World War One – Page 14 – Old Magazine Articles

Railway Guns
(Popular Mechanics, 1914)

Railway-mounted artillery can be dated to the 19th century, however their shining moment came during World War One, and the most notorious of these was the German manufactured Paris Gun which showed up in 1918 and was able to shell that city from as far as 75 miles away.

The well-illustrated article attached herein first appeared a few months prior to the war’s outbreak and concerns the railway gun that the French had on hand at the time: 7.87 inch, 6 inch and 4.7 inch howitzers which were intended for coastal defense. By 1916 both sides in the war would be deploying enormous rail-mounted naval guns, capable of delivering a far larger blow.

Click here to read about the U.S. Navy railroad guns of W.W. I.

With the Sailor Guns in France
(The American Legion Magazine, 1940)

A seven page recollection of the history of the US Navy Railway Artillery Reserve, penned by W.W I naval veteran Bill Cunningham, who served as an officer on one of her five rail-mounted batteries. The unit was lead in collaboration by a hard-charging U.S. Army artillery officer but commanded by Rear Admiral Charles Plunkett (1864 – 1931), a veteran of the Spanish-American War. Cunningham described his first encounter with the admiral, who he first mistook as a member of the YMCA:

I looked up to see a tall stranger approaching. He wore a pair of black, I said black, shoes beneath some badly rolled puttees. He didn’t have on a blouse, but wore an enlisted man’s rubber slicker open down the front, and badly rust-stained around the buckles. His battered campaign hat had no cord of any sort He was strictly the least military object we’d seen in a couple of years, if ever.

Click here to read about the woman who entertained the U.S. troops during the First World War.

The U.S. Navy Railway Guns
(American Legion Weekly, 1919)

An article written for an American veterans organization one year after the war, the attached piece tells the story of the five American naval batteries that were mounted on specially made rail cars and deployed along the Western Front. The article is two pages long and is filled with interesting facts as to the whereabouts of their assorted deployments and what was expected of the naval crews who worked them.

War Poet Charles Hamilton Sorely Reviewed
(Times Literary Supplement, 1916)

THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT reviewed the third edition to Charles Hamilton Sorely’s (1895 – 1915) collection, Marlborough and Other Poems, with particular attention paid to an addition to that volume called Illustrations in Prose.

Sorely reminisced about his days before the war when he was briefly enrolled as a student at the University of Jena. During the war Sorely served in the Suffolk Regiment and was killed in the battle of Loos during the autumn of 1915.

War Poet Charles Hamilton Sorely Reviewed
(Times Literary Supplement, 1916)

‘Some Aspects of War Poetry by Siegfried Sassoon
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1920)

The following five page article was written by the World War One poet Siegfried Sassoon (1886 – 1967), in an attempt to give a rough outline of what the British poets did in the Great War, making every allowance for the fact that they were writing under great difficulty….

Three Collections of War Poetry Reviewed
(The Independent, 1919)

A review of three volumes of World War One poetry: From the Front edited by Lt. Clarence Edward Andrews (dates?), Songs From The Trenches by Herbert Adams Gibbons (1880-1934) and Robert Graves’ (1895–1985) Fairies and Fusiliers.

Soldier Poets
(from ‘Songs of the Fighting Men’: 1916)

The attached essay by Galloway Kyle (b.1871) concerns World War I poetry and served as the preface for his 1916 anthology titled Soldier Poets: Songs of the Fighting Men.

The Bad War Poets
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1920)

On came the foe, rushing foe,

As down they fell by hundreds.

‘Twas bravery held our men;

They knew they were outnumbered.

‘Hundreds’ and ‘outnumbered’; Tennyson could hardly have done better than that. But even Tennyson would not have tried to rhyme ‘steam and ‘submarine’, as the author of the following succeded in doing:

Brave boys, put on steam;

Be ready at the guns, boys;

‘Tis a German submarine.

etc., etc.

The Grave of War Poet Rupert Brooke
(London Mercury, 1920)

An account by one learned traveler who journeyed to that one isolated piece of ground on the isle of Skyros that will forever be England – the grave of the English poet Rupert Brooke (1887 – 1915).
The literati who wrote the attached article went to great lengths imparting the significance of Skyros throughout all antiquity and it’s meaning to the world of letters; credited only as S. Casson, he informed his readers that he arrived on the island five years after the original burial in order to erect the headstone that is currently in place and describes the shepherds and other assorted rustics in some detail while alluding religiously to the works of Homer.

I wonder how many people will visit this remote island to see the grave? It means long and weary journeying, and will be a real pilgrimage. From the sea, just off Tris Boukes Bay, the monument can just be seen, with it’s white Pentelic marble showing clear through the olive trees, the only visible sign of man or his works at this end of the island.

To see a color photograph of the grave, click here..

A W.W. I Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Poem
(The English Review, 1920)

There can be no doubt that as a term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is clearly lacking the needed musical quality that would add to the pleasing rhythm of a poem, however the melancholy that is generated by the malady has launched a million poems throughout the course of the last century, which was to date, the bloodiest yet. Most often remembered for her anti-war verses, Lady Margaret Sackville (1881 – 1963) penned this diddly about that legion of crushed and broken men returned to their wives after World War One and how entirely unrecognizable they seemed:

You cannot speak to us nor we reply:

You learnt a different language where men die…

Allied Occupation of Germany Ends
(The Pathfinder, 1930)

The foreign correspondent for Pathfinder Magazine filed this brief report about the goings-on in Germany on June 30, 1930, when the last Allied regiments had completed their occupation duties mandated under the Treaty of Versailles and withdrew to their own borders:

For the most part the German population waited patiently until the last uniformed Frenchman had entrained and then they raised the German flags, [and] began to sing ‘Deutschland Ueber Alles’…

President Hindenburg issued a proclamation saying in part:

‘After long years of hardships and waiting, the demand of all Germans was today fulfilled. Loyalty to her fatherland, patient perseverance and common sacrifices have restored to the occupied territory the highest possession of every people – freedom.’

The Versailles Treaty and the German Colonies
(Leslie’s Weekly, 1919)

Half way through the year of 1919, editorials like this one began to appear in many places which served to inform the English-speaking world that the Germans were peacefully handing over their African colonies (as they were obliged to do in article 119 of the Versailles Treaty):

Germany renounces in favor of the principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights and titles over her overseas possessions.

The Unknown Soldier
(The Atlantic Monthly, 1927)

Ten years after Congress decided to enter the war in Europe, James Truslow Adams (1878 – 1949) wrote this article that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in which he noted that one of the maladies of the modern era was the creation of a new type of collective thinking that celebrated the common man:

Man has always delighted to honor the great…But now for the first time whole nations, and those the most enlightened, have come to honor the man of whom we know nothing: the Unknown Soldier. As a matter of unfortunate fact, the particular body may be that of one who fought the draft to the last ditch and was a slacker in service. That, however, is of course wholly irrelevant; for it is not really the Unknown Soldier who thus receives the almost religious adoration of his people, but the Common Man, for that is what he is intending to typify…

America Commits Itself to the War
(Literary Digest, 1928)

In writing a piece for La Revue Mondale ten years after the Armistice, Stéphane Lauzanne (1887 – 1928), Editor-in-Chief of the semi-official Paris Matin wrote a few bitter-sweet words about the American character and how it was both a hindrance and a benefit to the Allies in the war. Yet he was full of praise when he recalled the bold and forward-thinking manner in which America entered the war and committed both blood and treasure.

Click here to read an interview with the World War I American fighter pilot Eddy Rickenbacker.

French Insecurity in the Face of German Might
(Literary Digest, 1913)

Attached is a 1913 article from an American magazine in which the journalist reported on a strong sense of insecurity experienced by France as a result of Imperial German military hubris. The reporter illustrated the point with various quotes from French papers of the day and in a similar vein, sites a number of German papers that express an arrogant contempt for France.

Hitler Was At Chateau Thierry?
(Pathfinder Magazine, 1937)

Having read a Hitler article that appeared in Pathfinder Magazine during the winter of 1937, a previously unknown German immigrant in New Jersey wrote to the editors and revealed that he had served with Hitler during the Battle of Chateau Thierry (May 31 – July 18, 1918). Perhaps the writer, Hans W. Thielborn, suffered some memory loss as a result of a head wound during the battle – but records show that the fight had been over for some ten days by the time the two interacted.

‘Merry Christmas, Major X”
(Der Welt Spiegel, 1914)

Written a few months after the war began, this German short story was written about a particular front line rifle company and the contempt that they shared for one of their officers. Its a good read.