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Life in the trenches in WW1
The trenches that were dug were long and deep, they were dug out to try to make both sides have more protection. One of most helpful things about the trenches was that they gave time in order for the soldiers to put their gas masks on. The disadvantages of the trenches were that they were very unsanitary and the soldiers would get trench foot. It was estimated that 75,000 British and at least 2,000 American soldiers died from trench foot. -
Archduke Assassination
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was one of the main causes of the beginning of the war. The reason he was killed was that a group of nationalists believed that Serbia belonged to them since the majority of people that lived there were Serbian. The assassin that was supposed to kill the Archduke missed his chance and went on to get a cup of coffee. The driver had accidentally taken a wrong turn and stopped in front of the assassin and murdered him and his wife. -
Aviation and aircraft in WW1
During the beginning of the great war later being called World War 1, they first used the planes as reconnaissance to track the movement of the enemy. The soldiers on both sides later started dropping bombs on their enemies locations. The bombs that they dropped were small and the planes were very vulnerable from attacks from the ground. While they dropped bombs from the planes they also started fighting enemies in the sky with machine guns. -
World War 1 begins
The conflict that had occurred with the archduke of Austria after being assassinated caused an uproar. The Germans invaded Belgium but because Britain had their alliance with Belgium they had no choice but to declare war. The two countries have declared war made other countries join in causing huge casualties making this one of the bloodiest wars. -
Christmas Truce
The Christmas truce was a historical event that occurred on the western front of the war. The opposing sides that were at war both sang Christmas carols together. They played futbol later named soccer in America, and gave each other presents like cigarettes, food, buttons, hats and gave both opposing sides a chance to bury their fallen soldiers. The way they know about the event is by the soldiers writing about it to their families but there is no actual evidence of the event occurring. -
Lusitania Sinks
The ship that was named Lusitania was sunk by getting torpedoed by German submarines. This was one of the causes that the united states joined the war. Out of the 1,198 people that drowned 128 of them were American citizens. -
Battle of Somme
The battle of Somme was one of the deadliest during World War 1. The battle lasted 5 months with over one million casualties. While on the first day of the battle the British lost 57,000 soldiers. The battle was also filmed and watched by 20 million people in the first month released. The battle gained minor territorial gain for the allies. -
First Tanks
The British deployed the first tanks that they had built. The tanks were not what they had expected at the time they old could tank barbed wire down, and clearing pathways. The battle that they deployed the tanks was the battle of Devon wood. The tanks eventually broke the stalemate on trench warfare. -
Zimmerman telegraph
The Zimmerman telegraph was a secret note that the Germans sent to Mexico for them to join them in the war. The telegraph offered that if Mexico joined them once they won the war they would be given back the territories that the united states had taken. The way that they found out was the British intercepted the telegraph and showed it to the president of the united states. The outrage that the president felt this was one of the reasons that they also joined the war. -
First letter Otto wrote
In the first letter written by Otto Ferdinand Leven, he talked about the people that he had met while at Camp Travis. He described digging trenches that they use in war and how hard work it was. Otto talked about how funny the weather was and how it was always cloudy during the mornings. -
Letter from Camp Travis 11/29/1917
In the second letter that Otto had written, he talked about how it rained a lot in the place that they were stationed. They also were having problems with their truck while they were heading to another location. Otto told his folks about where in Europe he was located after someone thought they had mistaken him for someone else in the states. He finally talked about having visited two people that he talks to very often. -
Last letter from Otto
During Otto writing his last letter to his folks, it was a very emotional letter. He talked about how much he missed his family and how he appreciated the letter that he received from them. He asks his parents to continue sending him letters because it reminded him of home and how much he missed talking to them all. He told them that once he gets home he will have a lot to talk about to them about what has happened. -
Armistice day
Armistice day is a holiday now named Veterans day. The holiday began when the Allies and Germany signed the armistice that ended world war 1. The armistice stopped the war at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. -
Letter from Red Cross concerning Otto's death
The letter that the Red Cross had sent to his parents said that he had been mortally wounded. After Otto got separated from his patrol group no one knew where he went. It took several months after he had died for the Red Cross to tell his parents of the death of their son. Otto was found the next morning and later died while in the hospital. -
Biography of Otto Leven
Otto Leven's nephew wrote the biography about the life of Otto he first handed it out to his family members before printing it to the public. The biography talked about from when his uncle was first registered to the draft and when he was stationed in camp travis from the multiple letters that were written by Otto. The biography talked about how he would go visit his uncles grave at the cemetery when he arrived.
