Find old World War 1 articles here. Find information on uniforms, women, gas warfare, prisoners of war and more.
Attached is a map of the 48 states that will show you which regions of the country produced the greatest number of healthy men who passed their Selective Service physical examinations. You will also learn which parts of the nation provided men who could not pass this examination.
A black and white photograph of the seldom remembered French anti-barbed wire gun.
Another anti-barbed wire invention can be read here…
A collection of black and white drawings that illustrate the variety of items used along the Western Front to defend the German trench lines.
This article appears on this site by way of a special agreement with L’Illustration.
A French photograph showing the entry way to one of the many subterranean shelters that dotted the Western front during the First World War; also included is another diagram of what one of the smaller German dugouts resembled that had such an entry.
This article appears on this site by way of a special agreement with L’Illustration.
An American artillery officer from that famous division recalled the last minute of the war to end all wars…
Ten years ago the American people reversed its national tradition against entangling alliances and participation in the political struggles of Europe in order, as it is fondly believed, to make the world safe for democracy, safeguard the rights of small nations and the principle of self-determination… If the causes and justifications for our intervention were based on facts, some evidence of their truth ought now, after ten years, to be apparent.
When the songwriter Irving Berlin sat down in 1915 to write his well-loved ditty I love the Girl on the Magazine Cover, we have no doubt that it was the Christy Girl who inspired him. The Christy-Girl, so-called, was the creation of the American commercial illustrator Howard Chandler Christy (1873 – 1952) who placed her famous mug on thousands of magazine covers, newspaper ads and billboards.
The attached file consists of two articles, both pertaining to recruiting posters; one for the U.S. Navy and the other for the Marines. In the interest of national security, the Christy-Girl is depicted as a cross-dressing patriot in both of them, and the sailors loved it; they preferred to call her Honey Girl, and as far as they were concerned, that name fit her just fine.
Attached are a few words on the W.W. I naval recruiting poster To Arms by illustrator Milton Bancroft.
The article primarily describes what the duties of a ship’s bugler are, what this position represents and why this was such an suitable graphic image for recruiting sailors for the war.
Serving as the representative for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a special correspondent for THE CRISES MAGAZINE – and gathering information for his forthcoming tome on the African-Americans who served in the First World War, Dr. Dubois sailed for France in order to attend the Versailles Conference in Paris.
An early war (hand tinted) color image of Imperial Germany’s General Josais Von Heeringen (1850 – 1926) celebrating the Kaiser’s Birthday by distributing medals among deserving soldiers.
An early war (hand tinted) color image of German General Alexander Von Kluck (1846-1934), General Von Kuhl and General Walter Von Bergmann posing among various assembeled German staff officers.
A color photograph from the earlier part of the war, remarkable for it’s clarity and mood. It depicts ten German prisoners wearing their 1910 tunics, staring in a dazed stupor at eight truly bored Poilus struggling through their potato pealing detail.
As a wise, old sage once remarked: You don’t go to war with the army that you want, you go to war with the army that you have -no truer words were ever spoken; which brings us to this news piece from a popular American magazine published in 1910. The reader will be interested to know that just seven years prior to the American entry into World War One, the U.S. Army was lousy with deserters and it was a problem they were ill equipped to handle.
Click here to read some statistical data about the American Doughboys of the First World War.
This article refers to a temperate review of Anglo-German relations as understood by Dr. Theodore Schiemann (1847 – 1921), confidant of Kaiser Wilhelm II and professor at the University of Berlin. Interestingly, the professor predicted some aspects of the forth-coming war correctly but, by enlarge, he believed Germany would be victorious:
A German-English war would be a calamity for the whole world, England included; for it may be regarded as a foregone conclusion that simultaneously with such an event every element in Asia and Africa that is hostile to the English would rise up as unbidden allies of Germany.
The article attached concerns the past and future of chemical warfare (at least as this was understood in 1922) and was written by Captain J.M. Scammell, Brit who wrote a good deal on the matter throughout much of the Twenties and Thirties. Like so many other articles we find from the immediate post-war period, Captain Scammell argued that chemical warfare can be one of the most humane options available to a general:
The really significant figures are those showing that while gas caused 27.3 percent of all casualties, of these only 1.87 percent died! That is less than one-twelfth the percentage that died from the effects of other wounds. Gas, moreover, does not mutilate or disfigure…
An illustration of the insignia patch and a brief account of the origins, deployments and war-time activities of the U.S. Army’s Ninety-Second Infantry Division during World War One. It is highly likely that the attached description of the 92nd’s service record had been rewritten to suit the personal taste’s of the paper’s Jim Crow editors. Sadly, there are other examples of such biased editing at THE STARS and STRIPES.
It was discovered in 1922 that when the German school system made mention of the recently ended war (if they addressed the topic at all), the subject was often white-washed or inaccurately characterized. When approached by a foreign reporter concerning the matter, teachers claimed that new books were too expensive and that the prevailing political forces could never agree on an accurate history of the war:
When do you think you will be able to begin studying the history of the war in your schools? I asked.
Not until this generation dies…
Georges Clemenceau (1841 – 1929) served as one of France’s wartime Premieres (1917-1920). The following is an excerpt from his letter to the American people imploring them to share in his outrage concerning Germany’s open defiance to the Versailles Treaty. Clemenceau would die seven years later, fully convinced that another devastating war with Germany was just around the corner.
Click here to read more articles about the German violations of the Versailles Treaty.
