World War One

Find old World War 1 articles here. Find information on uniforms, women, gas warfare, prisoners of war and more.

One German’s Opinion (The Nation, 1922)

A few choice words concerning the Treaty of Versailles by the German anti-socialist author S. Miles Bouton (born 1876):

Such a treaty could not bring real peace to the world even if the conditions were less critical and complex. As they are, it will hasten and aggravate what the world will soon discover to be the most serious, vital, and revolutionary consequences of the war.


The quote above is an excerpt from THE NATION’s review of Bouton’s 1922 book, And The Kaiser Abdicates: The German Revolution, November, 1918.

German Post-War Thinking (American Legion Weekly, 1922)

Thus any traveler in Germany feels that the future grows darker and darker for both Germany and Europe. There is no doubt that the German people have learned little from their war experiences and that it would require only a spark to set them off in another wild rush down through Europe behind Russian guns. It is a dismal prospect, and it is a terrible one, for it would mean, in the final analysis, the utter destruction of European civilization.

Above Verdun (Cambridge Magazine, 1916)

ARBEITER ZEITUNG, a Viennese newspaper, quoted the following swelled with hubris recalling his flight over crushed French Village in the Verdun sector:

I felt like a king, loaded with my bombs… I flew over Saint Privat quite low, so that I could see all the houses, and if I dropped my bombs there, I should have been able to to destroy half the village…

The American Springfield ’03 Rifle (U.S. Infantry Drill Manual, 1911)

A black and white diagram depicting the breach of the 1903 Springfield riflestyle=border:none, with all parts named. This rifle was the primary weapon for American troops during World War One and was in use by that army up until 1936. At the time of America’s entry into the W.W. I, in April of 1917, there were roughly 843,239 Springfield ’03 rifles issued; seeing that this was not nearly enough for such an adventure, the Springfield Armory manufactured 265,620 additional rifles. In some photographs from the war, American soldiers and Marines are pictured shouldering the British Enfield rifle, which had been modified to fit the ammunition of the Springfield ’03. Subsequent modifications produced the Springfield 1903A3 and A4 which were issued to American snipers up until the earlier years of the Vietnam War.

Throughout the course of the war the U.S. Army was paying $19.50 for each rifle.

The American Springfield ’03 Rifle (U.S. Infantry Drill Manual, 1911)

A black and white diagram depicting the breach of the 1903 Springfield riflestyle=border:none, with all parts named. This rifle was the primary weapon for American troops during World War One and was in use by that army up until 1936. At the time of America’s entry into the W.W. I, in April of 1917, there were roughly 843,239 Springfield ’03 rifles issued; seeing that this was not nearly enough for such an adventure, the Springfield Armory manufactured 265,620 additional rifles. In some photographs from the war, American soldiers and Marines are pictured shouldering the British Enfield rifle, which had been modified to fit the ammunition of the Springfield ’03. Subsequent modifications produced the Springfield 1903A3 and A4 which were issued to American snipers up until the earlier years of the Vietnam War.

Throughout the course of the war the U.S. Army was paying $19.50 for each rifle.

The War and the Royal Families (Vanity Fair, 1915)

A five paragraph account regarding the royal families of Europe; how close they were prior to the war and the important roll played by Queen Victoria in maintaining the strong bond between them. One particular line of note:

Queen Victoria was the only human being whom the Kaiser feared.

Click here to read another article about the war and the royal families.

Franco-American Relations After W.W. I (Literary Digest, 1927)

Ten years after America entered the First World War, thrice elected French Prime-Minister André Tardieu (1876 – 1945) put pen to paper and came up with a book about the complicated relations between France and the United States Devant l’Obstacle (1927):

They go on repeating the words ‘American friendship’ without realizing that America as a nation does not want friendships, and separates herself from her political associates the moment she can do so, as unceremoniously as she did in 1919, when she signed a separate peace with Germany. Few French students know or remember that less than twenty years after Lafayette left the American shores, America was at war with the country to which she virtually owed her freedom…


Click here to read another article in which André Tardieu slanders the Americans.
Click here should you wish to read good thoughts by a Frenchman concerning America’s entry into W.W. I.

The Zimmermann Plot (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917)

The full text of the telegram to German Ambassador Von Eckhardt from Dr. Alfred Zimmermann outlining the plan to form a military alliance with the nation of Mexico. Should the United States declare war on Germany and Austria, Mexico, in turn, was to attack the American South-West and reclaim her lost colonies.

Scroll to Top