World War One – Page 18 – Old Magazine Articles

T.E. Lawrence
(NY Times, 1919)

One of the most romantic figures of the entire war was Thomas Lawrence, a young Oxford graduate who had specialized in archeology… To Colonel Lawrence more than any other man was due the efficient organization of the Hejaz Army. He worked in perfect harmony with King Hussein and Prince Faisal, to whom he was second in command.

The Germans and Turks alike soon discovered the presence of this young Englishman among their Arabic opponents in the desert and, realizing the menace of his mysterious and amazing successes, put a price of $5000,000 upon his head.

Blonde as a Viking, he walked about the streets of Jerusalem or other cities, in full panoply of Arab royal costume, plunged in some inner dream.

Read other articles from 1919.

Germany on the Eve of Hitler
(New Outlook Magazine, 1933)

The first half of this article succinctly summarizes the German political experience that took place between 1919 through 1933; the second half anticipated a new, stable beginning for Germany. The German correspondent seemed not be bothered at all about their incoming chancellor.

A similar article can be read here…

Dissent in the Pulpit
(Literary Digest, 1917)

Shortly after the U.S. Congress declared war against Germany, a New York City minister named Dr. John Haynes Holmes (1879 – 1964) took to his pulpit and made a series of sound remarks as to why the United States had no business participating in the European war:

Other clergymen may pray to God for victory for our arms — I will not. In this church, if no where else in all America, the Germans will still be included in the family of God’s children. No word of hatred will be spoken against them, no evil fate will be desired upon them. I will remember the starving millions of Belgium, Servia, Poland, and Armenia, whom my countrymen may neglect for the more important business of killing Germans…

Uniform and Equipment Cost Illustrated
(Scientific American, 1917)

A black and white magazine illustration from the cover of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN that appeared six months after President Wilson’s declaration of war against Germany in order to let Uncle Sam’s taxpayer’s understand what it will cost them to put a million and a half men in the field.

Their Reckless Abandon
(U.S. Army Study, 1919)

Here is another account from The Enemy Order of Battle report (1919) – on this page two experienced German veterans recalled their unit’s battles with the American infantry:

American soldiers took big chances and [did so] irrespective of any danger.

Intent on Battle
(U.S. Army Report, 1919)

Here is a page from The Enemy Order of Battle report (1919) by the subsection of the same name that was an arm of the U.S. Army General Staff. The report tells of Baccarat, a portion of the Western Front during the later part of the war that was quiet, by mutual agreement between the French and Germans – until the U.S. Army took their place in the French position – and then all Hell broke loose.

High Praise from a German General
(U.S. Army Study, 1919)

General Karl Wilhelm Georg August von Einem (1853 – 1934), commander of the German Third Army (1914 – 1919) granted a short interview to a member of the U.S. Army General Staff concerning his observations regarding the American Army.

The Shell-Shocked Millions
(American Legion Weekly, 1919)

With the close of the war came the release of millions of combat veterans onto the streets of the world. Some of these veterans adjusted nicely to the post-war world – but many had a difficult time. Their maladjustment was called Shell Shock and it could manifest itself in any number of ways; in the attached article, written less than a year after the war, one anonymous American veteran explained his own personal encounter with the illness.

Click here to read a post-W.W. I poem about combat-related stress…

A Visit to the Grave of Rupert Brooke
(The London Mercury, 1920)

Attached is an account by a learned traveler who journeyed to that one piece of ground on the isle of Skyros that will forever be England – the grave of the English poet Rupert Brooke (1887 – 1915). The literati who wrote the attached article went to great lengths imparting the significance of Skyros throughout all antiquity and it’s meaning to the world of letters – credited only as S. Casson, he informed his readers that he arrived on the island five years after the 1915 internment in order to erect the headstone that is currently in place, describing the shepherds and other assorted rustics in some detail while alluding tirelessly to the works of Homer.

A Diagram of Germany’s Only World War I Tank
(Almanach Hachette, 1919)

A black and white diagram depicting the interior and exterior of the German A7V heavy tank. Manufactured in the spring of 1918, only twenty were ever known to have existed. Although the illustration depicts only two men, it is said that the tank had a crew of 18 and measured 26 feet, three inches in length and 10.5 feet in width. The A7V had two heavy Maxim machine guns placed within it’s turret, while the tank’s primary weapon was a 57mm gun mounted at the very front (these guns were believed to have been of Russian or Belgian origin). The tank could travel an estimated fifty miles at the top speed of 6 mph; it weighed 32 tons and sported armor plating that was 30mm thick at the bow and 20mm thick all around. The tank’s two 150 horse-power, 4-cylinder water cooled engines were made by Daimler.

The Talent for Sniping: Native Americans on the Western Front
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

It was not beyond the editors of THE STARS and STRIPES to indulge in ethnic stereotyping from time to time and, no doubt, they exercised that privilege here as well, however the performance of the American Indian soldier got high marks for a number of valued skills from many Allied officers on the Western Front. It was not simply their ability to shoot well which invited these compliments, but also their instincts while patrolling No-Man’s Land in the dark in addition to a common sense of bravery shared by all. The article is rich with a number of factoids that the Western Front reader will no doubt enjoy; among them, mention is made of German women serving in combat.

Read some magazine articles about one of the great failed inventions of the Twentieth Century: the Soviet Union.

The Spirit of the War at Eton
(Cornhill Magazine, 1918)

Published during the closing months of the war, the following five page article is a beautifully written account, by an Old Etonian illustrating the strange atmosphere felt on the Eton campus as a result of the Great War with all it’s sadness and uncertainty.

Click here if you would like to read a magazine article about World War I as it was experienced on the Harrow campus.

How the YMCA Got it Wrong
(The Home Sector, 1919)

There were many benevolent organizations that volunteered to go abroad and cheer up the American military personnel serving in W.W. I Europe; groups such as the Jewish Welfare Board, the Knights of Columbus, the War Camp Community Service and the Salvation Army – to name just a few, but the Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s Christian Association) was the only one among them that irked the Doughboys. In this 1919 exposé former STARS and STRIPES reporter Alexander Woollcott (1887 – 1943) levels numerous charges against the Y, believing that they had misrepresented their intentions when they asked the War Department to grant them passage. Woolcott maintains that their primary mission was proselytizing rather than relief work.

Click here to read another article about the YMCA.

From Amazon: My Hut: A Memoir of a YMCA Volunteer in World War One

Ten Weeks in the German Cavalry
(Leslie’s Weekly, 1915)

Fritz Arno Wagner (1894 – 1958) is best remembered as a pioneering cinematographer from the earliest days of the German film industry, however before he could gain the experiences necessary to become the director of photography for such films as Nosferatu, and Westfront he had to first fulfill his obligations to the Kaiser. This article is an account of his brief stint in the Hussars (ie. lancers) that he gave to the editor’s of LESLIE’S ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY NEWSPAPER.

Although the article only covers his training period, it does give the reader a sense of what life was like for an enlisted man serving in one of the highly prized regiments in the Imperial German Army.

In Defense Of Chemical Warfare
(Reader’s Digest, 1923)

This article is very different from the others posted in the W.W. I Poison Gas Warfare section of this site. The column is a spirited argument advocating for chemical weapons, recalling the productive roll they played in the Great War. It was written by General Amos A. Fries (1873 – 1963) who had commanded the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare units during the First World War:

Poison gas is the most effective weapon mankind has ever devised. Will any nation with its back to the wall, and fighting for its life, hesitate to use it?

Trench Mortar
(The Great War, 1918)

The attached is a photo from a 1918 issue of GREAT WAR MAGAZINE and pictures the Brandt Grenade-Thrower – designed in 1916 by the Frenchman Edgar William Brandt (1880 – 1960). A commonly used piece of trench artillery that was most often found in the French sectors, it is easily recognized by it’s highly pronounced barrel that narrowed at the muzzle. An air operated mortar of 75mm caliber, this piece was one of several compressed air projectors deployed by the French Army.

Draft Resistance in W.W. I Quebec
(Literary Digest, 1917)

By 1917 an visible anti-conscription movement had taken root throughout much of French Canada that was encouraged by the Quebec Archdiocese.

In 1944, many French Canadians would be doing the same thing…

Resident Aliens: Not Eligible for the 1917 Draft
(American Legion Weekly, 1923)

Here are a few lines from The American Legion Weekly that reported to their disappointed veteran readership that the foreign-born men residing legally in the United States who were previously accused of shirking the 1917 draft were, in fact, absolved from service and thus free to swear the oath of citizenship, after having been slandered as draft dodgers and alien-slackers until the finer points of the selective service law was clarified.