World War I, or the Great War started out
as smaller scale conflicts amongst a hotbed of internationally hostilities and shifting
alliances. While as famous as a conflict can get, World
War I is often misunderstood or simply inadequately known. In this list, we share some of the most intriguing,
downright shocking or just plain weird facts and happenings that define World War I as
it happened. 10: Kaiser Wilhelm II was the Queen of England’s
Grandson It might come as a great shock for many people
to realize that the official German head of state, Kaiser Wilhelm in the time of World
War I was half English. Even more shocking, considering the nature
of the conflict between the Central Powers and Allied Powers was the scandalous fact
that this man, the figurehead in the German regime fighting in WWI was none less than
the grandson of the Queen of England, Queen Victoria! It is true that war can quickly lead to conflicting
loyalties and blurring between military conflict and family conflict and between international
boundaries and familial lines. Interestingly, the Queen had assisted in marrying
her eldest daughter who also held the name Victoria in marrying the Prussian Prince William. Their son, Kaiser Wilhelm II became the warmongering,
anti-British German Emperor. The Kaiser’s English-borne mother, Vicky,
the daughter of Queen Victoria who had been wed to Prince William of Prussia expressed
significant concern over the attitudes of the Kaiser in the time leading up to the First
World War. Interestingly, the Kaiser suffered from nerve
damage during a poorly handled birth that permanently paralyzed his arm. His mental state left much to be desired,
including a burning obsession with military dominance. 9: Japan and Italy Sided with the Allied Powers
Japan and Italy might be well known participants in Axis combat in the Second World War, but
a lesser known fact is that Japan and Italy fought on the side of the Allied Powers in
World War I. The Kingdom of Italy was a combatant nation
in the Great War that never became involved in violence on the side of the Central Powers
despite prior agreements to support the Central Powers. Instead, for a time, the Kingdom of Italy
remained neutral having entered the pre-war Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany. Then, Italy made the decision to join the
war on the side of the Allied Powers in 1915 as an outcome of the Treaty of London. This action was not a popular one. It was made in spite of increasingly vociferous
anti-war protests from many members of the Italian public who saw war as a greatly unwanted
occurrence that would serve only to bring a negative outcome for the country overall. Japan might at first seem to be well out of
the way in the European theater, but the fact is, the Japanese headed far west and even
defended British shipping in the Mediterranean. German operations in the Indian Ocean the
West Pacific were significantly hindered by Japanese actions curbing the sweep of the
roving Imperial German Navy. 8: Urine Soaked Handkerchiefs Mitigated Gas
World War I was not just a war where mechanical means of fighting advanced, with air battles
between planes standing out prominently. World War I was also the war of the chemical
weapon, revolutionizing attacks through chemistry. After the turnpoint where German forces used
chlorine gas on April 22 in 1915 at Ypres, Belgium, poison gas attacks became definitive
elements conflict. From that day onwards poison gas was used
to devastating effect in World War I by both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers. The use of chemical warfare showed the dangers
of high-tech chemical engineering and led to profound legal considerations on what constituted
acceptable bounds of wartime conduct. Chlorine gas attacks caused burns and could
inflict blindness, but despite the advancement, a means of addressing deadly gas attacks was
decidedly low tech and biological in nature. Holding urine-soaked cloths to the face provided
a crude but better than nothing means of mitigating the effects of chlorine gas. Further development of gas masks offered a
much greater level of protection, especially against more dangerous forms of gas attack. As the conflict progressed, the scale and
variety of chemical weapon attacks grew, spurring intense efforts to design and manufacture
proper gas masks. 7: Jewish Germans Proved Loyalty & Got Betrayed
The time of the Third Reich may have been a violent betrayal of Jewish Germans, but
prior to the tyranny of the Hitler era that sparked World War II hostilities in Europe,
German Jews went above and beyond in efforts to show loyalty to their Fatherland. In the time of World War I, anti-Semitism
was already an ever-present reality and many Jewish Germans wanted to show loyalty to their
country through action. Sadly and ironically, Jewish air aces and
other prominent Jewish veterans of WWI were treated violently and swept under the rug
as their achievements starkly contrasted with the lie filled hate speech of Nazi rhetoric. In the wake of Germany’s loss of World War
I, Jewish Germans were targeted as scapegoats for Germany’s loss of World War I. While some German Jews received acknowledgement
under the Nazi regime for past contributions in WWI, the overall treatment of Germany’s
WWI veterans by the National Socialist regime was exceptionally harsh. Formerly recognized combatants in WWI who
were Jewish Germans were treated as enemies to be eliminated by the country they had served. Even high scoring German Jewish fighter pilots
including aces from WWI who had received decorations with the utmost recognition were removed from
war records under the fanatical Nazi regime as in the case of ace pilot Fritz Beckhardt,
also arrested and imprisoned for his relations with his non-Jewish wife. Others were sent to die in concentration camp
conditions as in the case of observer and gunner Berthold Guthmann. 6: The Christmas Truce
World War I was defined as a conflict of exceptional violence, scale and novelty of awful new weapons
and tactics used to obliterate enemy troops. Yet amongst the chaos, an unusual Christmas
Truce took place, notably starting between British, French and German troops in 1914
as combatants took initiative to celebrate Christmas and exchange greetings. Small talk was made, while different degrees
of what came to be called “fraternization” took place along the Western Front. In some locations, talks, trading and singing
of Christmas songs occurred, while less friendly truces at other conditions included simply
ceasing fire and giving each side the opportunity to go about retrieving and burying their dead. Holiday season games were pursued amongst
ceasefire conditions, while barter offered conveniences and comfort. In other instances, amidst the growing violence
of World War I, killing was avoided by warring parties who took a “live and let live”
approach that saw enemy soldiers declining to attack each other. Despite the faint hopes of peace that seemed
to be presented by soldiers who simply didn’t kill each other, the fate of World War I was
to get worse. Crackdowns on fraternization followed, with
failure of a truce to take place in Christmas of 1915. 5: British Tanks were Gendered
Machines are often given human names to lend nostalgia, nuance or a touch of fond personalization. An entire model might be given a name, or
an individual machine such as a boat, plane or vehicle can be named. Yet it might come as an amusing surprise amongst
the ghastly nature and unprecedented mechanisation of World War I that Mark 1 British tanks were
gendered as male tanks or female tanks in how they were described. The naming difference in British tanks was
also not random. With the different gender labeling options
there came a profound difference in tank armament. For the male tanks were armed with heavier
weapons, while female tanks came equipped only with machine guns. Between the two types of machine, short work
could be made of enemy forces. “Male” Mark 1 tanks equipped with a genuinely
terrifying pair of 6-pound guns plus 4 machine guns were considered male tanks in their classification. In contrast, “Female” Mark 1 tanks came
with 6 machine guns. The male tanks that boasted the long barrel
6-pound guns experienced some difficulties due to the ungainly length of the barrels. To resolve these operational challenges, male
tanks were eventually set up with short barrel six-pound guns. 4: Hitler’s Mustache Explained
Associated with rambling hate speech and authoritarianism while being a widespread subject of ridicule,
the notorious toothbrush mustache displayed by Austrian immigrant turned German National
Socialist German Worker’s Party leader Adolf Hitler has a surprising history and origin. It might come as a surprise to many students
of wartime history, but the toothbrush mustache of Adolf Hitler made notorious through countless
photo depictions was originally much larger, being formed as a more typical mustache. The distinctive shape of the mustache came
about because of the need for the future malfeasant to wear a gas mask in battle. In order to fit a protective gas mask, Hitler’s
full mustache had to be trimmed to shape. During the hostilities of World War I, Hitler
was involved in a gas attack where he received injuries that included temporary blindness. Evidently the horrors of gas attacks did nothing
to give the future dictator second thought about systematically commissioning the gassing
his personally declared enemies and the millions of innocent victims he sought to eliminate. The account of Hitler’s mustache being trimmed
into the compact toothbrush shape is depicted with some cinematic licence in History channel’s
miniseries “The World Wars”, which has been Emmy nominated. 3: Germany Tried to Provoke a Mexican Attack
on the USA World War I spanned an incredible range of
countries around the globe as it spread in scope and scale. Increasing agitation and provocation were
among the reasons for the mad growth of the conflict. One of the most unusual and little-known plots
of World War I unfolded as Germany attempted to rile Mexico into attacking the United States
and taking the states of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. The plan ultimately did not unfold but the
attempt to stir further battlefields into action succeeded in further highlighting the
deadly threat of the virulent spread of global hostilities and provocation. In what was known as the Zimmermann Telegram,
the German foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann contacted German Ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt
by telegram, outlining a proposal for Mexico to accept financial assistance for war from
Germany and then embark upon a plan to take US territory and expand Mexico’s borders. The Mexican president requested government
evaluation of the offer, but in the end, refused it. The offer became part of US justification
for war against Germany. The effort to essentially sponsor a bordering
country to engage in war constituted a threat to American national security that was far
too close to home. 2: Chinese Labor Corps Deployed in Europe
During World War I, the sheer scale and mechanization of fighting meant that wartime operations
were messy and technically challenging. Explosions, deaths and generally catastrophic
conditions of all kinds necessitated lots of work to address the damage. At the same time, preparations of supplies,
munitions and wartime infrastructure including trenches, sandbags, delivery routes and artillery
positions took a great deal of staffing to accomplish. The Chinese Labor Corps from rural parts of
China offered their services and played a notable role in equipping, organizing and
cleaning up the practical aspects of wartime operations on the Western Front. Building roads, loading trains and boats and
burying the dead were some of the projects in which these workers engaged. Unfortunately, the workers were paid very
little for their hardworking contributions and suffered many losses among their crews
during the Spanish Flu epidemic. A significant number of the workers were from
the coastal province of Shandong in Eastern China. Some of the workers were well educated. Chinese Engineers operated the Tank Corps
Central Workshops in France. A lack of awareness of contributions from
the approximately 140,000 Chinese workers who provided valuable services in World War
I has begun to be addressed through written accounts and monument construction. https://gbtimes.com/writing-the-chinese-labour-corps-back-into-wwi-history
http://ww1centenary.oucs.ox.ac.uk/unconventionalsoldiers/1470/ 1: Child Soldiers Fought for Britain
Child soldiers might seem like a horror of “Third World” militias under a dysfunctional
military dictatorship or a rogue cult. Yet the First World War led to a strange circumstance
where Britain saw a shocking 250,000 combatants who were mere boys, many well under the legal
age of combat service of 19 years serving in World War I. Of these young people, a number served with
dedication and bravery, many going to their deaths. While one might wonder how such an occurrence
could happen with supposed protections in place, it was in fact quite easy. Without modern documentation rigor such as
birth certificates and a reliance on medical exams instead of reliable documents attesting
to the age of candidates, it was possible to lie one’s way into active combat service. Wartime propaganda helped to stir up some
extra desire to fight, even among those who were legally too young. Seeing the urgency of wartime affairs and
perhaps having an extra dose of youthful bravado meant that those without very much knowledge
or experience would rush in to get involved. Parental or community supervision was not
always helpful either. Members of parliament, headmasters and even
parents were complicit in many underage service sign-ups.
