Find old World War 1 articles here. Find information on uniforms, women, gas warfare, prisoners of war and more.
A couple of the primary field guns of the German artillery corps are clearly rendered in black and white on the attached file: the 105mm field gun and the 150mm howitzer. Also illustrated are two German trench mortars; 240mm and 305mm, respectively.
German Mortars and Field Guns (Almanach Hachette, 1919) Read More »
Special woolen coats and breeches and underwear, long mufflers, worsted socks and long stockings, gloves and gauntlets are other things which are being issued to the Doughboys in Russia. Alaska Yanks are said to be right at home in their new surroundings, although they complain sometimes of the heat.
An additional article is attached concerning the supply of medals that had to be shipped North; reading between the lines, you will get a sense that much gallantry was expected…
When the Doughboys complained, they complained heavily about their uniforms; read about it here.
Supplying the A.E.F. in Siberia (The Stars and Stripes, 1918) Read More »
The American poet Carl Sandburg once wrote words to the effect that Slang is language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to work – a very soldierly description it was, too. That said, an anonymous Journalist from The Stars and Stripes examined the casual lingo muttered by the Doughboys in France and surmised that a
universal slang in this man’s army is as hard to find as universal peace in this man’s world.
Perhaps it was all due to the fact that we weren’t in that war long enough to make it our own.
Something Was Lacking in the Slang of the Doughboys (The Stars and Stripes, 1918) Read More »
As if simply having to be mindful of wind velocity and camouflage was not enough to occupy the thoughts of your average World War I German sniper, some were burdened to a further degree by having to affix this half-inch steel sniper mask to their faces…
Sniper Mask (The Great War, 1918) Read More »
The Napoleon who plays the Monday-morning-quarterback in these columns was created by the tireless researcher Walter Noble Burns (1872 – 1932); his version of Bonaparte explains what went wrong on the Western Front and how he would have beat the Kaiser – but not before he dishes out liberal amounts of defamation for the senior commands on both sides of No Man’s Land.
The war’s stupendous blunders and stupendous, useless tragedies made me turn over in my sarcophagus beneath the dome of the Invalides. I can not conceive how military men of even mediocre intelligence could have permitted the Allied Army to waste its time by idly lobbing over shells during a three-years’ insanity of deadlocked trench warfare.
Click here to read an article about life in a W.W. I German listening post…
Napoleon Takes Charge (Literary Digest, 1922) Read More »
The power of positive thinking is one of the necessary elements that has been ingrained within the psyche of every U.S. Army recruit for at least the past 100 years. Positive thought is the topic of this 1918 article about the wartime training of U.S. Army officer cadets at Camp Grant, Illinois, by Major Herman J. Koehler (1859 – 1927), who believed deeply that there is no limit to human endurance.
Read what the U.S. Army psychologists had to say about courage.
The Power of Positive Thought in Military Training (Outing Magazine, 1918) Read More »
The battle of Cantigny (May 28 – 31, 1918) was America’s first division sized engagement during the First World War; George Marshall would later opine that the objective was of no strategic importance and of small tactical value. General Pershing was hellbent on eradicating from the popular memory any mention of the A.E.F.’s poor performance at Seicheprey some weeks earlier, and Cantigny was as good a battleground in which to do it as any. Assessing the battle two weeks after the Armistice, Pershing’s yes men at the STARS AND STRIPES wrote:
But at Cantigny it had been taught to the world the significant lesson that the American soldier was fully equal to the soldier of any other nation on the field of battle.
An article from THE NEW REPUBLIC recognizing that 1914 marked the end of an era.
The U.S. First Division at Cantigny (The Stars and Stripes, 1918) Read More »
Cigarette smoking was far more prevalent in the United States after the First World War than it was in earlier days; this is largely due to the free cigarettes that were widely distributed among the nations soldiers, sailors and Marines during that conflict – and this is the subject of the attached article. It was written by Benedict Crowell (1869 – 1952), who served as both the Assistant Secretary of War and Director of Munitions between 1918 and 1920 – and although his column informs us that numerous tobacco products were dispersed throughout the ranks on a seemingly biblical scale, he does not touch upon the tragic topic of the addictions that soon followed (contrary to popular belief, the American medical establishment had their suspicions about tobacco long before the war).
Supplying Tobacco to the AEF (America’s Munitions, 1919) Read More »
