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The battle of Verdun
The battle of Verdun was a 3 year battle that started in February and didn’t end this December. During the battle, Erich von Falkenhayn wrote a memorandum to Kaiser Wilhelm II and he argued that the war would only be won by inflicting mass casualties on the French army. The war was still a bloody war that was won by the French. -
Leo was wounded at Belleau Wood
Leo was wounded at Belleau Wood while diving for his dugout during an artillery attack. He covered the wound and it stopped a lot of the blood until they got somewhere as soon as he pulled his sleeve up the blood started squirting out, and his arm couldn’t straighten out. He had to spend 3 or 4 months in the hospital. After he got out of the hospital he had to guard prisoners in France. -
Mortars
Mortars are a machine gun type of weapon that they used in the War. The Motars were never used in previous wars, it was used to kill the enemy that had a tent underground and they needed something with an arch to hit them. The mortars shoot up to 5500 m from where it is. The mortars still is a useful piece that the military uses to this day. -
Austria declared war on Serbia
On July 28, 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia, but before that, June 28, 1914, came around and Archduke Franz Ferdinand and others were assassinated in the city of Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip. Even before that in the year 1908 there were tensions between the governments of Austria-Hungary and Serbia, Austria-Hungary communicated a list of demands to the government of Serbia and Serbia agreed. -
Germany declared war on Russia
On August 1st Germany declared war on Russia. While Russia supported Serbia it also ended up bringing France into the mix of things. The war that happened in July caused this war to happen. It caused it to happen because Russia had nothing to do but pick a side. -
Dog tags
Every soldier had to wear dog tags. They would have the dog tags so if anybody were killed they would have their information. They would know their information because there were two strings, one string had a rectangle type of tag, and the other one would have a circle. If somebody would’ve got shot they would take the rectangle dog tag and have it where they can see all your information. -
The battle of the Somme
The battle of the Somme battle first began in the year 1916, allied offensive against German forces. The battle is now known as one of the most bitter, deadly, and costly battles of all time. The battle was a bloody battle that cost 300,000 lives. -
Germany prisoners
On the 30th of September 1919, everybody who fought in the war was sent home except everybody who was wounded. They guarded the German prisoners and they were sent to western France, and more places they spent 10 days there getting ready to go home. They didn’t get sent home until October 1919 and while they were going there when they looked back they could see the lighthouse and he said that it looked beautiful. -
German people didn't hate Leo
While he was guarding the German people he said that they didn’t want any harm. He says that he corresponded with 3 people there who could speak English. He said that one of the men asked if he would go and see his uncle. That shows that the Germans that were there didn’t mean any harm and were just doing it for their country. -
Went to war with his Nephew
His youngest sister’s son died on December 16, 1944. He served for his country in WW2. One memory that he got of him is that they were going up the hill with him in WW2 and there were German machine guns. He explained how they walked up the hill and how they looked.