Articles from 1918
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.
Published during the closing months of the war, the following five page article is a beautifully written account, by an Old Etonian illustrating the strange atmosphere felt on the Eton campus as a result of the Great War with all it’s sadness and uncertainty.
Click here if you would like to read a magazine article about World War I as it was experienced on the Harrow campus.
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.
The attached is a photo from a 1918 issue of GREAT WAR MAGAZINE and pictures the Brandt Grenade-Thrower – designed in 1916 by the Frenchman Edgar William Brandt (1880 – 1960). A commonly used piece of trench artillery that was most often found in the French sectors, it is easily recognized by it’s highly pronounced barrel that narrowed at the muzzle. An air operated mortar of 75mm caliber, this piece was one of several compressed air projectors deployed by the French Army.
For tennis, of course, the conventional flannel trousers will continue their popularity this season. But many men will also wear white duck or twill trousers, which has the advantage of great coolness and comparatively easy to launder… -but wait! the excitement does not stop with such trilling prose! The reader will also find a lovely fashion drawing of some awfully mannly tennis players as well as photographs of the fashions being praised.
These twelve black and white photographs depicting the tennis Guru George Agutter, in full court attire, are accompanied by short, pithy instructions as to how the racquet should be held and the feet positioned in order to play the game as they did in 1918.
The inability of the Sears & Roebuck Company to understand the nature of early aviation was made manifest by the fact that the first pilots used to wear horse-back riding clothes before taking to the skies.
Attached, you will find two pages from the Sears Military Equipment Catalog of 1918, pictured are flight-clothing items offered for military or private purchase.
Yet another examination of U.S. Navy officer insignia with additional illustrations of American naval rating patches.
Throughout the fall of 1918, American golf enthusiast H.B. Martin (Harry Brownlow Martin, 1873 – 1965), who was not one to dally on the links when there are hard questions to be asked, approached the champions of the game with one query in mind:
What is the ONE essential thing in golf?
As you will read for yourself, he came away with many different responses.
Attached you will find a segment from a longer article reviewing the W.W. I paintings of C.R.W. Nevinson (1889 – 1946). Trained by the Italian Futurist Severini, Nevinson made some of the most modern images of all the World War One artists:
C.R.W. Nevinson with unerring eye penetrated to the man behind the khaki and deliberately unveiled the son of toil. The hands of the foremost figures may be exaggerated (but probably not), and in any case they emphasize the essential truth that these men belong to the horny-handed class. They may not be beautiful, but they are strong…
Click here if you would like to read a 1922 article about C.R.W. Nevinson.
A book review covering a collection of drawings by one of the Official War Artists, Muirhead Bone (1873 – 1953). The book was titled, and it is not surprising to read that it was published by Country Life. The reviewer was not at all impressed with the artist’s renderings of, what was at that time, the most dangerous place on planet earth:
In these drawings Mr. Muirhead Bone has resolutely refused to become a journalist. He has not allowed the novelty of his subject-matter to affect his treatment. There he differs from Mr. Nevinson. Mr. Nevinson in his pictures of the war is not a journalist but at least an illustrator.
Nonetheless, Sir Douglas Haig wrote a supportive introduction to the book. Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) found his drawings to be highly inaccurate at best.
VANITY FAIR‘s art critic, James Frederick Gregg, had a good deal to say concerning the art of the World War One American poster campaign:
…Indeed, so ineffective have most of the posters been as art, that it is ridiculous to imagine that they have had any effect whatever in stimulating in us the spiritual side of our share in the war.
Well-over 30,000 women participated in the United States war effort during World War One. The majority served as nurses, but there were also impressive numbers who volunteered to do their bit as drivers and telephone operators. Many chose to serve in the religious organizations, such as the Y.M.C.A., the Knights of Columbus or the Jewish Welfare Board. They all needed uniforms and that is what this well-illustrated article addresses. Never before had there been such a conflict requiring uniforms be cut in women’s sizes, and this matter was not simply new to American women, it was a new day in human history as well.
The background of women’s service uniforms is war, war of the most terrible kind.
How unseemly any attempt to make the costume pleasing to the eye.
Click here to visit an interesting site dealing with the history of American servicewomen.
If you would like to read about the U.S. Army uniforms for women during W.W. II, click here…
An American fighter pilot of the R.F.C., Lieutenant E.M. Roberts, gave this account of the deadly game of Boche-hunting above the clouds:
I noticed he was going down a little, evidently for the purpose of shooting me from underneath. I was not quite sure as yet that such was really his intention; but the man was quick…he put five shots into my machine. But all of them missed me.
I maneuvered into an offensive position as Quickly as I could, and I had my machine gun pelting him…The Hun began to spin earthward.
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…
During the spring of 1917 the Germans developed a squadron of large aircraft capable of dropping 660-pound bombs on London -and drop them they did, killing as many as 788 human beings between May of 1917 and May of 1918. The Giant Goltha Bombers conducted these raids primarily at night and utterly terrified the East End of London. Eventually, German losses escalated and the London raids were canceled in favor of Paris and various other French targets. In 1917 this image of a Goltha cockpit appeared in the French press.
Click here to read an article about the development of aerial reconnaissance during W.W. I.
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.
