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Main page -- Latest WW1 news and articles
The darkest day in Australia's military history - Fromelles
by theage 2006-July-19
A special Last Post ceremony will be held to mark the darkest day in Australia's military history - the battle of Fromelles. 90 years ago the Australian 5th Division suffered more than 5,500 casualties in a battle on the Western Front that achieved nothing. The Australians and the British 61st Division were sent in to attack an entrenched German position. Men were wiped out as they tried to attack a fortified position over open fields. About 46,000 Australians were killed on the Western Front during World War 1. About 9,000 died at Gallipoli.
Read more | New window | Bad link | Bloodiest battlefield casualties of War
Arming ivan -- Russian small arms of WWI
by findarticles 2006-July-18
During the Great War, the Russians violated the first rule of a gunfight: have a gun. The fighting on the Eastern Front in the early days of WW1 was performed in open order, columns and close order regimental line formations. The well equipped frontline regiments of the Russian army that took the field in 1914, carried a variety of different rifles. The standard issue model was the battle proven, Model 1891 Three-Line Rifle, better known to the casual collector as the M91 Mosin-Nagant. It is an interesting field of study with a tremendously wide range of weapons, both modern and obsolete, having been issued to front line units.
Read more | New window | Bad link | Russian Empire
Sale of WW1 Victoria Cross should break world record
by scoop 2006-July-17
A Victoria Cross awarded to a New Zealand soldier for bravery in Gallipoli is expected to reach a world record figure at auction. The Victoria Cross was awarded to Captain Alfred John Shout who died fighting for the Anzacs in Gallipoli. Bonhams & Goodman said Victoria Cross could climb above $nz1 million at their auction on July 24. The world auction record for the sale of a Victoria Cross is stg 235,250 for a medal awarded to Sergeant Norman C Jackson, a British Royal Air Force pilot for his role in the Battle of Britain during Second World War in 1944.
Read more | New window | Bad link | Memorabilia & Collectibles
South Africans in WW1 -- Battle of the Delville Wood
by sabcnews 2006-July-17
The Delville Wood Battle was fought by South Africans. 90 years ago the South African brigade was called to capture Delville Wood in France. Thousands lost their lives in a fierce two-day battle in the woods dubbed by South African soldiers as the "Devil's Woods". "There were heavy casualties on the South African side, out of 3 153, only 705 South African soldiers came out of the woods. And out of that 705, 604 further were wounded � only 143 really came out unharmed out of the woods."
Read more | New window | Bad link | Minor groups and Areas
Sgt. Alvin York is the most famous soldier of World War I
by newschannel5 2006-July-15
Despite all the attention, no one knows the exact location in France where he captured 132 Germans and killed 25 others. The German fired killing six Americans. York survived and as the Germans charged, bayonets drawn, he shot them from the back forward. 132 Germans surrendered thinking they faced many more Americans. -- Tom Nolan went on a mission. He studied maps. He took historic records and imposed those details. He mapped out where York and 16 others circled behind a group of German machine guns. Last spring, Nolan tried to find the exact spot where it happened. He found old artifacts. One belonged to a wounded soldier in York's division.
Read more | New window | Bad link | United States of America
Indian army: first and only cavalry charge of the Somme battle
by bbc 2006-July-14
As the Battle of the Somme is marked, the Indian army also has good reason for remembrance. Two Indian regiments took part in the first and only cavalry charge of the battle but were forced to retreat under heavy fire. "This probably reinforced the increasing realisation among British generals that cavalry charges using horses were a thing of the past," says Imperial War Museum historian Nigel Steel. The cavalry charge on 14 July was conducted by two regiments, the 20th Deccan Horse and the British Seventh Dragoon Guards, who were supported by another Indian regiment, the 34th Poona Horse.
Read more | New window | Bad link | Battle of the Somme
The poets' battle -- Battle for Mametz Wood
by icnetwork 2006-July-13
When the battle for Mametz Wood came to an end, some 4,000 soldiers of the 38th (Welsh) Division was either dead or injured. Even though the Welsh prevailed, the 5-day battle would leave the 38th so badly mauled that it would not return to action for over a year. But few realise just how many of the greatest poets and writers of the age were fighting along that narrow front. Along with Llewelyn Wyn Griffith, there were the poets Siegfried Sassoon, David Jones and Robert Graves - who would write in A Dead Boche: "Today I found in Mametz Wood, A certain cure for lust of blood."
Read more | New window | Bad link | Uncategorized
Life in the trenches during World War 1
by nationalarchives 2006-July-12
Once the initial German attack had been repelled in 1914, a new type of warfare evolved on the Western Front - very different to the war of mobility imagined in the Schlieffen Plan. Both sides consolidated defensive positions by trenches, which were protected by barbed wire, sandbags and armed soldiers. From these enclaves, they attacked enemy lines, often under the cover of heavy artillery fire, across the space between the two armies that was known as No Man's Land. On the front line, the constant threat of death on the battlefield afflicted men of all ranks. The First World War was the first major conflict in which more people died in combat than from disease.
Read more | New window | Bad link | Trenches and Fortifications warfare
Disappearing History Documentary "Ottoman Empire"
by bcc 2006-July-11
Documentary by History Channel, "Ottoman Empire: The War Machine" mysteriously disappeared from the network's schedule June 22, the day it was to premiere. The program recounts the six-century reign of the Ottomans, the precursors to the present-day Turkey. When the special did not premiere, even after History had run promos just days before and pre-sold DVDs on its Website, message boards and blogs erupted with allegations the network caved to pressure from the Turkish government or other groups. Although none have seen the documentary, the critics suspect it likely covers the death of more than a million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks from 1915 to 1923.
Read more | New window | Bad link | Armenian genocide
A World Undone: The History of the Great War 1914-1918
by jsonline 2006-July-09
Meyer organizes his book chronologically, and accompanies each chapter with a short background essay: on Europe's ruling families and military commanders, on the war's principal weaponry. -- Why did the war go on so many years of stalemate, with no gains and millions dead in its endless failed offensives? The answer is succinct, and requires only two sentences: "None of the warring governments thought they could possibly accept a settlement in which they did not win something that would justify all the deaths. The war had become self-perpetuating and self-justifying."
Read more | New window | Bad link | Overview of World War 1