January 3, 2018

Last month, the wreckage of HMAS AE1, a Royal Australian Navy submarine lost early in World War I (1914-1918), was found north of Australia off the coast of Papua New Guinea. HMAS stands for His or Her Majesty’s Australian Ship. AE1 and its sister ship, AE2, were the first submarines to serve in Australia’s navy. AE1 disappeared in September 1914, and a dozen searches since had turned up nothing of the submarine or its 35 crew members. At last, in December 2017, the research vessel Fugru Equator tracked down AE1 deep beneath Saint George’s Channel off the New Britain island port of Rabaul.

Crew members walk the deck of the surfaced HMAS AE1 during a mail delivery on Sept. 9, 1914. The submarine disappeared with all hands five days later. Credit: Australian War Memorial

AE1 and AE2 were built in the United Kingdom and entered service in the fledgling Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in the spring of 1914. As a dominion of the British Empire, Australia went to war when the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on August 4. The RAN was immediately tasked with securing German-controlled ports in the south Pacific Ocean. AE1 and AE2 took part in a naval operation that forced the surrender of a German garrison at Rabaul on Sept. 13, 1914. AE1 disappeared the next day, September 14, while patrolling with other ships near the Duke of York Islands in Saint George’s Channel. The loss of AE1 was most likely due to mechanical failure.

The sinking of AE1 was the first major loss suffered by the RAN. It was also the first loss of an Allied submarine during World War I. AE2 went on to participate in the Gallipoli campaign on Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula (now also called Gelibolu Peninsula). On April 30, 1915, AE2 was damaged and forced to surface while engaging enemy ships in the Sea of Marmara. The submarine was scuttled, and the entire crew became prisoners of war. The wreckage of AE2 was found in 1998.

August 1, 2017

Yesterday, July 31, marked the 100^th anniversary of the start of the Third Battle of Ypres, a bloody fight mainly conducted by British and Commonwealth troops against German forces during World War I (1914-1918). As the name implies, the battle—often simply called “Third Ypres” or “Passchendaele” after a village at the center of the fight—was the third battle of the war fought in and around the Belgian city of Ypres <<EE pruh>> (also spelled Ieper <<EE puhr>>). Many thousands of people died in the first two battles, but it was the Third Battle of Ypres that became notorious for its misery and great slaughter. The battle began on July 31, 1917, and lasted more than three months.

Australian soldiers follow a duckboard track through the shattered and flooded battlefield near Passchendaele, Belgium, during the Third Battle of Ypres on Oct. 29, 1917. Credit: Frank Hurley, Australian War Memorial

Two nights ago, on Sunday, July 30, ceremonies of remembrance took place at Ypres’ market square and at the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing. Menin Gate lists the names of more than 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in and around Ypres during World War I but have no known graves. The horrific nature of the fighting around Ypres accounted for an unusually high number of missing soldiers. On Monday, the British and Belgian royal families attended ceremonies at Tyne Cot Cemetery—where many of the unidentified British and Commonwealth dead are buried in graves marked simply, “A Soldier of the Great War.” Other events in the Ypres area opened new memorials and exhibitions and honored family members of the fallen, while still other ceremonies in other places remembered the dead of other nations.

Click to view larger image
The Third Battle of Ypres began 100 years ago this week on July 31, 1917. After three months of fighting, the Allies advanced less than 6 miles (10 kilomters). Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The first two battles of Ypres took place in 1914 and 1915. By the summer of 1917, fighting in the area had destroyed the landscape as well as the city of Ypres itself. The third battle began with a British bombardment and assault on German positions on July 31. German resistance was tough, and downpours of rain turned the shattered battlefield into a mucky swamp. Thousands of men on both sides died as the armies fought continuously for small scraps of barren, muddy ground. Fighting continued under horrible conditions for more than three months, during which time the British advanced less than 6 miles (10 kilometers). The battle ended in a British “victory” with the taking of Passchendaele ridge on November 6. About 250,000 British soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured at Third Ypres, while German casualties also surpassed 200,000. The troops who fought and died at Ypres came from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

To this day, the village name Passchendaele (pronounced in English like Passion-dale or Passion-dell) evokes the accumulative horrors of World War I. The poem “Memorial Tablet” by British writer Siegfried Sassoon—who fought at Ypres and other battlefields during the war—is told in the voice of a dead soldier. The poem includes the line: “I died in Hell. They called it Passchendaele.”

April 6, 2017

On April 6, 1917—100 years ago today—the United States House of Representatives approved a resolution declaring war on Germany, entering the United States into World War I (1914-1918). Four days earlier, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had asked Congress for a declaration of war, warning “the world must be made safe for democracy.” The Senate approved the resolution by a vote of 82-6 on April 4.

U.S. soldiers wave goodbye from a troop ship bound for France in 1917. Credit: © Everett Historical/Shutterstock

At the start of World War I, President Wilson declared the neutrality of the United States. Most Americans initially opposed U.S. involvement in a European war. However, Germany’s sinking of the Lusitania and other actions against civilians drew American sympathies to the Allies–namely France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany on April 2, 1917. Credit: Library of Congress

Several events early in 1917 persuaded the U.S. government to enter the “war to end all wars.” In February, Germany returned to unrestricted submarine warfare. German military leaders knew this decision might bring the United States into the war, but they believed they could win the war by cutting off British supplies. Germany hoped to win the war before the United States could fully mobilize (call up troops) and land an army in Europe.

Tension between the United States and Germany further increased as a result of the “Zimmermann telegram.” The telegram was a message from Germany’s foreign minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to the German ambassador to Mexico. The British intercepted and decoded the message in January and relayed the message to the United States in late February. The message revealed a German plot to persuade Mexico to go to war against the United States. News of the plot infuriated an American public already upset by the sinkings of U.S. cargo ships by German submarines.

Wilson finally called for war, and Congress backed him up on April 6. However, the U.S. military at that time lacked experience, modern weapons, and a sufficient number of soldiers. It would be a year before enough American troops were in Europe to help the Allies defeat Germany.

“Uncle Sam” urges men to enlist in the U.S. Army in this poster from 1917. Credit: © Leslie-Judge Co./Library of Congress

Germany wasn’t the only U.S. enemy in World War I. On Dec. 7, 1917, Congress approved a resolution declaring war on Austria-Hungary, Germany’s main ally. The United States never declared war on Germany’s other biggest ally, the Ottoman Empire.

July 1, 2016

British troops go “over the top” during the 1916 Battle of the Somme in northern France. Credit: © Paul Popper, Popperfoto/Getty Images

Today, July 1, is the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of the 1916 Battle of the Somme during World War I (1914-1918). To mark the solemn occasion, thousands of people, including members of the British royal family, gathered at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing and other poignant places on the former Somme battlefield in northern France. The Somme campaign took place during the summer and autumn of 1916 and consisted of a series of largely unsuccessful offenses by British and French troops against part of Germany‘s western battlefront. The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest examples of trench warfare in history. The battle is named for the area’s main feature, the Somme River, which rises near the French-Belgian border and flows west for about 140 miles (225 kilometers) to the English Channel.

This morning at Thiepval—a village central to the battle that was completely destroyed in the war—a two-minute silence was followed by a reading by Prince Charles and the hymn “Abide With Me.” Then the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, said a prayer: “On this day we remember all those caught up by the battle on the Somme; those who faced the terrible waste and devastation, those who fought against all the odds, who endured the clinging mud and squalor of the trenches.”

On July 1, 1916, British infantry went “over the top” (that is, came out of their trenches) to mount an attack upon the German positions. They believed that they would encounter little resistance, but German gunfire decimated the attacking infantry. On this first day of the battle, some 20,000 British soldiers died, and another 40,000 were wounded.

French forces to the south took many of their early objectives, and their losses were not as severe. They used tactics that had proved successful in the fighting at Verdun—brief, creeping bombardments, with infantry advancing in smaller groups. The 100^th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Verdun took place earlier this year in February.

1916 Battle of the Somme
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

For the rest of July 1916 and over the next few months, the British and French carried out a series of assaults upon the German lines. The attacks gained little ground, and both German and Allied troops suffered heavy casualties (killed, wounded, captured, or missing). By November 18, when the battle was called off, the British and French had pushed the Germans back only 7 miles (11 kilometers).

Estimates of casualties vary, but many experts believe that more than 1 million soldiers died during the Somme campaign: about 420,000 British soldiers, nearly 200,000 French soldiers, and between 450,000 and 650,000 Germans. The Allies failed to force a major breakthrough, but the attack succeeded in draining significant German reserves. Also, the slow evolution of new tactics and technologies—particularly in the use of artillery, tanks, and warplanes—proved key in later battles.

Related World Book articles

Australian Remembrance Trail; Delville Wood, Battle of; Fromelles, Battle of; Pozières, Battle of

April 25, 2016

Soldiers take part in a memorial service during an Anzac Day event. Anzac Day is a patriotic holiday in Australia and New Zealand that honors people who served in the armed forces. © Kristian Dowling, Getty Image

Today, April 25, is the 100^th anniversary of the first Anzac Day, a patriotic holiday honoring current and former members of the armed forces of Australia and New Zealand. ANZAC stands for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, the name of the combined overseas force that fought in World War I (1914-1918). Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the Allied invasion of Turkey’s Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, 1915. The campaign was a costly failure for the Allies, who left Gallipoli after eight months of brutal and fruitless warfare. Allied soldiers from the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere fought troops of the Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with the Central Powers, at Gallipoli. Some 127,000 people from all nations died there, including 10,700 Anzacs. On April 25, 1916, services in Australia and New Zealand marked the first Anzac Day to remember the fallen of Gallipoli.

Anzac troops at Gallipoli on April 25, 1915. Credit: © Philip Schuller, Fairfax Media/Getty Images

By the 1920’s, Anzac Day had become a legal holiday and expanded to include all 46,000 Australians and 18,000 New Zealanders killed in World War I. After World War II (1939-1945), the holiday expanded again to honor Australians and New Zealanders killed in all wars, as well as veterans and those still serving in the armed forces.

Today, Anzac Day services are held throughout Australia and New Zealand, as well as at Gallipoli’s “Anzac Cove.” In Sydney, the dawn service begins at 4:30 a.m. at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, where many young men enlisted to fight in World War I. Cenotaph means empty tomb. War memorial cenotaphs honor soldiers whose bodies lie elsewhere. The solemn service includes a reading of the “Ode of Remembrance,” part of the poem “For the Fallen” written by British poet Laurence Binyon soon after the outbreak of war in 1914:

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.”

The audience then responds: “We will remember them.”

National ceremonies begin a few hours later in Canberra and Wellington, the capital cities of Australia and New Zealand.

A girl places a poppy on the Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia, on Anzac Day. The Roll of Honour lists members of the Australian military who died in times of conflict. Red poppies have been used to commemorate soldiers killed in battle since the end of World War I. © Lukas Coch, EPA/Alamy Images

Other World Book articles

• Australian Remembrance Trail
• Australian recruitment marches of 1915 and 1916
• Anzac Memorial

March 8, 2016

Since 1913, today, March 8, has been International Women’s Day, a part of Women’s History Month. The day is a time to reflect on the progress of women’s rights and of the ending of discrimination against women, and the celebration of women’s achievements and acts of courage and determination. As part of International Women’s Day, today we look at the American “Hello Girls” of World War I.

Hello Girls of World War I
Credit: Library of Congress

In 1917, United States troops began shipping out to France in large numbers to fight in World War I. After years of warfare, the French telephone service—still a fairly new technology at that time—was struggling, and few operators spoke English. To improve communications, the U.S. Army Signal Corps created its own telephone system. In November 1917, the Army asked for American women who spoke French to serve in France as operators. At that time, nearly all telephone operators were women.

Thousands of American women responded to newspaper ads asking for operators to serve overseas. The Army chose 450 women for special training with rugged field telephones and switchboards and other military technology. The women also received basic military training. A first group of 33 women shipped to France in March 1918. Women began operating Army switchboards throughout the American lines, which included many dangerous spots in combat zones.

By war’s end in November 1918, 223 women had served overseas as “Hello Girls” (a dated colloquial term we would not use today). Many of these women then served with occupation forces in Germany or remained in France until the end of peace talks in June 1919. Thousands of other American women served the war effort in France as nurses, clerks, drivers, and many other important occupations.

After the Hello Girls returned to the United States, the women were considered civilians working for the Army and denied veteran’s status, including medals and benefits. For decades, legislation to right this wrong stalled in Congress. Finally, largely through the tireless efforts of one Hello Girl from Montana, Merle Egan Anderson, Congress awarded veteran’s status to the operators in 1978, 60 years after the end of World War I.

Other link

• Montana Women’s History Matters

February 18, 2016

This Saturday, February 21, marks the 100^th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Verdun in France during World War I (1914-1918). The battle was fought between German and French troops around Verdun, a fortress city on the Meuse River. The brutal battle lasted more than nine months (until late December 1916), and ended in a slim and costly French victory. Together with the Battle of the Somme, which began a few months later, Verdun was one of the bloodiest examples of trench warfare in history. Verdun is a city of great historic and strategic value to France. The Germans knew the French would defend it at all cost.

The 1916 Battle of Verdun, in northeastern France, came to symbolize the destructiveness of warfare in World War I. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died over the exchange of very little ground. Much of the fighting centered on the French forts northeast of Verdun, particularly Vaux and Douaumont. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Battle of Verdun began on Feb. 21, 1916, with a massive German attack on French positions around Verdun. For months, French defenses held the city against overwhelming force. However, a number of key positions—including forts Douaumont and Vaux—fell to the German attack. As the battle dragged into summer, both sides suffered major casualties. In July 1916, after the start of the Allied offensive on the Somme River, the Germans reduced their efforts at Verdun. In the autumn, repeated French attacks regained the lost forts. By battle’s end in December, the lines were almost exactly where they had been at the start.

Graves of French soldiers surround the Douaumont Ossuary near Verdun, France. The ossuary holds the remains of about 130,000 unidentified soldiers killed on nearby battlefields. Credit: © Julia Gavin, Alamy Images

General Henri Philippe Pétain organized the defense of Verdun. France hailed him as a hero. However, the Battle of Verdun came to symbolize the destructiveness of modern war. More than 2 million soldiers fought in the battle, and more than 700,000 of them were killed, wounded, or went missing. Verdun and the surrounding area were almost completely destroyed.

Other World Book article

• Lafayette Escadrille

December 24, 2015

As the first Christmas of World War I (1914-1918) approached, many soldiers had been fighting since August. Already, hundreds of thousands had been killed, and the winter weather had turned the trenches into cold, muddy pits. Suffering was common to all front-line soldiers, but both sides took the time to celebrate Christmas. Soldiers received holiday parcels from their friends and families, as well as official gifts—such as chocolate and tobacco—from their governments. German troops brought Christmas trees to the trenches and decorated them with candles. Soldiers sang Christmas carols and held up banners with holiday wishes for their enemies.

British and German soldiers fraternizing in Belgium, on Christmas Day 1914.  Credit: © Imperial War Museum

On the Western Front in Belgian Flanders and northern France, a number of soldiers offered temporary truces for the celebration of the holiday. Throughout Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 1914, many German and British troops walked above ground in relative safety. Some of them even shared food and drink, exchanged gifts and addresses, and took photographs. In at least one instance, soldiers engaged in a friendly soccer match between the enemy sides. Soldiers also used the truces to bury the dead on the battlefields.

Most of the temporary truces ended the day after Christmas, but in some areas the peace lasted until New Year’s Day, 1915. German and British commanders did not approve of the truces, and they quickly ended the agreements once they learned of them. Commanders issued firm orders against cease-fires for December 1915, but short, isolated truces nevertheless were reported. There were no such truces in 1916 or 1917.

Holiday truces between the Germans and French and Belgian troops were not as common as they were between the Germans and the British. Because Germany had occupied—and in some cases destroyed—much of Belgium and northern France, attitudes toward the Germans were not as friendly.

November 11, 2014

This Veteran’s Day (known as Remembrance Day in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), in the centenary year of the start of World War I (July 28, 1914-November 11, 1918), at 11 am London time, the last ceramic poppy was placed in a moving art installation at the Tower of London.  Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red. The artist created a ceramic poppy for each British and Colonial military death during World War I. Since July, 888,246 poppies have been planted at the Tower, in a presentation meant to evoke blood pouring out of a Tower window and spilling over the land. With the placement of the last poppy, the installation will remain for 24 hours and then be taken down.

An art installation at the Tower of London, Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, by artist Paul Cummins, memorializes the British and Colonial dead of World War I. (Martin Pettitt)

The poppy came to represent World War I because of a poem written by a Canadian physician who served in World War I, John McCrae. His poem, “In Flanders Fields,” begins with perhaps the best known lines concerning World War I.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

August 4, 2014

Some 50 heads of state and various royals—including King Philippe of Belgium and Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge of the United Kingdom—gathered in Liege, Belgium, today to mark the 100th anniversary of the German invasion of Belgium in World War I (1914-1918). In Glasgow, Scotland, Prince Charles and British Prime Minister David Cameron attended a ceremony observing the United Kingdom’s entry in the war. In London, 888,246 ceramic poppies have been placed in the dry moat at the Tower of London, one for each soldier who died fighting for the United Kingdom in the war. The total includes soldiers from the then British Empire, including Australia, Canada, India, and New Zealand.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary, far right, was shot to death on June 28, 1914, shortly after this photo was taken. His assassination triggered the outbreak of World War I (UPI/Bettman Newsphotos).

The war was triggered by the assassination—by a Serbian nationalist—of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo, Serbia, on June 28, 1914. World War I officially began on August 3, 1914, when Germany declared war on France. The “war to end all wars” failed to live up to that promise but did, quite literally, reshape the modern political world: it destroyed the Austro-Hungarian, Russian, and Ottoman empires; brought down Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany; left much of Europe prostrate; and made the United States recognized as a world power.  About 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians died in the war. (A 1918-1919 flu epidemic, directly related to the war, left many more millions dead.) Just 21 years later, Germany invaded Poland, setting off World War II (1939-1945).

Additional World Book articles:

• Influenza: A New Threat from an Old Foe (a special report)
• A Mirror on the Turn of the Century (a special report)
• Albert Schweitzer Speaks Out (a historic special report by the famous philosopher, physician, missionary, and writer on theology)