Wings Over Wexford

1

Call to Arms

Disagreements in Europe over territory and boundaries, among other issues, came to a head with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria1 in Sarajevo at the hands of Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist, on 28 June 1914. Princip had ties to the secretive military group known as the Black Hand.2 This assassination propelled the major European military powers towards war. Exactly one month later, the First World War had begun. In 1915, the British passenger liner the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine, killing 128 Americans and further heightening tensions. By the end of 1915, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Germany and the Ottoman Empire were battling the Allied Powers of Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro and Japan.

Many Americans were not in favour of their country entering the war and wanted to remain neutral. The desire for neutrality was strong among Americans of Irish, German, and Swedish descent, as well as among Church leaders and women. The American people increasingly came to see the German Empire as the villain after news of atrocities in Belgium in 1914. President Woodrow Wilson3 made all the key decisions and kept the economy on a peacetime basis, while giving large-scale loans to Britain and France. To avoid being seen to make any military threat, President Wilson made only minimal preparations for war and kept the American Army on its small peacetime basis as more and more demands were being made to prepare for war. The president did enlarge the United States Navy.

After two and a half years of efforts by President Wilson to keep the United States neutral, the US entered the war on 6 April 1917. They joined their allies, Britain, France and Russia, to fight in the First World War. Under the command of Major General John J. Pershing,4 more than 2 million American soldiers fought on the battlefields of France.

In early 1917, Germany had decided to resume all-out submarine warfare on every commercial ship headed towards Britain, in the knowledge that this decision would almost certainly mean war with the United States. President Wilson asked Congress to vote on the US entering an all-out war that would make the world a safer and more democratic place. The United States Congress voted to declare war on Germany on 6 April 1917. On 7 December 1917, the US declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

With the entry of the United States into the First World War, Europe witnessed the arrival of US forces in a bid to assist the Allied cause. The German U-boats were causing havoc in the English Channel. In an effort to halt the huge losses, the British Admiralty requested that the United States establish Naval Air Stations in Ireland and Britain.

A critical indirect strategy used by both sides was the blockade. The British Royal Navy successfully stopped the shipment of most war supplies and food to Germany. Neutral American ships that tried to trade with Germany were seized or turned back by the Royal Navy, who deemed such trade to be in direct conflict with the Allies' war efforts. Germany and the Central Powers, its allies, controlled extensive farmlands and raw materials. The blockade was eventually successful as Germany and Austria-Hungary had depleted their agricultural production by enlisting so many farmers into their armies. By 1918, German cities were on the verge of starvation; the front-line soldiers were on short rations and were running out of essential supplies. The German war effort seemed to be winding down and would eventually grind to a halt.

The Germans also considered a blockade. Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz,5 the man who built the German fleet and a key advisor to the Kaiser Wilhelm II,6 maintained that Germany would play the same game as Britain and destroy every ship that tried to break the blockade. Although unable to challenge the more powerful Royal Navy on the surface, Tirpitz vowed to scare off all merchant and passenger ships en route to Britain. He believed that since the island of Britain depended on imports of food, raw materials and manufactured goods, scaring off a substantial number of the ships would effectively undercut its long-term ability to maintain an army on the Western Front. Germany had only nine long-range U-boats at the start of the war, but it had ample shipyard capacity to build the hundreds needed. However, the United States demanded that Germany respect the international agreements regarding the 'freedom of the seas',7 which protected neutral American ships on the high seas from seizure or sinking by either of the warring sides. The Americans insisted that the drowning of innocent civilians was barbaric and grounds for a declaration of war.

The British frequently violated America's neutral rights by seizing ships. President Wilson's top advisor, Colonel Edward M. House,8 commented that, 'The British have gone as far as they possibly could in violating neutral rights, though they have done it in the most courteous way.' When President Wilson protested British violations of American neutrality, the British backed down.

German submarines torpedoed ships without warning, causing sailors and passengers to drown. Berlin explained that submarines were so vulnerable that they dared not surface near merchant ships that might be carrying guns and that were too small to rescue submarine crews. Britain armed most of its merchant ships with medium-calibre guns that could sink a submarine, making above-water attacks too risky. In February 1915, the United States warned Germany about the misuse of submarines. On 22 April, the German Imperial Embassy warned US citizens about boarding vessels to Great Britain, which would risk German attack. On 7 May, Germany torpedoed the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania, sinking her. This act of aggression caused the loss of 1,198 civilian lives, including 128 Americans. President Wilson issued a warning to Germany that it would face 'strict accountability' if it sank more neutral US passenger ships. Berlin acquiesced, ordering its submarines to avoid passenger ships.

By January 1917, however, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg9 and General Erich Ludendorff10 decided that an unrestricted submarine blockade was the only way to break the stalemate on the Western Front. They demanded that Kaiser Wilhelm order unrestricted submarine warfare be resumed. Germany knew this decision meant war with the United States, but they gambled that they could win before America's potential strength could be mobilised. However, they overestimated how many ships they could sink and thus the extent to which Britain would be weakened, and they did not foresee that convoys could and would be used to defeat their efforts. They believed that the United States was so weak militarily that it could not be a factor on the Western Front for more than a year. The civilian government in Berlin objected, but the kaiser sided with his military. Germany formally surrendered on 11 November 1918 and all nations agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated.

The foundation of the USN Air Stations in Ireland and England, although operational for just a few short months, played an important role in undermining the dominance of the U-boats in the seas around both countries. The station at Wexford was very active and carried out many missions in search of the submarines, which operated with devastating effect in and around Tuskar Rock Lighthouse and up along the Irish and English coastlines. The presence of the American aviators was reassuring for ship owners on the coast who had been concerned about the safety of their vessels, their cargoes and especially the crews of their ships.

A 'call to arms' war poster.

In 1912, John Edward Redmond MP, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was negotiating the introduction of what was to be the Third Home Rule Bill with the British Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader, Herbert Henry Asquith (1852-1928), which eventually reached the statute books on 18 September 1914. The Third Home Rule Bill had passed the House of Commons, albeit with a small majority, but was totally rejected by the House of Lords. The bill was voted on and defeated by the House of Lords again in 1913.

Dublin-born Sir Edward Carson (1854-1935), together with the Irish Unionist Party, strongly opposed the Home Rule Bill and in 1912 more than 500,000 people signed the Ulster Covenant against the passing of such a bill. To ensure that this bill was not passed and brought into law, an Ulster Volunteer Force was formed to oppose such a measure by force, if necessary.

The Home Rule Bill was passed again by the House of Commons in May 1914, when the government overrode the opposition by the House of Lords by implementing the provisions of the Parliament Act of 1911. The bill would have meant the creation of a two-chamber Irish parliament consisting of a 164-seat House of Commons and a 40-seat Senate. Ireland would retain the right to elect Members of Parliament to sit in Westminster. The bill was sent for Royal Assent.11 The king signed the Home Rule Bill at noon on Friday, 18 September, together with an Act suspending the Home Rule Bill from coming into effect, with all further parliamentary debate postponed until the war ended.

John Edward Redmond MP - war poster. (National Library of Ireland)

On his return home to Ireland on the Sunday morning, Redmond set out for his home at Aughavanagh, Co. Wicklow. He stopped his car at Woodenbridge in the Vale of Avoca, where he encountered an...