Causes of WWI

The Sinking of Lusitania:

On February 4, 1915, the German government declared the seas around the British Isles to be a war zone and that beginning February 18; Allied ships in the area would be sunk without warning. As Lusitania was scheduled to reach Liverpool on March 6, the Admiralty provided Captain Daniel Dow with instructions on how to avoid submarines. With the liner approaching, two destroyers were dispatched to escort Lusitania into port. Unsure whether the approaching warships were British or German, Dow eluded them and reached Liverpool on his own.

The following month, Lusitania departed for New York on April 17, with Captain William Thomas Turner in command. Several concerned German-American citizens approached the German embassy in an effort to avoid controversy should the liner be attacked by a U-boat. Taking their concerns to heart, the embassy placed ads in fifty American newspapers on April 22 warning that neutral travelers aboard British-flagged vessels en route to the war zone sailed at their own risk.

Usually printed next to Lusitania's sailing announcement, the German warning caused some agitation in the press and concern among the ship's passengers. Citing that the ship's speed made it nearly invulnerable to attack, Turner and his officers worked to calm those aboard. Sailing on May 1 as scheduled, Lusitania departed Pier 54 and began its return voyage. While the liner was crossing the Atlantic, U-20, commanded by Captain Lieutenant Walther Schwieger, was operating off the west and south coasts of Ireland. Between May 5 and 6, Schwieger sank three merchant vessels.

His activity led the Admiralty, who was tracking his movements via intercepts, to issue submarine warnings for the south coast of Ireland. Turner twice received this message on May 6 and took several precautions including closing watertight doors, swinging out the lifeboats, doubling the lookouts, and blacking out the ship. Trusting the ship's speed, he did not begin following a zigzag course as recommended by the Admiralty. Upon receiving another warning around 11:00 AM on May 7, he turned northeast towards the coast, incorrectly believing that submarines would likely keep to the open sea.

Possessing only three torpedoes and low on fuel, Schwieger had decided to return to base when a vessel was spotted around 1:00 PM. Diving, U-20 moved to investigate. Encountering fog, Turner slowed to 18 knots as the liner steered for Queenstown (Cobh), Ireland. As Lusitania crossed his bow, Schwieger opened fire at 2:10 PM. His torpedo hit the liner below the bridge on the starboard side. It was quickly followed by a second explosion in the starboard bow. While many theories have been put forward, the second was most likely caused by an internal steam explosion.

Immediately sending an SOS, Turner tried steering the ship towards the coast with the goal of beaching it, but the steering failed to respond. Listing at 15 degrees, the engines pushed the ship forward, driving more water into the hull. Six minutes after the hit, the bow slipped under the water, which along with the increasingly list, severely hampered efforts to launch the lifeboats. As chaos swept the liner's decks, many lifeboats were lost due to the ship's speed or spilled their passengers as they were lowered. Around 2:28, eighteen minutes after the torpedo hit, Lusitania slipped beneath the waves approximately eight miles off the Old Head of Kinsale.

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwar1/p/lusitania.htm

Weapons

Smokeless Gunpowder:

Military commanders had been complaining since the Napoleonic Wars about the problems of

giving orders on a battlefield that was swathed in thick smoke from the gunpowder used by the

guns. In 1886 Paul Vieille invented smokeless gunpowder called Poudre B. Made from

gelatinized nitrocellulose mixed with ether and alcohol; it was passed through rollers to form thin

sheets, which were cut with a guillotine to flakes of the desired size. Vielle's powder was used in

the Lemel rifle that was adopted by the French Army in the late 1880s.

The French Army was the first to use Poudre B but it was not long before other European

countries followed their example. Vieille's powder revolutionized the effectiveness of small guns

and rifles. Firstly because practically no smoke was formed when the gun was fired and

secondly because it was much more powerful than gun powder, giving an accurate rifle range of

up to 1000 yards.

[In 1887 Alfred Nobel also developed smokeless gunpowder. This eventually became known as

cordite, a powder easier to handle and more powerful than Poudre B.]

http://www.patriotfiles.com/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=6886&page=1

Intelligence/Espionage

Choctaw Code Talkers:

The Choctaw Code Talkers of World War One held the secret code that the German Army could not break, leading to the eventual Allied victory over Germany.

[This information about the Choctaw code talkers comes from a typed memo from Colonel Bloor,

written in 1919. It is believed that the original document is now in the hands of the Choctaw

Nation.]

As World War I was drawing to a close, eight American Choctaw natives had a significant role to

play in helping the United States Army Expeditionary Force win some important battles in the

Mousse-Argonne (France) campaign.

Eight Choctaws were involved. One was from Bryan County, one from Choctaw County and six

from McCurtain County. They included: Solomon Lewis, Bennington Mitchell Bobb, Smithville

Ben Carterby (Bismark), Wright City Robert Taylor, Bokchito or Boswell Jeff Nelson, Kullitukle

Pete Maytubby, Broken Bow James Edwards, and Ida (now Battiest) Calvin Wilson, Goodwater.

They were all serving in the same battalion, which was practically surrounded by the German

Army. The expeditionary force was in trouble because the Germans had broken the Americans'

secret radio codes and had tapped the telephone lines. They were also capturing messengers

who served as runners between the different companies on the front.

Captain Lawrence, a company commander, was walking through the company area when he

overheard Solomon Lewis and Mitchell Bobb conversing in their native Choctaw language. After

listening for a while, he called Lewis aside. "Corporal," he asked," how many Choctaws do we

have in this battalion?" Lewis told the Captain, "We have eight men who speak fluent Choctaw in

the battalion, sir." "Are there any of them over in Headquarters Company?" asked the captain. "I

think that Carterby and Maytubby are over there," Lewis replied. "You fellows wait right here,"

said the captain. He got on the telephone and learned that Ben Carterby and Pete Maytubby

were part of Headquarters Company. "Get them and have them stand by," Captain Lawrence

told the commanding officer. "I've got an idea that might get the Heinies off our backs."

Calling Lewis and Bobb, the captain informed them, "Look, I'm going to give you a message to

call in to headquarters. I want you to give them a message in your language. There will be

somebody there who can understand it." The message was spoken and Private First Class

Mitchell Bobb used the field phone to deliver the first “Choctaw code” message to fellow

Choctaw Ben Carterby, who then translated it back into English for the Battalion Commander.

Within a matter of hours, the eight men able to speak Choctaw had been transferred until

there was at least one in each field company headquarters. Now, not only were they handling

field telephone calls, they were translating radio messages into the Choctaw and writing field

orders to be carried by runners between the various companies.

The German code experts were trying to break the new American code. Within 24 hours after the

Choctaw language was pressed into service, the tide of the battle turned and the Allies pressed

to the attack. In less than three days the Germans were retreating.

This happened near the end of the war and the Choctaw Code Talkers were not needed again.

The company commanders and battalion commander, who told the eight Choctaws that he was

“putting them in for medals”, praised them. (The medals were never received.) Solomon Lewis

told most of the information in this report to Len Green in 1979.

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=choctaw+talkers&page=1&qsrc=2891&dm=all&ab=1&u=http%3A%2

F%2Fwww.allsands.com%2Fhistory%2Fpeople%2Fchoctawwwnati_vvr_gn.htm&sg=rC1bRfMjLC

%2Ff8VFfF9ke5QA6o6HUZWq4uCl563YPPdM%3D%0D%0A&tsp=1298039613667

War At Sea

Torpedo Boats:

The concept of the German Torpedo Boats in World War I was to execute torpedo attacks on bigger warships. While other nations like Britain started to increase the size and gun armament of their torpedo boats - or torpedo boat destroyers - and designed a ship that would later just be called "destroyer", the German Navy stayed with the idea of small crafts that were focus on their torpedo weapons.

Compared to the 1000t ships with 10, 2 cm guns that were used in the Royal Navy at the outbreak of World War I, the biggest German torpedo boats were only about half the size and equipped with 8, 8 cm guns as a secondary armament to defend themselves against the British torpedo boat destroyers.

During the war, it got obvious that the artillery component of those boats had to be increased, therefore all torpedo boat classes laid down during wartime got more and larger guns - the climax were the large torpedo boats ("Große Torpedoboote") of the Design 1916 - with their four 15 cm guns and over 2000t in size they were the biggest and most powerful ships of their kind at the end of the war.

It’s quite interesting that even those late designs officially never were called "destroyers"; they were still labeled with the name "Torpedo boot".

Germany built over 300 torpedo boats until the end of World War I, and several of them were lost

because of enemy actions. 50 of the most modern ones were interned in Scapa Flow and

scuttled there in June of 1919, only a few of them were not sunk.

Of the 114 boats left in Germany, only 24 were allowed to be kept after the Treaty of Versailles,

but most of the remaining boats were of such a bad condition that it was difficult to keep even 24

of them running. Most of those boats were later reconstructed and several of them were even

used for auxiliary duties during World War II.

http://www.german-navy.de/hochseeflotte/ships/torpedoboats/index.html

War Medicine

Shell Shock:

Battlefield breaking points

On 7 July 1916, Arthur Hubbard painfully set pen to paper in an attempt to explain to his mother

why he was no longer in France. He had been taken from the battlefields and deposited in the

East Suffolk and Ipswich Hospital suffering from 'shell shock'. In his words, his breakdown was

related to witnessing 'a terrible sight that I shall never forget as long as I live'. He told his mother:

'We had strict orders not to take prisoners, no matter if wounded my first job was when I had

finished cutting some of their wire away, to empty my magazine on 3 Germans that came out of

one of their deep dugouts. Bleeding badly, and put them out of misery. They cried for mercy, but

I had my orders, they had no feeling whatever for us poor chaps... it makes my head jump to

think about it.' [Punctuation and syntax as originally written]

He was buried, dug himself out, and during the subsequent retreat was almost killed by machine

gun fire.

Hubbard had 'gone over the top' at the Battle of the Somme. While he managed to fight as far as

the fourth line of trenches, by 3.30pm practically his whole battalion had been wiped out by

German artillery. He was buried, dug himself out, and during the subsequent retreat was almost

killed by machine gun fire. Within this landscape of horror, he collapsed.

Medical symptoms

Aerial shot of a battlefield on the Western Front © Arthur Hubbard

was one of millions of men who suffered psychological trauma as a result of their war

experiences. Symptoms ranged from uncontrollable diarrhoea to unrelenting anxiety. Soldiers

who had bayoneted men in the face developed hysterical tics of their own facial muscles.

Stomach cramps seized men who knifed their foes in the abdomen. Snipers lost their sight.

Terrifying nightmares of being unable to withdraw bayonets from the enemies' bodies persisted

long after the slaughter.

The dreams might occur 'right in the middle of an ordinary conversation' when 'the face of a

Boche that I have bayoneted, with its horrible gurgle and grimace, comes sharply into view', an

infantry captain complained. An inability to eat or sleep after the slaughter was common.

Nightmares did not always occur during the war. World War One soldiers like Rowland Luther

did not suffer until after the armistice when (he admitted) he 'cracked up' and found himself

unable to eat, deliriously re-living his experiences of combat.

...everyone had a 'breaking point': weak or strong, courageous or cowardly - war frightened

everyone witless...

These were not exceptional cases. It was clear to everyone that large numbers of combatants

could not cope with the strain of warfare. By the end of World War One, the army had dealt with

80,000 cases of 'shell shock'. As early as 1917, it was recognised that war neuroses accounted

for one-seventh of all personnel discharged for disabilities from the British Army. Once wounds

were excluded, emotional disorders were responsible for one-third of all discharges. Even more

worrying was the fact that a higher proportion of officers were suffering in this way. According

to one survey published in 1917, while the ratio of officers to men at the front was 1:30, among

patients in hospitals specialising in war neuroses, the ratio of officers to men was 1:6. What

medical officers quickly realised was that everyone had a 'breaking point': weak or strong,

courageous or cowardly - war frightened everyone witless.

Defining trauma

A medical officer examining a recruit © More difficult, however, was

understanding what caused some panic-stricken men to suffer extremes of trauma. In the early

years of World War One, shell shock was believed to be the result of a physical injury to the

nerves. In other words, shell shock was the result of being buried alive or exposed to heavy

bombardment. The term itself had been coined, in 1917, by a medical officer called Charles

Myers. But Myers rapidly became unhappy with the term, recognising that many men suffered

the symptoms of shell shock without having even been in the front lines. As a consequence,

medical officers increasingly began emphasising psychological factors as providing sufficient

cause for breakdown. As the president of the British Psycho-Analytic Association, Ernest Jones,

explained: war constituted 'an official abrogation of civilised standards' in which men were not

only allowed, but encouraged:

'...to indulge in behaviour of a kind that is throughout abhorrent to the civilised mind.... All sorts

of previously forbidden and hidden impulses, cruel, sadistic, murderous and so on, are stirred to

greater activity, and the old intrapsychical conflicts which, according to Freud, are the essential

cause of all neurotic disorders, and which had been dealt with before by means of 'repression' of

one side of the conflict are now reinforced, and the person is compelled to deal with them afresh

under totally different circumstances.'

...a soldier who suffered a neurosis had not lost his reason but was labouring under the weight of

too much reason...

Consequently, the 'return to the mental attitude of civilian life' could spark off severe

psychological trauma. The authors of one of the standard books on shell shock went so far as to

point out that a soldier who suffered a neurosis had not lost his reason but was labouring under

the weight of too much reason: his senses were 'functioning with painful efficiency'.

Possible Cures

Four-fifths of shell shock cases were never able to return to military duty ©

Nevertheless, how were these men to be cured of their painful afflictions? From the start, the

purpose of treatment was to restore the maximum number of men to duty as quickly as possible.

During World War One, four-fifths of men who had entered hospital suffering shell shock were

never able to return to military duty: it was imperative that such high levels of 'permanent

ineffective' were reduced. However, the shift from regarding breakdown as 'organic' (that is, an

injury to the nerves) to viewing it as psychological had inevitable consequences in terms of

treatment. If breakdown was a 'paralysis of the nerves', then massage, rest, dietary regimes and

electric shock treatment were invoked. If a psychological source was indicated, the 'talking

cure', hypnosis, and rest would speed recovery. In all instances, occupational training and the

inculcation of 'masculinity' were highly recommended. As the medical superintendent at one

military hospital in York put it, although the medical officer must show sympathy, the patient

'must be induced to face his illness in a manly way'.

...their reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow.

Sympathy was only rarely forthcoming. Sufferers had no choice but to acknowledge that their

reputations as soldiers and men had been dealt a severe blow. After a major bombardment or

particularly bloody attack, if the combatant had acquitted himself adequately, signs of emotional

'weakness' could be overlooked, but in the midst of the fray, the attitude was much less

sympathetic. 'Go 'ide yerself, you bloody little coward!’ cursed one Tommy at a frightened

soldier. When the shell shocked men returned home, things were not much better. Men arriving

at Netley Hospital (for servicemen suffering shell shock) were greeted with silence: people were

described as hanging their heads in 'inexplicable shame'. No-one better described the mix of

shame and anger experienced by the war-damaged than the poet, Siegfried Sassoon. In October

1917, while he was at Craiglockhart, one of the most famous hospitals for curing officers with

war neuroses, he wrote a poem, simply called 'Survivors':

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain / Have caused their stammering,

disconnected talk. / Of course they're 'longing to go out again', - / these boys with old, scared

faces, learning to walk. / They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed / Subjection to the

ghosts of friends who died, - / Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud / Of

glorious war that shattered their pride... / Men who went out to battle, grim and glad; / Children,

with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/shellshock_01.shtml

Tactics

Plan 17:

The chief aim of Plan XVII, devised by Ferdinand Foch in the wake of the humiliation of the

Franco-Prussian War, and taken up by French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre in 1913,

was the recapture of the territory of Alsace and Lorraine.

Entirely offensive in nature, Plan XVII made extensive use of the belief in the mystical élan

vital assumed to be instilled within every Frenchman - a fighting spirit capable of turning

back any enemy by its sheer power. It assumed the average French soldier to be more than

a match for its German counterpart. Indeed, numerous French officers were dismissed

from the army during the early stage of the war for a want of fighting spirit, including

General Lanrezac following the French army's failure at Charleroi.

More technically, Plan XVII called for an advance by four French Armies into Alsace-

Lorraine on either side of the Metz-Thionville fortresses, occupied by the Germans since

1871. The southern wing of the invasion forces would first capture Alsace and Lorraine (in

that order), whilst the northern wing would - depending upon German movements - advance

into Germany via the southern Ardennes forests, or else move north-east into Luxembourg

and Belgium.

The architects of Plan XVII, which included Joseph Joffre, took little account of a possible

German invasion of France through Belgium until just before war was declared; and in

modifying the plan to deploy troops to meet such an eventuality, actual French activity to

meet an invasion via Belgium was lacklustre at best in August 1914.

Before war broke out Joffre and his advisers were convinced that the threat of British

involvement would keep Germany from invading through Belgium (with whom Britain had a

treaty guaranteeing its neutrality; Germany regarded this as a mere "scrap of paper").

Whilst the French had accurately estimated the strength of the German army at the opening

of the war, they did not place much emphasis on Germany's extensive use of reserve

troops, having little faith in their own. This proved a serious miscalculation which, in

conjunction with an underestimation of the Schlieffen Plan, almost led to France's undoing

within a month of the outbreak of war.

Within weeks of the war's start, the French attack into Alsace and Lorraine had proved a

debacle, effectively repelled by the German defences. With the inevitable advance of the

Schlieffen Plan meanwhile, the French were thrown very much on the defensive.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/plans.htm

Life In the Trenches

No Man’s Land:

Most commonly associated with the First World War the phrase "no man's land" actually

dates back until at least the 14th century. Its meaning was clear to all sides: no man's land

represented the area of ground between opposing armies - in this case, between trenches.

For newly arrived novice soldiers No Man's Land held a certain allure. Such troops were

cautioned against a natural inclination to peer over the parapet of the trench into No Man's

Land. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely

aimed sniper's bullet.

The composition of No Man's Land could rapidly change as front lines shifted as a

consequence of battles and actions. It was at its most static however along the trenches of

the Western Front where from late 1914 until the Spring of 1918 the war was not one of

movement but rather one of attrition.

During this period the area of No Man's Land scarcely varied although its width would vary

widely from sector to sector, from one kilometre to as little as a few hundred yards (as at

Vimy Ridge for example). In the latter instance troops would be able to overhear

conversation from their opposing trenches or readily lob grenades into their midst.

No Man's Land was not however barren of activity. During nightfall each side would

dispatch parties to spy on the enemy, or to repair or extend barbed wire

posts. Reconnaissance missions were similarly common. Injured men trapped in No Man's

Land would often be brought in under cover of darkness, as were corpses for

burial. Consequently artillery shelling of No Man's Land was common, quickly reducing it to

a barren wasteland comprised of destroyed vegetation, mud-soaked craters - and rotting

corpses.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/nomansland.htm

Military Decorations

Iron Cross:

The Iron Cross - perhaps the best-known of German medals with the

possible exception of the Blue Max (Pour le Merite) - was instituted on 10 March 1813 by

King Frederick William III of Prussia during the War of Liberation against the French under

Napoleon.

The medal (in German 'Eiserne Kreuz') was reinstituted during the Franco-Prussian War of

1870-71 and again by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 5 August 1914 for use during the First World War.

The medal was awarded to recognize acts of heroism, bravery and leadership. In spite of

its evident prestige it was a widely issued medal: almost six million were awarded during

wartime, although by far the majority of these (5,500,000) were awarded to the lowest of

three classes of the medal, the Iron Cross (Second Class).

Above this the Iron Cross (First Class) was issued to approximately 220,000 men; just five

men were awarded the highest form of the Iron Cross, the Grand Cross (the Kaiser himself,

Paul von Hindenburg, Erich Ludendorff, Prince Leopold of Bavaria and August von

Mackensen). Hindenburg was subsequently awarded (during the German Spring Offensive

of 1918) the only issued Star to the medal.

A blackened iron cross with a silver trim and a spray of oak leaves in the centre the medal

was originally designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The imperial crown featured at the top

of the medal and the date '1914' on the bottom. The First Class medal was pinned to the

tunic and the Second Class on the breast from a black ribbon with white stripes.

The medal was once again reinstituted by Adolf Hitler on 1 September 1939 in readiness for

the Second World War; Hitler had himself received the award during the First World War.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/ironcross.htm

Uniforms of WWI

American:

Sam Brown Belts: Two Short Notices (The Stars and Stripes, 1919) Aside from barb wire, poison gas, machine guns and trenches, the untested American officer corps had one other alien item to contend with: the Sam Brown Belt. Worn by all the officers in the allied armies and widely recognized as the premiere emblem of authority along the front lines, many American officers were of mixed minds concerning this military fashion accessory.

The Sam Brown Belt and Military Fashions (Collier's, 1917)

Six months after the United States entered the First World War all sorts of issues had to be addressed, such as the matter of the Sam Brown belt. Since 1914 the famous sword belt had been established as an emblem of authority among all the Allied armies along the assorted fronts, but the Americans didn't like it one bit. The level-headed editors of COLLIER'S MAGAZINE published the attached editorial pointing out that such matters of military fashion simply don't matter at a time of national emergency and to illustrate their point they quoted a portion from UNDER FIRE by Henri Barbusse which laid plain how miserable everyone (without exception) looks in the trenches, regardless of their accessories.

The Tailoring System for U.S. Officers (The Stars and Stripes, 1918)

This U.S. Army uniform regulation announced in the September 13th, 1918 issue of THE STARS and STRIPES helped to put British, French (and later German) tailors to work on the uniforms of U.S. officers:

"According to this plan, each Quartermaster depot will have a tailoring system through which the officer can buy his cloth and then be fitted and outfitted on the spot. At each depot, civilian labor will be contracted and the officers need pay for only his share of the labor cost."

Doughboy Uniforms: Breeches vs. Long Pants (The Stars and Stripes, 1919) "It has officially been decided that the A.E.F. has grown up and must now wear pants."

A 1919 order appeared in THE STARS and STRIPES indicating that the era of army-issued olive drab knee breeches had passed and soon all American Army personnel would be issued long pants:

"Experts have decided that the breeches legs shrink when wet and impede the circulation, and it is assured that the kind that he used to wear in civilian life will not cause the Doughboy cold feet..."

"To supply the A.E.F. until August, 2,500,000 pairs of pants have been ordered, and these, which will cost only nineteen cents a leg more than breeches did, will be of better quality than the latter."

A New Uniform Regulation for the Sergeants & Corporals of the A.E.F. (Stars and Stripes, 1918)

In an attempt to save money, the U.S. Army issued an order that N.C.O.s were to wear chevrons on one arm only.

A.E.F. Uniform Insignia: Division Markings Barred From States (Stars and Stripes, 1919) This uniform regulation was printed for all home bound Doughboys to see early in 1919; the order was later rescinded, however, it seemed that the General who was placed in charge of all state-side Army units during World War One disliked the European style military fashions that the A.E.F. was affecting. He also wished to ban the trench coat, over-seas cap, puttees and the Sam Brown Belt.

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/articles.php?cid=46&get=1

War Heroes

Sidney Godley:

Sidney Godley, the son of a painter and decorator, was born in North End (Imberhorne Lane), East Grinstead in 1889. At fourteen he began work in an ironmonger's shop but with a desire for a more exciting life and six years later joined the British Army.

When the First World War was declared in August, 1914, Godley, a Royal Fusilier, was immediately sent to France to help stop the advancing German army. The Royal Fusiliers arrived in France on 14th August, 1914. They were moved forward to Mons in Belgium where the French Army was trying to halt the German advance. By the time the Royal Fusiliers reached Nimy on 22nd August, the French were having great difficulty in holding the Germans. It was decided to try and retreat to the River Marne, where they hoped they would be able to stop the German advance towards Paris. The Royal Fusiliers were ordered to hold two bridges over the Mons-Conde Canal while the rest of the British army retreated to the River Marne. The Royal Fusiliers only had two machine-guns against six divisions of the German army. The Germans directed their fire at the two machine-gunners as they knew these men had to be killed before they could advance over the bridges. As soon as a machine-gunner was killed, another soldier moved forward to carry out the task. Eventually, the commanding officer, Lt. Steele, decided that his men would have to retreat. Before they left, Steele asked for two volunteers to man the machine-guns. Godley and Maurice Dease offered to do what appeared to be a suicidal task. Godley had to remove three bodies before he could get to his machine-gun. Within a few minutes of taking over the gun, Dease was killed. A shell exploded by the side of Godley and a piece of shrapnel entered his back. Although in terrible pain he continued firing at the Germans trying to cross the bridge. A bullet hit him in the head and lodged in his skull. Godley's single-handed defense of the bridge for two hours gave the men enough time to retreat. Godley was eventually captured by Germans soldiers and taken to a German field hospital where surgeons removed bullets from his head and back. News of Godley's bravery soon reached Britain. When King George V heard about what had happened he decided to award him the highest military medal available to a British soldier, the Victoria Cross. At the time it was thought that Godley was dead. However, it was eventually discovered that Godley was alive and recovering in a German prisoner of war camp. Godley remained in the camp until the Armistice. He was presented with his Victoria Cross in Buckingham Palace on 15th February 1919. After the war Godley became a school caretaker. Godley was also active on behalf of service charities and on occasions dressed up as Old Bill, the character created by the artist, Bruce Bairsfather. In April 1939 Godley attended the opening of a new bridge at Nimy. During the service a plaque commemorating the heroism of Godley and Maurice Dease was unveiled. Godley was also presented with a special medal by the people of Mons. Sidney Godley died on 29th June 1957 and is buried at Loughton Cemetery. In 1976 a new housing estate in Bexley was named after Godley. So also was a housing block in Tower Hamlets in 1992.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWgodley.htm

Communications

Morse Code:

Beginning in 1836, the American artist Samuel F. B. Morse, the American physicist Joseph Henry, and Alfred Vail developed an electrical telegraph system. This system sent pulses of

electric current along wires which controlled an electromagnet that was located at the receiving end of the telegraph system.

In 1837, William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone in England began using an electrical telegraph that also used electromagnets in its receivers. However, in contrast with any system of making sounds of clicks, their system used pointing needles that rotated above alphabetical charts to indicate the letters that were being sent. Cooke and Wheatstone in 1841 built a telegraph that printed the letters from a wheel of typefaces struck by a hammer. This machine was based on their 1840 telegraph and worked well; however, they failed to find customers for this system and only two examples were ever built.[1]

On the other hand, the three Americans' system for telegraphy, which was first used in about 1844, was designed to make indentations on a paper tape when electric currents were received. Morse's original telegraph receiver used a mechanical clockwork to move a paper tape. When an electrical current was received, an electromagnet engaged an armature that pushed a stylus onto the moving paper tape, making an indentation on the tape. When the current was interrupted, the electromagnet retracted the stylus, and that portion of the moving tape remained unmarked.

The Morse code was developed so that operators could translate the indentations marked on the paper tape into text messages. In his earliest code, Morse had planned to only transmit numerals, and use a dictionary to look up each word according to the number which had been sent. However, the code was soon expanded by Alfred Vail to include letters and special characters, so it could be used more generally. Vail determined the frequency of use of letters in the English language by counting the movable type he found in the type-cases of a local newspaper in Morristown.[2] The shorter marks were called "dots", and the longer ones "dashes", and the letters most commonly used were assigned the shorter sequences of dots and dashes.

Comparison of historical versions of Morse code with the current standard. 1. American Morse code as originally defined. 2. The modified and rationalized version used by Gerke on German railways. 3. The current ITU standard.

In the original Morse telegraphs, the receiver's armature made a clicking noise as it moved in and out of position to mark the paper tape. The telegraph operators soon learned that they could translate the clicks directly into dots and dashes, and write these down by hand, thus making it unnecessary to use a paper tape. When Morse code was adapted to radio communication, the dots and dashes were sent as short and long pulses. It was later found that people became more proficient at receiving Morse code when it is taught as a language that is heard, instead of one read from a page.[3]

To reflect the sounds of Morse code receivers, the operators began to vocalize a dot as "dit", and a dash as "dah". Dots which are not the final element of a character became vocalized as "di". For example, the letter "c" was then vocalized as "dah-di-dah-dit".[4] [5]

In aviation, Morse code in radio systems started to be used on a regular basis in the 1920s. Although previous transmitters were bulky and the spark gap system of transmission was difficult to use, there had been some earlier attempts. In 1910 the U.S. Navy experimented with sending Morse from an airplane.[6] That same year a radio on the Airship America had been instrumental in coordinating the rescue of its crew.[7] However, there was no aeronautical radio in use during World War I, and in the 1920s there was no radio system used by such important flights as that of Charles Lindbergh from New York to Paris in 1927. Once he and the Spirit of St. Louis were off the ground, Lindbergh was truly alone and incommunicado. On the other hand, when the first airplane flight was made from California to Australia in the 1930s on the Southern

Cross (airplane), one of its four crewmen was its radio operator who communicated with ground stations via radio telegraph.

Beginning in the 1930s, both civilian and military pilots were required to be able to use Morse Code, both for use with early communications systems and identification of navigational beacons which transmitted continuous two- or three-letter identifiers in Morse code. Aeronautical charts show the identifier of each navigational aid next to its location on the map.

Radio telegraphy using Morse code was vital during World War II, especially in carrying messages between the warships and the naval bases of the Royal Navy, the Kriegsmarine, the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Long-range ship-to-ship communications was by radio telegraphy, using encrypted messages, because the voice radio systems on ships then were quite limited in both their range, and their security. Radio telegraphy was also extensively used by warplanes, especially by long-range patrol planes that were sent out by these navies to scout for enemy warships, cargo ships, and troop ships.

In addition, rapidly-moving armies in the field could not have fought effectively without radio telegraphy, because they moved more rapidly than telegraph and telephone lines could be erected. This was seen especially in the blitzkrieg offensives of the Nazi German Wehrmacht in Poland, Belgium, France (in 1940), the Soviet Union, and in North Africa; by the British Army in North Africa, Italy, and Holland; and by the U.S. Army in France and Belgium (in 1944), and in southern Germany in 1945.

Morse code was used as an international standard for maritime communication until 1999, when it was replaced by the Global Maritime Distress Safety System. When the French Navy ceased using Morse code on January 31, 1997, the final message transmitted was "Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence."[8]

The United States Coast Guard has ceased all use of Morse code on the radio, and no longer monitors any radio frequencies for Morse code transmissions, including the international CW medium frequency (MF) distress frequency of 500 kHz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code

Peace

Treaty of Versailles:

The treaty had territorial, military and financial provisions. Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine, Eupen, Malmedy, Northern Schleswig, Hultschin, West Prussia, Posen and Upper Silesia. The Saar, Danzig and Memel were placed under the control of the League of Nations, which also took over Germany's overseas colonies.

Germany’s military was reduced to 100,000 and not allowed tanks, an air force, submarines, and only six naval ships The western Rhineland was made a demilitarized zone, and the Allies were to station an occupation army on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years. The coal in Upper Silesia and the Saar was a big economic loss.

Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war in Clause 231, the "war guilt clause." Therefore, it had to pay reparations, mostly to France and Belgium. The figure was put

at 6,600 million British pounds, which was beyond its ability to pay. Germany was also forbidden to unite with Austria to minimize its economic potential. It seemed clear to most Germans that the Allies wanted to bankrupt them.

http://www.suite101.com/content/world-war-i-peace-conference-opens-in-paris-a190811

Women During The War

WWI Women Marines:

In secret, Lucy Brewer became the first woman to serve in the Marine Corps. Disguised as a gung-ho man, she served in the Marine Detachment aboard the USS Constitution during the War of 1812.

Over 100 years later on 12 August 1918, the Secretary of the Navy granted authority to enroll women for clerical duty in the Marine Corps Reserve. The next day, Opha M. Johnson enlisted and became the first official Woman Marine. During the remainder of World War I, 305 women enlisted to "free a man to fight." Over 20 years later during World War II, roughly 1000 officers and 18,000 enlisted women served, led by Col. Ruth C. Streeter. During the last year of the war, all available male Marines were battling the Japanese in the Pacific. In their absence, Women Marines represented over half of the personnel at Marine Corps bases in the continental United States.

A year after the end of the war, the Marine Corps retained a small nucleus of Women Marines in a postwar reserve. But, in 1948 Congress passed the Women's Armed Forces Integration Act, which authorized women in the regular component of the Corps. At the time, women could not constitute over two percent of the total force and could not hold permanent rank above lieutenant colonel. Katherine A. Towle was appointed Director of Women Marines with the temporary rank of colonel. The following year the Corps set up a recruit training battalion for women recruits at Parris Island, and a women's officer training class at Quantico.

During the Vietnam war in March 1967, MSgt. Barbara Dulinsky requested reassignment from the United States to Vietnam. She was transferred to the main military headquarters (MACV) in Saigon, the first Woman Marine to be sent to a country torn by war. But, seven years later the Commandant authorized Women Marines to serve with specialized rear echelon elements of the Fleet Marine Force. Still, these women were prohibited from deployment with combat units, or units which could conceivably be engaged in combat. Women were specifically banned from all infantry, artillery, and armor units and they could not serve as members of aircrews.

In May 1978, BGen. Margaret Brewer became the first general grade Woman Marine, serving as Director of Information. Twenty-two years later roughly 1000 Women Marines deployed to Southwest Asia in 1990-1991, prior to and during the Gulf War. Later, because of legal mandates, the Corps was forced to accept women into Naval Aviation pilot training. In July 1993, 2ndLt. Sarah Deal became the first such Woman Marine to begin training. She graduated and received her Golden Wings on 21 April 1995.

The next year MGen. Carol A. Mutter became the first two-star Woman Marine. Two years later she was promoted again, the first Woman Marine to wear three stars. By the turn of the century in the year 2000, over 700 Woman Marines comprised about four percent of the officer corps. And, slightly over 8000 Woman Marines made up roughly five percent of the active enlisted force.

The elite Marine Corps remains the only U.S. armed service with the wisdom and courage to

maintain separate boot camp training units for men and women recruits. Despite the childish

whining of liberal theorists, despite the rabid ranting of ignorant politically correct zealots, the

Marine Corps have not faltered. Basic training for men and women will remain separate -- but

equal. All who qualify will earn the title, United States Marine.

http://www.usmcpress.com/heritage/women_marines.htm

Inventors

Peter Paul Mauser:

German infantry were issued with the Mauser rifle. This rifle was designed in 1898 by Peter Paul Mauser. It was popular with those who were issued with it because of its reliability but it did suffer one weakness - its magazine only took five bullets. So, like the Berthier, reloading was a constant problem in battle.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/infantry_weapons_in_world_war_on.htm

Women

Dorothy Lawrence:

This dynamic lady was born in Polesworth, Warwickshire (4 October 1896-1964). From the very beginning Dorothy Lawrence had a strong desire to be a war reporter. In the year 1914, with the commencement of World War 1, she strongly tried to get employed as a war reporter but it seemed improbable since, men also had a reportedly tough time to procure the same job. She finally managed to secretly pose as a man and thus became a soldier in World War 1. She was assisted by two English soldiers who helped her cut her hair in the typical military style. She underwent a lot of hardships and even managed to use a forged identity later on. Due to ill health, she finally presented herself to the commanding sergeant. After this incident, she was declared as a spy. Her tale of disguising herself as woman was kept under wraps for fear many women would follow suit. She was not even permitted to write or publish any articles regarding the same. It was only after the end of World War One, Dorothy Lawrence wrote about all her experiences, which was finally discovered by a historian.

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/women-in-world-war-one.html

War In the Air

Parachutes:

The parachute was invented by André Jacques Garnerin (1769-1823). It consisted of a white canvas canopy 23 feet in diameter. The parachute had 36 ribs and lines, was semi-rigid, making it look like a very large umbrella.

Garnerin made his first successful parachute jump above Paris on 22nd October, 1797. After ascended to an altitude of 3,200 feet (975 m) in an hydrogen balloon he jumped from the basket. As Garnerin failed to include an air vent at the top of his parachute, he oscillated wildly in his descent. However, he landed unhurt half a mile from the balloon's takeoff site.

Garnerin therefore became the first man to design a parachute that was capable of slowing a man's fall from a high altitude. Garnerin made exhibition jumps all over Europe including one of 8,000 feet (2,438 m) over London in September 1802.

In the 1880s parachutes were used by circus showman jumping from balloons. The first parachute jump from an aeroplane took place in St. Louis, Missouri in March, 1912. On the outbreak of the First World War, parachutes were issued to crews of airships and balloons. It was claimed at the time that parachutes were too bulky to be used by pilots of aircraft. R. E. Calthrop, a retired British engineer, had in fact developed the Guardian Angel, a parachute for aircraft pilots, before the war. He informed the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) of his invention and successful tests were carried out by Mervyn O'Gorman, Superintendent of the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough. Despite encouraging test results, Sir David Henderson, Commander of the RFC, was unwilling to give permission for them to be issued to his pilots. Pressure was also applied on Calthrop not to publicize his invention. With growing numbers of pilots dying as a result of their aircraft being hit by enemy fire, Calthorp rebelled and in 1917 advertised his Guardian Angel parachute in several aeronautical journals. Calthorp revealled details of the tests that had been carried out by the Royal Flying Corps and pointed out that British pilots were willing to buy their own parachutes but were being denied the right to use them.

A German pilot and his parachute are disentangled from a tree in 1918.

The Air Board responded to Calthorp's adverts by setting up a committee to look into the possibility of allowing RFC pilots to use parachutes. Although some members of the committee favoured their use, the Air Board decided against the measure. Officially the reason given was

that the Guardian Angel was not 100% safe, it was too bulky to be stored by the pilot and its weight would affect the performance of the aeroplane. Unofficially the reason was given in a report that was not published at the time: "It is the opinion of the board that the presence of such an apparatus might impair the fighting spirit of pilots and cause them to abandon machines which might otherwise be capable of returning to base for repair." However, the Royal Flying Corps did decide to use them to drop Allied spies behind enemy lines. Pilots such as Major Mick Mannock became increasingly angry about the decision to deny British pilots the right to use parachutes. He pointed out that by 1917 they were being used by pilots in the German Airforce, French Army Air Service and the United States Air Service Instead of carrying parachutes, RFC pilots carried revolvers instead. As Mannock explained, unable to carry a parachute, he had a revolver "to finish myself as soon as I see the first signs of flames."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWparachutes.htm

Women: Doctors and Nurses

Helen Fairchild:

Helen Fairchild (November 21, 1885 – January 18, 1918) was an American nurse who served as part of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I, and who became known for her wartime letters to her family in the U.S., which vividly depicted the realities of combat nursing during World War I. She died of post-operative complications after surgery for a gastric ulcer while on duty with British base hospital on the western front.

Helen Fairchild nursed thousands of wounded soldiers during her very brief career. She was born in Pennsylvania and graduated as a nurse from Pennsylvania Hospital in 1913. A few years later in 1917, WWI began and Fairchild joined the American Expeditionary Force. She was sent to a location in Passchendaele, France along with 63 other nurses, where she cared for 2,000 wounded soldiers while under fire. By December of the same year, Fairchild’s health was slowly deteriorating. She had been a long-time sufferer of abdominal pain, but the condition had gotten worse during the war (possibly as a result of a combination of her stressful working conditions and exposure to mustard gas). She underwent surgery in January 1918 but fell into a coma and died five days later. It is said that the chloroform used as anesthesia caused hepatic complications. Today, you’ll find Fairchild’s name in the Women in Military Service for America Memorial.

http://www.lpn-online.net/famous-nurses-series-helen-fairchild-biography-nurses-in-world-war-1/

Women and the Homefront

Alice Paul:

Alice Paul was born into a Quaker family in Moorestown, New Jersey on 11th January, 1885. Educated in the United States at Swarthmore College and Pennsylvania University, where she earned a master's degree in sociology. In 1907 Paul she moved to England where she was a Ph.D. student at the School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

In 1908 Paul heard Christabel Pankhurst make a speech at the University of Birmingham. Inspired by what she heard, Paul joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and her activities resulted in her being arrested and imprisoned three times. Like other suffragettes she went on hunger strike and was forced-fed. After one arrest Paul met Lucy Burns, another American who had joined the WSPU while studying in England. Paul returned home in 1910 where she became involved in the struggle for women's suffrage in the United States. In 1913 Paul joined with Lucy Burns to form the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage (CUWS) and attempted to introduce the militant methods used by the Women's Social and Political Union in Britain. This included organizing huge demonstrations and the daily picketing of the White House. After the United States joined the First World War, Paul was continually assaulted by patriotic male bystanders, while picketing outside the White House. In October, 1917, Paul was arrested and imprisoned for seven months. Paul went on hunger strike and was released from prison. In January, 1918, Woodrow Wilson announced that women's suffrage was urgently needed as a "war measure". However, it was not until 1920 that the 19th Amendment secured the vote for women. Paul continued to campaign for women's rights and in 1938 founded the World Party for Equal Rights for Women (also known as the World Women's Party). Paul also successfully lobbied for references to sex equality in the preamble to the United Nations Charter and in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Alice Paul died in Moorestown, New Jersey, on 9th July, in 1977.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USApaul.htm

Air Forces and Flying Aces

Italian Air Force:

The Italian Army created an Aeronautical Section for balloon operations in 1884 and purchased its first aircraft in 1910. The following year, Italy became the first country in the world to use aircraft to perform military operations, when it carried out aerial reconnaissance and bombed soldiers during the Italo-Turkish War (1911-12). On the outbreak of the First World War the Italian Army had very few aircraft. Most of these were fairly old French aircraft such as the Farman MF-II and Morane-Saulnier. The situation improved in 1915 with the formation of the Corpo Aeronautico Militare (CAM) and by March of that year it had 58 aircraft and 91 pilots. Although CAM relied heavily on French fighter aircraft, the Italians did produce the impressive Caproni CA heavy bomber. In March 1916 the CAM had 7 bomber squadrons, 10 reconnaissance squadrons and five fighter units equipped with Nieuport II. By 1916 the Corpo Aeronautico Militare began to have considerable success against the Austro-Hungarian Air Service. CAM's leading war ace was Francesco Baracca with 34 combat victories. Other successful pilots were Silvio Scaroni (26), Pier Piccio (25), Flavio Baracchini (21) and Fulco di Calabria (20).

At the Piave battle June, 1918, CAM fielded 221 fighters, 56 bombers and 276 other frontline aircraft. With the support of the Royal Air Force, CAM shot down 107 enemy aircraft and 7 balloons in 10 days, emphasizing its superiority over the Austro-Hungarian Air Service. In 1918 CAM began using the Italian built Pomilio PE. Over 100 of these took part in the battle of Vittorio Veneto and played an important role in the victory over the Austro-Hungarian Army and helped to bring the war to an end the following month.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWiaf.htm

Homefronts

France:

Our information is still limited on the French World War I home front. The home front was important to all combatant countries. For Germany and Britin the homefront was distant from the battlefield. This was not the case for France. The Westrn Front trenches snaked across northern France and Belgium. Paris was only a few miles from the front and the Germany nearly reached Paris twice, in 1914 and 1918. French war propaganda attempted to maintain civilian morle. We note very sentimental postards. The truth of conditions at the front was generally kept from the public. The British prohibited cameras and the act of taking photographs could get one executed. I think the French did the same although I do not yet have details. Even though the soldiers at the front could easily reach home with a short railroad trip, the High Command discouraged home leaves, concerned that the soldiers would not return. The French were in a better position than the Germans as to food production. France had a substantial agricultural production and food could be easily imported from America. We do not yet have details on the French rationing program. Nor do we have details on the use of women and youth to replace workers conscripted for military service. We do know that the Boy Scouts played an active role. In the end French home front morale held, but the French Army almost broke in 1917.

Location:

World War I began and ended on the Western Front. It was here the War was decided. France for much of the War provided the bulk of the force blocking the Germans in the West. For France there was less difference between the front lines and the home front. The War on the Western Front was fought in Belgium and northern France. It was close enough that the Germans were able to shell Paris. For Germany and Britain the home front was distant from the battlefield. This was not the case for France. The Western Front trenches snaked across northern France and Belgium. Paris was only a few miles from the front and the Germany nearly reached Paris twice, in 1914 and 1918. The areas of northern France where the War was fought was devastated. This resulted in a refugee problem, both French and Belgian refugees. The closeness of the front also created a major issue for the French Army--authorizing home leaves. The men at the front because of the excellent French rail system were only hours away from Home.

http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww1/cou/fra/w1f-home.html