World War One – Page 6 – Old Magazine Articles

British Officer’s Uniform Insignia
(Bovril Booklet, 1917)

Attached you will find five black and white drawings illustrating the British Army sleeve insignia worn throughout the First World War.

David Lloyd George
(Vanity Fair, 1916)

An article that served to introduce American readers to the new British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George (1863 – 1945), who replaced the incompetent wartime leader Herbert Henry Asquith (1852 – 1928):

People had began to doubt whether or not Mr. Asquith had ‘the will to win’ the necessary determination to make all things work together to that end. There was no doubt in the case of Lloyd George. He had supported credit, he had supplied ammunition, he had inspired general confidence, he had reconciled the irreconcilable. The question arose whether or not the box seat on the coach of state should not be given to him.

The article concentrates primarily on the radical instinct and liberal leanings of Lloyd George, who is often remembered as the Prime Minister who laid the foundations of the British nanny-state.

In 1940 Lloyd George wrote an editorial in which he condemned the leaders of Europe for procrastinating rather than dealing with Hitler when Germany was still weak Click here to read it.

The Death of Quentin Roosevelt
(Pathfinder, 1930)

The attached column pertains to a W.W. I image that was erroneously believed by some to show the earthly remains of American fighter pilot Quentin Roosevelt following his crash landing. Numerous veterans chime-in explaining why the gent pictured could not have been the late Lt. Roosevelt, among them was Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.

The picture is provided.

Zeppelin Shot Down
(Literary Digest, 1919)

Pictured in the attached PDF file is a seldom-seen black and white photograph depicting the deflated remains of an unidentified W.W. I German zeppelin as it rested on the tree tops of a French forest after having been forced from the skies.

Custom-Tailored Uniform Ad
(Cambridge Magazine, 1918)

An advertisement promoting the abilities of Dunhills, Ltd.. All officers were expected to wear tailor made uniforms.

General Herbert Gough and the Collapse of the Fifth Army
(Times Literary Supplement, 1921)

The following book review is for all of you who toss and turn all night concerning the damaged reputation that was thrust upon the British Fifth Army General Hubert Gough (1870 – 1963) as a result of the German offensive that was launched during March of 1918.

The Case for Leonard Wood
(Vanity Fair, 1918)

Major General Leonard Wood (1860 – 1927) served as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff between the years 1910 through 1914 and was relieved of that office by President Wilson, who was unnerved by his wariness concerning America’s inability to wage a modern war. Having alienated the president and other prominent generals in Washington, he continued on this path by launching the Preparedness Movement a year later in which he established four volunteer army training camps across the country.
Wood’s admirer’s were legion, and this article opines that his finely tuned military mind was not being put to proper use:

General Wood has committed the sin of having been right from the very start. He has always been right. He has been right when Washington has been wrong. It is upon the heads of the entire pacifist crew who sold their shriveled souls and their country’s safety to the devil of German propaganda, that is falling the blame for the blood of those who are dying on the hills of Picardy and the plains of Flanders.

President Wilson Exonerates Mexico & Japan
(The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

When the diplomatic leadership in Washington began to unravel the plot that was revealed behind the Zimmerman telegram, the Wilson administration wisely concluded that the governments of Japan and Mexico were not complicit in the scheme that had been cooked-up by the Germans.

The Taxis of the Marne
(The World Veteran, 1954)

British Offcer’s Boots
(Magazine Ad, 1915)

An illustrated magazine advertisement from 1915 which displays the variety of private purchase footwear available to British and Commonwealth officers during World War I.

The Spirit of the War at Harrow
(Cornhill Magazines, 1918)

Written as a companion piece for The Spirit of the War at Eton, the article gives an moving account as to how the war affected life on campus while Britain was taking such tremendous losses.

Behind the Scenes at the Doughboy Training Camps
(Leslie’s Weekly, 1918)

This article written by Edwin A. Goewey and illustrated by C. Leroy Baldridge (1889 – 1977) reported on how America’s granite youth was chiseled into fighting trim at the Long Island training camps at Upton and Mineola. Reference is made to the contributions made by Father Francis Duffy and Major-General J. Franklin Bell.

Click here to read about the AEF officer training at Plattsburg, New York.

Click here to read some statistical data about the American Doughboys of the First World War.

A Tribute to Philip Gibbs: War – Correspondent
(The Literary Digest, 1917)

Two articles from 1917 heaped praise upon the laureled cranium of the British war correspondent Philip Gibbs (1877 – 1962). Having written diligently for the readers of the DAILY MAIL and DAILY CHRONICLE, who were also anticipating his book THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME (1917), Gibbs was admitted to the VANITY FAIR Hall of Fame (for whatever that was worth at the time):

He has been able to bring the wide, modern, romantic outlook to bear in his survey and analysis of fighting and the conditions of fighting…He is a war-correspondent of a ‘new dispensation’, giving ‘not a realistic or a melodramatic vision of war, but a naturalistic vision’.

At the close of hostilities in 1918, Philip Gibbs was filled with disgust concerning his cooperation with the censors and would begin writing NOW IT CAN BE TOLD (1920), in which he angrily names the bunglers in command and admits that he wrote lies all through the war.