30 Amazing World War I Facts & Summary You Never Believe

World War I is also known as The Great War, was a global war originating in Europe. In the early 20th century a growing spirit of nationalism created tension among European countries nations sought to protect themselves through complex alliances. These included the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austria which opposed the Triple Entente of France, England, and Russia. The Triple Alliance countries are also referred to as the central powers. These two sets of allies would confront each other in the First World War. In June 1914 the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, immediately the alliance system pulled the major European powers into war.

Austria declared war against Serbia believing that the Nationalists could be easily crushed. Germany sent troops to support Austria but also to protect its interests. Russia backed Serbia France backed Russia and also feared for its borders once Germany and mobilized. England jumped in and so did Italy both against Germany even though Italy had been Germany’s ally with all these countries committed to fighting World War 1 began. Most Europeans were supportive of the war believing that the fighting would be quick and that it would bring glory to each nation.

That belief proved wrong because of new weapons technologies such as poison gas the machine gun tank an airplane and methods of fighting trench warfare this war was exceedingly long brutal and costly in terms of human lives and money. It’s generally thought this devastating war involving multiple nations ended with about 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. 10 million of those deaths were civilian deaths, and 9.7 million of them were military personnel. It’s said The Entente Powers (also called the Allies) lost around 5.7 million soldiers, and the Central Powers lost somewhere in the region of 4 million.

1.

No Condoms for Americans It seems the USA was the only country not to give its soldiers condoms for their time served during the war. It’s also said that thousands of American soldiers returned home with STDs. The Huffington Post writes, “An estimated 400,000 military men were infected with syphilis or gonorrhea.” Those “yank” soldiers were very popular in those days with European girls. The British also didn’t give condoms to their forces at the start but changed that policy quite quickly.

Perhaps with all that terrible destruction going on, one solace to soldiers was wanting to create a new life. We could have said so much more, so feel free to add to this list in the comments. We finished on perhaps some amusing points, but we don’t want to undermine the devastation and loss of life in this terrible – some say avoidable – war. We just wanted to lighten things up at the end.

2.

Lots of Love, Your Dearest Son War was horrible, and letters home to families can be harrowing to read. One man wrote, “Just a line to let you know that I got the fags [cigarettes] on Tuesday. Thank you very much for sending them. They have stopped the weekend passes as there are a lot of absences, but I shall ask the Captain for permission to come on a pass. We are going to the front on the 19 of November. Dear mother, do not worry about me for by God’s help I shall come home well.” He died soon after he wrote that letter, according to The Telegraph. Here’s another letter: “This is what they call the Somme up to the neck in mud and water. Shells flying everywhere.” That was from a Brit called Grimshaw. We are not sure what happened to him.

3.

Famous Soldiers, Who fought in the war? The Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien was one famous person. Harry S. Truman was also there, and so was Mr. Adolf Hitler. Walt Disney tried to sign up but was rejected because of his young age. He did, however, end up driving ambulances in France.

4.

Big Guns In 1917, the Germans pulled out what was at the time the biggest gun in the world. It looked more like a house than a gun, and it could fire shells up to 31 miles (50 km). Its name was “Lange Max,” which meant Long Max.

5.

Silent Night-Time magazine writes, “On a crisp, clear morning 100 years ago, thousands of British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German enemies along the Western front.” Stories differ, but it’s generally thought-about 100,000 soldiers had a truce on Christmas Day, singing hymns and even playing football in no man’s land. One British soldier wrote, “First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours.”

6.

Clever Birds It’s thought that about 500,000 pigeons carried messages during the war. Some of them were sent to the front line by parachute. One such message we found read, “On water attacked by 3 Huns.” Huns were Germans. Don’t ever call pigeons pests again.

7.

Native Americans It’s said about 13,000 Native Americans fought in the war. 14. The Native Tongue Germans were always breaking codes, and it was hard to come up with something to beat that. After hearing two native Choctaw soldiers talking, one American officer realized that the Germans would never understand this strange language. The BBC writes, “The Choctaw Telephone Squad was born.” It’s said this band of men was instrumental in winning many battles.

8.

Ban on Sausages During the war, Germany banned eating sausages. 250,000 cow intestines were used to make just one Zeppelin, so intestines were in demand.

9.

Fake Paris During the war, the French built a fake Paris to fool German bombers. The Telegraph writes, “A second Paris, complete with a Champs-Elysées and Gard Du Nord, was built towards the end of the First World War to fool German bombers, it has emerged.” The fake city was very much a secret, and it was never fully finished or tested.

10.

Old Siam It’s said one of the countries hardly anyone knew joined the war was Thailand. 19 Thai soldiers died of accident and disease, although in those days they were called Siamese as the country was called Siam. The soldiers fought on the side of the Allies.

11.

Banks of Blood The first-ever blood bank was set up in 1917 on the Western Front.

12.

Chinese Warriors Maybe the deadliest war of all time was the Three Kingdoms War in China that lasted 60 years from 220 to 280. It’s thought as many as 40 million people died. The Mongol Invasions killed almost that number.

13.

Military Men Don’t Get Neuroses The military fought back against all these intellectuals saying the war could ruin a man physically AND psychologically. One military man wrote, “War neurosis which persists is not a credible disease to have, as it indicates in practically every case a lack of the soldierly qualities which have distinguished the Allied Armies…no one should be permitted to glorify himself as a case of ‘shell shock.’” Shell shock was exactly what it sounds like, a kind of PTSD before the expression was created.

14.

Mexico GO! The Brits intercepted a German telegraph in 1917. It was a message from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann to Germany’s minister in Mexico. It said, “please invade the USA.” The Brits didn’t tell the USA about the message at first. They waited for a better time instead. The Brits thought if America was going to get involved, there had to be a perfect moment to show the country that it was almost invaded.

15.

British Men When the war began, there were just 350,000 soldiers in the British army. That number became millions when conscription was introduced in 1916. That meant that if you were a “bloke” aged 18-41 and in decent health, off to war you went.

16.

A Stairway to Hell The Brits used to hate German Zeppelins, which are kind of rigid airships that would fly over Britain. They killed about 500 people in the UK, and the British public certainly didn’t like the sight of them. The first-ever Zeppelin attack by Germany on Britain happened at Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in January 1915. By the end of the war, the Brits had become pretty good at shooting them down, destroying 77 of the 115 airships of the German Zeppelin fleet.

17.

The British love their dogs, and during the war, some people in the UK donated their canines to the war effort. Dogs could run around the battlefield and carry messages, and they were hard to shoot. Smaller dogs were also great at catching rats in the trenches. Believe it or not, there were what was called casualty dogs. These dogs would run around the battlefield with medical supplies tied to them, so injured soldiers could be helped. They were like little four-legged ambulances.

18.

Always Read the ‘Use-by’ Date After the assassination, Mr. Princip didn’t fancy life in jail, so he swallowed a cyanide pill. However, this only made him feel sick because it’s said the pill was out of date. The 19-year old also tried to shoot himself, but his gun was taken from him. Talk about an ill-starred life. He was then sent to prison where conditions were so awful he got very sick, lost a limb, and died looking not much different from a skeleton.

19.

During World War I, The British had male and female tanks in the war. Male tanks had two 6 pounder guns and Three 303 Hotchkiss machine guns, while female tanks had one Hotchkiss and four Vickers machine guns.

20.

During World War I, people of German legacy were suspect in the U.S. A few protests against Germans were savage, including the burning of German books, the slaughtering of German shepherd dogs, and even the killing of one German-American.

21.

The United States joined World War I during the final year and half of fighting.

22.

There is more than 30 different poisonous gases were used during World War I. Soldiers were advised to hold a urine-absorbed cloth over their faces as a face mask in an emergency. By 1918, gas masks with filter respirators generally, give successful assurance. Toward the finish of the war, many countries signed treaties outlawing chemical weapons.

23.

The greatest single death toll throughout the entire history of the British army happened during the Battle of Somme when the British army suffered 60,000 casualties in just 24 hours.

24.

During World War I, the Turks slaughtered more than 1.5 million Armenians Christians. This demonstration of genocide would later draw in the consideration of Adolf Hitler and was incompletely liable for sowing the seeds of the Holocaust.

25.

The breakdown of the Ottoman Empire after WWI helped the Allies Expand their impact into Syria, Jordan, Middle East, Iraq, and Palestine were pronounced “mandates” under the League of Nations. France basically assumed responsibility for Syria and Britain assumed responsibility for the remaining three mandates.

26.

The Central Powers The Central Powers’ main players were Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Then there were what were called “co-belligerents” and German client states. The main co-belligerents were the Dervish State (a Somali Muslim kingdom), the South African Republic, and the Sultanate of Darfur.

27.

Who Died? It’s said that Germany mobilized 13,250,000 soldiers. 66 percent of them ended up as casualties, and 1.8 million of them ended up injured or in the ground. Over 20 million Russians served, and around 11.8 million or 56 percent of them died or got injured. (These numbers are highly disputed). 6.2 million Brits went to war, and 886,000 of them didn’t come back. 41 percent of those Brits died or were hurt in the war. The French sent 8.4 million people to war, and 1.4 million soldiers died. 67 percent of French soldiers were injured or died. The USA sent 4.3 million soldiers to war, and 53,000 of them didn’t come back. 5.9% of American soldiers were hurt or died.

74,000 Indians from almost 1.5 million soldiers died in the war. 650,000 Italians from over 5.6 million soldiers died. 62,000 Australian soldiers died, and 65,000 Canadians died. Romania was also badly hit, with 250,000 of its soldiers not coming back from the war. It was almost the same situation for Serbia, which lost 275,000 soldiers. We can’t go through every country unfortunately as it would just take too long, but these countries suffered the worst in terms of military losses. The USA also suffered in an entirely original way, but we are keeping that fact for the number one spot.

28.

Some people say one man was the catalyst for the beginning of the war. His name was Gavrilo Princip, the Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife. He said after he was arrested, “I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be freed from Austria.” He obviously had no idea this would start a war…and then a world war.

29.

After World War I Four empires was collapsed Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman empire, and Russian.

30.

The total cost of World War I for both sides was more than $186 billion in direct costs and another $151 billion in indirect costs