Find old World War 1 articles here. Find information on uniforms, women, gas warfare, prisoners of war and more.
Attached is a book review of what was described as the first book of it’s kind: a compilation of assorted recollections by Imperial German officers of their years spent in captivity at the officer’s prisoner of war camp at Skipton in Yorkshire.
German Officers Recall Their Days as P.O.W.s (Times Literary Supplement, 1921) Read More »
This two page article is about P.O.W.s and the plays and concerts that they launched while in captivity; it is illustrated by numerous images of the prisoner/performers in costume.
If you are looking for an article that spells out how much more educated people used to be as compared to now, you might have found it.
Click here to read about the W.W. II Canadian POWs who collaborated with the Nazis.
Click here to read about American POWs during the Vietnam War.
High Culture in World War One Prison Camps (Literary Digest, 1917) Read More »
Les Américains Sont Là!
Those were the words on everybody’s lips as the first big detachments of United States troops began to appear in the Paris streets… I think there is a simple politeness in these young warriors from across the sea, whether they come from some of the big cities, New York, Boston, Chicago or from some far-away states on the other side of the Rockies.
‘The Americans Are Here” (Scribner’s Magazine, 1919) Read More »
Sporting terms used as a metaphors for war are very common and come naturally to those who tend to think about matters military on a regular basis; yet this article uses the expression, playing the game more as a character trait that was unique to the British. The author, Austin Harrison, writing in 1915 (the year of grim determination) believed that the English have always played the game as a matter of course; they have always maintained good form, and yet:
Playing the game is only half the battle in war [and]…it will be the finest game we ever have played.
‘Playing the Game” (The English Review, 1915) Read More »
The attached Stars & Stripes article briefly summarizes the American efforts from Cantigny to the Armistice and serves as one big attaboy for the whole Doughboy army. The journalist anticipates John Mosiere’s World War One history, The Myth of the Great War
Stars & Stries could not have agreed more.
Ten years later a Frenchman writing for La Revue Mondiale would say essentially the same thing, click here to read that article.
Click here to read an article about life in a W.W. I German listening post…
A Pat on the Back for the Doughboys (The Stars and Stripes, 1919) Read More »
Written five years after the Armistice, this is an article about the eight U.S. W.W. I cemeteries that were erected in Europe (with the help of German P.O.W. labor) and the money that was set aside by the veterans of The American Legion to aid in the upkeep of these memorials:
The American flag is still in Europe, even tho the last Doughboy has left the Rhine. It floats over eight cemeteries, six in France, one in Belgium and one in England…It is the high honor of the American Legion to represent the American people in the fulfillment of the sacred national obligation of decorating the graves of our soldiers abroad on Memorial Day. The Legion pledges itself always to remember and honor our dead on foreign soil on the day when the heart of all Americans is thrilling with reverence for them.
The Eight World War One American Cemeteries (Literary Digest, 1923) Read More »
Illustrated by a photograph depicting the cold weather uniforms worn by each of the six Allied armies that served time in Siberia(North Russia), this article is a reminiscence told by one of the American veterans of that cold, uncomfortable and long-forgotten campaign.
– from Amazon:
Why did we go to Russia? by Harry J. Costello
The A.E.F. in North Russia 1918 – 1919 (American Legion Monthly, 1934) Read More »
An article that appeared in an American veterans magazine concerning the pageantry that would mark the Memorial Day of 1920 at each of the primary A.E.F. cemeteries in France.
More than 127,000 American soldiers, sailors and Marines gave up their lives during the war…Total battle deaths in the A.E.F. killed in action and died of wounds were 50,329 including casualties in the Siberian force. Deaths from disease including the A.E.F. and men in the home cantonments, were 58,837…No American field of honor will be without it’s Memorial Day ceremony, no American grave without its flag and its flowers…
An interesting article that was written at a time it was believed that the A.E.F. cemeteries were going to be closed and the interred repatriated. There is a photograph of an early prototype headstone that was later rejected in favor of a stone cross; references are made to Suresnes Cemetery in Paris.
U.S. Cemeteries: A Flag for Every Grave (American Legion Weekly, 1920) Read More »
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.
Carrier Pigeons of the US Army Signal Corps (American Legion Weekly, 1919) Read More »
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.
W.W. I Memories of the Imperial and Osmanic-Balloon Division (Click Magazine, 1940) Read More »
