The Number One Recruitment Poster For America in WWI

The American “I Want You” poster featuring Uncle Sam was, as its creator James Montgomery Flagg pointed out, one of the most well known posters in the world. There were over four million copies made between the years of 1917 and 1918 alone. and due to its overwhelming popularity during the First World War, it was also used during WWII.

The Americans took the idea for the poster from the British who had a similar but less popular version featuring Lord Kitchener, who was England’s Secretary of State for War during WWI. On the poster Kitchener is pointing his finger at the audience and big letters under him read, “Kitchener Wants You, Join Your Country's Army!, God Save The King.” The Americans replaced Kitchener with Uncle Sam and modified the message to say I Want You For The U.S. Army, Nearest recruiting station. 

 

One of the reasons behind the American version's popularity compared to its British counterpart is that the Americans used Uncle Sam who was an icon representing the American people. This may have spurred greater patriotism, while the British use of Kitchener only represented the military.

Stuffed Animal Verdun

The Battle of Verdun was fought on the eastern front in France from February until December in 1916. About 300,000 soldiers died here.

The Christmas Truce of 1914

On Christmas Eve in 1914 the entrenched soldiers all along the Western Front laid down their arms in a gesture of peace. The truce lasted through Christmas Day and in some places went on for almost a week. At first the troops simply ceased fire, but soon there was singing as well as the exchange of rations. Slowly men began to come out of their trenches starting conversations with others from the opposite side in the midst of no man’s land.

As the truce went on the generals of the different sides became worried and angry. They could not understand why their men were all of a sudden fraternizing with the enemy. The soldiers were ordered back to fighting. Most of the soldiers, however, merely fired into the air and continued the truce.

On Christmas there was singing, sharing of food, music, and even games of football. Levels of celebration varied on the Western Front. While some sections openly celebrated, others merely kept an uncertain cease fire.

Even so it was the largest unsanctioned truce in history. Sadly the truce was not permanent. In the next two weeks all remaining truces were wiped out, and the two sides were pushed back to war. There would not be another Christmas truce in World War One, or any war to follow.

The Springfield M1903 Rifle

The M1903 Springfield Rifle was the main infantry rifle for the United States in WWI. The rifle was developed by the Springfield Armory in Springfield Massachusetts.

The Springfield was developed to replace the Krag-Jørgensen rifle, which had been adopted in 1892. The Krag-Jørgensen rifle had several problems including its inability to be able to load more than one cartridge at a time and its low muzzle velocity. Efforts were made to improve the muzzle velocity but the gun was not able to handle the increased chamber pressure that increased velocity required.

Springfield Armory was looking at the German Mauser, which the Spanish had previously incorporated into their military. Instead of using the Mauser, Springfield decided to instead combine desirable characteristics from the Krag and Mauser rifles to make a whole new gun.

The first of these new rifles, the M1901 was not accepted by the US Army, but in 1903 the new and improved version of the Springfield, the M1903, was accepted by the army and put into service. By the time America joined WWI in April 1917, 843,239 M1903s had been produced, allowing the United States to equip the American expeditionary force with Springfields.

The M1903 Springfield rifle was a bolt action 8.7lb rifle with a length of 44.9 in. with an effective range of 2,500 yards. The Springfield had a five round stripper clip that could hold 30 caliber bullets.

Proving itself as an effective weapon during the First World War, the Springfield went on to be the main US infantry weapon up until the early days of Vietnam.  

Springfield M1903 with ammunition

      

Springfield M1903 with magazine

Litarature Durring The War

It can be said that no great book about WWI was published during the war. The most famous were published postwar. Some of these were All Quiet On The Western Front (1929), A Farewell to Arms (1929), and The Guns of August (1962).

The war also had a large affect on British literature. Many political and social changes happened because of the war, and those changes sparked new opinions and view points.The war also brought about the subject of individual faith in the effectiveness of governments and their militia. This was a heavily critiqued subject after the war. There is a drastic change in prewar and postwar literature because of these recent topics. England also had a great interest in war literature during the 1920s and '30s. This interest died down because of the Second World War, but was rekindled in the 1960s when there was renewed interest in WWI around its fiftieth anniversary.   

As for reading material in the trenches, soldiers read anything they could. This usually consisted of dime store novels, magazines, or even, if they were lucky, plays by Shakespeare or other classic literature. Sometimes magazines were printed at the front (this depended on if the trench was lucky enough to have acquired a printing press), but for the most part books had to be brought in.

 

German soldiers reading in trench

In Remembrance of the End of WWI

Cheering soldiers after hearing cease fire

On the 11 hour of November 11, 1918 World War One ended. All nations had agreed to stop fighting while the peace terms were decided. The war came formally to a close on June 28, 1919. One hundred years later the countries that participated in The Great War are remembering those who died. In England the 888,246 ceramic poppies that were made to commemorate every British casualty during the war will be on display and will remain so for the rest of the month. In France a ring with hundreds of thousands of names engraved on it was placed on a hillside that used to be a battleground. In Germany there is no celebration, but there is remembrance of the 9.6 million soldiers that died in the war. In America Veterans Day is not only about the close of The War to End All Wars, but it is also a day to honor our current service members and those who have served.

Even though the whole world remembers the end of WWI, those European countries that were first to fight remember it the most. While in America it is a holiday, in England, France, Russia, and Germany it is more than just a holiday, for they began it.

Poppies in tower of London's mote, photo by Getty Images

 

British sailors marching.

Photography in WWI

World War One was the first war that could be photographed while it occurred. The American Civil War could not be photographed in this way. Cameras simply were not advanced enough to handle that kind of photography. Previous war documentation via photograph was done in the form of pictures of posed soldiers or the aftermath of a battle and its dead, but WWI was different.

Cameras had improved to the point where you could take action photographs and carry a camera with you without too much trouble. Photographers were not always able to get right up close to take pictures, sometimes it was just too dangerous. Even so this allowed them to get photos that they otherwise would not be able to get.

Soldiers took pictures too. They used the the Vest Pocket Kodak camera which they could take snapshots with. The 'VPK' as it was called was introduced in 1912. 

Just like artists, there were both freelance photographers and special military and government photographers. An important job photographers played in the War was Arial photography. Photographers flew with a pilot over an enemy position and took pictures of the entrenchments and other fortifications. This practice greatly aided in map making.  

    

Art During WW1

Art came in several forms during WWI. There was painted art and there was 3D art. Propaganda posters were all painted or drawn and so were pictures of the war that were in newspapers.

Painting and drawings of the war were done by artists who just wanted to use the war as the subject of their paintings and by artists who were hired by different governments to illustrate the war for the public. Trench warfare was a popular theme for painters due to its violent nature. Many of these paintings showed the dead soldiers or the infantry as they charged from their trench. Gas attacks and their victims were also painted as in “Gassed” by John Singer Sargent.

"Gassed"

Other forms of art during WWI included shell casing ashtrays, helmet lamps, and shell casing vases. Soldiers also etched designs into mess kits and helmets. Handkerchiefs were embroidered with all sorts of depictions of flags and battles. They were popular for soldiers to send home to family and loved ones.

shell casing vases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

shell casing ash tray with match box holder

The Defence of Sanctuary Wood by Kenneth Forbes

 

sketch attributed to Otto Dix

    

Cher Ami the Carrier Pigeon

Cher Ami while alive

Carrier pigeons served as a speedy way of delivering urgent messages in WWI. They were hard to shoot down due to their speed, and there was an abundant supply of them. The carrier pigeon was so vital that over 100,000 of them were used in the war with a success rate of 95%.

One of the most famous animals in WWI was a carrier pigeon named Cher Ami. Cher Ami was given to the american signal corp in France by the pigeon fanciers of Britain.

On October 3, 1918 the American 77th infantry division was trapped on all sides by the Germans. They sent out two pigeons with messages requesting help, but both pigeons were shot down. The only pigeon that was left was Cher Ami. She was sent out with the division’s last request for help. On her way out of the 77th’s position she was shot by German riflemen. Even with this injury Cher Ami was able to carry on. She covered 25 miles in 25 minutes and was able to deliver the message to the American command.

Cher Ami Taxidermied 

The Americans were then able to send reinforcements in time to save the 77th. The army doctors worked long and hard to save Cher Ami. She survived, but she lost one of her legs. To replace it the soldiers carved her a little wooden one.

Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre Medal with a Palm Oak Leaf Cluster for her heroic actions. She died at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, on June 13, 1919 from the wounds she received in battle and was later inducted into the Racing Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1931. She also received a gold medal from the Organized Bodies of American Racing Pigeon Fanciers in recognition of her extraordinary service during World War I. Her taxidermied body is now on display at the National Museum of American History’s "Price of Freedom" exhibit.

Poetry in World War One

Jack Sullivan, Butetown History & Arts Centre

After the war poets needed something to write about. Many of them chose WWI as a topic because of its impact on the world.

The poems had a wide variety of topics from battles, to the horrors of war, to its weapons and participants. In “The Bombardment” the poet Amy Lowell describes an artillery bombardment. during which many valuable things are broken or destroyed.

Another poem depicts a soldier as he thinks about how fortunate he was to be alive and well. These thoughts of his were stirred when he heard an owl, whose cry reminded him of how fortunate he was not to be dead while so many others were not. The title of the poem is “The Owl.”

The charges made by the men in the trenches against other trenches were almost pointless. The introduction of machine guns and the wreckage of no-mans land made such attacks costly and largely ineffective. In “Attack” an attack is described, and the author wishes it to stop due to its brutality and waste.

Because of the new type warfare introduced in WWI poets found a great wealth of topics and ideas to write about. Many poems were written by soldiers themselves, while others were written by poets who imagined what life was like as a soldier. The poems of and about WWI give an idea of how warfare was changing in that time to modern day.       

Popular Music during the War

Music During WWI

During the early days of the war music was used for recruiting young men. These tunes were uplifting and encouraged men to enlist. These songs included titles like "We Don't Want to Lose You, but We Think You Ought to Go," "Now You've Got the Khaki On" and "Kitcheners' Boys" which referred to a British senior officer, Herbert Kitchener. As the war pressed on, these types of songs disappeared and were replaced with music that talked about the war ending and men coming back home. Some popular titles were  "When the Boys Come Home" and "Keep the Home Fires Burning.” There were also anti-war songs. These songs were sometimes sarcastic, an example being "Oh, It's a Lovely War,” while others were more blunt in their criticism proclaiming the war was a waste of life. These songs did attract listeners, but they did not have a major affect on public opinion.

One of the big reasons music about the war was so plentiful was that there was no television or radios for people to listen to. Restrictions were imposed on citizens during a war that they could not use their radios, and most radio stations were shut down or taken for government use. Newspapers were reporting on the war, and the music helped them with their imagination.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCUzD5eBTNU

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mngRoSlJJUI

World War One: In the Air

I read an article in the Autumn 2013 issue of the Quarterly Journal of Military History (MHQ) on WWI airplanes and air combat during that time. The opinions of civilians and military men on this new weapon and the new type of warfare it brought with it were discussed. At first the airplane was not seriously considered a threat. A British nun in Belgium said that they looked like “beautiful little birds.” This type of thinking vanished when planes started shooting and bombing.

At first the airplane’s only use was as an observer with no fighting capabilities. After a while though, pilots started carrying rifles and handguns with them. Machine guns were then mounted on the planes, but many of these early attempts to mount guns on the plane failed. One of the big problems was that the bullets from the machine guns would destroy the propeller of the plane. The Germans were the first to fix the problem. They did this by synchronizing the propeller with the fire of the gun so the bullets would go between the propellers instead of through them. The mechanism was called the Interrupter Gear. The Allied forces adopted the technique soon after the Germans did. With the ability to shoot, the planes began to shoot at each other with greater accuracy. The plane was no longer merely an observer but a fighter.

The incorporation of planes into warfare did not make everyone happy. Some people ( mainly military men) thought the new invention would ruin warfare. The majority though, saw the airplane as a game changer for the side that had the most and best of these planes. Countries scrambled to produce planes and train pilots. Most pilots were inexperienced when sent into the air and many died as a result. The few that survived though went on to teach new airmen. Slowly each country was able to accumulate a force of seasoned pilots.

The First World War sowed the seeds for future air warfare. World War I showed the leaders of the world how useful planes were, and the technological progress on airplanes during the war made a great base for future experimentation and improvement. 

Poster Propaganda

Propaganda was used by all nations in the First World War. This post will address visual propaganda, usually seen on posters. Countries used these for several reasons: to procure troops which were constantly needed, to get money, and secure civilian involvement. These posters ranged from insulting enemies to encouraging people to buy their country’s war bonds.

This Austrian image is encouraging people to buy war bonds.

This poster is encouraging young British men to join the army.

This picture tells England’s civilians to not use bread and to instead make soup so the men at the front could eat.

This German postcard shows that England is trying to take over Europe, but Germany is ready to stop them.

War stamps are shown helping to supply the US army with ammunition.

The Fullerphone

The MKV Fuller Phone

When I was on vacation earlier this summer I saw one of these in the Yellow Barn Museum in the Shenandoah Valley and decided to do a post on it.

Algernon Clement Fuller was part of the British Royal Corps of Engineers during WWI. While serving in the Corps, he invented the Fullerphone. You were not able to speak into the Fullerphone for it transmitted Morse code only. What made the phone special though, was that the Germans could not intercept messages sent from it. This was achieved by the two phone operators synchronizing their buzzers. This worked as a simple scrambling mechanism which the Germans could not make sense of. You were also able to operate the phone while wearing a gas mask which made it possible to be used in the trenches. Another nice feature of the Fullerphone was its ability to still transmit messages when the wire connecting the two phones was damaged or severed (if the line was severed and the two ends were touching the ground near each other the messages could still transmit).

Boy Scouts During the War

The Boy Scouts of America played numerous roles to aid our country during the First World War. Radio transmitters were regulated during the war, so during visits to homes in the area, Boy Scouts kept their eye out for unauthorized ones. Scouts also delivered messages, watched coasts for enemies, and reported men who were dodging the draft. $352 million in war bonds was raised by the Boy Scouts and almost that amount in war stamps. Fruit pits were collected by Scouts to be made into charcoal for gas masks. Sadly if a Scout master ( troop leader) was called away to service, the troop usually died due to the fact that their was no adult to run it. Some new rules were adopted later on to prevent this from occurring which included requiring a certain number of adults per number of boys. This way a troop did not depend on just one adult.

Lawrence of Arabia

Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in England in 1888. As he got older he became interested in military history. He joined the British army and became an officer. He was able to speak Arabic so he was dispatched to the Middle East where there had been some fighting between the British-backed Arabs and the Turks who were backed by the central powers (Austro-Hungary and Germany). He was sent with another officer to investigate. It was 1916.

After arriving, Lawrence was sent to talk to Amir Feisal, the leader of the Arabs. The two men got along well and soon Lawrence had helped Feisal to reorganize his efforts against the Turks. Lawrence helped the Arabs take an important railway from the Turks, and then he went on to help capture the city of Akaba in 1917. Through his travels with the Arab tribes he earned their respect and trust. Lawrence eventually went back to England where, in 1935, he died in a motorcycle accident. His contribution to the war in the Middle East during WWI is still debated, but to the men he fought with ... it is unquestionable.

   

The Shared National Anthem of WWI

Every country has a national anthem. The words to these anthems vary depending on the country’s views and beliefs. The song’s melody could be the same though, and so was the case of two countries during WWI, Germany and England. Before the war Germany had adopted the tune from England’s “God Save the King.” The English still use the melody today, but the Germans abandoned it after the monarchy in Germany fell postwar.  We Americans also use this melody for one of our most familiar patriotic songs. Sadly, the name of the composer of this melody is unknown. The melody possibly dates back to the seventeenth century. 

Germany's flag in 1914:

England's flag in 1914

Germany's Stormtroopers

German Stormtroopers were elite infantry units used by the Germans from 1917-1918. Their symbol was two crossed German grenades above which was a skull. The German high command believed that the use of Stormtroopers would change the tide of the war. The Stormtroopers’ job was to attack the enemy position following an artillery bombardment. They would weaken the enemy for the general infantry that would follow after them. Stormtroopers underwent rigorous training that included the use of live rounds and hours of hand to hand combat. Stormtroopers were carefully selected individuals who were young and possessed the desire for violence and hand to hand combat. The Stormtroopers did their job well, but their success was almost never rewarded with victory. The infantry was unable to keep up with the elite troops. In the time that was wasted while the infantry arrived, the enemy was able to regroup. Stormtroopers were used until war’s end but less frequently towards the very end.

   Stormtroopers advancing

Kaiser Wilhelm, Post War

Kaiser Wilhelm lead Germany in the First World War. In 1918 after their surrender the German people were not doing well. Increasing political unrest convinced Germany’s other leaders that the Kaiser had to leave. The Kaiser was at first reluctant to abdicate his throne, but unrest combined with the German army’s announcement that they no longer sided with him finally convinced the Kaiser to abdicate. After abdicating he took a train to the nearby Netherlands where he bought a house and remained for the rest of his life.

The new leader of Germany, Adolf Hitler, hated the former Kaiser. Hitler believed that the Germans’ defeat in WWI was the Kaiser’s fault alone.

While in exile, the former Kaiser’s first wife died, and his youngest son committed suicide. Even so Wilhelm remarried several years later. He lived to the age of 82 and in that time saw the rise of a new Germany. He hated the new Germany run by a man whose tactics and leadership skills he found wicked. The former Kaiser was shocked at the thuggish ways Hitler treated his people and neighbors. Kaiser Wilhelm never left the Netherlands after arriving in 1918.

         

World War I in 6 Minutes

Joseph Stalin

The book I have recently read,Stalin - Russia's Man of Steel, by Albert Marrin, was a biography on the historical character Joseph Stalin. I have taken the information I received from reading the book to create this post.    

Although Joseph Stalin did not rise to power until after the First World War, I believe he still is mentionable. Stalin was planning his rise to power before and through the First World War. He helped overthrow Tzar Nicholas II, and aided Lenin through his time as ruler. Even so Stalin always had his eye on power. Towards the end of his life and time as ruler Lenin began to distrust his second in command, Stalin, but by then it was too late. When Lenin died Stalin took his place and immediately went to work on erasing Russia’s two previous rulers from the minds of the people. He did this by sealing off the country so nobody inside could know what was going on outside. The people of Russia knew only what Stalin wanted them to know. When Stalin became dictator almost all of the Russian people were illiterate. Probably the only good thing he ever did for his people was to make them literate. He launched a massive campaign not only in schools, but for adults too. In factories and workplaces time was set aside each day for reading. The people were happy to learn how to read, so there was no problem getting crowds at classes that were held for those who did not go to a job. By the end of it around two thirds of the Russian population could read. The reason for his interest in his peoples’ reading ability was because of propaganda. If he could get the people to read that would get him one more way of controlling their thoughts.

Stalin was a suspicious man. He always thought someone was out to get him. Therefore he insisted on massive personal security measures. He was in fact the most protected man in the world at that time and possibly even today. He had dozens of bodyguards follow him wherever he went. His food was chemically tested before he ate it, and even then he always had someone taste it first. He had twelve identical bedrooms to confuse assassins. His houses were fortresses with dog patrols, high walls and dozens of other security measures. He was constantly afraid that the air around him was poisoned and had it chemically tested all the time as well, and if a person or group of people made him suspicious in the least he would have them killed. He would also get rid of people if he saw them as a threat to his regime. Religion was abolished in Russia and the slightest mention of God or religion was punished by death or years of hard labor in prison camps. He hated Jews, and tried to wipe them out along with Adolf Hitler.

Hitler and Stalin were great admirers of each other, and for a while they were allies. The alliance broke during the Second World War when Hitler, greedy for power, broke his non-aggression pact with Russia and sent his armies to wipe out the Russians. Hitler had made an error. Even though the Russian army was badly trained and poorly outfitted it had a standing ground army of six million men. Millions of more men could be summoned if needed. Russia had the largest tank force in the world numbering 15,000. Russia also had an air force of around 10,000 plaines. The German armies made some progress at first, but soon faced the same problems every other army who had tried to take Russia had faced. The problems were: the sheer size of the country, its massive human resources, and the Russian winter. Even though the Russians won the war and pushed the Germans back they suffered a massive loss of around twenty million lives, 1,700 towns and cities, 70,000 villages, and 32,000 factories. On    March 5, 1953,Joseph Stalin died due to a burst blood vessel  in the back of his head, and Nikita Khrushchev took his place as ruler of Russia.