6 surprising foods people ate on the homefront of World War I
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, it was the first time since the Civil War that the fight really required everyone, military and civilian alike,…
How tanks used to be assigned a gender at birth
Tanks were first developed during World War I so armies could advance across no man’s land without getting tripped up by barbed wire and getting machine gunned into oblivion. It…
That time Russian troops repelled Germans with just their mangled faces
Built in the 19th century, the Osowiec Fortress was constructed by the Russian Empire in what is now eastern Poland as a way to defend its borders against the Germans.
On September 1914, German forces turned their attention to the fortres…
That time ocean liners fought an old-time naval battle
It was a classic naval deception move. In 1914, just after the outbreak of WWI, the German navy cruiser Cap Trafalgar hid its figure and flew under a false flag, pretending to be the British armed merchant HMS Carmania. The goal was to lay in wait f…
Today in military history: World War I ends
On Nov. 11, 1918, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, World War I came to an end. Known only as the Great War at…
Why Trench Raiders were the scariest enemies of World War I
Complacency kills and even soldiers in the trenches of World War I knew it. Despite the huge chasm between the lines, the killing fields known as “No Man’s Land,” Entente…
One woman wrote 25,000 letters for wounded soldiers who couldn’t
In 1917, the horrors of World War I were something entirely new to the world. “The War to End All Wars” inflicted horrible casualties and painful deaths in a way no one had ever seen before in the history of warfare. Mechanized vehicles, poison ga…
A fake smokestack made this German ship an unstoppable predator
The SMS Emden was supposed to be a nice ship, but not all that crazy important in war. It was a light cruiser, a utilitarian ship type that is quick, capable, but not all that robust or rugged. These ships are typically designed for low-lev…
8 haunting photos from an abandoned Air Force Base
There is one acronym no commander wants to hear. The very hint of this process-who-must-not-be-named drives generals, congressmen, and entire communities to the edge of panic: BRAC.
The Base Realignment and Closure process started in 1988…
A panoramic look at how US troops prepared for World War I
In a section of the National Archives dedicated to historic panoramic photos, there’s an odd selection of wide images that show the troops and trainees who would soon deploy to France as America joined World War I. (Panoramics are obviously wide ph…