January 2015: As You Were . . . War Years Eclectica

Bill Hillman's Monthly Military Tribute
AS YOU WERE . . .
WAR YEARS ECLECTICA
JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP HERE

January 2015 Edition

75 Interesting Facts About . . .
World War I

Germans were the first to use flamethrowers in WWI. Their flamethrowers could fire jets of flame as far as 130 feet (40 m).c
More than 65 million men from 30 countries fought in WWI. Nearly 10 million died. The Allies (The Entente Powers) lost about 6 million soldiers. The Central Powers lost about 4 million.f
There were over 35 million civilian and soldier casualties in WWI. Over 15 million died and 20 million were wounded.f
Nearly 2/3 of military deaths in WWI were in battle. In previous conflicts, most deaths were due to disease.a
During WWI, the Spanish flu caused about 1/3 of total military deaths.b
Russia mobilized 12 million troops during WWI, making it the largest army in the war. More than 3/4 were killed, wounded, or went missing in action.e
In August 1914, German troops shot and killed 150 civilians at Aerschot. The killing was part of war policy known as Schrecklichkeit (“frightfulness”). Its purpose was to terrify civilians in occupied areas so that they would not rebel.b
During WWI, British tanks were initially categorized into “males” and “females.” Male tanks had cannons, while females had heavy machine guns.h
“Little Willie” was the first prototype tank in WWI. Built in 1915, it carried a crew of three and could travel as fast as 3 mph (4.8 km/h).c
Artillery barrage Artillery barrage could be heard for hundreds of miles
Artillery barrage and mines created immense noise. In 1917, explosives blowing up beneath the German lines on Messines Ridge at Ypres in Belgium could be heard in London 140 miles (220 km) away.c
The Pool of Peace is a 40-ft (12-m) deep lake near Messines, Belgium. It fills a crater made in 1917 when the British detonated a mine containing 45 tons of explosives.a
During WWI, dogs were used as messengers and carried orders to the front lines in capsules attached to their bodies. Dogs were also used to lay down telegraph wires.c
Big Bertha was a 48-ton howitzer used by the Germans in WWI. It was named after the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp. It could fire a 2,050-lb (930-kg) shell a distance of 9.3 miles (15 km). However, it took a crew of 200 men six hours or more to assemble. Germany had 13 of these huge guns or “wonder weapons.”c
landship Tanks were first used during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (1916)
Tanks were initially called “landships.” However, in an attempt to disguise them as water storage tanks rather than as weapons, the British decided to code name them “tanks.”c
The most successful fighter of the entire war was Rittmeister von Richthofen (1892-1918). He shot down 80 planes, more than any other WWI pilot. He died after being shot down near Amiens. France's René Fonck (1894-1953) was the Allies’ most successful fighter pilot, shooting down 75 enemy planes.c
Margaretha Zelle (1876-1917), also known as Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer accused of being a double agent. Though she always denied being a spy, the French executed her in 1917.h
French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire wrote in his diary about WWI just before he died that “Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre. What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible! Men are mad!”b
Some Americans disagreed with the United States’ initial refusal to enter WWI and so they joined the French Foreign Legion or the British or Canadian army. A group of U.S. pilots formed the Lafayette Escadrille, which was part of the French air force and became one of the top fighting units on the Western Front.g
In early 1917, British cryptographers deciphered a telegram from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Germany's minister in Mexico. The telegraph encouraged Mexico to invade U.S. territory. The British kept it a secret from the U.S. for more than a month. They wanted to show it to the U.S. at the right time to help draw the U.S into the war on their side.d
Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogan for his second term was “He kept us out of war.“ About a month after he took office, the United States declared war on Germany on April 6th 1917.d
To increase the size of the U.S. Army during WWI, Congress passed the Selective Service Act, which was also known as the conscription or draft, in May 1917. By the end of the war, 2.7 million men were drafted. Another 1.3 million volunteered.a
During WWI, people of German heritage were suspect in the U.S. Some protests against Germans were violent, including the burning of German books, the killing of German shepherd dogs, and even the murder of one German-American.b
gardening “Victory Gardens” were also called “War Gardens”
Herbert Hoover, who would become president in 1929, was appointed U.S. Food Administrator. His job was to provide food to the U.S. army and its allies. He encouraged people to plant “Victory Gardens,” or personal gardens. More than 20 million Americans planted their own gardens, and food consumption in the U.S decreased by 15%.f
The total cost of WWI for the U.S. was more than $30 billion.f
The term “dogfight” originated during WWI. The pilot had to turn off the plane’s engine from time to time so it would not stall when the plane turned quickly in the air. When a pilot restarted his engine midair, it sounded like dogs barking.c
The war left thousands of soldiers disfigured and disabled. Reconstructive surgery was used to repair facial damage, but masks were also used to cover the most horrific disfigurement. Some soldiers stayed in nursing homes their entire lives.h
WWI is the sixth deadliest conflict in world history.e
British author T.E. Lawrence (1888-1935), also known as Lawrence of Arabia, worked for Allied intelligence in the Middle East. He also led an Arab revolt against the Turks and wrote about it in his book The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.e
Four empires collapsed after WWI: Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian.e
While the first military submarine (named the Turtle) was first used by the Continental Army during the American Revolution, submarines only made a large military impact during WWI when Germany launched its fleet of U-boats. Its submarines mostly stayed on the surface and submerged only to attack ships with torpedoes. Germany’s indiscriminate submarine warfare was a primary reason the U.S. joined the war.c
World War I was also known as the Great War, the World War, the War of the Nations, and the War to End All Wars.b
WWI was fought from 1914-1918 on every ocean and on almost every continent. Most of the fighting, however, took place in Europe.b
World War One Over 15 million people died in WW I
WWI began on June 28, 1914, when a Serbian terrorist shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Russia and France sided with Serbia, and Germany supported Austria-Hungary. Other countries around the world were soon pulled into the fighting. WWI officially ended 4 years later on November 11, 1918.b
The terrorist group responsible for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was called Black Hand, Sarajevo.b
The United Sates joined WWI during the final year and half of fighting.g
The trench network of World War I stretched approximately 25,000 miles (40,200 km) from the English Channel to Switzerland. The area was known as the Western Front. British poet Siegfried Sassoon wrote, “When all is done and said, the war was mainly a matter of holes and ditches.”h
For the span of WWI, from 1914-1918, 274 German U-boats sank 6,596 ships. The five most successful U-boats were U-35 (sank 224 ships), U-39 (154 ships), U-38 (137 ships), U-34 (121 ships), and U-33 (84 ships). Most of these were sunk near the coast, particularly in the English Channel.c
German trenches were in stark contrast to British trenches. German trenches were built to last and included bunk beds, furniture, cupboards, water tanks with faucets, electric lights, and doorbells.c
France, not Germany, was the first country to use gas against enemy troops in WWI. In August 1914, they fired the first tear gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans. In January 1915, Germany first used tear gas against Russian armies, but the gas turned to liquid in the cold air. In April 1915, the Germans were the first to use poisonous chlorine gas.c
During WWI, the Germans released about 68,000 tons of gas, and the British and French released 51,000 tons. In total, 1,200,000 soldiers on both sides were gassed, of which 91,198 died horrible deaths.c
Gas Mask Tear gas was first used in WW I
Approximately 30 different poisonous gases were used during WWI. Soldiers were told to hold a urine-soaked cloth over their faces in an emergency. By 1918, gas masks with filter respirators usually provided effective protection. At the end of the war, many countries signed treaties outlawing chemical weapons.c
During the war, the U.S. shipped about 7.5 million tons of supplies to France to support the Allied effort. That included 70,000 horses or mules as well as nearly 50,000 trucks, 27,000 freight cars, and 1,800 locomotives.c
WWI introduced the widespread use of the machine gun, a weapon Hiram Maxim patented in the U.S. in 1884. The Maxim weighed about 100 pounds and was water cooled. It could fire about 450-600 rounds per minute. Most machine guns used in WWI were based on the Maxim design.c
The French had what German soldiers called the Devil Gun. At 75 mm, this cannon was accurate up to 4 miles. The French military commanders claimed that its Devil Gun won the war.c
During U.S. involvement in WWI, more than 75,000 people gave about 7.5 million four-minute pro-war speeches in movie theaters and elsewhere to about 314.5 million people.f
“Hello Girls,” as American soldiers called them, were American women who served as telephone operators for Pershing’s forces in Europe. The women were fluent in French and English and were specially trained by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. In 1979, the U.S. Army finally gave war medals and veteran benefits to the few Hello Girls who were still alive.a
During WWI, American hamburgers (named after the German city of Hamburg) were renamed Salisbury steak. Frankfurters, which were named after Frankfurt, Germany, were called “liberty sausages," and dachshunds became “liberty dogs.” Schools stopped teaching German, and German-language books were burned.b
Millions of soldiers suffered “shell shock,” or posttraumatic stress disorder, due to the horrors of trench warfare. Shell-shocked men often had uncontrollable diarrhea, couldn’t sleep, stopped speaking, whimpered for hours, and twitched uncontrollably. While some soldiers recovered, others suffered for the rest of their lives.f
Even though the U.S. government didn’t grant Native Americans citizenship until 1924, nearly 13,000 of them served in WWI.g
More than 200,000 African Americans served in WWI, but only about 11 percent of them were in combat forces. The rest were put in labor units, loading cargo, building roads, and digging ditches. They served in segregated divisions (the 92nd and 93rd) and trained separately.b
The Germans were skilled at intercepting and solving Allied codes. Germans also captured one out of four paper messengers. However, when a U.S. commander used Choctaw tribe members form the Oklahoma National Guard unit, they used an extremely complex language that the Germans could not translate. The eight Choctaw men and others who joined them became known as the Choctaw Code Talkers.a
More than 500,000 pigeons carried messages between headquarters and the front lines. Groups of pigeons trained to return to the front lines were dropped into occupied areas by parachutes and kept there until soldiers had messages to send back.a
On Christmas Eve in 1914, soldiers on both sides of the Western Front sang carols to each other. On Christmas Day troops along 2/3 of the Front declared a truce. In some places the truce lasted a week. A year later, sentries on both sides were ordered to shoot anyone who attempted a repeat performance.a
Edith Cavell Cavell became a popular propaganda figure
Edith Cavell (1865- October 12 1915) was a British nurse who saved soldiers from all sides. When she helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Belgium, the Germans arrested her and she was executed by a German firing squad. Her death helped turn global opinion against Germany.f
The Harlem Hell Fighters were one of the few African American units that saw the front lines. For their extraordinary acts of heroism, the soldiers received the French Croix de Guerre, a medal awarded to soldiers from Allied countries for bravery in combat. However, in the U.S their deeds were largely ignored.a
The most decorated American of WWI was Alvin Cullum York (1887-1964). York led an attack on a German gun nest, taking 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers, and capturing 132 more. He returned home with a Medal of Honor, a promotion to Sergeant, the French Croix de Guerre, and a gift of 400 acres of good farmland.f
U.S. troops fought their first battle of World War I on November 2, 1917, in the trenches at Barthelemont, France.g
The greatest single loss of life in the history of the British army occurred during the Battle of Somme, when the British suffered 60,000 casualties in one day. More British men were killed in that one WWI battle than the U.S. lost from all of its armed forces and the National Guard combined.g
WWI transformed the United Stated into the largest military power in the world.d
Although Germany may have forced the hand of the European powers in the summer of 1914, it did not cause war. Germany was not responsible for creating the atmosphere in which war was a probability. WWI broke out against a background of rivalry between the world’s great powers, including Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Austria-Hungry, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan. The previous 40 years were characterized by increasing nationalism, imperialism. militarism, and various alliances.d
The long-term effects of WWI include the formation of the League of Nations, which laid the groundwork for the United Nations and a worldwide arms race. Additionally, the Treaty of Versailles imposed severe sanctions on Germany, which drove the country into a deep recession, setting the groundwork for WWII.d
WWI helped strengthen the power of central government in the United States and Europe, which meant that 19th-century liberalism that emphasized individual responsibly was gone forever. In fact, one of the chief legacies of the war is the lasting power of the state over its citizens.d
WWI increased people’s suspicions of minority groups. All outsiders were considered a potential threat, especially the Jews, who were seen as sleek profiteers of the armaments industry.d
During WWI, the Turks slaughtered approximately 1.5 million Armenians. This act of genocide would later attract the attention of Hitler and was partly responsible for sowing the seeds of the Holocaust.d
war debt Britain and France were “joyless victors” after WW I
After WWI, Britain’s leadership in the world economy was gone forever. It had huge debts, high unemployment, and slow growth. France suffered as well. Most of the loans it had made to czarist Russia were never repaid, inflation was rampant, and large parts of the country were ruined.d
WWI brought a new era of warfare. The most significant development was air power, which brought civilians in the line of fire. By 1918, it was clear that the days of cavalry as a realistic fighting force were over with the introduction of poisonous gas. Tanks heralded a new era of offensive war. Finally, the Nazi blitzkrieg tactic of WWII grew out of the final Allied offensive of 1918 in which tanks, aircraft, artillery, and men were carefully coordinated.d
Because mustard gas was unpredictable, it was never the war-winning weapon its users hoped it would be in WWI. Neither side used it in WWII.c
WWI helped bring about the emancipation of women. Women took over many traditionally male jobs and showed that they could perform them just as well as men. In 1918, most women over the age of 30 were given the vote in the British parliamentary elections. Two years later, the 19th amendment granted American women the vote.d
WWI helped bring about the emancipation of African Americans. For example, Henry Ford recruited black people from the South to work in his factories. The migration of African Americans from the South to the North during WWI was one of the most significant population shifts in the 20th century.d
WWI helped hasten medical advances. Physicians learned better wound management and the setting of bones. Harold Gillies, an English doctor, pioneered skin graft surgery. The huge scale of those who needed medical care in WWI helped teach physicians and nurses the advantages of specialization and professional management.d
Post-WWI literature includes T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1923), Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and Wilfred Owen’s tragic poem, “Anthem for Doomed Youth.”d
WWI was the catalyst that transformed Russia into the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). It was the creation of the world’s first communist state and ushered in a new phase in world history. Historians note that this was the most startling and important consequence of WWI.d
After WWI, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland emerged as independent nations.d
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WWI helped the Allies extend their influence into the Middle East. Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine were declared “mandates” under the League of Nations. France essentially took control of Syria and Britain took control over the remaining three mandates.d
The Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany had started WWI. It gave Alsace and Lorraine back to France. Poland picked up German territory in the east, and other territories were given to Belgium and Lithuania. The treaty also transferred the Hultschin area of Upper Silesia to Czechoslovakia. The eastern part of Upper Silesia was assigned to Poland. Lower Silesia, meanwhile, was left entirely to Germany. The key Baltic port of Danze, the industrial region of the Saar Basin, and the strategically important Rhineland were also taken from Germany. Its armed forces were strictly limited and its colonies were made League of Nations mandates. A 1921 Reparations Committee decided that Germany should pay $33 billion in compensation to the Allies for the damage it caused. The Treaty left Germany humiliated and impoverished, which left the world vulnerable to another world war.

    10 Bloodiest Battles of World War I
    Battle Total Casualties
    1. Hundred Day Offensive 1,855,369
    2. Spring Offensive 1,539,715
    3. Battle of the Somme 1,219,201
    4. Battle of Verdun 976,000
    5. Battle of Passchendaele 848,614
    6. Serbian Campaign 633,500
    7. First Battle of Marnes 483,000
    8. Battle of Gallipoli 473,000
    9. Battle of Arras 278,000
    10. Battle of Tannenberg 182,000
http://facts.randomhistory.com/world-war-i-facts.html

Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson VC. DSO and bar DFC and bar.
(12 August 1918 - 19 September 1944)
He was the first CO of the Royal Air Force's 617 Squadron,
which he led in the 'Dam Busters' raid (Operation Chastise) in 1943,
resulting in the destruction of two large dams in the Ruhr area, for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.
On September 19th 1944, Gibson and his navigator,
Squadron Leader Jim Warwick, departed RAF Hemswell in a De Havilland Mosquito Mk.XX
to serve as the Pathfinder Master Bomber for a large raid on Rheydt and Mönchengladbach.
Executing the mission and ordering the bombers home, Gibson was not heard from again.
The remains of his Mosquito were located near Steenbergen, Netherlands.

Douglas Bader (21 February 1910 – 5 September 1982)
He joined the RAF in 1928 but in December 1931, while attempting some aerobatics,
he crashed and lost both his legs and was retired against his will on medical grounds.
After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, however,
Bader returned to the RAF and was accepted as a pilot.
During the Second World War, he was credited with 20 aerial victories, four shared victories,
six probables, one shared probable and 11 enemy aircraft damaged.
On the 9th August 1941 he was shot down during a dog-fight over German-occupied France, bailed out and was captured.
Despite his disability, Bader made a number of escape attempts
and was eventually sent to the POW camp at Colditz Castle.
He remained there until April 1945 when the camp was liberated by the First United States Army.
On 21 July 1946, Bader retired from the RAF with the rank of Group Captain.

(the photo and facts were kindly supplied by courtesy of his daughter Ann Forrest)
Flight Sergeant Jack Forrest (aged 21), Flight Engineer, Avro Lancaster of Squadron 619 RAF.
His Lancaster LL783 PG-C ('Cinders of the Clouds') was shot down on a raid over Caen on D-Day 6th June '44
and only he and the bomb aimer Reg De-Viell survived.
They were held as POWs in Stalag Luft 7 in Poland until making the "Long March" to Germany in 1945.

Alan Mathison Turing: 'The Enigma'

Alan Turing was born on 23 June, 1912, in London.
His father was in the Indian Civil Service and Turing's parents lived in India until his father's retirement in 1926.
Turing and his brother stayed with friends and relatives in England.
Turing studied mathematics at Cambridge University, and subsequently taught there,
working in the burgeoning world of quantum mechanics.
It was at Cambridge that he developed the proof which
states that automatic computation cannot solve all mathematical problems.
This concept, also known as the Turing machine, is considered the basis for the modern theory of computation.
In 1936, Turing went to Princeton University in America, returning to England in 1938. Bletchley Park.
Here he played a vital role in deciphering the messages encrypted by the German Enigma machine,
which provided vital intelligence for the Allies.
He took the lead in a team that designed a machine known as a bombe that successfully decoded German messages.
He became a well-known and rather eccentric figure at Bletchley.
After the war, Turing turned his thoughts to the development of a machine that would logically process information.
He worked first for the National Physical Laboratory (1945-1948).
His plans were dismissed by his colleagues and the lab lost out on being the first to design a digital computer.
It is thought that Turing's blueprint would have secured them the honour,
as his machine was capable of computation speeds higher than the others.
In 1949, he went to Manchester University where he directed the computing laboratory
and developed a body of work that helped to form the basis for the field of artificial intelligence.
In 1951 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
In 1952, Turing was arrested and tried for homosexuality, then a criminal offence.
To avoid prison, he accepted injections of oestrogen for a year, which were intended to neutralise his libido.
In that era, homosexuals were considered a security risk as they were open to blackmail.
Turing's security clearance was withdrawn, meaning he could no longer work for GCHQ,
the post-war successor to Bletchley Park.
He committed suicide on 7 June, 1954.

Submitted by Bill Stadnyk

Recommended Sites on the Web

Enjoy the many RCAF WWII BCATP Station Magazines
we've posted on our Website at:
www.hillmanweb.com/rcaf/reprints

http://facts.randomhistory.com/world-war-i-facts.html
No. 7 Air Observer School, Portage La Prairie Man.
The record: A souvenir of No. 7 Air Observer School, R.C.A.F., Portage La Prairie, Manitoba,
operated by Portage Air Observer School Ltd., 1941-1945. [Portage La Prairie, Man.: s.n], 1945?. .
Submitted by Daniel Duclos

BACK TO OUR MONTHLY MILITARY WEBZINE
CONTENTS PAGE
As You Were . . .

**VISIT THE HILLMAN MILITARY TRIBUTES**
F.L.A.S.H. As You Were . . . Tribute Webzines	Navigation Chart to the Hillman WWII Tributes www.hillmanweb.com/war	RCAF WWII MUSEUM www.hillmanweb.com/rcaf RCN HMCS PRINCE ROBERT www.hillmanweb.com/rcn	Short Bursts Ex-Air Gunners Association Magazines

Our Military Tribute Sites

XII Manitoba Dragoons Museum - Brandon Armoury

Webmaster: William G. Hillman
BILL & SUE-ON HILLMAN ECLECTIC STUDIO
Copyright 2015