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Archduke Franz Ferdinand
World War one starts after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His death caused a large amount of commotion and had many people angry, Yes, other issues were happening at the time, but once the murder took place, the spark had been lit. The assassination of Ferdinand sparked the start to World War One. -
The Christmas Truce
The Christmas truce on the western front had taken place. Christmas carols across no man’s land had been playing or being sung and both sides had been encouraged to exchange greetings. The truce had only lasted the night of Christmas, experienced by hundreds or thousands of soldiers. The soldiers had played ball and just enjoyed their time before returning to battle. -
Gas Warfare
Germany had been the first to use gas during the war. Germany fires shells filled with chlorine gas towards the allies. Chlorine gas is a gas that is yellowish-greenish and is easy to spot. The effects are irritations of the eyes, nose, throat and lungs, later on causing death. -
The Lusitania
The Lusitania has been sunk by Germany. German U-boat had sunk the ship in British waters. The ship included 128 Americans and a total of 1,198 people. Many women and children were aboard the ship. -
Battle of Sommes
The battle of the Sommes begins. The Allies had made an effort to take German troops away from Verdum. The Allies had set up a major offensive that lasted a total of 5 days. Germany had used machine guns and killed 20,000 British soldiers and injured 40,000 more. The battle had lasted all of summer and had eventually ended in November. The total number of casualties were 194,000 French soldiers, 650,000 Germans, and 419,000 British soldiers. -
Tanks
The British had used the first tanks ever to be introduced in battle. The tanks were good at clearing land and breaking barbed wire in order for the British to move forward. Although they had been designed to be decisive weapon, they were an easy target and didn’t get the job done. -
Zimmerman Telegram
The Zimmerman telegram has been introduced. Germany had tried to get Mexico to join their side in case of going to war with the United States. Germany had promised to return the “lost provinces” of Texas back to Mexico. Mexico had later declined. This news had made America further progress into entering the war. -
America Declares War on Germany
The United States of America declares war on Germany. America had originally started off with only 133,000 men and had almost no artillery pieces. Going into the war was going to be hard For America with a shortage of people. -
The Draft
The first day of the draft starts in the United States. The way they had done it was picking names out of a fish bowl. A secretary in Washington D.C. had drawn names out of a large fish bowl for the first draft in America. The draft will be used all throughout the war in order for the United States to have enough people. -
Veteran Leigh Mason
Veteran Leigh Mason had began his employment. He would go through drills and were separated into groups of eight men. Each men were given the chance to act as a corporal i.e squad commander. The drills that Mason and the men around him had to go through weren’t nearly as bad as Camp Dix. -
Leigh Mason- Activities
Mason and his men had been on guard duty for a few weeks. During this time, they would be watching but would also have fun. One of the activities they had done was taking a machine gun apart and reassembling it. They blew up a balloon and set it up for them to shoot at. This was a moment of fun for them with all the disaster going on around them. -
Mason- First Mission
As one of his first missions, him and a few other men were set up as decoys. The point of this was to make Heine believe there was an important installation. All night, the men had spent their time in a box car with things constantly blowing up around them. -
Leigh Mason- Marching
The men had marched and set up their homes in abandoned and blown up huts. Groups of men were assigned to different locations. They spent days digging holes for their positions and waiting for French lights. -
Germany Signs Armistice
Germany signs armistice. Fighting on the Western Front of Paris, France, comes to an end at 11:00 a.m. when Germany signs armistice. Germany had been given very harsh punishments for all of the damage they have caused and to punish them, they made them pay for what they had done. Germany was very angry about this. -
Veteran- November 11th
The men had set up underground and all around them, they could hear the gunshots and weapons firing. It was all noise until 11 o’clock in the morning when everything went silent. Where they were, French church bells went off every hour of that day.
