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Special battalions for short soldiers
The minimum height requirement for the British Army was 5ft 3ins, but many shorter men were caught up in the recruiting enthusiasm of August 1914 and were keen to enlist. attached to more conventional regiments. Many bantams were coal miners, and their short height and technical expertise proved a great asset in the tunneling work that went on underneath the western front. -
Girls Kept Football Going
The Football League suspended its programmer after the 1914–15 season, and amateur tournaments were difficult to run with so many men in the army, so women stepped into the breach. When peace came, however, the female players had to hang up their boots and go back to the domestic lives they had been leading before the war. But the sport continued to enjoy success until women were banned from playing in Football League grounds in 1921. -
The Chinese Built the Western Front
They were volunteers from the Chinese countryside who were sent to Europe to fulfill a vital, but almost completely overlooked role in making an Allied victory possible. They were paid a pittance, and were generally regarded by both the British and French as expendables. They mostly served behind the lines, which limited their casualties from enemy action, although they suffered very badly from the ‘Spanish’ flu epidemic of 1918. -
Battle of Tannenberg
Fought between Russia and Germany, was the first battle fought in WW1. Russia’s army was led by Grand Duke Nicholas, who aided French soldiers that were under attack. The Germans won and took 92,000 prisoners and destroyed half of the Russian 2nd army. The Russians lost 250,000 men and equipment, but the only good thing that came out of this war is diverting Germans from attacking France. -
Battle of Gallipoli
The Battle of Gallipoli lasted eight long months launched by British, French, Indian, New Zealand, Australia, and Canadian forces to defeat the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Their plan was to attack and make the Ottoman Empire surrender but it failed badly. There were 58,000 allied soldier casualties and 300,000 Turkish soldiers hurt or killed. -
War Caused Britain Worst Rail Disaster
A troop train carrying men of the Royal Scots Guards and the Leith Territorial battalion south to embark for the Gallipoli campaign crashed into a stationary local train sitting outside a signal box near Gretna Green. Moments later the Glasgow express crashed into the wreckage of two trains, and the whole scene was engulfed by fire. Some 226 people were killed, 214 of them soldiers, and 246 were seriously injured. It remains to this day the biggest loss of life in a railway accident in Britain. -
Russians and Trench Warfare
Launching a successful attack against a heavily fortified enemy trench was one of the most difficult problems facing military commanders on both sides. The man who solved the conundrum was the Russian general Alexei Brusilov by attacking over a much larger area, Brusilov was able to hide the direction of his main attack from the Austrians, so they never knew which points to reinforce and which to abandon. -
Battle of Verdun
The battle of verdun began on February 21st and ended on the 19th of December in 1916. This battle was one of the longest and most savage battle of WW1. It began when Germans attacked French forts and trenches because they wanted to end the trench warfare so his troops could move and attack. Even after the heavy shelling on the French they didn’t back down and stood their ground and repelled the Germans and they couldn’t breach the French front line. -
Battle of the Somme
1st of July until the 18th of November in 1916, a massive joint operation between British and French forces against the Germans occurred in the Somme area in northern France. Despite a seven day bombardment before the 1st July attack, the British did not achieve success the military leadership of General Haig anticipated, having sent 100,000 men to capture the German trenches. -
Harry L. Frieman Life
he fought in WW1 in the army from 1914-1918. He was stationed in France and his unit is 313th machine gun company, 79th division. he spent much of the war buried deep in the notoriously brutal trenches of France. Frieman's unit was caught in a trap, surrounded on three sides by German troops, and might not have survived much longer. -
During "Over the Top"
At 5:30 they started over the top and all you could hear was shooting and cannon fire all over. There were dead Huns all over the field and many arms and legs all around. His troop finally started to set up their machine guns when a sniper shot at them from behind. They had to lay in shell holes full of water for a whole week and have been advancing for 6 days and barely eating anything. -
Before "Over the Top"
During the Rosh Hashanah holidays they got orders to go to the trenches. They stayed there for a week but it all was quiet and little shooting. After that long week of being in the trenches they were relieved and were supposed to go out for a rest. One soldier wrote “We were out for only 4 days and then we had to get back to our stations after our rest.” -
Harry L. Friemans Diaries
On November 6th 1917 he wrote that he was sent to camp Meade Md. They didn’t have clean water to shower in they showered in salt water on the fairy. It took a lot of time to get where they were stationed because they had to take trains and fairies. They had to pick up trash in the streets. He spent most of his days doing drills to perfect his skills while deployed. "Most of the men were drinking water out of shell holes, taking a chance, as most of the holes were full of gas." -
German Spring Offensives on the Western Front
German forces attacked the Western Front, which was an over 400 mile long border that was heavily guarded. On March 21st 1918, the Germans attacked. In only five hours they fired a million artillery shells at the fifth army. The first day of the attack they took 21,000 British soldiers as prisoners After the British surrendered it put Germany within range of attacking Paris so they did and shot 183 shells. Then the U.S. shows up with 250,000 soldiers and stopped the Germans. -
General Pershing's Letter
On February 28th, 1919 he wrote to every soldier who fought. The letter said “at the call for arms, the patriotic young manhood of America eagerly responded and became the formidable army whose decisive victories testify to its valor.” The letter was to thank all of the brave men who stood up for our country and fought for our freedom and also to all of the young men who joined.
