Does anyone know any good World War 1 stories or facts that I can present in history class?

Question

Preferably a bit unique and slightly unknown. I would LOVE something like a firsthand experience from, like, your grandpa or something.

Thanks, everyone!

Answer 1

Pitbulls were the most decorated cannines during World War 1 because they saved so many lives.7. Sgt. Stubby. Was a Pit Bull war hero. Stubby was wounded in action twice, he saved his entire platoon by warning them of a poison gas attack and he single handedly captured a German spy.

Answer 2

Eyewitness accounts for WW1 here: http://newfreebooks.com Go to the Leap Over Web Clutter section and then "History".

Answer 3

25million russians were killed in the war

26million were killed under stalin during the red terror

Answer 4

The short-lived "Christmas Armistice" when for a few days, both sides layed down arms, send gifts, sang carols, and even visited each others trenches.

Answer 5

There is a very good story about the lost battalion, i cant remember it all but if you google it im sure it will come up, Good luck

Answer 6

Though once the subject of a Hollywood Movie, now sadly forgotten is the story of Edith Cavell an English Nurse who helped more than a hundred or so British & French POW s escape and was later executed by firing squad (Kate Winslet please take note)....

http://www.co.cambria.pa.us/cambria/site...

""""Another woman who was executed during WWI was Edith Cavell, a nurse from England who was working in Belguim during the war. Secretly she worked helping British, French, and Belgian soldiers to escape from behind the German lines and eventually rejoin their units. She housed as many as 35 refugees at once in the nursing school where she was the administrator. When the Germans occupied Belguim they converted Cavell's nursing home into a Red Cross hospital, and let her continue as Matron under German supervision. By 1915 she had helped more than 100 British and an additional 100 French and Belgian soldiers. but the Germans grew suspicious and arrested her in August. Her trial in October lasted only two days and resulted in a death sentence, in spite of appeals from both the American and Spanish ambassadors for clemency. On the morning of October 12th , 1915, Edith Cavell was executed by a German firing squad and buried nearby. Eventually her body was exhumed and returned to her native soil in Great Britain for reburial - you will find these words on her statue in St Martins Park - "'Humanity, Fortitude, Devotion, Sacrifice" ""

And then there is Aviation--

http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviatio...

"""During World War I, some flight schools discovered something that has been noted by air force training programs throughout the century: women make exceptional flight instructors, particularly for male pilots. (The theory is that the cockier male pilots are less stubborn and confrontational with a woman instructor, and are more receptive to criticism and instruction from her than from a man.) The Stinson family of San Antonio, Texas, were all fliers and the flying school they founded there trained many Canadian pilots who went on to serve in the British Royal Flying Corps.

Marjorie took care of the school (becoming a legendary flight instructor), while Katherine supported the school with stunt flying. Both sisters toured the country, flying in exhibitions for Liberty Bonds and the Red Cross, and Katherine was sent on a goodwill tour of Japan and China, where she stunned men and women alike with her stunt flying and her liberal attitudes. Katherine’s flight from San Diego to San Francisco in 1917 set a non-stop long-distance record— or men or women—of 610 miles (981.5km).

The Stinson sisters retired from aviation shortly after the war, but their brother Eddie continued flying and became a builder of airplanes that were widely used in the airmail service in the interwar period. The other great woman aviator of the war years was Ruth Law, also from a family of aviators. Law was a very competitive individual, likely to try anything just because someone told her she couldn’t do it. Just such a dare was responsible for her being the second woman to perform a loop in 1915 (Katherine Stinson being the first, shortly before). She competed in several altitude and distance events, sometimes winning and setting records, but always being greeted by adoring crowds and always demanding that she be evaluated on the same basis as male fliers.

At America’s entry into World War I, Law applied to the United States Army to fly combat missions. She bristled when she was turned down and wrote an article for Air Travel (“Let Women Fly!”) that inspired many future women aviators. After the war, Ruth Law formed a flying circus and became one of the most successful barnstormers of the 1920s. She retired from flying after one of her women stunt flyers, Laura Bromwell, was killed in a stunt.""

As for my Grandfather Story - - - well he was a Jew which was o-k because he lived in the Sudetenland then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and they accepted Jews. My Grandfather never rose above the rank of Seargent but served well & honrably in the H^ll that was Northern Italy where the Axis battled the Allies in some of the most brutal fighting of the War. Years later my Grandfather & Family along with my pre teen mother were forced to flee from what was now Czeckoslovakia because of the n**i s. Settling down in Southern California my Grandfather made the aquiantence of a Dentist, this was in the 1950s and lo & behold he discovered that his Dentist had been an Italian Soldier on the very same battlefield. Now friends they joked about the liklihood they had been shooting at each other.

One day the Dentist noticed a smudge on an x-ray of my grandfather's lower teeth. Taking a second x-ray the Dentist discovered a bullet! In the heat of battle my Grandfather thought he had been bitten by a mosquito and carried the bullet for decades. The Dentist removed the bullet and to this day it resides in someone's medical collection.

Peace///////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\...

Answer 7

I seriously doubt many if any ppl from ww1 are alive. I think the secret alliance btwn the emperors is interesting and could be a fun story to elaborate or add to.

Answer 8

One horrific fact: 25,000 British soldiers were killed in the First Hour of the Battle of the Somme - and a further 50,000 wounded.  

Answer 9

In 1914, after the British Expeditionary Force had been almost destroyed by the German Army and things looked extremely bleak, a story began to do the rounds that during the Battle of Mons angels had been sighted in the skies firing spectral arrows and urging the British on to fight against the German army.  Many quizzed afterwards swore that they had seen the sight themselves.  It became a legend, and seemed to suggest to many that God was indeed on the side of the allies.

It turned out later on that the story seemed to bear an uncanny resemblance to a short story entitled 'The Bowmen' published in a newspaper of the time, in which angels helped out the British army.

However many soldiers afterwards swore that they had seen the angels.

Who is right? We will never know..