X-Nico

87 unusual facts about World War I


1963 Syrian coup d'état

However, the British, who had helped establish the state after World War I, made a secret agreement with France and established the French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon.

Admiral class

Admiral-class battlecruiser, of which four were planned for the Royal Navy near the end of World War I but only one completed

Adolf Hitler's possible monorchism

In November 2008, the discovery of an eye-witness account on how Hitler was treated after being shot on the Western Front during World War I was announced in the press.

AGO C.VII

The AGO C.VII was a German reconnaissance aircraft of World War I.

AGO C.VIII

The AGO C.VIII was a German reconnaissance aircraft of World War I, created by re-engining the manufacturer's C.IV design with a Mercedes D.IVa.

AGO S.I

The AGO S.I was a German prototype ground-attack aircraft built in October 1918 but possibly never flown before the end of World War I.

Alois Hundhammer

Hundhammer's studies were interrupted in the summer of 1918 by World War I, in which he served briefly on the Western Front before enlisting in the Freikorps and taking part in the battle for Munich against the Bavarian Soviet Republic in April 1919.

Altamont Lamina

He was 21 years old when he entered the SIS, and was assigned to spy on German and Austro-Hungarian dealings during World War I.

American-Hawaiian Steamship Company

During World War I, twelve of the company's ships were commissioned into the United States Navy; a further five were sunk by submarines or mines during the conflict.

André Debry

André Léon Alphonse Debry (15 June 1898 – 31 August 2005) was, at age 107, one of the last surviving French veterans of the First World War.

Appledore Lifeboat Station

During World War I it became difficult to find the horses and men necessary for launching boats at Braunton Burrows so it too was closed temporarily in 1918 but this became permanent the following year.

Arab Bureau

The Arab Bureau was a section of the Cairo Intelligence Department during the First World War.

Arabic Case

Claims of United States citizens arising out of this and similar cases were eventually adjudicated under the Treaty of Berlin (1921) by the Mixed Claims Commission, United States and Germany, following World War I.

Arthur Henry Hardinge

Concern by King Edward VII prompted him to accept the position as Minister to Belgium 1906–1911, and later as Minister to Portugal 1911–1913, and Ambassador to Spain, 1913–1919, a neutral country in World War I.

Arthur Van Gehuchten

He was professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Leuven until the eruption of the War in Europe in 1914.

Beramba

The Beramba was a German freighter ship captured from the Germans in World War I and used as a Troopship

Bernard Delaire

Bernard Delaire (28 March 1899 – 1 October 2007) was a French naval veteran of the First World War and one of the last six identified French veterans.

Betty Bolton

'Betty', as she was originally billed (no surname), played in several revues by Harry Grattan, such as Odds and Ends and Mind Your Backs during the World War I, some of them produced by Andr Charlot.

Betty Bolton (January 7, 1906 – April 2, 2005) was a British actress, beginning as a child star during World War I and continuing her career in the 1920s and 1930s.

Bijar

During World War I it was besieged and occupied by Russian, British, and Ottoman troops.

British 4th Cavalry Division

1st Indian Cavalry Division which was designated 4th Cavalry Division from November 1916 to March 1918 in France in World War I

Charles A. Kraus

He was professor of chemistry and director of the chemical laboratories at Clark University, where he directed the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I.

Charles N'Tchoréré

In 1914, Charles took up a post in the governor's cabinet, then in 1916 enlisted in the Tirailleurs Sénégalais and fought in World War I, earning a promotion to sergeant.

Charles Reznikoff

He practiced law briefly and entered officer training school in 1918, but failed to see active service before the end of the war.

Coats of arms of German colonies

Arms were designed, but World War I broke out before the project was finalised, and the arms were never actually taken into use.

Coffee Hag albums

Two series, Germany and Switzerland, were started before World War I and were never finished.

Constantin Costa-Foru

Constantin Costa-Foru was a vocal supporter of human rights, and accused the growing anti-Semitism in the post-World War I Romania.

Diario El Fonógrafo

According to the writer and columnist of El Fonógrafo, José Rafael Pocaterra, the capital´s edition enjoyed great popularity from the beginning because, unlike other Venezuelan newspapers of the time, El Fonógrafo sympathized with the Allies.

When World War I started in 1914, Gómez favored the German Empire in the conflict while maintaining a veneer neutrality against the allied community.

Dominique-Marie Gauchet

Dominique-Marie Gauchet (14 August 1853 – 4 February 1931) was a French admiral during World War I.

Entre Deux Guerres

L'Entre Deux Guerres is a French expression (~ between two wars) which refers to the interwar period between World War I and World War II (1918 - 1939).

Ethel Dickenson

Dickenson educated at Methodist College, St. John's and McDonald College, Guelph, Ontario, became a volunteer nurse during World War I at the Wandsworth Hospital, London and also the Ascot Hospital.

Flanders Field

In Flanders Fields, a famous poem about World War I written by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae.

Flanders Fields, the name of World War I battlefields in the medieval County of Flanders, which spans southern Belgium and north-west France.

Flanders Field American Cemetery and Memorial, a World War I cemetery on the southeast edge of the town of Waregem, Belgium.

Franz von Rintelen

Captain Franz Dagobert Johannes von Rintelen (1877 – 30 May 1949) was a German Naval Intelligence officer in the United States during World War I.

FVA-1 Schwatze Düvel

After World War I aviation in Germany was seriously curtailed with swingeing reparations and very tight regulation.

German occupation of Belgium

German occupation of Belgium during World War I - The occupation of Belgium between 1914 and 1918 by the German Empire during World War I

Görlitz station

During the World War I the new building and the adjacent railway post office (1915) were completed.

Hans von Schiller

Born in 1891 in Schleswig-Holstein, the young Hans von Schiller joined the navy at the beginning of World War I.

Heavy warmblood

They are the ancestors of the modern warmbloods, and are typically bred by preservation groups to fit the pre-World War model of the all-purpose utility horse.

Helmut Yström

Yström's first foray into government work was his military service during World War I.

History of the Industrial Workers of the World

Wobbly leaders who had been arrested and imprisoned during or after World War I on espionage charges (for opposing the war) had just been released in two groups; some, in mid-1923, agreed to a pardon that stipulated they must refrain from activities related to their former union activism.

In 1918, just after the United States had entered World War I and the government charged IWW leaders with violation of the espionage law for their anti-war expressions, Robert W. Bruere wrote in Harper's Magazine that,

History of the Jews in Slovakia

After World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Jews earned the right to declare themselves a separate nationality, and prospered in industry and cultural life, holding more than one-third of all industrial investments.

Ilya Gershevitch

Gershevitch was born to Russian parents fleeing from Germany to Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I.

Imtiyaz Medal

When awarded during World War I, the medal was worn with a clasp in the same type of metal as the medal.

Karl von Luxburg

These dispatches urged that certain neutral Argentine ships should be “spurlos versenkt” — destroyed without a trace.

Kettle hat

When helmets reappeared in World War I, the kettle hat made its comeback as the British and U.S. Brodie helmet (often called tin hat), as well as the French Adrian helmet.

Kisber Felver

Like many other horse breeds, the Kisber Felver was endangered during the World War I and World War II.

Libri Prohibiti

:* From World War I, there are a total of 90 items of legionnaire’s literature.

Machinist's handbook

During the decades from World War I through World War II, these phrases could refer to either of two competing reference books: McGraw-Hill's American Machinists' Handbook or Industrial Press's Machinery's Handbook.

Maurice Floquet

Maurice Noël Floquet (Poissons, 25 December 1894 – Montauroux, 10 November 2006) was, at age 111, France's oldest man on record and was one of the last surviving French veterans of World War I.

He died just one day before the 88th anniversary of the end of World War I.

Olga Kokovtseva

Margarita Romanovna Kokovtseva, generally named in English sources as Olga Kokovtseva was a female soldier in an Imperial Russian Army cavalry unit during World War I.

Pencil bomb

It was designed by German chemist, Dr. Scheele and used by German spy Franz von Rintelen during World War I.

Peter Feller

Berlin had worked with Feller's father on Yip Yip Yaphank during World War I and hired Feller as the head technician for the show.

Pierre Picault

Pierre Picault (27 February 1899 – 20 November 2008) was, at age 109, France's last surviving French veteran of World War I and eldest man.

Proletarian nation

A similar conception was invoked in Germany during World War I by Johann Plenge, who advocated a "National Socialism" and described the war as being between a "proletarian" Germany versus a "capitalist" Britain.

Rabbittown, St. John's

Rabbittown was first developed in the years between World War I and World War II.

Rat Man

In a later footnote, Freud laments that although "the patient's mental health was restored to him by the analysis...like so many young men of value and promise, he perished in the Great War.

Raymond Abescat

Raymond Abescat (Paris, September 10, 1891 – Rueil-Malmaison, August 15, 2001) was one of the last surviving veterans of World War I in France, its oldest man and the oldest veteran in France at the time of his death.

Raymond Andrews

In the early 1970s he began publishing his Muskhogean trilogy which told about the life of an African American in the south from the end of World War I to the beginning of the 1960s.

Richard Katz

After the First World War, Katz moved to Leipzig and in 1924 he became director of the Leipzig Publishing Company, a position he held for two years.

Richard Semon

In 1918 in Munich, Semon committed suicide wrapped in a German flag allegedly because he was depressed by Germany's defeat after World War I.

RMS Scythia

Following heavy losses during the First World War, the Cunard Line embarked on an ambitious building programme.

Robert Downey

Robert Downie, Scottish recipient of the VC for leading a major charge in World War I

Sir Archibald Lucas-Tooth, 2nd Baronet

He fought in World War I and died on July 12, 1918 at age 34, on active service.

SS City of Los Angeles

SS City of Los Angeles (1918), laid down under this name but became USS Victorious (ID-3514) for the United States Navy in World War I; sailed as SS City of Havre from 1931 to 1938; sailed as SS City of Los Angeles (1938) until 1940; became USS George F. Elliot (AP-13) for the United States Navy in World War II; bombed and sunk at Florida Island in 1942

SS Megantic

She remained on that route until the Great War, when she was briefly placed on White Star's Liverpool-New York City service until being called into service as a troopship in 1915.

Talbot House

Talbot House : a house in Poperinge, Belgium, set up by Chaplains Tubby Clayton and Neville Talbot in 1915 as a rest centre for Allied soldiers in World War I.

The Great Illusion

It is sometimes said that the outbreak of World War I disproved Angell's argument in The Great Illusion, but Angell had not maintained that a war was impossible, rather that it would be futile.

Trade Boards Act 1918

The Trade Boards Act 1918 (c 32) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that heavily shaped the post-World War I system of UK labour law, particularly regarding collective bargaining and the establishment of minimum wages.

Trade unions in the United Kingdom

World War I resulted in a further increase in union membership, as well as widespread recognition of unions and their increased involvement in management.

Unemployed Councils

The UC was the organizational successor of the Unemployment Council of New York, a broad-based organization established by various trade unions in New York City in the spring of 1921, during the economic downturn which followed the termination of the First World War.

Walter von Gerich

Walter von Gerich was a Finnish civil servant and later an agent in German pay during World War I.

He posed in 1917 as a German baron and diplomatic courier Walter von Rautenfels and was arrested for espionage in Norway and planning of sabotage in favour of the German Empire during World War I, when several suitcases with explosives were discovered, covered as diplomatic luggage.

Wilhelm Thöne

Vizeflugmeister de Reserves Wilhelm Thöne was a World War I flying ace credited with six aerial victories.

William Henry Warren

During World War I, Warren conducted over 10,000 tests of munition steel.

William Rawson Shaw

They had a daughter and a son Kenneth who became a pilot in World War I.

X Corps

X Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I

XII Corps

XII (1st Royal Saxon) Corps, a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I

XIII Corps

XIII (Royal Württemberg) Corps, a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I

XIV Corps

XIV Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I

XVI Corps

XVI Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I

XX Corps

XX Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I

XXI Corps

XXI Corps (German Empire), a unit of the Imperial German Army prior to and during World War I


Albert Spaier

Studying at the Sorbonne, he volunteered to fight for the French at the outset of World War I, and became a French citizen soon afterwards.

Alexander N. Rossolimo

His maternal grandfather, Anatole Pavlovich Boudakovitch, was a Russian-Polish count and colonel in the Imperial Russian Army, who died in battle near Warsaw during World War I.

Antoni Szymański

As a Prussian citizen, he fought on the Western Front during World War I (including the Battle of Verdun).

Bramshott Camp

Bramshott Military Camp, often simplified to Camp Bramshott, was a temporary army camp set up on Bramshott Common, Hampshire, England during both the First and Second World Wars.

Charles Allen Thomas

During World War I, he served in the Student Army Training Corps, and for a time was a rifle instructor at Camp Perry.

Committee on Industry and Trade

The Committee on Industry and Trade, also known as the Balfour Report because it was chaired by the industrialist Arthur Balfour, was a committee set up to discover the reasons for the United Kingdom's economic decline since the Great War.

Duncan Frederick Campbell

Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Frederick Campbell, DSO (28 April 1876 Simcoe, Ontario – 4 September 1916) was Unionist MP for North Ayrshire who died in World War I.

Edensor

The churchyard also contains three Commonwealth service war graves of World War I: a British soldier, a British sailor and a Canadian Army officer.

Ersatz good

In the opening months of World War I, replacement troops for battle-depleted German infantry units were drawn from lesser-trained Ersatz Corps, who were less effective than the troops they replaced.

Forty Stories

One story involves a World War I Secret Police investigator, a trio of German warplanes, and the artist Paul Klee.

German submarine U-196

Oberleutnant Dr. Ing. Heinz Haake of U-196 is buried in a graveyard at Bogor, Java with members of the World War I German East Asia Squadron at Arca Domas, on the slopes of Mount Pangrango, Java.

Holzminden internment camp

Holzminden internment camp was a large World War I detention camp (Internierungslager) located on the outskirts of Holzminden, Lower Saxony, Germany, which existed from 1914 to 1918.

International Center of Photography

Another component of the collection is a significant group of photographically illustrated magazines, particularly those published between World War I and II, such as Vu, Regards, Picture Post, Lilliput, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, and Life.

Italian classical music

Yet, it was inevitable that Italian composers would respond to the fading values of Romanticism and the cynicism provoked in many European artistic quarters by such things as World War I and such cultural/scientific phenomena as psychoanalysis in which—at least according to Robert Louis Stevenson—"all men have secret thoughts that would shame hell."

János Latorcai

As the votes were being counted, Jobbik lawmakers shouted slogans including "Traitors" and "No, no, never," the latter a traditional protest chant against the post-World War I Treaty of Trianon.

Joffre cake

Some commentators say the size of the Joffre cake probably had as a model the French casquet worn by soldiers during World War I.

John Folan

He was a private in the 3rd Battalion, Connaught Rangers, British Army during World War I when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the DCM.

José César Ferreira Gil

During World War I, Ferreira Gil served as the Commander of the Portuguese Forces in Northern Portuguese Mozambique, leading them in combat in the East African Campaign against the German Forces of Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck.

Langley Field

The base is one of the oldest facilities of the Air Force, having been established on 30 December 1916, prior to America's entry to World War I by the Army Air Service, named for aviation pioneer Samuel Pierpont Langley.

Maine Central class K 0-6-0

World War I caused 1918 production to be split between builders numbers 57883 and 57884 from Schenectady, and 59865 and 59866 from ALCO's Pittsburgh plant.

Manya Shochat

In World War I, the Turks deported the Shochats and others who were Russian nationals to Bursa, in Turkey.

Maryland World War I Service Medal

The Maryland World War I Service Medal was authorized for issue to citizens of the state of Maryland who volunteered for and served in either the Army or Navy of the U.S. during World War I.

Maximilian von Laffert

Maximilian August Hermann Julius von Laffert (10 May 1855 in Lindau – 10 May 1917 in Frankfurt am Main) was a Saxon officer, later General of Cavalry during World War I.

Mons Hill

Its shared name with Mons Road in the Kates Hill area of Dudley is a coincidence, as that road's name was taken from the Battle of Mons during World War I.

National Independence Day

The autumn of 1918 marked the end of World War I and the defeat of all three occupiers – Russia was plunged into the confusion of revolution and civil war, the Austria-Hungary fell apart and went into decline and the German Reich bowed to pressure from the forces of the Entente.

Oddino Morgari

In 1911, Morgari inaugurated his activity as a "diplomat of Socialism" with a trip to the Far East, which would become his main preoccupation in the years of World War I; he took part in preparing the Zimmerwald Conference, celebrated the October Revolution and Bolshevist Russia, and signed the April 1, 1919 letter that declared the PSI adherence to the Comintern.

Otoe, Nebraska

The entry of the United States into World War I was followed by hostility toward all things German, which extended to a town that bore the name of Germany's capital.

Pack Up Your Troubles

Pack Up Your Troubles is a 1932 Laurel and Hardy film directed by George Marshall and Raymond McCarey, named after the World War I song "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and smile, smile, smile." It is the team's second feature-length picture.

Peter Sugiyama

He moved to Koror in 1914 at the invitation of his uncle, after the Japanese Empire seized control of the islands as part of its World War I invasion of German New Guinea (which control would later be formalised by the League of Nations as the South Pacific Mandate).

Prince of Wales Theatre

The theatre played more musical comedies beginning in 1903, including the Frank Curzon and Isabel Jay hits Miss Hook of Holland (1907, its matinee version, Little Miss Hook of Holland was performed by children for children), King of Cadonia (1908), and The Balkan Princess (1910), and later the World War I hits, Broadway Jones (1914), Carminetta (1917), and Yes, Uncle! (1917).

Sgt. MacKenzie

Joseph MacKenzie wrote the haunting lament after the death of his wife, Christine, and in memory of his great-grandfather, Charles Stuart MacKenzie, a sergeant in the Seaforth Highlanders, who along with hundreds of his brothers-in-arms from the Elgin-Rothes area in Moray, Scotland went to fight in the Great War.

Solomon Birnbaum

He served in World War I in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and then studied and attained a doctorate from the University of Würzburg.

Springfield Model 1892-99

The Krag was completely phased out of service in the Regular Army by 1907, as M1903 Springfields became available, however, the Krag was issued for many more years with the National Guard and the Army Reserve, including service in World War I with rear-echelon U.S. troops in France and as training arms at various Stateside bases.

Tárogató

In the 1920s, Luţă Ioviţă, who played the instrument in the army during World War I, brought it to Banat (Romania), where it became very popular under the name taragot.

Terramatta

It is the story of The Twentieth Century told by a last, and is inspired by the Terra Matta, a memoir published by Einaudi in 2007, written in approximate Italian by Vincenzo Rabito (class 1899), a former laborer and Sicilian worker semi-literate but of great narrative ability, who attended the world War I and African adventure (in Ogaden).

Thaddeus H. Caraway

He supported American entrance into the League of Nations, bonuses for World War I veterans, as well as the Eighteenth (Prohibition), Nineteenth (Women's Suffrage), and Twentieth (Lame Duck) amendments.

The Delicious Little Devil

(This was Murray in a thinly disguised portrayal obviously mimicking fellow real life dancer/star Gaby Deslys who had an affair with the King of Portugal before World War I).

Thomas Whitham

He was 29 years old, and a private in the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

Union Airways

Union Airways were founded by Major Allister Miller, a World War I flying ace, who had recruited some 2000 South Africans for service in the Royal Air Force.

USS Phenakite

After the end of World War I, the Sachem was returned to her owner, Manton B. Metcalf of New York, 10 February 1919.

Waler horse

In Australia's two wars of the early 20th century—the Second Boer War and World War I—the Waler was the backbone of the Australian Light Horse mounted forces.

Walter Heiman

Walter J. Heiman (Essen, Germany, March 12, 1901 – University City, Missouri, United States, March 18, 2007) was a Jewish American man who at the time of his death had become one of the last surviving veterans of the First World War.

Wyndham, Western Australia

The construction efforts were interrupted by the Nevanas affair and World War I, but the meatworks were completed in 1919 to a design by William Hardwick who later became the Principal Architect of Western Australia.

Xul Solar

Over the following few years, despite the onset of World War I, he would move among these cities, as well as Tours, Marseille, and Florence; towards the end of the war he served at the Argentine consulate in Milan.