MEXICAN EXPOSITION

 

In 1916, Pancho Villa, a Mexican bandit, made a raid into New Mexico. General John J. Pershing, of the United States Army, led a force to capture him. Troops from the U.S. tried to find him but failed.

 

Company B, 3rd Infantry of the National Guard from Cooper County went to help in the capture of Villa. This included 67 men under the leadership of Capt. R A. Johnston. They were called to Federal service June 18, 1916. Because of the outbreak of World War I, they had to return. Pancho Villa was never captured.

 

WORLD WAR I

 

Arch Duke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, of Austria, were assassinated. This led to a series of events that triggered World War I. The war began in 1914 and ended in 1918.

 

(1917) The single act of shooting Ferdinand and his wife marked the beginning of the war. But there were several basic causes of World War I. These causes were: the growth of nationalism, the system of military alliances that made a balance of power, the competition for colonies and other territories, and the use of secret diplomacy.

 

The United States tried to remain neutral. German submarines sank unarmed passenger ships, and stories of German attacks against civilians convinced Americans to join the Allies. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

 

New weapons and new methods of warfare were developed during World War I. The machine gun appeared in the war. The British army first used a tank during the war. The submarine came into use for the first time on a large scale. Air warfare also developed in World War I. The Germans used dirigible balloons, called Zeppelins. In 1915, Germany first used poison gas.

 

Much of the war took place in trenches and involved hand to hand combat. The western battlefront stretched about 600 miles from the English Channel to the border of Switzerland. The eastern front extended more than 1,100 miles from the Baltic Sea to the shores of the Black Sea. The southern front ran from Switzerland to Trieste for about 320 miles.

 

Agreements made after the war changed the map of the world. New governments appeared in many of the countries that had been involved in the war. World War I did not settle the world’s problems. It just sowed seeds that caused the world to engage in another war less than 20 years later.

 

Five hundred ninety-three men from Cooper County served in the war. Of those, 49 were wounded, six killed and one taken as a Prisoner of War. Ten others died from disease and two were reported missing in action.

 

Company B of the 3rd Regiment Infantry National Guard from Boonville, with 92 men, served in the war under the command of Capt. Carl F. Scheidner. They were called to Federal Service on March 25, 1917.

 

WORLD WAR I WEBPAGES

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• HISTORY CHANNEL

• BRITANNICA

• Atlantic Magazine

• NATIONAL ARCHIVES—TOPICS

• NATIONAL WORLD WAR I MUSEUM IN KANSAS CITY

• NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

• THE WORLD WAR I DOCUMENT ARCHIVE

• WORLD WAR I DIGITAL HISTORY

• FOR CHILDREN ABOUT WWI

• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WORLD WAR I

 

WORLD WAR II

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(1939) Hard times worldwide caused the rise of dictators. Adolph Hitler, dictator in Germany, was a threat to Europeans. Benito Mussolini was a threat in Italy. Europeans felt they had to fight for their freedom.

 

World War II began on September 1, 1939, when German aircraft, tanks, and motorized troops attacked Poland. By early 1942 all major countries of the world were involved in the war.

 

The war opened the Atomic Age, and brought changes in warfare. Trucks would speed the infantry men to the battle front after aerial bombing. Bombers and guided missiles were used. Airplanes, warships, and ground forces worked together with split second timing during attacks. Paratroops dropped from airplanes or landed in gliders.

 

The war was fought in almost every part of the world. The chief battle grounds were in Asia, Europe, North Africa, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea.

 

Italy surrendered on September 3, 1943, Germany on May 7, 1945, and Japan on September 2, 1945. General Douglas MacArthur accepted the unconditional surrender on the deck of the battleship U.S.S. Missouri, and took over in Tokyo. A somewhat uneasy peace returned to a war-weary world.

 

The United States was trying to stay out of the conflict, but there were three problems that affected the United States: the Germans were torpedoing Allied shipping, Germany had promised Mexico some American territory, and the U.S. had loaned Britain and France a lot of money. The United States did not enter the war until December 1941, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. At Wake Island the Japanese took many prisoners, including a Boonville man, Charles Huber, who was with a construction force. He remained a prisoner until the war ended. The U.S. wanted to stop German and Japanese aggression against other countries.

 

2,012 men from Cooper County served in World War II. All those serving from Cooper County are listed on a memorial plaque at the Cooper County courthouse. The 54 men killed in action during this war have a star by their names.