World War One – Page 11 – Old Magazine Articles

Baseball as Metaphor for War
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

In one of the first issues of the Stars & Stripes, it was decided to mark the historic occasion of the American arrival on the World War One front line with the always reliable baseball comparison. Printed beneath a headline that clearly implied that the war itself was actually the World Series sat one of the worst poems to ever appear on the front page of any newspaper:

The Boches claim the Umpire is a sidin’ with their nine,

But we are not the boobs to fall for such a phony line;

We know the game is fair and square, decision on the level;

The only boost the Kaiser gets is from his pal the Devil…

November 11, 1918: Paris, France
(The American Legion Weekly, 1920)

Much has been written on the unique relationship that has existed between African-Americans and the city of Paris. The following is one of those anecdotes that illustrates that cultural fellowship, a fellowship that began with the First World War. Quite predictability, it is written in the disrespectful manner that was all-too common of that era.

The Dummy Horse Observation Post
(Popular Mechanics, 1918)

History’s ancient example of camouflage, the Trojan horse, has a modern twist in this illustrated article. The journalist reported that at some undated point earlier in the war the French had a chance to set a mock horse-carcass between the opposing trenches and use it as an observation post.

The Political Climate in Germany
(New Outlook Magazine, 1932

By the early Thirties the anointed of Europe realized that there would be no economic recovery for the continent if Germany was not a part of it. With this in mind, a delegation convened in Lausanne, Switzerland where it was decided by representatives from France, Britain and Germany that the reparation payments imposed upon the defeated countries by the Treaty of Versailles would be suspended. Hitler’s followers were of the mind that Germany should not have signed the agreement unless the war-guilt clause was removed from the Versailles Treaty. This article addresses the general political climate in Germany as 1932 came to a close.

The Effects of Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
(The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

The alarming rise in shipping losses due to the increased presence of German submarines (as foretold in the Zimmermann telegram) had made the American population sit up and take notice in a way that the war had never done before. The attached four notices were printed on the front pages of an Atlanta paper one month prior to the U.S. Congress’ declaration of war; each one pertains to military recruiting or the need for military equipment.

The widening of hostilities also served to outrage the Latin American republics: Guatemala would soon break off all relations with Germany and Brazil would declare war in October of that year.

Click here to read about the new rules for warfare that were written as a result of the First World War – none of them pertain to the use of poison gas or submarines.

W.W. I Zeppelin Raids on London
(NY Times, 1915)

Printed during the seventh month of the First World War, this is a collection of assorted musings that first appeared in The London Times involving what was known for sure regarding the subject of German zeppelins. In an attempt to understand the true speed, range and fuel capacity of a zeppelin, the author refers to a number of previous voyages that the airships were known to have made during the pre-war years. Concerns regarding the amount of ammunition that could have been carried is also mentioned.

It was a Second Rate War
(The American Mercury, 1924)

In the conflict which some still persist in calling the Great War, though it was great only in size, there was so much jumble and muddle and half-hearted experiment and so little visible military skill and ingenuity that a far-seeing and keen-thinking British colonel has declared that if the nations of the earth will only use their brains, the inevitable next war will show combat so transformed and reformed that the struggle of 1914 – 1918 will seem, by comparison, little more than a clash ‘between barbaric hordes…’

Click here to read about the new rules for warfare that were written as a result of the First World War – none of them pertain to the use of poison gas or submarines.

Submarine Warfare: The First Seven Months
(NY Times, 1915)

Information released from the British Admiralty concerning the number of British merchant and fishing vessels lost to German U-boat attacks during the first seven months of the war. The article names eight non-military ships sunk during March 1915. In addition, the Admiralty also stated the total number of British merchant and fishing vessels lost through German naval attacks from the start of the war through March 10, 1915.

Click here to read about the new rules for warfare that were written as a result of the First World War – none of them pertain to the use of poison gas or submarines.

The Future of War and Chemical Weapons
(Current Opinion, 1921)

Read this article and you will soon get a sense of what busy bees they must have been over at the United States Department of War within that year and a half following the close of World War One. General Amos A. Fries and the lads attached to the Chemical Warfare Service had been applying much cranium power to all matters involving mustard gas, tear gas, Lewisite and White Phosphorus. Much of the post-war dollar was devoted to making ships impervious to gas attacks, masks and uniforms suited to withstand nerve agents and offensive aircraft capable of deploying chemical bombs.

As to the effectiveness of phosphorous and thermit against machine-gun nests, there is no recorded instance where our gas troops failed to silence German machine-gun nests once they were located…In the next war, no matter how soon it may occur, a deadly composition called Lewisite will be used with far more devastating effect than that of mustard gas.

The Blessings of Poison Gas
(Literary Digest, 1927)

Having examined the collected data from the First World War, scientists and soldiers alike were drawing surprising conclusions as to the inefficiency of chemical agents in warfare. No doubt, it was articles such as this that lead to the decision not to use gas in the Second World War:

Poisonous gas as used in warfare is ‘a blessing, not a curse,’ and makes for the future security and peace of the world’, declares J.E. Mills, of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service

…Theoretically one ton of mustard gas could kill 45,000,000 men. Actually one ton of mustard gas as used at the front caused about twenty-nine casualties, of which one died.

Reconsidering Poison Gas as a Weapon
(Current Opinion, 1925)

An article about J.B.S. Haldane (1892 – 1964), formerly a British combatant of the Great War who became a chemist (and pioneer geneticist) during the inter-war years studying not merely the effectiveness of poison gas but the question as to whether the weapon was more humane than bullets and artillery shells:

The future lies with poisonous smoke made from arsenic compounds and with mustard gas. Of the latter, he says, it kills one man for every forty it puts out of action, whereas, shells kill one for every three.

His musings concerning atomic energy are referred to as are some of his quack-theories regarding the effects of gas warfare on people with dark skin.

New Rules of Warfare
(Time Magazine, 1923)

The International Commission of Jurists of the World Court under the Presidency of Professor John Bassett Moore of Columbia University, New York, drew up at The Hague new ‘rules of warfare’… Chief among the rules for aircraft in warfare are provisions against bombing private property not of a military character and against attacking non-combatants.

Preparing for the Next War
(Literary Digest, 1919)

We find ourselves preparing for the next war when the ink is hardly dry on the still unratified Treaty of Peace.

These were the thoughts of the Japanese rulers who were terribly surprised to find that they had quickly become the subject of much attention by their former allies, the Americans and the Commonwealth powers following the close of the First World War.

Germany’s Discomfort Over the War-Guilt Clause
(Literary Digest, 1929)

The Treaty of Versailles was signed ten years before the printing of the attached article, and within that time the German press had literally published hundreds of thousands of editorials objecting to the treaty’s clause that placed all blame entirely on Germany for the start of the war. In order to mark this anniversary, the editors of The Literary Digest decided to run this article that reported on how that country felt about the war-guilt lie.

The French Army Moves into the Ruhr Valley
(Literary Digest, 1923)

When Germany’s post-war government failed to remit a portion of the 33 billion dollars it owed under it’s obligations agreed to in the Versailles Treaty, France lost little time deploying her army into the coal rich regions of the Ruhr Valley. This article, illustrated with cartoons and maps, offers a collection of assorted observations and editorial opinions gathered from from across Europe concerning the event:

Premiere Poincare remarked, ‘the French troops will remain in the Ruhr as long as may be necessary to assure the payment of reparations, but not a single day longer.’

Armistice Cartoon
(American Legion Weekly, 1919)

A cartoon that appeared in an American veterans magazine on the first anniversary marking the last day of W.W. I. What is especially amusing is the satirical depiction of American combat officers and the last frame, which fully supports the thesis of Joseph E. Persico’s book, 11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour that the American Army was on the attack all the way up to the bitter end.

Kultur
(The New York Times, 1915)

During the course of the Great War, few German terms delighted English speaking cartoonists more than the word kultur -which is the Teutonic word for civilization or cultural progress. Prior to being picked up by the New York Times, this cartoon originally appeared in a London magazine called, The Sketch, and was drawn by W. Heath Robinson (dates?).

The Doughboys in Paris
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

Attached is a 1918 cartoon by THE STARS & STRIPES illustrator, C. LeRoy Baldridge depicting Paris in a way that only the A.E.F. could have witnessed it.

Read about the Doughboy who loved Paris