4: Yip, Yip, Yaphank!

It was 1916. World War I had dragged on for two years in northern Europe. The soldiers of Great Britain, Germany, and France lived in deep, muddy trenches dug into the ground. From time to time, their generals ordered them to attack across the no-man's-land between the trenches. Artillery shells rained down, planes dropped bombs, and infantry raked the ground with machine gun fire. To Americans it was a bloody, faraway war that nobody would win. Yet the U.S. supported Britain and France against Germany, and entered the war in 1917. The public wanted to escape from the bad news, and composer Irving Berlin was happy to provide them with entertainment.