24 Interesting world war 1 facts

Ocean liner Olympic, a copy of Titanic, was the only merchant ship in the war to sink an enemy warship. She rammed a German U-boat. Tweet This

In the Battle of Doiran, Allies shelled Bulgarian positions with over 500,000 explosive and gas shells and, despite their huge advantage in firepower and manpower, they lost the battle. Tweet This

In U.K., more than 1 million joined the armed forces voluntarily by the end of 1914, totalling 2.5 million by end-1915. Tweet This

In Britain conscription was only introduced on two occasions – during the two World Wars.  Tweet This

Conscription started in 1916; targeting single men aged 18-41. Few months later, married men were also summoned. Tweet This

12 million letters were delivered to the front every week from U.K. By the end of the war, two billion letters and 115 million parcels were transported. Tweet This

Women, employed in TNT production, had yellow skin and were called ‘canaries’. Tweet This

The youngest British soldier was only 12 years old. Tweet This

Blood banks were developed by a US Army doctor, Captain Oswald Robertson. He used sodium citrate to prevent blood coagulation. Tweet This

Some ships were covered in bold shapes and strong contrasts of colour. Quite the opposite of normal camouflage, dazzle camouflage was meant to confuse the enemy rather than conceal the ships. Tweet This

Russia had the largest army in the war, mobilising 12 million. Staggering 80% of them were killed, wounded, or missing in action. Tweet This

During WWI, dogs were used as messengers, as sentries and to lay down telegraph wires. More than 1 million dogs died on WWI battlefields. Tweet This

Big Bertha was a German 48-ton howitzer, which could fire 2,100 lb (almost 1 ton) shells to a distance of 9.3 miles (15 km). It had a crew of 200 men. Tweet This

The Eiffel Tower was used to intercept German radio messages. Some of them led to the execution of Margaretha Zelle a.k.a. Mata Hari. Tweet This

In 1917, British deciphered message from Germany to German Embassy in Mexico. The wire encouraged Mexico to invade U.S.A. Tweet This

Woodrow Wilson’s campaign slogan for his second term was “He kept us out of war“. Months later, on 6 April 1917, U.S. declared war on Germany. Tweet This

During WWI, the Germans, British and French released 130,000 ton of gas. Total of 1,200,000 soldiers were gassed and literally decimated. Tweet This

Initially, the only effective protection against gas attacks was a cloth soaked in human urine. Tweet This

Adolf Hitler was determined not to use poison gas on the battlefield in WWII because he suffered from gas attack himself during WWI. Tweet This

Hitler used to have a normal-sized moustache, but he was ordered to trim it down in order to better accommodate a gas mask. Tweet This

The Maxim machine guns weighed about 100 pounds (45 kg) and were water cooled. They fired up to 600 rounds per minute. Tweet This

“Hello Girls” were women, fluent in French and English, who served as telephone operators for U.S. forces in Europe. In 1979, the U.S. Army gave medals and veteran benefits to those of them still alive. Tweet This

During WWI, U.S. schools stopped teaching German (second most widely spoken language nationwide), and German books were burned. Tweet This

American hamburgers became Salisbury steak; Frankfurters – liberty sausages, sauerkraut – liberty cabbage and dachshunds – liberty dogs. Tweet This