WORLD WAR I ANNIVERSARY 1914-2014

DuPont growth during the war DuPont’s manufacture of gunpowder for the U.S. military – and other Allies – made the company a fortune. 40% Allies’ munitions manufactured by DuPont over the course of the war. 100% U.S. munitions manufactured by DuPont over the course of the war. $25 million Sales of powder and explosives in 1914. $319 million Sales of powder and explosives in 1918. 5,300 American soldiers DuPont employees in 1914. celebrate the end of the war on 48,000 Nov. 11, 1918. DuPont employees in 1918. DuPont ‘The Great& War’ Before US involvement, company’s supplies kept Allies afloat in conflict

By Reid Champagne employees at the start of the war, and swelled to some aspect of the war effort, primarily in road der were pro- Special to the News Journal almost 48,000 by the end of hostilities.” building, maintenance and supply,” Clawson noted. duced in DuPont, in effect, had become an “Arsenal for Delaware’s shipyards located on the Christina Delaware, accord- f an isolationist United States was doing its best Democracy” long before President Franklin D. River also contributed to the war effort in the form ing to Clawson. in 1914 to look the other way at the start of what Roosevelt made the phrase stick during World of small sub-chaser yachts and patrol boats. “During World I was to become World War I, Delaware’s du Pont War II. The efforts of the DuPont company and du Pont War I almost all family was looking the trenches of Europe But while Pierre was working the business side family did not go unnoticed by the Allies following of DuPont’s plants straight in the eye. of war production, brother Henry, a U.S. senator the Armistice in 1918. were not in “Pierre S. du Pont saw a large war coming, and from Delaware between 1906-1917, was busy work- “Pierre received the French Legion of Honor Delaware,” he Right: Pierre S. du began preparing his company to supply the neces- ing the political side of the United States’ eventual medal at a special presentation held at the Hotel du noted. “Two of Pont. Above: An ad sary material, especially explosives,” said Lucas participation in WWI. Pont,” Clawson said. “And one of the company’s their largest and from 1900 about the Clawson, reference archivist for Wilmington’s “Henry was a member of the Senate Committee directors, Henry Buckner, head of the company’s most important role of DuPont gun- Hagley Museum. “As early as 1915, two years on Military Affairs, and used his position to push for military sales division, also received the Legion of plants were at powder in winning before the United States entered the war, the a better organized National Guard, as well as for Honor medal.” Carney’s Pont, the Spanish-American DuPont company was supplying powder to the improved equipment and better tactics and training Clawson said that both Great Britain and France N.J., and War. Allies.” of our military forces,” Clawson said. acknowledged that DuPont was instrumental in Hopewell, Va. All told, Clawson said DuPont alone produced 40 As a result of Henry’s efforts, an eventual helping them survive in the critical years of 1915 DuPont’s head- percent of all the explosives used by the Allies dur- Delaware-based force of some 1,600 doughboys and 1916, when a loss of their own material capacity quarters were in ing the course of the four-year war. made its way “Over There” in August 1918 just in had left them unprepared to wage a war of this the DuPont Building in Wilmington. Although most Delaware’s Company K, 59th “That amounted to nearly 1.5 billion pounds of time to participate in the war’s last major battle in scale. of the company’s production facilities were not in Pioneer Infantry, April 1918. explosives,” Clawson explained. “And wartime the Argonne region of France. Surprisingly, perhaps, almost nothing of what the Delaware, the company wanted to keep its tradition- employment by DuPont grew from around 5,300 “A total of 10,000 Delawareans participated in company produced in terms of explosives and pow- al ties with the state.”

FACTS ABOUT THE WAR ONLINE Lewes and The National World An act of terror The sinking Dr. Richard Beebe Doughboys ‘Trench QUIZ AND the war War I Museum “The nation’s most costly act of of the The co-founder of In his 2013 book, “The Last of mouth’ INTERACTIVE What is now part Located in Kansas City, Mo., terrorism before September 11, Lusitania Lewes’ Beebe the Doughboys,” author Richard “Trench mouth is a of Cape Henlopen and not Washington, it’s the 2001, occurred in Jersey City, On May 7, 1915, the Medical Center, Dr. Rubin writes of the term painful form of GRAPHIC State Park was once only such national museum New Jersey, on July 30, 1916, HMS Lusitania was Richard Beebe was “doughboy” that “its origins are gum swelling. The home to Naval in the U.S. dedicated to the when German spies blew up the on the return leg of one of the 240 US obscure and contested: Some say term comes from Test how much Section Base-Lewes, Great War. (A recent “Black Tom” railway terminal, its 101st round trip physicians to serve as it refers to the phenomenon of World War I, when an operation of attempt to add a national causing an explosion equivalent part of the American you’ve learned about between Great infantry, covered in dust after a the disorder was some 800 men and WWI museum to D.C.’s to a 5.4 magnitude earthquake, Britain and the U.S. It Expeditionary Forces, long march down dirt roads, common among DuPont and ‘The two patrol boats, the USS Drusilla (shown) and the USS inventory of war memorials shattering windows in Times was sunk by a torpe- according to the looking as if they had been soldiers.” was rebuffed by the Square, and frightening people Lewes Historical Society. He served as a Great War’ at Juniata. “The base served a dual purpose of protecting the do by the German rolled in flour; others attribute it SOURCE: National Delaware Bay from German submarine activity and provid- Department of the Interior as far away as Philadelphia.” submarine U-20. Of surgeon at Base Hospital 10 near Ypres. to the popularity of doughnuts – Library of Medicine delawareonline.com ed logistics and control for troop ships departing citing “Congress’s prohibi- SOURCE: Michael Neiberg, “Point of View: the 1,959 passengers aboard, 1,195 were lost, including 123 His personal copy of Source Records of distributed by the Salvation (nlm.nih.gov) tion against new construc- What a Century! Observing the Centenary /didyouknow Philadelphia for Europe,” Lewes Historical Society Director of the First World War” published in Americans. The loss of Americans increased pressure on the neu- the Great War is now part of the Army and other organizations – Mike Di Paolo said. tion on the Mall.” Military History Quarterly. trality position of President Woodrow Wilson to enter the war. Historical Society’s collection. among soldiers of the AEF.”

SOURCES: PBS.org and History.com

COMING NEXT WEEK: The DeBraak shipwreck goes on display