Transcript World war 1
WORLD WAR 1 RANDOM FACTS 1.French Second Lieutenant Alfred Joubaire wrote in his diary about WWI just before he died that “Humanity is mad! It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre. What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible! Men are mad! 2. Some Americans disagreed with the United States’ initial refusal to enter WWI and so they joined the French Foreign Legion or the British or Canadian army. A group of U.S. pilots formed the Lafayette Escadrille, which was part of the French air force and became one of the top fighting units on the Western Front. 3. Margaretha Zelle (1876-1917), also known as Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer accused of being a double agent. Though she always denied being a spy, the French executed her in 1917 MORE RANDOM FACTS 4. WWI was the catalyst that transformed Russia into the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). It was the creation of the world’s first communist state and ushered in a new phase in world history. Historians note that this was the most startling and important consequence of WWI. 5. After WWI, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland emerged as independent nations. 6. Post-WWI literature includes T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1923), Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, and Wilfred Owen’s tragic poem, “Anthem for Doomed Youth.”d 10 BLOODIEST BATTLES OF WORLD WAR 1 Battle Total Casualties 1. Hundred Day Offensive 1,855,369 2. Spring Offensive 1,539,715 3. Battle of the Somme 1,219,201 4. Battle of Verdun 976,000 5. Battle of Passchendaele 848,614 6. Serbian Campaign 633,500 7. First Battle of Marnes 483,000 8. Battle of Gallipoli 473,000 9. Battle of Arras 278,000 10. Battle of Tannenberg 182,000 REFRENCES Adams, Simon. 2007. World War I (DK Eyewitness Books). New York, NY: DK Publishing. a Feldman, Ruth Tenzer. 2004. World War I (Chronicles of America’s Wars). Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company. b Hamilton, John C. 2004. Weapons of World War I. Edina, MN: ABDO Publishing Company. c Ross, Stewart. 1998. Causes and Consequences of World War I. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn. d Taylor, David. 2001. Key Battles of World War I. Chicago, IL: Heinemann Library. e Turner, Jason. 2008. World War I: 1914-1918 (Wars Day by Day). Mankato, MN: Brown Bear Books. f Vander Hook, Sue. 2010. The United States Enters World War I. North Mankato, MN: ABDO Publishing Company. g h Wilmott, H. P. 2003. WW I. New York, NY: Dorling Kindersley MORE FACTS!!!!!!!!!! Herbert Hoover, who would become president in 1929, was appointed U.S. Food Administrator. His job was to provide food to the U.S. army and its allies. He encouraged people to plant “Victory Gardens,” or personal gardens. More than 20 million Americans planted their own gardens, and food consumption in the U.S decreased by 15%.f “Victory Gardens” were also called “War Gardens Done cody by