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Paper Mache Heads
The pictures show how soldiers went about making these papier-mache heads. Royal Engineers were tasked with building these dummy servicemen, snipers were adorned with foliage to camouflage them in the field board cut-out soldiers as decoys. -
12 Million Letters Were Delivered To The Front-lines Every Week.
Even during the times of war, it only took two days for a letter to be delivered from Britain to France. A purpose-built mail sorting office was created in Regent’s Park before letters were sent to the trenches on the frontline. By the time the war had ended, over two billion letters and 114 million parcels had been delivered to the trenches. -
Europe Descends Into War
Supported by Germany, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July. Russia quickly stepped in to support the small nation and mobilized its army. Germany responded by declaring war on Russia. France is Russia's ally and begins mobilizing their forces. As the armies mobilize war becomes inevitable. Many believed the war was going to be a short manageable conflict, but the crisis unfolds so quickly that no statesman is able to regain control of it. -
Fake Trees
Engineers would find a dead tree near the front that had been blasted by a bomb. They would take photos, measurements, and sketches of that tree. Artists would then create an exact replica of the tree. Construction was the most difficult challenge. The fake tree had to be installed at night, under the noisy distraction of gunfire. When everyone woke up in the morning, the tree would still be there and it would still look the same. -
Pony Makeovers
Many things came with World War 1. Some if not many were quite bizarre and interesting. one such thing was in German East Africa ponies were painted as zebras to not attract attention. -
First Use Of Poison Gas
Both sides experimented with tear gas in the first winter of the war. But in 1915 the Germans used a more deadly chemical – xylyl bromide – killing around 1,000 Russian troops at Bolimov, on the Eastern Front. At Ypres in Belgium, gas was used for the first time on a large scale. Germany unleashed thousands of canisters of chlorine gas, causing over 7,000 casualties against the British, Canadian and French. Its effectiveness was devastating, terrifying soldiers and causing uproar at home. -
The Sinking Of The Lusitania
One of the most terrifying new weapons of the first World War One was the U-Boat. These German submarines patrolled Atlantic and Mediterranean trade routes. A civilian passenger liner named the Lusitania, was sunk off the coast of Ireland by a torpedo fired by a U-Boat. More than 1,200 people died – including 128 Americans. Although Germany had issued warnings, the world is shocked by this unprecedented attack on civilians. This devastating event pushes America even closer to joining the war. -
Attack Of The Dead Men
Germans released chlorine gas over a fortress. One of the fortress defenders said: “Any living person stood outside on the bridgehead of the fortress was poisoned to death, the grass turned black." The fortress was not prepared to withstand a gas attack. Certainly, the Russians would not survive. Instead of finding corpses, Germans ran into enemy soldiers who were very much alive but strongly resembled the dead. In bloody rags, coughing up blood, launched an attack on the Germans. -
An Explosion On The Battlefield In France Was Heard In England.
Most of World War One was fought in the mud and trenches, but a group of miners would also dig underground tunnels and detonate mines behind enemy trenches. In Messines Ridge in Belgium, these miners detonated 900,000lbs of explosives simultaneously, destroying the German front line. The explosion was so loud and powerful that it was heard by the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George – 140 miles away at Downing Street. -
The First Tanks
During the Battle of the Somme, the British launched a major offensive against the Germans, one of which included employing tanks for the first time in history. At Flers Courcelette, some of the 40 or so primitive tanks advanced over a mile into enemy lines but were too slow to hold their positions during the German counterattack and subject to mechanical breakdown. However, General Douglas Haig, commander of Allied forces at the Somme, saw the promise of this new instrument of war. -
America Enters The War
In January of 1917, Germany sent the infamous 'Zimmerman' telegram to Mexico. asking it to attack the US. In April, President Woodrow Wilson persuades Congress that America should declare war on Germany. The following year, the arrival of American troops is a great blow to the German morale and has a decisive turning point in the war, -
On The Ship
When Frank first shipped out he went to France on the same ship the rescued the remaining survivors from the Titanic. He was very open about wanting to go to France and higher up officers became more confident in him. -
3 Wheels
One of the many memories that Frank has of the war is of an American the guard getting drunk during the day while German prisoners worked and when it was time to leave the prisoners carrying him back to camp in a wheelbarrow and they also carried his rifle. -
Armistice
Before the Allied armies could invade Germany, an armistice was signed, bringing the war on the Western Front to an end. In a train carriage at Compiègne in northern France, the Germans surrendered and agreed to withdraw their forces from France and Belgium. Many German soldiers felt betrayed. The fighting ceased at 11 am on 11 November 1918, which for Britain, France and America become the time when the war dead are honored. -
Interest At A Young Age
Frank was born and grew up in Missouri. He did not know much about the war but he was interested in it. At the age of 18, he decided that he wanted to enlist but he had to find a way. -
Round Round Get Around
Frank first tried to enlist in Wichita at the Wichita State Fir but was turned down for being too young. He eventually came back and said that he was 21 and they agreed to perform a physical examination where they turned him down saying he was too light. (I Get Around hasn't even been made yet) -
Familiar Faces
Frank would try to get some exercise whenever the train stopped, there was one time he missed his coach car and had to ride in a freight car with the prisoners; years later in Brazil, he met a man who was also in that car. -
Readjusting To Civilian Life
Readjustment to civilian life was difficult, and getting accustomed to being treated as an adult even though he was still 18, so he was struck out on his own given only small consideration as a veteran. Suck as a YMCA membership.
