The First World War introduced the world to the horrors of industrial warfare. While history books focus on the mud of the trenches and the political alliances, the conflict also sparked incredible innovation and bizarre strategies. For instance, the British army invented plastic surgery to treat facial injuries caused by shrapnel. Furthermore, the French government built an entire decoy city to protect Paris from air raids. Prepare to go over the top with the soldiers of the Great War.
First World War
A driver’s wrong turn started the war. Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s chauffeur accidentally drove down the wrong street in Sarajevo, right where the assassin Gavrilo Princip stood. Consequently, this navigation error allowed Princip to fire the shots that plunged the world into chaos.
The French built a “Fake Paris” to fool German bombers. Officials constructed a replica city just north of the actual capital to confuse night pilots. They used electric lights to mimic streets and train stations, hoping the Germans would drop their bombs on empty fields instead of the Louvre.
Soldiers stopped fighting to play soccer on Christmas Day. In 1914, British and German troops defied orders and crossed into No Man’s Land to exchange gifts. Surprisingly, they even organized a friendly football match in the freezing mud before returning to the war the next day.
Engineers built the trenches in a zig-zag pattern. They designed the ditches with sharp turns to prevent enemy soldiers from firing down the entire length of the line. Additionally, this layout contained the blast from artillery shells to a small section, saving lives further down the ditch.
The military used the name “tanks” to deceive spies. To keep the development of armored vehicles a secret, the British told workers they were manufacturing mobile water tanks for the desert. The name stuck, and we still call them tanks today.
Designers assigned genders to the tanks. The army designated the vehicles as “Male” or “Female” depending on their weaponry. Male tanks carried cannons to destroy bunkers, while female tanks carried machine guns to fight off infantry attacks.
Marie Curie drove mobile X-ray units to the front lines. The famous scientist developed “Little Curies,” which were ambulances equipped with X-ray machines. She personally drove these vehicles to the battlefield to help surgeons locate bullets in wounded soldiers.
Munitions work turned women’s skin yellow. The women who packed TNT shells suffered from toxic jaundice caused by the chemicals. As a result, people nicknamed them “Canary Girls” because of their bright yellow skin and hair.
A carrier pigeon named Cher Ami saved 194 men. The bird flew through heavy enemy fire to deliver a message from the “Lost Battalion,” despite losing a leg and an eye. Medics treated the bird as a war hero and even gave him a wooden leg.
People in London heard the explosion at Messines Ridge. British miners dug tunnels under the German lines and packed them with nearly one million pounds of explosives. When they detonated the mines, the massive blast traveled 140 miles across the channel to England.
Soldiers utilized urine-soaked cloths as basic gas masks. Before the army issued proper masks, troops had to urinate on handkerchiefs and hold them over their faces during attacks. The ammonia in the urine neutralized the chlorine gas, thus saving them from suffocation.
The Spanish Flu killed more people than the combat. As the war ended, a deadly influenza strain spread across the globe, carried by moving troops. Ultimately, the virus claimed the lives of up to 50 million people, far surpassing the 20 million deaths caused by the fighting.
Surgeons invented modern plastic surgery during the war. Dr. Harold Gillies established a special hospital to treat soldiers with severe facial disfigurement. He developed pioneering techniques for skin grafts that formed the basis of cosmetic surgery today.
The United States entered the war because of a secret telegram. British intelligence intercepted the “Zimmermann Telegram,” in which Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico against the US. The Americans published the note, which outraged the public and pushed the country to join the fight.
Finally, the last soldier died just one minute before the ceasefire. American private Henry Gunther charged a German roadblock at 10:59 AM on November 11th. The Germans tried to wave him back, but he kept running, and they shot him just sixty seconds before peace began.
