Michigan and World War I

More than 135,000 Michigan men served in World War I, yet exact numbers on fatalities and injuries can only be estimated. About 5,000 men from Michigan are believed to have lost their lives.

President Woodrow Wilson delivers a declaration of war to a joint session of Congress, April 2, 1917.

Battery "C", Sixth F.A., 1st Division, which fired the first cannon shot from the U.S. on the Lorraine, France, front at Beaumont during the Great War, Sept. 12, 1918.

Soldiers march in a conscription parade in Detroit during World War I to encourage more recruits to join the war effort.

Crowds stand and watch a conscription parade in Detroit during World War I. Henry Ford can be seen in the middle of the crowd.

Just as the Allied countries geared up for war, so did those of the Central powers. Here German volunteers march on a street to join the army for the Great War, August 1914.

Girls and women throw flowers to Prussian guard infantry in new field gray uniforms as they leave Berlin, Germany, to train for the front in August 1914 during World War I.

Young recruits stand in formation in front of a military official in Detroit during World War I.

A recruit is given a medical exam, circa 1916.

Young ladies wish their military men farewell at the train station during the First World War.

Families see their loved ones off to war.

A mother cries at the train shed gates at the Michigan Central Depot in Detroit as she and others watch men head off to war.

A young woman holds a baby at the train sheds as soldiers leave for World War I, circa 1917.

A father drafted into World War I kisses his child goodbye in Detroit.

A solider kisses his sweetheart goodbye.

This sailor is making the most of a kiss from his sweetheart.

Recruits head off to war at Michigan Central Depot in Detroit as family members watch.

Recruits arrive at U.S. Army Camp Custer near Battle Creek, Mich. Camp Custer was built in 1917 for military training during World War I.

Black recruits arrive at Camp Custer for training during World War I. The black soldiers were segregated for training, service and social activities.

Soldiers sit around their tents and eat a meal at U.S. Army Camp Custer during World War I.

A soldier writes a letter at U.S. Army Camp Custer near Battle Creek.

Soldiers at Camp Custer ladle their food at mess.

Soldiers wait in line for food.

Sgt. Charles W. Carman, center, was a horseshoer in Madison, Wis., when President Wilson activated the National Guard units in Michigan and Wisconsin to fight in World War I.

Sgt. Charles W. Carman served in the 32nd Division.

Members of the 32nd Division, which was commended for courage ina letter from President Theodore Roosevelt, with a destroyed German tank, date unknown.

U.S. Artilleryman Fuist Dern, in the doorway of his bombproof shelter, uses a few peaceful moments to write home on March 7, 1918. The war sent millions of men into the trenches for months at a time, as what began as a temporary strategy evolved into a stalemate as neither of the opposing sides was able to gain ground.

French soldiers as they bring back their booty from the last contest in the Somme, France, in an undated photo.

A Russian battlefield in 1917. Exact date and location are unknown.

A stretcher bearer patrol makes its way through mud near Bol Singhe during the British advance in Flanders; some of the men were nearly knee deep in the swampy ground, Aug. 20, 1917.

British infantry Tommys go forward to meet the German advance on the Western Front during the Great War on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1918.

U.S. troops of the 27th Division are pictured machine gunning the enemy during the Great War, May 20, 1918, location unknown.

A U.S. Army gun crew mans its 37-mm weapon on Sept. 26, 1918, during the Meuse-Argonne Allied offensive in France.

A 1916 photo of Cpl. Adolf Hitler of the German army. Hitler was an Austrian subject, but he asked for permission to serve in the Bavarian Army in August 1914. While he was serving in the army, he began to put forth his German nationalist ideas. After Germany's defeat, he later formed the National Socialist Party, and led the world into another war.

The image of "Rosie the Riveter" and women working in defense plants is usually associated with World War II. But in Detroit, legions of earlier "Rosies" worked in World War I munitions plants, like this young worker in the Maxwell Motor company.

Munitions worker at the Lincoln Motor Co.

A room full of female munitions workers weld machine parts at the Lincoln Motor Co. during World War I.

A munitions worker pauses while she works at the Lincoln Motor Co. during World War I.

Munitions workers at the Lincoln Motor Co.

Workers operate drill presses in a munitions shop during the First World War.

Two women work on an auto chassis with a male supervisor during the First World War.

A group of auto factory employees work on a piece of machinery during World War I. With so many men serving in the war, women replaced them in other jobs.

Crowds on Woodward Avenue in Detroit celebrate the end of the First World War.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Skocelas, parents of Pvt. Andrew Skocelas, grieve at a memorial service for members of the 339th Infantry brigade killed in Russia. The Polar Bear Expedition was a contingent of about 5,000 United States Army troops, many from Michigan, that fought the revolutionary Red Army in Russia at the end of and after World War I, from September 1918 through July 1919.

Joyous Detroiters greet soldiers returned home from World War I.