Lana uses her abilities to help spirits and humans. No strings attached, Download this FREE short story about her beginnings.
Doesn't keep email addresses or check for accuracy. If you put something@something.com, it should work. Your Privacy is Protected.
There’s a ton of information out there on the causes of WWI. Why you ask? Because there were so many reasons why this war started. Seems it had been simmering for many years before it actually took place. Two countries would have a conflict, they would have a conference, straightening it all out, and two more countries would be in a dispute over something totally different. Europe was pretty much at each others throats from 1871 until the war started in 1914.
Dangers of war constantly increased as the political, social and economic tensions carried the seeds, leading to the adoption by the nations of Europe of domestic measures and foreign polices. During the years of 1913 and 1914 almost all the nations of Europe spent great sums preparing for war.
The major most immediate cause of the war was the assassination of the Austrian Archduke, Francis Ferdinand, heir-presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Austro-Hungarian relations with Serbia were already strained and when the assassination occurred, Austria-Hungary blamed the Greater Serbian movement and they thought the only way to stop them from disrupting the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to suppress the movement. So they sent Serbia and ultimatum with ten different demands. At the urging of Great Britain and Russia, the Serbian government agreed to all but two. Austria-Hungary declared the Serbian reply unsatisfactory. Russia threatened Austria with mobilizing against them if they marched against Serbia. Germany rejected a proposal submitted on July 26th by Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign minister that a conference of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy be held to settle the dispute between Austria and Serbia.
Either Austria didn’t believe Russia would mobilize against them or they were prepared to take the chance in order to suppress the Greater Serbian movement, because on July 28th Austria declare war on Serbia. This led to a chain of events. Russia retaliated by partially mobilizing against Austria and Germany threatened war against Russia if they didn’t demobilize. But even though Austria agreed to discuss a possible modification of the demands to Serbia, Russia refused to disband. On August 1st Germany declared war on Russia.
On the same day, France began to mobilize, and on August 2nd German troops crossed Luxemburg and declared war on France August 3rd. But on August 2nd the German government informed Beligum that they planned to march through their country in order to attack France. Belgium refused to permit their passage, counting on signatories of the 1839 treaty that guaranteed them neutrality in case of a dispute between France, Great Britain, and Germany. On August 4th Great Britain issued an ultimatum to Germany for them to respect Belgium’s neutrality. Germany refused and declared war on Belgium the same day.
The war progressed and other countries were drawn into the conflict. Japan, in alliance with Great Britain since 1902, declared war on Germany on August 23rd. The Pact of London, signed by France, Russia and Great Britain in September of 1914 made the Allied unity stronger. Until May 23, 1915 Italy had remained neutral, but to satisfy claims against Austria they declared war against Austria, breaking with the Triple Alliance. The United States joined in the fight on April 6, 1917 by declaring war on Germany.
Here are some dates you may need to know about the crises foreshadowing the war.
Well, mates, in my opinion, what it boils down to are all these nations because of jealousy, and rivalry for economic, social, and political power spent huge sums of money to arm themselves to the hilt for protection against their neighbors who were also arming themselves. They thought it made great sense that if everyone owned powerful weapons that no one would declare war but they were wrong.
That’s familiar of today with all the Great Powers of the world generating nuclear weapons, thinking no one would be the first to push the button, thereby destroying themselves in the process. Let’s hope this time the powers that be are right.
Research material used: Universal Standard Encyclopedia, volume 25, copyright 1954 and 1955 by Wilfred Funk, Inc.
I keep asking myself how people communicated or learned of what was happening on the war front in the early 1900s (1914-1918) when there wasn’t television or radio.
Television wasn’t invented until the 1920s. In 1923 Vladimir Zevorykin (Russian but in the United States at the time) applied for electronic patent–invented the iconoscope and the electronic camera pickup tube. So television wasn’t a resource to civilians until long after the war had ended.
The first regular radio station wasn’t established until 1920 although Lee De Forest (1906), an American engineer (called “father of radio”), invented the three-element vacuum tube or triode. It enabled broadcast signals, such as
voice or music to be detected and amplified by a radio receiver. Also Edwin H. Armstrong, another pioneer in the development of radio, an electrical engineer and inventor devised the basic circuitry used in radio receivers and later introduced the frequency modulation (FM, system of static-free radio). Now there’s more than 10,000 radio stations in the United Stated, but still radio wasn’t an immediate resource for civilians during the First World War.
So what do we have left? Letters, telegraph, telephone and newspapers were the only possible means of communication during this time.
Letters from home kept the soldiers apprised of what happened back home, but did their letters inform the civilians of what took place on the battleground. Somewhat maybe they did. Letters could take months to get to loved ones. The next few sentences are only speculation on my part and from reading some correspondence between a World War II soldier and his family posted online in “Private Art.” The actions of soldiers wouldn’t be much different during this earlier war. I think on the most part, soldiers wouldn’t tell their loved ones everything. They wouldn’t want them to worry about their welfare. The only letter I read on the “Private Art Homepage” only mentioned one thing about the fighting, and that was the destruction he found when he first arrived in France. So where does that leave the civilians?
How did they know what was happening?
An instrument for sending and receiving code signals through space by means of electromagnetic (or radio) waves. Guglielmo Marcoroni, an Italian scientist in 1896 perfected the wireless telegraph. This enabled transmission from ship to ship, ship to shore and transoceanic communication without the use of cables. In 1902 an American physicist, Reginald A Fessenden showed that voice messages could also be broadcasted via radio waves. Another opinion here: However this still didn’t give civilians knowledge of war activities or enable communication with loved ones unless it was a dire emergency. This device more than likely was saved for the delivery commands to troops and from spies to
their officers on what enemy movements took place.
Although the first telephone was publicly exhibited for the fist time at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, world wide telephone service didn’t become a reality until the second half of the 20th century. So this wasn’t much help to civilians either.
In my opinion this was the place where civilians got the most information. Journalist were sent to rub elbows with the troops, to learn all they could about the war and the condition in order to inform Americans of the wins and loses as well as the destruction of Europe. Ernest Hemingway I thought was one of those journalist, but I was wrong. Hemingway was a correspondent in other wars after this period and it seems some of his stories and books were written about war times.
Here’s a little information on Hemingway. 1917 – Graduates high school; reporter for the Kansas City Star. 1918 – World War I ambulance driver for the American Red Cross; wounded on July 8 on the Italian front near Fossalta di Piave; had an affair with nurse Agnes von Kurowsky 1920 – reporter for Toronto Star 1921 – married to Hadley Richardson; moves to Paris, France on Sherwood Anderson’advice 1922 – correspondent for Toronto Star covering Greco-Turkish War 1923 – Three Stories and Ten Poems published by Robert McAlmon in Paris; birth of son John. I’m not saying that in 1917 he wasn’t a correspondent for the Kansas City Star, but if he was there was no mention of it.
One journalist who wrote articles about the war lived in Mansfield, Missouri. Her name was Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the famous “Little House” books. Like many other Americans, she felt a strong sense of moral outrage about the war, particularly against Germany who was guilty of many moral wrongs in the eyes of Laura. Then when America declared war, war took precedence over farm work which was the articles she usually wrote. Her articles were Published in the Missouri Ruralist. She talks about the war and its effects on farmers, Mansfield, America and the world.
Titles of the articles she wrote were: Victory May Depend on You (February 20, 1918), What the War Means to Women (May 5, 1918), How About the Home Front? (May 20,1918), Are you Helping or Hindering? (July 5, 1918), Keep the Saving Habit (March 20, 1919), Who’ll Do the Women’s Work? (April 5, 1919). So where did Laura get her information? Probably from other newspapers and journalist. She wrote about how the war affected us and what we could do to help as American Citizens. Her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane was also a journalist during this period.
Rose accepted a job at the San Francisco Bulletin in January, 1915, working on their recently created women’s page. She wrote serial stories and fluff columns for the Bulletin When Fremont Older, editor challenged her to do better, Rose’s occupation as a serious reporter and writer began.
Between 1915 and the 1940s Rose sold many stories and articles to major magazines such as: Sunset, Ladies Home Journal, Harper’s Monthly, Asia, Country Gentleman, and Saturday Evening Post.
It wasn’t until after the war, she traveled to France, working for the American Red Cross. Rose reported and wrote about the conditions in war-tattered countries.
But overall, these ladies weren’t war correspondents. I found one man who was, Randolph Bourne 1886-1918. Here are some of his quotes about the war.
“We of the middle classes will be progressively poorer than we should otherwise have been. Our lives will be slowly drained by clumsily levied taxes and the robberies of imperfectly controlled private enterprises. But this will not cause us to revolt. There are not likely to be enough hungry stomachs to make a revolution. The materials
seem generally absent from the country, and as long as a government wants to use the war-technique in its realization of great ideas, it can count serenely on the human resources of the country, regardless of popular mandate or understanding . . . We are learning that war doesn’t need enthusiasm, doesn’t need conviction, doesn’t need hope, to sustain it. Once maneuvered, it takes care of itself, provided only that our industrial rulers see that the end of the war will leave American capital in a strategic position for world-enterprise.” A War Diary, The Seven Arts, Sept. 1917
“Country is a concept of peace, of tolerance, of living and letting live. But State is essentially a concept of power, of competition; it signifies a group in its aggressive aspects. And we have the misfortune of being born not only into a
country but into a State, and as we grow up we learn to mingle the two feelings into a hopeless confusion . . . ”
and–
War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense…the nation in war-time attains a uniformity of feeling, a hierarchy of values culminating at the undisputed apex of the State ideal, which could not possibly be produced through any other agency than war . . . The State is intimately connected with war, for it is the organization of the collective community when it acts in a political manner, and to act in a political manner towards a rival group has meant, throughout all history – war . . .
The last two paragraphs are a couple of quotations from the first draft of an essay, “The State”, left unfinished by Bourne at the time of his death. The quotations can now be found in the Bourne MSS, Columbia University Libraries.
Online Sources
Private Art, http://www.private-art.com – Letters of WW2 soldier
Telephone, Telegraph & Radio Sources:
Rural Telephone Co-ops, http://www.ncb.com/day/a10a.htm
Early Telephone Companies, http://www.cobleskill.edu/schools/mcs/csbest/phone2.htm
Alexander Graham Bell’s Path to the Telephone http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu/albell/introduction.html
History of Telecommunications from 1874-1930 http://www-stall.rz.fht-esslingen.de/telehistory/1870-.htm
A History of the Telephone http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/Geo666/flammger/tele2.html
Television History http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~robinson/j201/Tv.html
Ernest Hemingway http://rio.atlantic.net/~gagne/hem/hemlinks.html
Ernest Hemingway’s Timeline http://rio.atlantic.net/~gagne/hem/time.html
Rose Wilder Lane http://webpages.marshall.edu/~irby7/rose.html
Randolph Bourne 1886-1918 http://www.bigeye.com/rbourne.htm
Randolph Bourne Quotations http://www.bigeye.com/rbquotes.htm
“I Remember Laura – Laura Ingalls Wilder,” by Stephen W. Hines, copyright 1994 by Stephen W. Hines
“A Ghost In The Little House,” by William Hotz, copyright 1993 by The Curators of the University of Missouri
“US History Review Text,” by Paul M. Roberts, copyright 1998, 1996, 1993, 1989 by Amsco School Publications, Inc.
The planes of the WWI era, often its appearance didn’t fit its performance. One example is the British S.E.5a. This aircraft was awkward looking, boxy; yet it was rugged and fast, one of the best fighter planes of the war.
France’s Nieuport 28 in comparison was a good-looking and sleek plane, sleek and pleasing to the eye. By appearance it seemed a good plane but in truth it was unreliable. During steep dives, the Nieuport 28s tended to shed their wing fabric. This is only one of the aircraft’s problems.
On the other hand, some of the plane’s appearances and potential matched excellently. A perfect example of this is the Austro-Hungarian Hansa-Bradenburg D.I. Pilots nicknamed the plane “coffin.” It flew like it looked, freaky.
Hurting badly in 1918, Germany’s air force hadn’t been ahead in air fights since Spring of 1917. They lacked premium engines. The Allies used Hispano-Suiza, a 200hp V-8 verses the German’s 160hp Mercedes. Finally the Germans received the improved engine they awaited in the Spring of 1918, the 185hp straight-6 BMW. The success of Fokker D.VII. could be credited to this powerful engine, although it proved too little, too late.
Many think Max Immelmann constructed the “Immelmann Turn”, although the link between the aerial maneuver and the German may have been instituted by a journalist. Wherever it came from, during WWI, pilots used it to either attack or get out of the way of an attack.
The Immelmann Turn started with a dive to get the thrust to carry them to the next step. The pilot then yanked abruptly on the joystick to boot the plane into a precipitous arcing ascend with a roll. This guaranteed the plane, when it reached the top of the loop would be right-side-up.
Once the pilot achieved the turn, he had two options. He could escape a fight by enjoying his height prevalence, continuing to fly straight or dive and follow the loop through while rolling.
Once a pilot found an enemy fighter on his tail, the pilot of the front plane could shake off his attacker by doing the Immelmann maneuver. On the other hand, if the pursuing pilot dived on a target, overshooting it, his next action would be to use the Immelmann turn to give himself another shot.
Three major roles were defined for aircraft during the First World War: reconnaissance, bombing and fighting. Airplanes were used first for aerial scouts–spying on the enemy from the air and learning their secrets. At first the scouts ignored their enemy numbers, then began shooting at them with rifles and eventually with machine guns. Soon they began dropping hand grenades from their planes. Promptly an aircraft was designed for each need: reconnaissance planes some armed for defense; fighter planes, exclusively designed for shooting down other planes; and bombers carried more immense loads of explosives. Much of what we know and learn today about warbirds came from the fundamental experiences of the pilots of the First World War.
Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first powered, controlled flight in 1903. After that, the military acclaimed the possibilities of airplanes and the US Army bought their Model A biplane for $30,000 in 1909.
Observation balloon’s importance was already confirmed and the airplanes frankly appeared more maneuverable as observation platforms. The first experiments of dropping dummy bombs were accomplished in 1910 and a patent was granted for an aircraft gun mount that same year. In 1911 hand grenades were dropped from airplanes and pistol shots were fired from one plane to another in 1913. These were only isolated events that happened during peacetime, as research, I suppose.
Prior to the First World War records of speed and endurance were broken rapidly. With each passing year they grew greater.
All the combatants sent reconnaissance airplanes out to watch each others troops movements and detected their artillery at the beginning of World War I. The pilots on each side would in fact fly by each other and wave. They felt they were fellow aviators and above the combat taking place below their wings. Of course this camaraderie did not last.
It’s unknown as to who fired the first shots, but soon these scouts carried rifles in their planes. A French scout shot down a German scout with a machine gun that had been mounted to his observer’s station on October 14, 1914. Then a new class of plane came into existence, the fighter warplane.
The first strategic bombing raid was instituted in November of 1914 against Zeppelin hangers. The dropping of hand grenades over the side hastily changed to dropping hundreds, then thousands of pounds of explosives from the bomb bays and wing racks.
During WWI, the race between nations for the first and best technology began. The Allies held the record for a time when Roland Garros equipped reflection plates to the propeller of his Morane-Saulnier which enabled him to fire a
machine gun through its arc. Though the Germans then developed a system of synchronizing machine guns to fire rhythmically through the arc. The Allies followed suit by fashioning their own synchronize, fitting it onto aircraft such as the S.E.5, Sopwith Camel, and SPAD. Then Germans’ planes were the Fokker Dr. 1, the Fokker DVII and the Albatros.
Aircraft in WWI showed what could happen, although air power proved inconsequential and had no real affect on the outcome of the war. They could spy movements of soldiers on the ground and attack bombers could make life
deplorable for ground troops. Terror was brought to civilians by heavy bombers. The design and technology of airplanes leapt ahead during the war and laid the foundation for the aerial armadas of the Second World War.
This aircraft confirmed to be the better fighter plane than the more heavily armed German fighters of that time. Its single wing-mounted machine gun could be swiveled upward by the pilot, enabling it ideal for shooting downward at the surprised aircraft beneath it. With its top speed of 138 mph it could climb as high as 19,500 feet and dive magnificently. The S.E.5a was one of the fastest fighters during WWI.
A 1917 plane, single-engine biplane fighter, manufactured by the Royal Aircraft Factory in Britain. Engine, one 200hp Wolseley W4 Viper liquid–cooled eight cylinder in-line V. It’s range/endurance was two hours and thirty minutes. It had a wingspan of twenty-six feet, seven inches; length of twenty feet, eleven inches and weighed one-thousand, nine-hundred and forty pounds.
The successor of the Nieuport 11 “Bebe”, the Nieuport 17 was bigger, heavier, better-armed and faster, a swift climber. It was favored by the most famous aces of WWI, Navarre, Fonck, Guynemer, Nungesser, Bishop and Ball. Flying of this machine, required caution and experience because of its tendency to shed its wings during a step dive. The arrival of the SPAD eclipsed the Nieuport 17’s popularity.
In 1916, the Nieuport 17 was a single-engine biplane fighter with an engine of one 110-hp Le Rhone air-cooled rotary, speeds reaching 110 mph at 6,560 ft. Its range/endurance was two hours. It was armed with one machine gun; carried a crew of one; and had a wingspan of twenty-six feet, ten inches; a length of eighteen feet, eleven inches and weighed one-thousand, two-hundred and forty-six pounds.
It got its nickname from the hump-like fairing that covered its twin machine guns. In trained hands the Camel was deadly in aerial combat although it was arduous to fly. Its rotary engines were powerful and full of torque. This was the first British plane to carry twin machine guns that was belt-fed, eliminating the need for changing magazines. The Camel proved remarkably maneuverable. Manfred von Richthfen’s Fokker Triplane was shot down by Captain Roy Brown, flying a Camel.
In 1917, the Sopwith Camel F.1 was a single-engine biplane fighter, manufactured by Sopwith Aviation Co., Ltd. in Britain.
It had one 130-hp Clerget air-colled 9-cylinder rotary engine which allowed speeds of 115 mph at 6,500 feet. The Camel’s range/endurance was two hours and thirty minutes. It carried two machine gun and a crew of one. The wingspan spread to twenty-eight feet with a length of eighteen feet, nine inches and a weight of one-thousand four-hundred and fifty-three pounds.
Probably the most famous fighter of WWI, the SPAD is associated by most American minds with Eddie Rickenbacker and the “Hat in the Ring” squadron, though many French aces also loved and flew the SPAD. It had a high velocity of climb and the stamina of its construction that enabled it to dive steeply without loosing its wings.(Most biplanes would fold and plummet to the ground if they were dove too fast and steep.) The plane was fast for its day and didn’t handle well under low speeds, requiring it to be landed under power and it dropped like a brick if its engine switched off.”
In 1917, a single-engine biplane fighter that was manufactured by S.P.A.D. (Sociere Anonyme Pour l’Aviation et ses Derives) in France. It’s engine was one 235-hp Hispano-Suiza liquid-cooled 8-cylinder in-line V with speeds of 119 mph and a range/endurance of two hours. The SPAD carried one crew member and two machine guns. The wingspan spread to twenty-six feet and eleven inches with its length being twenty feet and eight inches. It weighed one-thousand, eight-hundred and one pounds.
The Fokker D. VII, unremarkable in appearance and the best-performing, best all-around German fighter during the First World War. It had sturdiness, maneuverability, good speed, extraordinary rate of climb and its performance at high-altitudes was remarkable. Hanging on its propeller at a forty-five degree angle, it was still fully flyable, enabling it to shoot upward into an enemy’s belly. The plane was tolerant of beginner’s mistakes and was respected by its adversaries. Evidence of this came at the end of the war when the victorious Allies named it in the terms of the Armistice as a war weapon that had to be handed over.
In 1918, a single-engine biplane fighter, manufactured by Fokker Flugzeug-Werke GmbH in Germany. It had a wingspan of twenty-nine feet, three inches; a length of nine feet, two inches and weighed one-thousand, eight-hundred and seventy pounds. Carrying a crew of one with a range/endurance of one hour and thirty minutes, it
had two machine guns. The engine was one 160-hp Mercedes D III liquid-cooled in-line 6 cylinder.
With only three wings but an airfoil between the wheels of its landing gear, the Dr.1’s lifting area allowed it to climb and out-turn any Allied aircraft. The plane wasn’t very fast but its superior maneuverability allowed it to evade pursuit.
There was only one way it could be outdone and that was by its opponent diving on it and striking before the pilot had time to take evasive action. The Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen popularized the Dr.1. The Dr.1 is second only to the Fokker D. VII as the best remembered German plane of WWI.
The Dr.1, in 1917 had a wingspan of twenty-three feet, seven inch; a length of eighteen feet, eleven inches and weighed one- thousand two-hundred eighty-nine pounds. It was a single-engine fighter triplane manufactured in Germany by Fokker Flugzeug-Serke GmbH. The engine, one 110-hp Thulin-built Le Rhone 9J air-cooled 9-cylinder rotary with a speed of 103 mph at 13,123 feet. Its range/endurance was one hour and thirty minutes. The Dr.1 carried one crew
member and two machine guns.
That’s just a few.
“Planes”, http://www2.eos.net/speed/homepage.htm
“Warbirds Arts and Letter” CD Rom