Remains of huge secret First World War flamethrower discovered in Somme
A long-forgotten British secret weapon is emerging along the Somme Valley in France. Parts of a giant flamethrower, which would have engulfed the German WWI frontline in an inferno, have been discovered by archaeologists who now think they can locate the weapon, still buried under tonnes of earth. It was destroyed by German shellfire before it could ever be used – and 3 similar weapons were never deployed in action. Royal Engineers, based at Chatham, designed the device that could throw 1,000 gallons of burning oil at the enemy - unfortunately it needed 300 men to manoeuvre it into position. (kentnews.co.uk)
36 Days: The Untold Story Behind the Gallipoli Landings by Hugh Dolan
It's one of the key Anzac myths: on April 25, 1915, brave Diggers were sent on to the Gallipoli beaches and the deadly Turkish guns in a poorly-planned assault ordered by incompetent British commanders. But Hugh Dolan, a intelligence officer in the Australian military, claims to have discovered evidence "which turns the Anzac legend on its head" - and the Anzac landings should be remembered as a success - a daring amphibious assault which was without precedent in modern warfare. The Australian officers who planned the operation made ground-breaking use of military intelligence to put set up an almost flawless plan. (smh.com.au)
Hermann Goring - Fighter Ace by Peter Kilduff (WW1 book review)
In 2009 Peter Kilduff - author of biographies of Baron Manfred von Richthofen and Black Fokker leader Carl Degelow - was having lunch with his book editor John Davies in New York City. Davies asked if he had thought about his next book project. Kilduff pointed to a painting on the wall. It depicted Nazi leader Hermann Goring in his WWI fighter pilot gear. The Luftwaffe boss was a highly-decorated WW1 fighter pilot, but that part of his life story is overshadowed by the Nazi era events. "Hermann Goring - Fighter Ace" is the first in-depth look at Goring as a military pilot and air combat leader during the First World War. (bristolpress.com)
Bad Characters: Sex, Crime, Mutiny, Murder and the Australian Imperial Force by Peter Stanley (WW1 book review)
The postcard shows 10 Australian Diggers in their First World War uniforms grinning for the camera. But it was the message on the other side that must have angered the army's chief military policeman at Le Havre. For the soldiers were Anzac deserters who had sent their posed photograpg with the mocking message: "Au revoir, Nous 'us'." Peter Stanley explains the postcard is merely the most famous example of bad behaviour by Australia's original Anzacs: "Australians were 10 times more likely to go absent in the Great War than British soldiers, or the Canadians or New Zealanders." (smh.com.au)
First World War medals are a great investment for militaria collectors
After the death of Harry Patch, the last living soldier who fought in the trenches, the demand for WWI medals has increased, as collectors invest in a militaria market that offers both limited supply and high demand. In 2008, the medals of Captain Siegfried Sassoon - including a 1914-15 Star, a British War medal and a 1918 Victory medal - fetched £4,375. A Christie's auction in Melbourne in 2009 saw a Victoria Cross awarded to Australian soldier George Mawby Ingram to go at £271,539. In 2006, Bonham's in Sydney got a world record price for a Victoria Cross granted to Captain Alfred Shout - £410,000. (paulfrasercollectibles.com)
Public's first view of Siegfried Sassoon's personal papers at Cambridge University Library
Siegfried Sassoon's account of the first day of the Battle of the Somme has gone on display at Cambridge University Library. It is just one of many personal documents, never before seen by the public, and purchased by Cambridge University Library for £1.25 million. The archive includes the first draft of his 1917 statement, protesting at the continuation of the war. Sassoon was one of the best known WWI poets but, unlike Wilfred Owen or Rupert Brooke, he survived. He joined up as soon as he could, and was commissioned into the Royal Welch Fusiliers as a Second Lieutenant and sent to the Western front in 1915. (bbc.co.uk)
Restored Sopwith Camel from the First World War on display in Polish museum
A World War I fighter aircraft built in Lincoln is now on display in a museum in Poland after its restoration. The single-seater Sopwith Camel F1 biplane, serial number B7280, was made by Clayton & Shuttleworth. It was piloted by Captain Herbert Patey in 1918, when he was shot down behind German lines. The Germans repaired the Sopwith Camel and flew it until the end of the Great war when it was taken to Berlin and exhibited in an air museum. It was moved to Poland for safekeeping during the Second World War. The basic shell of B7280 is at the Polish Aviation Museum, in Krakow, where it is being restored. (thisislincolnshire.co.uk)
The Great Silence: Britain from the Shadow of the First World War to the Dawn of the Jazz Age (book review)
On Nov. 11, 1918, the Great War ended. For England, the 2.5 million dead or injured was not the only loss. Gone were Victorian certainties and the confidence of an empire. The millions of war veterans who returned faced a society struggling with unemployment, disability and sorrow. In "The Great Silence" Juliet Nicolson covers this tender WWI aftermath through personal stories that reveal a nation that was both traumatized and resilient. The story begins with the English tendency for "carrying on" - repressing emotional suffering as the soldiers came home. Some found diversion in drugs, others in entertainment. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE] (nwsource.com)
Elsie and Mairi Go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front by Diane Atkinson
"It's a wonderful feeling knowing that one is leaving England, the Island of Peace, and going straight into the most awful horror... I wonder what my fate will be in these next few months," wrote Mairi Chisholm, an 18yo upper-class Scottish motorcyclist as she hurried to cross the English Channel in Sept. 1914, with a hastily set up ambulance corps. Like most in England, Mairi was keen to do her part for her country, but also clueless about what these years of war might bring, or even what "war" was, exactly. At the same time, another woman, Elsie Knocker, was also packing to go along on the expedition. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE] (washingtonpost.com)
Woman's carload of World War I rifles and shells shut down city center
Authorities evacuated City Hall and shut down busy Beach Boulevard in Buena Park after an elderly woman turned up with a carload of First World War rifles and shells. She had discovered the antique weapons, which her late husband had collected, when she cleaned out her garage. The woman took the weapons – rifles, handguns and bayonets – to the Police Department to turn them in. But officers were quite worried because some shells were large-caliber military ordinance - some still in their original boxes. Authorities will destroy the rifles and shells - making no exception for antique or collectible weapons. (ocregister.com)
Postcard sent by Bosnian WW1 soldier delivered by American Collector who met soldier's grandson
A postcard sent home by a Bosnian WWI soldier has reached his family after 95 years, thanks to a U.S. antique collector who delivered it to the soldier's grandson after buying it at a Long Beach antique show. "Oh my God," was all Nadir Bicakcic could say when he saw the face on the card. For Nihad Eric Dzinovic it was as if one of his 200,000 postcards had come alive: In front of him stood someone who greatly resembled a face on the card. Dzinovic, who often travels to Sarajevo, accidentally met Bicakcic whose name rang a bell. The next day he tracked Bicakcic down and showed him a postcard... (cbsnews.com)
Canadian War Museum lands two more Victoria Crosses won by Canadians
A year after a controversial auction in which the federal government spend $300,000 to prevent a historic Victoria Cross from leaving the country, the Canadian War Museum has quietly gained 2 more of the desired military medals, including another of the storied "Valour Road" VCs granted to 3 World War I soldiers from the same street in Winnipeg. Both medals - Cpl. Leo Clarke's VC from the 1916 Battle of the Somme and Lieut. John Mahony's VC from the Italian campaign of 1944 - were received as donations at a time when such militaria are in hot demand among collectors, selling at auction for hundreds of thousands. (vancouversun.com)
Fighting The Red Baron: British pilots with only 15 hours' training lasted on average just 11 days
Captain Manfred Freherrn Von Richthofen shot down 80 pilots. His opponents were members of the Royal Flying Corps: boys in unreliable aircraft often with just a dozen flying hours under their belts. A Channel 4 programme called "Fighting The Red Baron" reveals the courage of British WWI pilots. With the elite ex-RAF fighter pilots Mark Cutmore and Andy Offer, and several original First World War aeroplanes, the programme recreates some of the death-defying exploits inexperienced British pilots faced while wrestling with unreliable planes - over half the pilots who died in WW1 were killed in training. (dailymail.co.uk)
More unseen photographs from the First World War
In 2009 the haunting faces of unknown British soldiers of the Somme emerged from the mists of time and battle to gaze from the pages of The Independent. The lost Somme photographs – 400 glass negatives of the period 1915-1916 rescued from a trash pile in France – sparked interest all over the globe. The images were the most visited item on The Independent website in 2009. As a result, people in the Somme département have now come forward with more old photographic plates. A selection of these new images is published here for the first time: a second "lost platoon" of nameless British soldiers. (independent.co.uk)
Canadian students experience First World War trenches, re-enactments
Over 500 Canadian students walked through muddy trenches at Fanshawe Pioneer Village. "They're excited. They're motivated. It really promotes learning outside the classroom," explained Jeff Brown, who helped organize the First World War education day. The students moved through 11 stations, each covering an aspect of a Canadian soldier's WW1 adventure. At every station a volunteer from the Canadian Military Heritage Society, in an authentic military uniform, led students through a hands-on educational activity. With barbed wire looping around their heads students listened Bill Dineen talk about German snipers. (lfpress.com)
Outrage in Australia after producers cast a Caucasian man in the role of a Chinese-Australian war hero
There has been an angry reaction in Australia after TV producers cast a Caucasian man in the role of a Chinese-Australian war hero. Billy Sing - a sniper - was a hero of the Gallipoli campaign in the Great War, but a TV drama has him cast as a white man. Producers have been accused of re-writing Australian military history. Billy Sing - known as the "Gallipoli assassin" - became a hero of the Australian forces during World War One by killing over 200 enemy troops. The producers say they could not find a 60-year-old Chinese actor to play Billy Sing's father, so both parts will be played by white actors. (bbc.co.uk)
The First World War (August 1914 to November 1918) is also known as the Great War, The War to End All Wars, World War I and WW1.
Many of the bloodiest battles in military history occurred during the First World War. In trench warfare hundreds of soldiers died for each yard of land captured. Artillery with fragmentation shells caused the most casualties and made massed infantry attacks futile.