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WW1 FACTS
Women fought, too.
The Russian forces called upon women to join female shock battalions in order to boost morale in the later years of the war. June 1917 saw the 1st Women’s Battalion of Death marching out to the front. Though the practice was discontinued following a substantial loss in one unit, many women continued to apply and fight for the regular units.
"It was called the great war, but not because it was great." Classic !!
I never asked why WW1 was called WW1 because my grandfather always referred to it as the "Great War".
WELCOME TO PAGE 116 - THE PAGE OF THE GREAT WAR !!!
Germans were the first to use flamethrowers in WWI. Their flamethrowers could fire jets of flame as far as 130 feet (40 m).
More than 65 million men from 30 countries fought in WWI. Nearly 10 million died. The Allies (The Entente Powers) lost about 6 million soldiers. The Central Powers lost about 4 million.
WW1 FACTS
Explosions in Ypres were heard in London.
British forces dug tunnels and laid approximately one million pounds worth of explosives underneath German lines outside Messines. British soldiers on the scene were reportedly knocked off their feet, and those in France mistook the vibrations for an earthquake. The Messines detonations are considered to be one of the largest human caused pre-nuclear era explosions.
WW1 FACTS
An elephant made an appearance.
With a majority of horses being used on the front, Britain utilized the circus animals they had to cart around much-needed munitions. The most famous of these animals was Lizzie, an Indian elephant who wore boots as she carted around food and necessities in the town of Sheffield.
Nearly 2/3 of military deaths in WWI were in battle. In previous conflicts, most deaths were due to disease.
WW1 FACTS
Vengeance at Versailles.
French Prime Minister Georges Clémenceau pointedly picked the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles for peace negotiations, as it was there the Germans had declared the German Empire. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919. It came into effect on January 10, 1920. Germany was forced to accept full responsibility for the war, give up vast amounts of territory, and pay $31.4 billion in reparations. The result, as France wanted, crippled Germany. On October 3, 2010, Germany paid off the last of its debt set by the Treaty of Versailles. The global economic crisis in 1931 as well as Adolf Hitler’s rise to power had cut off its trend of paying annually.
WW1 FACTS
Nine new countries.
Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Estonia were able to exist independently following the collapse of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Two of these countries (Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) were brand new.
In August 1914, German troops shot and killed 150 civilians at Aerschot. The killing was part of war policy known as Schrecklichkeit (“frightfulness”). Its purpose was to terrify civilians in occupied areas so that they would not rebel
WW1 FACTS
Laying the foundations for the United Nations.
At the end of the war, the League of Nations was created to “promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security.” It disbanded following Hitler’s rise to power, but made way for the United Nations that now comprises 193 nations.
During WWI, British tanks were initially categorized into “males” and “females.” Male tanks had cannons, while females had heavy machine guns.
Little Willie” was the first prototype tank in WWI. Built in 1915, it carried a crew of three and could travel as fast as 3 mph (4.8 km/h)
Artillery barrage and mines created immense noise. In 1917, explosives blowing up beneath the German lines on Messines Ridge at Ypres in Belgium could be heard in London 140 miles (220 km) away.
The Pool of Peace is a 40-ft (12-m) deep lake near Messines, Belgium. It fills a crater made in 1917 when the British detonated a mine containing 45 tons of explosives.
Interesting Red Baron Facts
Richthofen remains perhaps the most widely known fighter pilot of all time
The most successful fighter pilot of the entire war was German fighter pilot Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (1892-1918), or the "Red Baron." He shot down 80 planes, more than any other WWI pilot. He died after being shot down near Amiens. France's René Fonck (1894-1953) was the Allies’ most successful fighter pilot, shooting down 75 enemy planes.[
During WWI, dogs were used as messengers and carried orders to the front lines in capsules attached to their bodies. Dogs were also used to lay down telegraph wires
Big Bertha was a 48-ton howitzer used by the Germans in WWI. It was named after the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp. It could fire a 2,050-lb (930-kg) shell a distance of 9.3 miles (15 km). However, it took a crew of 200 men six hours or more to assemble. Germany had 13 of these huge guns or “wonder weapons
Tanks were initially called “landships.” However, in an attempt to disguise them as water storage tanks rather than as weapons, the British decided to code name them “tanks.”
French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire wrote in his diary about WWI just before he died that “Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre. What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible! Men are mad!”
Some Americans disagreed with the United States’ initial refusal to enter WWI and so they joined the French Foreign Legion or the British or Canadian army. A group of U.S. pilots formed the Lafayette Escadrille, which was part of the French air force and became one of the top fighting units on the Western Front.
In early 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Germany's minister in Mexico. The telegraph encouraged Mexico to invade U.S. territory. The British kept it a secret from the U.S. for more than a month. They wanted to show it to the U.S. at the right time to help draw the U.S into the war on their side.
Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogan for his second term was “He kept us out of war.“ About a month after he took office, the United States declared war on Germany on April 6th 1917.
To increase the size of the U.S. Army during WWI, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which was also known as the conscription or draft, in May 1917. By the end of the war, 2.7 million men were drafted. Another 1.3 million volunteered.
During WWI, people of German heritage were suspect in the U.S. Some protests against Germans were violent, including the burning of German books, the killing of German shepherd dogs, and even the murder of one German-American
WW1 FACTS
Over 30 nations were involved in the First World War between 1914 and 1918
WW1 FACTS
About 20 million people died in WW1, 9.7 million in the military and 10 million civilians
During WWI, the Spanish flu caused about 1/3 of total military deaths.
WW1 FACTS
The youngest soldier to join the British Army, Sidney Lewis, was just 12 or 13 years old when he lied about his age to enlist in August 1915
