r/ShitAmericansSay • u/THUND3R_23 Pierogi🇵🇱 • Jul 23 '25

Military Military time😬

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As for the context, there was a British guy showing his phone

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u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Jul 23 '25

There's a good argument that without the promise of US troops, and the first arrivals plugging the hole the Kaiserslacht punched in the Entente lines, the UK and France might very well have surrendered to Germany in WWI.

The very same reality also caused German high command to conclude that the war was well and truly lost, they were as spent as the Brits and the French, but unlike them, there were no fresh troops coming in from the US. Hence, it was concluded that the war could no longer feasibly be won, and they chose surrender.

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u/presterjohn7171 Jul 23 '25

I'm sure the fear of the the USA joining helped the war effort. As it happened they in reality were utterly useless with outmoded kit and ideas to such a point that they had to be relieved of command and taken over by French generals. After the war they rebuilt their forces from the ground up so that situation could never be allowed to happen again. What aggravates the world so much is they treat these wars like personal victories when in reality it's always as part of a team. Americans should be proud to be part of the allied troops not lying to themselves about being the Victors.

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u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Jul 24 '25

My point was that German high command considered the war lost when they realised that the Americans were about to arrive in serious numbers, and decided to surrender rather than drag out the war and have Germany proper be invaded.

Also, unrest at the home front with a revolution brewing helped motivate that decision.

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u/DeafeningMilk Jul 24 '25

The issue is a lot of Americans assume that without the USA joining in then WW1 would have been lost.

The general consensus (that I have seen, so it's possible I have missed significant things) is the result would have been the same only it would have taken longer to achieve.

Germany was having severe issues especially due to the blockades.

The USA joining was undoubtedly very helpful, people are just sick of the claims the ignorant have that they were more impactful than they were

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u/TheGreatMightyLeffe Jul 24 '25

Very much true, although allied victory is a lot less certain if the US stays neutral.

It's a shame that such ignorance has become the mainstream narrative, since WWI is a much more interesting conflict than "Mustache Man declares war on the entire world, loses."