World War One – Page 9 – Old Magazine Articles

Carrier Pigeons of the US Army Signal Corps
(American Legion Weekly, 1919)

Illustrated with images of maimed and disfigured carrier pigeons, this article is filled with interesting lore of the battles waged by the ‘feathered aviators’ of the 1914 – 1918 war. You will read about how the pigeons were often dyed black so as to be mistaken for crows; how they were used at sea and at Verdun and that spies relied upon them.

During the course of World War II the U.s Army signal Corps deployed more than 50,000 pigeons.

It was said that the carrier pigeons of W.W. II were ten percent stronger.

W.W. I Memories of the Imperial and Osmanic-Balloon Division
(Click Magazine, 1940)

In the Spring of 1940, Leo Kober, devoted reader of CLICK MAGAZINE and former crew member of one of the Kaiser’s airships during the First World War, felt compelled to send his personal snap-shots of his zeppelin days to the editors of his fave mag with a few notations; and now we pass them along to you.

The Ground Taken by the German Armies
(NY Times, 1915)

Here is a numeric account, estimated by the Germans, indicating how much of Europe was conquered and occupied by their army on the first anniversary of World War One. The report also accounts for the amount of land being occupied by the Entente powers, and the number of Allied prisoners, machine guns and artillery pieces taken by the central powers within this same time frame. The report was interpreted by the Berlin-based American Association of Commerce before being filed in its entirety by the Associated Press.

The French Navy Sank Their Own Submarine
(The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

This news piece appeared in a Georgia newspaper during the closing weeks of American neutrality. The first report of this French naval blunder involving a French torpedo boat sinking a French submarine came from Berlin, rather from Paris or London, where such events would never make it past the censors.

This brief notice makes no mention as to the original source or who witnessed the accident.

George Bernard Shaw: An Anti-Militarist on the British Home Front
(NY Times, 1915)

A letter written by the celebrated playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1957) to an Austrian friend that appeared in the Munichener Neueste Nachrichten as well as the Frankfurter Zeitung in April, 1915:

At that time scarcely one of the leading newspapers took heed of my insistence that this war was an imperialistic war and popular only in so far as all wars are for a time popular.

Click here to read Shaw on the Titanic disaster…

Lusitania Torpedoed
(NY Times, 1915)

A short column from the front page of The New York Times dated May 6, 1915 in which one of the Lusitania survivors recalled that famous submarine attack and it’s immediate aftermath:

…Immediately we both saw the track of a torpedo followed almost instantly by an explosion. Portions of splintered hull were sent flying into the air, and then another torpedo struck. The ship began to list to starboard.

In 2008 Mr. Gregg Bemis, the American who is the owner of Lusitania, and sole possessor of all salvaging rights, examined the remains of the great ship where it rested some eight miles off Ireland’s South-West coast and provided proof-positive that the ship was indeed hauling armaments.

– from Amazon:

Lusitania and the Laws of the Sea
(Harper’s Weekly, 1915)

Attached is a two column article pertaining to neutral states and the international laws of war as agreed upon at the Hague Convention of 1899.

This piece appeared three months prior to the infamous submarine attack on the ship and alludes to a little known matter involving Lusitania and the masquerade of flying the flags of non-combatant nations while crossing the Atlantic.

The ruse by which the Lusitania escaped the possible danger of submarines, the use of the American flag, has been resorted to over and over again in modern naval wars.

Controlling the Radical Presses
(NY Times, 1917)

Here is a World War I article that appeared on the pages of The New York Times some four months after the American entry into the war and it reported that the U.S. Government was obligated to close all news and opinion organs that questioned any efforts to prosecute the war or support the allied nations. The Times reported that the government was granted this power under Title 1, section 1, 2, and 3 of Title 12 of the Espionage Act (signed by President Wilson on June 13, 1917). Although no publications were named, the reader will be able to recognize that the only ones slandered as pro-German were those that would appeal to the pro-labor readers.

To learn how many African-Americans served in the W.W. I American Army, click here.

Scenes From The War
(Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

Numerous little vignettes depicting the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

Winning the War with Women
(Harper’s Monthly, 1917)

Ida Tarbell (1857 – 1944), one of the greats of American journalism, wrote this article about the policy changes that were evolving in Washington and recognized that the mobilization of women in the cause of defeating Germany was a solid step in the direction of victory:

One of the many innovations of the National Council of Defense is an entirely original attempt to use the women power of the country.

Tarbell insightfully pointed out that up until that moment men and women had very little experience working together side by side.

Read a 1918 article about the women’s city.

With The Marines
(Scribner’s Magazine, 1919)

A U.S. Army officer was ordered to march with the Marines during their first engagement of the war and explained all that he saw:True to their tradition of ever being the first to fight, the Marines made up, in part, the first fighting unit of the A.E.F. to reach foreign shores… It was my fortune to to be assigned to the Marines and my privilege to go with them into the front line for their first hitch.

Face Masks Will Fight Influenza
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

The influenza of 1918 took a large bite out of the American Army, both at home and abroad. The military and civilian medical authorities were at a loss as to what actions should be taken to contain the disease, and as they paused to plan, thousands died. The attached article describes one step that provided some measure of success in the short term.

A more thorough article about Influenza can be read here.

Click here to read more about Influenza.

A Starbucks Cure for the 1918 Influenza
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

Coffee has the ability to remedy some physical ailments, however this small article told the story of one U.S. Army Colonel who felt so helpless upon seeing so many sick army men come ashore in France suffering from such a terrible illness as influenza, and was moved to do the only thing that he could in his power to offer comfort: unlimited cups of hot coffee. How real was coffee as a preventative measure in the face of influenza? The good colonel was on to something – it wasn’t the java bean that made an impact, it was the heat: viruses die when exposed to high temperatures.

A more thorough article about Influenza can be read here.

Click here to read about the earliest use of face masks to combat airborne disease.

A Woman in the Salvation Army
(American Legion Monthly, 1928)

This article tells the World War One story of Irene McIntyre, a Salvation Army volunteer who served at the front during the most bloody period of the war:

In her two-hundred and fifty-six days under enemy fire, Irene McIntyre was twice gassed and twice received the unusual distinction of a personal citation in Army orders. She saw more of the war at close quarters than any other American woman. One of her citations read:

‘Under fire of high explosives and gas, she established and conducted huts that were noted for their good cheer and hospitality. Her courage and devotion to her voluntary work were a splendid inspiration to the troops.’

1920s Prohibition created a criminal climate
that appealed to more women than you ever might have suspected…

Read about the Women Marines of W.W. II HERE.

A Wartime Footing for the USMC
(Sea Power Magazine, 1918)

The ranks of the United States Marine Corps began to swell in the early March of 1917, shortly after the Kaiser launched his campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare. When Congress declared war the following April, the expansion began is earnest:

The Act of Congress making naval appropriations for the present fiscal year carries a proviso increasing the Marine Corps from its permanent legal enlisted strength of seventeen thousand and four hundred to a temporary war strength of seventy-five thousand and five hundred with a proportional increase in commissioned and warrant officers and the addition of two major generals and six brigadier generals.

This article is illustrated with 12 photographs.

Click here to read about the African-American soldiers who served in France.

The Woman with the First Division
(American Legion Monthly, 1930)

Twelve years after the end of the war, former Y.M.C.A. volunteer Francis Grulick wrote this moving account of her days as a canteen worker in France. She had vivid and colorful memories of her days in the forward positions bringing some measure of comfort to the men of the U.S. Army First Division, to whom she was devoted. She was with them at Gondrecourt, Bonnvillers, Boucq, Cantigny and Soissons. She filled their canteens, served them lemonade, poured their coffee, cooked their meals and also saw to it that cigarettes were plentiful. By the time the First Division arrived in Coblenz for occupation duty, she recognized that the unit was composed almost entirely of replacements and that she was the only witness to the First Divisions earliest days in France.

Is your name Anderson?

Letter from Belleau Wood
(With the Help of God and A Few Marines, 1919)

The following letter was written by a Belleau Wood veteran of the U.S. Marine Corp’s Sixth Regiment, Private Hiram B. Pottinger. It was included the World War One memoir, With the Help of God and a Few Marines (1919) by Brigadier General A.W. Catlin, U.S.M.C. (1868-1933), who believed it rendered accurately the enlisted man’s view of the battle.

The letter is accompanied by a black and white photograph depicting what is clearly a re-staging of the Marines mad dash across the wheat fields that sit just outside the Bois de Belleau.

Click here to read about the U.S. Navy railroad artillery of W.W. I.

Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph
(American Legion Monthly, 1936)

This chill November morning the Cenotaph is surrounded by serried masses of men. Up and down Whitehall as far as one can see are thousands and thousands packed in so tightly they cannot move…Suddenly from St. James Park comes the sound of a gun. They used to say it was impossible for a British crowd to be quiet. That was before Armistice Day. For the hum of London dies at the sound of the gun…Somewhere in the distance a horse paws the ground and neighs. A flag flaps in the breeze. Never such a silence as this. A King and his people pause sixty seconds in solemn celebration for the dead. It is the Great Hush.