of German reinforcements. Two of his three subordinate commanders protested, including General James Willcocks, commander of the Indian Corps, and General Hubert Gough, commander of the 7th division, who reported to Haig his "certainty of any further attempt to attack by daylight being a failure." Only one commander, General Richard Haking of the 1st Division, felt confident of the success of a further assault, and Haig accepted his judgment. Thus, the British Army, led by a regiment of kilted bagpipers from the 1st Black Watch, attacked again later on May 9, and were slaughtered by German machine gunners. At dusk, Haig ordered the attackers to push forward with bayonets; faced with overwhelming resistance from his three commanders, he withdrew this order but mandated that battle be resumed the next day. On the morning of May 10 however, Willcocks, Gough and Haking all told Haig they lacked sufficient ammunition to start a second day's offensive, and the attack was canceled. The first and only day of the Battle of Aubers Ridge had resulted in the loss of 458 officers and 11,161 men. As Haig's close associate, General Richard Charteris, wrote in his diary on May 11: "Our attack has failed, and failed badly, and with heavy casualties. That is the bald and most unpleasant fact."

Looks good to me! And it's a refreshing change to see the subject from a different perspective. Cheers, shredward

After being a twist-stick fan forever, I tried out Makai's set-up when I went to visit. Stricken on the road to Damascus, I saw the light and now have a great set of USB pedals. And wonder why I held out so long. Cheers, shredward

Couldn't find a WWII forum to post this, so I'll do it here: The sweet song of Merlin & Vera Lynn... Cheers, shredward

from the albertball.homestead.com: May 7 , 1917 Death of Albert Ball VC Albert Ball was born in Nottingham on 16 August 1896. He was educated at Trent College from 1909 to 1913. In 1914 he enlisted in the British army with the 2/7th Battalion (Robin Hoods), of the Sherwood Foresters, Notts and Derby Regiment. By the October of 1914 he had reached the rank of Sergeant and then in the same month was commissioned as a Second-Lieutenant. So desperate was Ball to get to the front that he transferred to the North Midland Divisional Cyclist Company but still remained in England throughout 1915. In June 1915 he paid for private tuition and trained as a pilot at Hendon with the Ruffy-Baumann School. On 15 October 1915 he obtained Royal Aero Club Certificate Number 1898 and requested transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. The transfer granted, he further trained at Norwich and Upavon, being awarded the pilot's brevet on 22 January 1916. On 18 February 1916 he was posted to Number 13 Squadron at Marieux, France, flying BE2c's. Ball was to see much action in these slow reconnaissance aircraft. He really wanted to fly fighters and onn 7 May 1916 his wish was granted. Now in his chosen element, Ball began to display the hallmark of the finest fighting men: the urge to get at the enemy. He built a small wooden hut next to the aircraft hangar, in which he lived, ate and slept 'over the shop' so that he could be airbourne almost immediately and into combat. On 16 May 1916 - flying Bristol Scout 5512 - he opened his score, shooting down an Albatros C-type over Beaumont at 08.45 hours. On 29 May 1916 he shot down two LVG C-types, whilst flying his Nieuport 5173. Ball's desire to be at the enemy's throat was shown when he took off in Nieuport 5173 on 1 June 1916 and deliberately circled over the German airfield at Douai, challenging and inviting combat. Two German pilots took up the challenge but were driven down by Ball who claimed one - a Fokker E-type - as his fourth victory. On 26 June Ball attacked and destroyed, with phosphor bombs, a kite observation balloon, next day he was gazetted to receive the Military Cross and cited for his continuous determination to be at the enemy. His next victories were over a Roland CII and an Aviatik C on 2 July 1916, both shot down within the space of half an hour. On 29 July, Ball was posted to Number 8 Squadron, once again flying lumbering BE2c aircraft. This reconnaissance and artillery spotting role did not suit his desire to be in combat, and on 14 August 1916 he was posted back to Number 11 Squadron, flying Nieuports. Ball was allocated a brand-new Nieuport A201, and during the last two weeks of August he gained ten victories, all but one being Roland CII's. On 22 August he scored a hat-trick - the first in the Royal Flying Corps - when he downed three Roland CII's within threequarters of an hour. His total now stood at seventeen. The next day - 23 August - Ball was moved to 'A Flight' of Number 60 Squadron with a 'roving seek and destroy the enemy' role. This pleased him, as he preferred to fight alone. On 1 September 1916 Ball went on leave for two weeks, and honours began to be heaped on him. He received the Distinguished Service Order, promotion to Flight Commander and the Russian award of the Order of St George, 4th Class. Returning from leave, Albert was immediately in combat. Between 15-30 September he scored fourteen victories, including three hat-tricks! The first of these was on 21 September when three Roland CII aircraft went down in the space of two hours. The next trio - three Albatros C-types - went down within the space of an hour and threequarters on 28 September. The final three - An Albatros C-type and two Roland CII's - went down at 10.55 hours, 18.30 hours and 18.45 hours on 30 September 1916: Ball's score was now 31. Ball was sent back to Britain for rest and recuperation and was feted as a national hero. On 18 November 1916 he went to Buckingham Palace to be invested with the DSO and Bar, and MC. A week later he was gazetted with another Bar to his DSO, making him the first triple DSO. Ball hated his lack of combat and managed to get a posting to Number 56 Squadron; on 7 April 1917 he was back in France at Vert Galand. On 23 April he was back in aerial combat, flying Nieuport B1522 as Flight Commander, and shot down an Albatros C-type at 06.45 hours. Four more victories followed during April, when Ball was flying SE5 A4850, and then he had three 'pairs', on 1, 2 and 5 May, making his total 43. He had his final combat victory on 6 May 1917 when - flying Nieuport B1522 over Sancourt - he destroyed an Albatros DIII at 19.30 hours, taking his total to 44 victories. Captain Albert Ball made his final flight on 7 May 1917 when he flew SE5 A4850 as part of an eleven-strong hunting patrol into action against Jagdstaffel 11, on this occasion led by Lothar Von Richthofen as his brother Manfred (aka Red Baron) was on leave. It was a very cloudy day. Albert was pursuing Lothar's Albatros Scout who crash-landed, wounded. Then Ball was seen by many observers to dive out of a cloud and crash. He died minutes later in the arms of a French girl, Madame Cecille Deloffre. The cause of the crash has never been adequately accounted for as Albert only had a minor bruise on his face no bullet wounds anywhere else to be found, in fact no combat damage whatsoever.

Listen to these! (vids posted) http://memorial.flight.free.fr/

from the History Channel: May 7 , 1915 Sinking of the Lusitania The earlier German attacks on merchant ships off the south coast of Ireland prompted the British Admiralty to warn the Lusitania to avoid the area or take simple evasive action, such as zigzagging to confuse U-boats plotting the vessel's course. The captain of the Lusitania ignored these recommendations, and at 2:12 p.m. on May 7, in the waters of the Celtic Sea, the 32,000-ton ship was hit by an exploding torpedo on its starboard side. The torpedo blast was followed by a larger explosion, probably of the ship's boilers. The Lusitania sank within 20 minutes. Germany justified the attack by stating, correctly, that the Lusitania was an enemy ship, and that it was carrying munitions. It was primarily a passenger ship, however, and among the 1,201 drowned in the attack were many women and children, including 128 Americans. Colonel Edward House, close associate of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was in London for a diplomatic visit when he learned of the Lusitania's demise. "America has come to the parting of the ways," he wrote in a telegram to Wilson, "when she must determine whether she stands for civilized or uncivilized warfare. We can no longer remain neutral spectators." Wilson subsequently sent a strongly worded note to the German government—the first of three similar communications—demanding that it cease submarine warfare against unarmed merchant ships. Faced with the overpowering size and strength of the British Royal Navy at the outset of World War I, Germany realized its most effective weapon at sea was its deadly accurate U-boat submarine. Consequently, in February 1915, the German navy adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, declaring the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be subject to attack. Though the United States was officially neutral at this point in the war, Britain was one of the nation's closest trading partners, and tensions arose immediately over Germany's new policy. In early May 1915, several New York newspapers published a warning by the German embassy in Washington that Americans traveling on British or Allied ships in war zones did so at their own risk. On the same page, an advertisement announced the imminent sailing of the British cruise liner Lusitania from New York back to Liverpool. On the afternoon of May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is torpedoed without warning by a German submarine off the south coast of Ireland. Wilson's actions prompted his secretary of state, the pacifist William Jennings Bryan, to resign. His successor, Robert Lansing, took quite a different view of the situation: the sinking of the Lusitania had convinced him that the United States could not maintain its neutrality forever, and would eventually be forced to enter the war against Germany. On the German side, fear of further antagonizing Wilson and his government led Kaiser Wilhelm and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to issue an apology to the U.S. and enforce a curb on the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. By early 1917, however, under pressure from military leaders who advocated an aggressive naval policy as an integral component of German strategy in World War I, the government reversed its policy, and on February 1, 1917, Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted U-boat warfare. Two days later, Wilson announced that the U.S. was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany; the same day, the American liner Housatonic was sunk by a German U-boat. The United States formally entered World War I on April 6, 1917.

Nothing to see here! Move along!!!

There are lots, and none. It is a huge subject, and a single book to cover it all would take 3 men and 5 small boys to pick it up. However, there are lots of books that give a good overview of many aspects of it. Just looking at my shelves, Ralph Barker's "A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I" would be a good place to start. No doubt others will add suggestions. Cheers, shredward

Between Heaven and Hell was deliberately built to recreate, so far as we are able, the war in the air over Flanders, as it was (we haven't got there yet, but we are working on it). The reason that activity Over Flanders Fields is light in 1916, and pretty much not surviveable in 1918, is because that is the way it was. There are very few squadrons, and very few aeroplanes, in 1916, in OFF, because there were very few squadrons, and very few aeroplanes, in 1916, on the Western Front. And very, very many more in 1918. 1916 was the era of the lone wolf, the knight errant hunting the skies from Ypres to St Quentin, finding and stalking his prey, and (rarely), engaging in duels. 1918 was the era of squadron and wing-strength operations, and massive air battles. We often think of Bloody April, 1917, as the period when the carnage reached levels that were unsupportable. That was really just the start. Additional squadrons were continually thrown into the order of battle. As they are in OFF. The air battles that raged from August 8 1918, the 'Black Day' of the German Army, to the end of October, claimed far more victims. And that is why, dear reader, you might fly the sunny skies in 1916, and not have your revery disturbed for several missions, until you finally see another aeroplane. That is not the case a couple of years later. Cheers, shredward

from the History Channel: May 6 , 1915 Second Battle of Krithia, Gallipoli After a first attempt to capture the village of Krithia, on the Gallipoli Peninsula, failed on April 28, 1915, a second is initiated on May 6 by Allied troops under the British commander Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston. Fortified by 105 pieces of heavy artillery, the Allied force advanced on Krithia, located at the base of the flat-topped hill of Achi Baba, starting at noon on May 6. The attack was launched from a beach head on Cape Helles, where troops had landed on April 25 to begin the large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula after a naval attack on the Dardanelles failed miserably in mid-March. Since the first failed attempt on the village, Hunter-Weston’s original force had been joined by two brigades of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) to bring the total number of men to 25,000. They were still outnumbered, however, by the Turkish forces guarding Krithia, which were under the direct command of the German Major-General Erich Weber. Weber had been promoted from the rank of colonel after supervising the closure and mining of the Dardanelles six months earlier. Facing superior enemy numbers and suffering from a shortage of ammunition, the Allies were able to advance some 600 yards, but failed to capture either Krithia or the crest of Achi Baba after three attempts in three days. Hunter-Weston’s troops suffered heavy losses, with a total of 6,000 casualties. Two British Naval brigades engaged in the battle saw half their number, some 1,600 soldiers, killed or wounded. The British regional commander in chief, Sir Ian Hamilton, after pushing for more supplies and ammunition, ordered Hunter-Weston to continue the pressure on Achi-Baba; a third attack on the ridge was launched in early June. As heavy casualties continued to be sustained across the region, with little real gains for the Allies, it became clear that the Gallipoli operation—an Allied attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front by achieving a decisive victory elsewhere—had failed to achieve its ambitious aims.

Talked to WM about it - sounds like you need to lower memory overheads - you are running out of video memory. Cheers, shredward

from the History Channel: May 4 , 1916 Germany Agrees to Limit Submarine Warfare On this day in 1916, Germany responds to a demand by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson by agreeing to limit its submarine warfare in order to avert a diplomatic break with the United States. Unrestricted submarine warfare was first introduced in World War I in early 1915, when Germany declared the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be attacked by the German navy. A string of German attacks on merchant ships—culminating in the sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania on May 7, 1915—led President Wilson to put pressure on the Germans to curb their navy. Fearful of antagonizing the Americans, the German government agreed to put restrictions on the submarine policy going forward, incurring the anger and frustration of many naval leaders, including the naval commander in chief, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, who resigned in March 1916. On March 24, 1916, soon after Tirpitz’s resignation, a German U-boat submarine attacked the French passenger steamer Sussex, in the English Channel, thinking it was a British ship equipped to lay explosive mines. Although the ship did not sink, 50 people were killed, and many more injured, including several Americans. On April 19, in an address to the U.S. Congress, President Wilson took a firm stance, stating that “unless the Imperial German Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels this Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Government of the German Empire altogether.” To follow up on Wilson’s speech, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, James W. Gerard, spoke directly to Kaiser Wilhelm on May 1 at the German army headquarters at Charleville in eastern France. After Gerard protested the continued German submarine attacks on merchant ships, the kaiser in turn denounced the American government’s compliance with the Allied naval blockade of Germany, in place since late 1914. Germany could not risk American entry into the war against them, however, and when Gerard urged the kaiser to provide assurances of a change in the submarine policy, the latter agreed. On May 6, the German government signed the so-called Sussex Pledge, promising to stop the indiscriminate sinking of non-military ships. According to the pledge, merchant ships would be searched, and sunk only if they were found to be carrying contraband materials. Furthermore, no ship would be sunk before safe passage had been provided for the ship’s crew and its passengers. Gerard was skeptical, writing in a letter to the U.S. State Department that German leaders, “forced by public opinion, and by the von Tirpitz and Conservative parties” would “take up ruthless submarine warfare again, possibly in the autumn, but at any rate about February or March, 1917.” Gerard’s words proved accurate, as on February 1, 1917, Germany announced the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare. Two days later, Wilson announced a break in diplomatic relations with the German government, and on April 6, 1917, the United States formally entered World War I on the side of the Allies.

The BE2c was sometimes mounted with a Lewis gun for the pilot, fitted at an oblique angle to fire outside the arc of the airscrew, similar to the mounting we have for the Bristol Scout. But yes, normal armament was some version of a post mount, operated by the observer, who sat in the front seat. Cheers, shredward

That was Nod's work! He was always dodging Colonel Blimp :threaten: Cheers, shredward

Paarma and Winder are revamping the medals system. Cheers, shredward

from the History Channel: May 2 , 1918 Allies Argue Over US Troops on Western Front On this day in 1918, in a conference of Allied military leaders at Abbeville, France, the U.S., Britain and France argue over the entrance of American troops into World War I. On March 23, two days after the launch of a major German offensive in northern France, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George telegraphed the British ambassador in Washington, Lord Reading, urging him to explain to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson that without help from the U.S., “we cannot keep our divisions supplied…for more than a short time at the present rate of loss….This situation is undoubtedly critical and if America delays now she may be too late.” In response, Wilson agreed to send a direct order to the commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force, General John J. Pershing, telling him that American troops already in France should join British and French divisions immediately, without waiting for enough soldiers to arrive to form brigades of their own. Pershing agreed to this on April 2, providing a boost in morale for the exhausted Allies. The continued German offensive continued to take its toll throughout the month of April, however, as the majority of American troops in Europe—now arriving at a rate of 120,000 month—still did not see battle. In a meeting of the Supreme War Council of Allied leaders at Abbeville, near the coast of the English Channel, which began on May 1, 1918, Clemenceau, Lloyd George and General Ferdinand Foch, the recently named generalissimo of all Allied forces on the Western Front, worked to persuade Pershing to send all the existing American troops into the fray at once. Pershing resisted, reminding the group that the U.S. had entered the war “independently” of the other Allies—indeed, the U.S. would insist during and after the war on being known as an “associate” rather than a full-fledged ally—and stating “I do not suppose that the American army is to be entirely at the disposal of the French and British commands.” On May 2, the second day of the meeting, the debate continued, with Pershing holding his ground in the face of heated appeals by the other leaders. He proposed a compromise, which in the end Lloyd George and Clemenceau had no choice but to accept: the U.S. would send the 130,000 troops arriving in May, as well as another 150,000 in June, to join the Allied line directly. He would make no provision for July. This agreement meant that of the 650,000 American troops in Europe by the end of May 1918, roughly one-third would see action that summer; the other two-thirds would not join the line until they were organized, trained and ready to fight as a purely American army, which Pershing estimated would not happen until the late spring of 1919. By the time the war ended, though, on November 11, 1918, more than 2 million American soldiers had served on the battlefields of Western Europe, and some 50,000 of them had lost their lives.