Articles from The Stars and Stripes
Written by Andy Rooney, this three column article concerned the seldom remembered efforts of a French airborne battalion that jumped into Brittany on D-Day in order to disrupt German communications.
Click here to read more about W.W. II parachute infantry…
Click here to read about the first American Paratrooper.
This paragraph was lifted from a longer article regarding the battle-savvy Native Americans of World War One and it supports the claims made in 1918 by a number of anonymous allied POW’s who reported seeing female soldiers in German machine gun crews toward the close of the war. The article appeared after the Armistice and this was a time when The Stars and Stripes editors were most likely to abstain from printing patriotic hooey.
If you would like to read another article about women combatants in W.W. II, click here.
The Donut Dollies, Nurses and Hello Girls needed trench coats, too. This link will display the printable image of a 1918 advertisement for one of the first American trench coats made for women.
The production of inaccurate war flicks with unlikely plots is a proud tradition that is alive and well in every film capitol around the globe and not likely to vanish any time soon. Today’s film critics seem to have a good deal more patience when reviewing the genre -as compared to the jaded, old ink-slinger who was charged with the task of summing up this silent film from 1918: On to Berlin.
The American-made war dramas must be giving the folks back home a swell idea of what The War isn’t like…William Fox is accused of producing On to Berlin
Best known for his 1913 poem, Trees, Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918) served as a Sergeant in the 69th Infantry Regiment (Forty Second Division). On July 30, 1918, he took a German bullet in the head and was buried not far from where he fell.
This short piece reported of the despoiling of that grave by his fellow Americans.
Laboring under the most intense preasure, the harried ad man of 1918 enthused about the Junior Store’s latest trench coat just so:
This coat meets every specification of what a trench coat should be. The collar, when turned up, forms a Storm Proof Collar and has an extra wrap fixed to the shoulder to cover the fastening and make it waterproof.
Mr. Junius B. Wood, correspondent of the CHICAGO DAILY NEWS with the A.E.F. recently spent a week in the sector held by the American Army Northwest of Toul. He lived the life of a Doughboy, slept a little and saw a lot. He spent his days in and near the front line and some of his nights in No Man’s Land. Here is the second and concluding installment of his story, depicting life at the front as it actually is…
Click here to read an article about the German veterans of W.W. I.
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 Great War held firsts in many categories (first big air war, first poison gas war, first submarine war) and it was also the first war in which the wrist watch played an important part. Four of the attached ads appeared in THE STARS AND STRIPES between 1918 and 1919 while the sole German ad that is posted first appeared during opening months of the conflict. Also provided is a color photograph of a World War One watch housed in one of the many types of wrist-bands available at that time.
An illustration of the insignia patch and a brief account of the origins, deployments and war-time activities of the U.S. Army’s 90th Infantry Division during World War One. We have also provided a review of A History of the 90th Division by Major George Wythe (which the reviewer didn’t especially care for but nonetheless provides a colorful account of the division’s history in France).
An illustration of the insignia patch and a brief account of the origins, deployments and war-time activities of the U.S. Army’s Seventy-Eighth Division in the First World War
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Although the unit arrived rather late, it saw a great deal of combat.
Attached herein are the terms of the 1918 Armistice as they appeared in the official newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces:
The complete official translated text of the Armistice conditions to which the German plenipotentiaries set their signature is herewith reproduced:
1.) Cessations of operations by land and in air six hours after the signature of armistice.
II.)Immediate evacuation of the invaded countries…
etc, etc, etc…
Five thousand women are to be brought from the United States to be a part of the American Expeditionary Forces…The Women’s Overseas Corps (WOCS) will consist of companies of 50 women each. The members of the WOC will be under soldierly discipline and wear uniforms…It is not expected that they will march in formation or observe the formalities of the salute.
These women were recruited by Miss Elsie Gunther of the Labor Bureau in order to relieve the men posted to the Service of Supply of their clerical duties for service at the front; in light of the fact that the war ended six weeks later it is unlikely that the these women ever arrived.
On the afternoon of December 8, 1918, the troops of the Third American Army entered Koblenz. This was the goal of the occupation. The Yankees had reached the Rhine.
Probably never in all its stressful history did enemy troops enter it so in quite the matter-of-fact manner which marked the American entry last Sunday. There was no band. There were no colors. ‘We’re just going in sort of casual like,’ one of our generals had said the day before, and he was right.
Here is an explanation from the official newspaper of the A.E.F. as to how World War I American fighter pilots were credited for their victories in the war against Germany.
Click here to read an article about the development of aerial reconnaissance during W.W. I.
This uniform regulation was printed for all home bound Doughboys to see early in 1919; the order was later rescinded, however, it seemed that the General who was placed in charge of all state-side Army units during World War One disliked the European style military fashions that the A.E.F. was affecting. He also wished to ban the trench coat, over-seas cap, puttees and the Sam Brown Belt.
An explanation from the official newspaper of the A.E.F. as to how the First World War American fighter pilots were credited for their victories in the war against Germany.
The following article must have been penned as a result of some sort of creative writing project for one of the many bored World War One Doughboys waiting for the boat home. The article spells out how the necessities of modern war demanded that the wrist watch no longer be thought of as a piece of jewelery adorned only by fops and fems and evolved into a useful tool for soldiers on the field. The column makes clear that prior the Great War, any man who dared to accessorize themselves with a watch was immediately suspect and likely to have their noses broken.
The T-shirt also had a military origin. Click here to read the article
