Free Republic

A complex network of tunnels located near the northeastern French town of Braye-en-Laonnois, houses the memories of thousands of World War One soldiers who left their mark on the walls the Froidmont quarry.A maze-like network of tunnels can be found near the northeastern French town of Braye-en-Laonnois.These extraordinary tunnels house the memories of thousands of World War One soldiers who left their mark on the walls of the Froidmont quarry, not far from the scene of the horrific Second Battle of the Aisne.More than 20 kilometres of limestone walls bare over 1,000 inscriptions, drawings and carvings from German, French and...

Mr. Neiberg's presentation to the National Security Seminar and the class of 2018 during their capstone week.Michael S. Neiberg - Why the US Entered the First World War and Why it Matters | 54:46USArmyWarCollege | 57.7K subscribers | 40,164 views | June 14, 2018

Researchers have recovered a treasure trove of World War I artifacts from a cave shelter in northern Italy revealed by the melting of a glacier. During the war, the cave shelter housed 20 Austrian soldiers stationed at Mount Scorluzzo on the Alpine front, close to the famous Stelvio Pass, historian Stefano Morosini told CNN Tuesday. While people knew the shelter existed, researchers were only able to enter it in 2017 as the surrounding glacier had melted, added Morosini, who is scientific coordinator of the heritage project at Stelvio National Park and teaches at the University of Bergamo. Inside they found...

[snip] The Italo-Turkish War 1911 was one of the last classic imperial wars over colonial processions between two great powers. But it was in many ways also a first glimpse into what would come during the First World War: trenches, artillery, combat aircraft, motorboat attacks. This war in Ottoman Libya was fought between the Italian Army and Ottoman-led local Senussi forces. [/snip]Forgotten Prelude To WW1 -- Italo-Turkish War 1911-1912 (History Documentary)The Great War | 31:39 | 1.57M subscribers | 1.3M views | 1 year ago

BEERSHEBA, Israel (Reuters) - An “Australian light horse brigade” of history enthusiasts rode through the Israeli desert town of Beersheba on Tuesday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of a World War One cavalry charge that helped reshape the Middle East. The victory by the Australia and New Zealand Corps (ANZAC) in the Battle of Beersheba, a biblical town in what was Ottoman Palestine in 1917, broke a strategic Turkish defense line and led to the conquest of the Holy Land by British imperial forces. Dozens of history buffs, including descendents of the soldiers of the 4th Brigade of the Australian...

WXYZ) — A non-live WWI ammunition round was discovered at a Lansing residence over the weekend containing a hidden treasure trove of old coins and bills, Michigan State Police said on Twitter. According to police, MSP assisted Lansing Police after people cleaning out a family member’s house discovered what appeared to be an ammunition round. Bomb squad reportedly determined it was not a live round. (Pics at source)

One of Australia's greatest mysteries has finally been solved thanks to advances in DNA technology, with the 'Unknown Sailor' finally identified exactly 80 years after he died. Thomas Welsby Clark was just 21 years old and an able seaman on HMAS Sydney when it was sunk on November 19, 1941, about 200km off Western Australia. He had trained as an accountant in Brisbane, then served in the army before finding a berth on HMAS Sydney. His remains washed up on Christmas Island, 2,600km north-west of Perth, 11 weeks after the HMAS Sydney was lost, and it was all that was...

The world’s loneliest house, stuck on the side of a remote mountain range, had lain empty for 100 years — but its mystery remains. Savvy Italian soldiers are said to have built the shelter as a place to rest while battling the Austro-Hungarians across the rugged terrain.

Many Americans have no idea why we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11. Those who know that the holiday began as Armistice Day typically think of it as a day of victory and peace. However, for those on the ground in Europe the last twenty-four hours before the cessation of hostilities on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, that day was nothing less than hell on earth.

Alvin York- 10/8/1918 On Oct. 8, 1918, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York was credited with killing 20 German soldiers and leading the capture of one hundred and thirty two more during the Meuse-Argonne offensive. It was the final Allied push on the Western front of World War I. York and his battalion were to seize control of a German-held valley when his superior officer was killed by German machine guns. York took charge, returning fire and inspiring his men to do the same. Caught out in the open, York started picking off German soldiers one by one as they attacked...

The author of this 1917 narrative, who escaped from Germany and military service after 14 months of fighting in France, did not wish to have his name made public, fearing reprisals against his relatives. The vivid description of the life of a common German soldier during “The Great War” aroused much interest when it was published in the United States in serial form. Here was a warrior against his will, a hater of militarism for whom there was no romance in war, but only butchery and brutality, grime and vermin, inhuman toil and degradation. His story also contains the first...

Whilst undertaking detailed seabed scanning for the development of windfarm projects in the East Anglia Zone, off the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk, windfarm developers ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) and Vattenfall uncovered something they weren't expecting -- an 'uncharted' wreck of a WWI German submarine, missing in action since 1915... SPR and Vattenfall used advanced sonar technology to scan over 6,000km2 of the seabed in the Southern North Sea over two years, which is nearly 4 times the size of Greater London (1,583km2). This work is critical to understand seabed conditions, and allow the companies to design the layout of their...

Bodies of WWI soldiers found in glacier ROME - The bodies of three Austrian soldiers killed in World War One have been found frozen and almost perfectly preserved in an Italian Alpine glacier. ADVERTISEMENT Mountain rescue worker Maurizio Vicenzi discovered the mummified bodies on Friday, encased upside down in ice at 11,940 feet altitude on San Matteo mountain near the Swiss and Austrian borders. ``Using binoculars, I saw what looked like a stain on the Forni glacier and went to look,'' Vicenzi, 46, from the northern Italian town of Peio told Reuters on Monday. ``When I got close I discovered...

Woodrow Wilson had no qualms about jailing people he disagreed with. His persecution of the Hutterites can attest to that. Campaigning for President of the United States in September 1912, “progressive” icon Woodrow Wilson said something that would gladden the heart of any libertarian: Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it. That was two months before the election that Wilson won. He garnered...

Not since the 1970s has there been such an important discovery from the Great War in France. In woods on a ridge not far from the city of Reims, the bodies of more than 270 German soldiers have lain for more than a century - after they died the most agonising deaths imaginable.On 4 May 1917 the French launched an artillery bombardment targeting the two ends of the tunnel, sending up an observation balloon to get a sight on the north-facing slope. For once their accuracy was formidable. A shell fired from a naval gun hit the entrance, triggering more...

Here is some interesting 100+ year old footage of the Red Barron during WWI: I had a patient who was in his mid-eighties when I bought my practice in 1970. He needed a tooth replaced on his upper full denture. When the lab sent it back for me to give it to him, I asked when he’d received this plate. His answer was” Right after the war!” I said “you’re not talking ‘46 are you?” He said “heck no, I mean in 1919”. I asked how it was that he had every one of his lower teeth in excellent condition...

A hundred years ago this week, a series of biggest battles that Europe were to witness between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 decided the fate of the continent as much as, if not more than, the Great War itself. In early August 1920, the newly resurrected, independent Poland saved the Eastern Europe, Germany and possibly the rest of the war-exhausted Europe from the triumphant Russian communism. As a result of a little known war in the distant corners of the continent, the status quo of the...

Virtually time travel back to 1918. Peering into this room in France is as if you are stepping into a time portal into the early 1900s. The bedroom, which belonged to a French soldier, hasn't been touched since 1918. If you drive three hours southwest of Paris, you'll find Belabre, a quaint French village with a population of fewer than 1,000. That is where you will discover the home of the parents of Hubert Guy Pierre Alphonse Rochereau. When World War I was ravaging Europe, a young Rochereau was deployed to the Belgian battlefield. Sadly, Dragoons' Second Lieutenant Hubert Rochereau...

By the first week of March 1915, food supplies inside the besieged fortress of Przemyśl were almost exhausted. Most of the horses that could be spared had been eaten. Bran, sawdust and bone meal were used to eke out the dwindling stock of flour. Cats were nowhere to be seen – they too had been eaten. A middle-sized dog fetched 20 crowns, if its owner could be persuaded to part with it. Even mice were being traded. The hospital was filled to overflowing with collapsing people. As one of the doctors tending them observed, the most shocking thing about the...

The wreck of a World War One German armoured cruiser has been located off the Falkland Islands, where it was sunk by the British navy 105 years ago. SMS Scharnhorst was the flagship of German Vice-Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee's East Asia Squadron. It was sunk on 8 December 1914 with more than 800 men on board, including Vice-Adm von Spee himself. The leader of the search for the wreckage said the moment of discovery was "extraordinary".