Stars and Stripes Archive

Learn About the Americans of WW I with these Old Stars and Stripes Newspaper Articles. Get All Your WW I Articles from The Stars and Stripes.

How the Furnace of War Made the Wrist Watch a Musculine Fashion Accessory
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

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

•Read an article about the history of Brooks Brothers•

Anticipating New Equipment
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

Three notices appeared in the fall of 1918 announcing changes in design for three items issued to American troops: the 1918 combat knife, a.k.a. ‘the Knuckle-Duster, the mess kit and the canteen. Interestingly, the notice pertaining to the canteen states that Doughboys had been carrying both French canteens and American canteens by the end of the war.

Click here to read magazine articles from the Second World War.

Remembering Cantigny and Chateau-Thierry
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

Monday, June 2 (1919), was a holiday in the 2nd Division in the bridgehead on the Rhine. The anniversary of the battle of Chateau-Thierry was observed. It is just a year ago that infantry and Marines of the 2nd Division were thrown against the Boche on the Paris-Metz road near Chateau-Thierry, and from that moment on the Americans were in continual fighting until November 11.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

The U.S. Sixth Engineers and the 1918 March Offensive
(The Stars and Stripes,1919)

When the Doughboys began arriving in France the infantry and artillery were kept in the rear areas and taught the necessities of World War One trench warfare. This was not the case with engineering units of the A.E.F. who were dubbed noncombatants and dispatched hither and yon to attend to those duties deemed appropriate for men with such training. The U.S. Sixth Regiment of Engineers were rebuilding roads on the Somme when the German army came across no-man’s land on March 21, 1918 (a.k.a. Kaiserschlacht: the Kaiser’s battle) and they were quickly ordered to go in support of a nearby British regiment. These engineers were the first Americans to come under German fire and their story is told here by Private E.P. Broadstreet, who was there.

The experiences of the 108th Engineers (Thirty-Third Division) during the Argonne campaign is also told in this article.

Another first-hand account of that day can be read in an interview that appears in this book: Make the Kaiser Dance.

C’est la Guerre
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

One of war’s many, many sad stories. This one concerned a German mother living in Coblenz during the American post-war occupation and how she came to realize that her son would not be coming home.

Private Abian A. Wallgren: Cartoonist
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

If there was any mascot who best represented the staff of the old Stars and Stripes, it would have been their primary cartoonist (even though he was a Marine), Abian Wallgren; who went by the name, Wally.

This cartoon was from his on-going series, Helpful Hints

Sioux Code-Talkers of the Great War
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

The Navajo code-talkers in the Second World War are well-known, but not so terribly well known were their brothers the Sioux, and the similar contributions that they had made just twenty years earlier in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Something Was Lacking in the Slang of the Doughboys
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

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.

The Paper Had a Second Anniversary
(Stars and Stripes, 1919)

– from Amazon:Read more …

The Paper Had a Second Anniversary
(Stars and Stripes, 1919)

– from Amazon:Read more …

Commander of the Lost Battalion
(The Stars and Stripes, 1919)

The following article presented a brief account of the deeds of Major Charles W. Whittlesey of the 308th Infantry Regiment ( Seventy Seventh Division) and why he was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor. Shortly after the war Whittlesey would commit suicide.

In December of 1918, Lt. Colonel Whittelesey was highly praised in VANITY FAIR …

Signal Corps Movie Men of W.W. I
(The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

Appearing in The Stars and Stripes in mid-February of 1918 was this column about one of the newest disciplines to be introduced to the photographic section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps: the motion picture branch.

There is one movie-officer at present assigned to every division in the A.E.F.; one might call him the camera battery, if one wanted to get really military about it. Under him is a squad of expert photographers, some movie men, some ‘still’ snappers.

From the time when the sun finally decides that he might as well hobble up in the sky and do part of a day’s work, which isn’t often in this region, until the time that the aged, decrepit old solar luminary decides again, about the middle of the afternoon, that he’s done all he’s going to do while the calender is fixed the way it is, the camera battery is up and around taking pot-shots at everything in sight… They may be ‘covering’ a review, a series of field maneuvers ‘up front’ or merely Blank Company’s wash day at the village fountain. But always when the sun is shining, they are at it.

Click here to read a YANK MAGAZINE article about the Signal Corps films in the Second World War