Interesting/Less well known facts about WWI

[timmy]

The Pool of Peace: A crater produced when the allied powers tunneled and blew up a mine beneath German forces. It is around 250 feet deep (76 meters).

[timmy]

1: Dazzle CamouflageDuring the era of unrestricted submarine warfare thousands of merchant ships were sunk, with one U-35 sinking 224 ships alone. This created a panic in the island nation of Britain, which relied on its merchant fleet to keep from starving like many of the nations involved in WWI. Many different inventive methods were tested to try and reduce the merchant fleet losses. One of the most interested is Dazzle camouflage, invented by Norman Wilkinson. While hundreds of ships were given this treatment it is widely held that the effectiveness of this camouflage was dubious at best. Though there is significant research showing that while the slower moving merchant vessels were still fairly easy targets for U-Boat captains, faster moving vehicles such as Jeeps are significantly harder to hit when using dazzle camouflage. Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zty8tfr

[timmy]

2: Messines Ridge Explosion Mining and planting explosives underneath enemy trenches had been a facet of WWI from very early in the war. The greatest of these mining operations was the one that took place on 7 June 1917. This operation involved 21-26 (depending on what you consider to be the same operation) separate mines filled with over 400 tonnes of explosives and is believed to be the largest non nuclear explosion ever made by man. Though only 19 mines blew, it is estimated that the Germans suffered around 25,000 casualties, with 10,000 instant deaths. This explosion was so great that there are hundreds of reliable reports of it being heard in London, and scientists would later mistake it for an earthquake. Pictured above is the largest of the craters left behind after this explosion. Also of note is that one of the mines remains unexploded to this day and consists of around 22 tonnes of explosives. An occupied farm sits above it to this day. Source:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/history-of-the-first-world-war-in-100-moments/a-history-of-the-first-world-war-in-100-moments-a-blast-that-obliterated-10000-germans-9517223.html

[timmy]

3: War Pigeons Over 100,000 homing pigeons were used in the first world war. At a time when other forms of communication were less than perfect and often failed, homing pigeons saw a success rate of 95%. One example of a rather heroic pigeon would be Cher Ami who flew 25 miles in 25 minutes after being released by a group of 194 trapped American soldiers. Though having been shot by a German soldier, Cher Ami reached the allies in time for the Americans to be saved. It was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm for its part in the war. Source: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/the-western-front-in-world-war-one/animals-in-world-war-one/pigeons-and-world-war-one/

[timmy]

4: The Slow Death World War One saw many horrors unleashed on the common soldier. One lesser spoken of horror is what some soldiers simply called the slow death. With millions of shells creating millions of craters and grinding the earth into a fine sludge, many soldiers would become stuck in craters filled with mud, sometimes 20, 30, or even 40 feet deep. There are accounts of soldiers sinking into such craters with their 80 pound packs and being unable to get out, sometimes even pulling others who tried to help into the mud as well. On many of these occasions, the trapped soldier would beg that he be shot, rather than face days of slowly encroaching suffocation. Other times, the mud simply swallowed them before they could request a quick death. On a personal note i find that this is truly one of the greatest overlooked horrors of this war. The above picture does not come close to showing the miles and miles of mud and death traps of the western front. My source listed below does a great job of describing this horror. source:https://modernconflictarchaeology.com/my-academic-work/ma/muddy-hell-the-realities-of-the-western-front-conflict-landscape-during-the-great-war/