United States in World War I 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily. In 1917, Congress gave US citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end, Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before US troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup. The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard
HMS Emperor of India day, the entire fleet sortied for a sweep in the North Sea, which concluded on 27 December; this was "Emperor of India"s first fleet operation. Another round of gunnery drills followed on 10–13 January 1915 west of the Orkney and Shetland Islands, this time with the entire fleet. On the evening of 23 January, the bulk of the Grand Fleet sailed in support of Beatty's Battlecruiser Fleet, but the main fleet did not become engaged in the Battle of Dogger Bank that took place the following day. On 7–10 March, the Grand Fleet conducted a sweep in the northern North