2. U.S. Navy
• German U-boats attacked American merchant ships in the Atlantic
because the merchant ships were supporting the Allied forces by bringing
food, ammunition, and general supplies.
• American Vice Admiral William S. Sims convinced the British to try the
convoy system.
• The convoy system was introduced on May 24, 1917. It protected merchant
ships from U-Boat attacks by having the merchant ships travel in large
groups which were escorted by warships such as destroyers and cruisers.
• Cruisers stayed in the front of the group. In the middle of the group were the merchant
ships and the armed trawlers. There was usually a merchant ship that would appear to be
the straggler of the group. In reality, it was an armed ship known as the Q-ship which
would shoot the submarine down once it surfaced.

3. Shipping losses were cut in half by autumn
of 1917 due to the convoy system.
• With the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s encouragement, the U.S. Navy helped lay
a 230-mile barrier of mines from Scotland to Norway
across the North Sea which would later be known as
the North Sea Mine Barrage.
• This barrier bottled up U-boats that sailed from
German ports and also helped keep them out of the
Atlantic.
• The Navy fought the U-boats by using submarine
chasers as well as aircrafts.
• Thus, Germans found it difficult to constantly
replace their losses and to staff their fleet with
trained submariners.
• Only 637 Americans were lost to U-boat attacks out
of nearly 2 million Americans who had sailed to
Europe during the war.

4. Fighting in Europe
• The U.S. troops were enthusiastic
whereas the Allied forces were
exhausted from seeing many
years of war.
• America also brought fresh troops
as well as more resources.
• The American soldiers were
determined to hit Germany hard.

5. FIGHTING IN EUROPE CONT.
 "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 four miles to and
including Dirty Bucket. Everything was fronted with
barbed wire and other entanglements. Artillery was
concealed everywhere. 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.“
-Joseph Douglas Lawrence, a US Army
Lieutenant, describing the importance of American
enthusiasm and his first impression of the trenches.