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World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was a global conflict fought between two coalitions: the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting took place throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. One of the deadliest wars in history, it resulted in an estimated 9 million soldiers dead and 23 million wounded, plus another 5 million civilian deaths from various causes. Millions more died as a result of genocide, and the war was a major factor in the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
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SMS Helgoland c. 1911–1917
SMS Helgoland, the lead ship of her class, was a dreadnoughtbattleship of the German Imperial Navy. Helgoland's design represented an incremental improvement over the preceding Nassau class, including an increase in the bore diameter of the main guns, from 28 cm (11 in) to 30.5 cm (12 in). Her keel was laid down on 11 November 1908 at the Howaldtswerke shipyards in Kiel. Helgoland was launched on 25 September 1909 and was commissioned on 23 August 1911.
A veteran of World War I, Bostock first saw combat as a soldier in the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli, then as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front, where he earned the Belgian Croix de guerre. He joined the newly formed RAAF in 1921 and by 1941 had risen to become its third most senior officer, serving as Director of Training from 1930 to 1931, commanding officer of No. 3 Squadron from 1931 to 1936, and Director of Operations and Intelligence from 1938 to 1939.
The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff at the outbreak of World War II, Bostock was considered a leading candidate for the position of Chief of the Air Staff in 1942 but was passed over in favour of Air Commodore George Jones, a friend of twenty years. Appointed Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command soon after, Bostock became involved in a bitter and long-running dispute with Jones over control of the Air Force in the South West Pacific. Following his retirement from the RAAF in 1946, he became a journalist and later a Federal Member of Parliament. (Full article...)
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Herman Cyril McNeile, MC (28 September 1888 – 14 August 1937), commonly known as Cyril McNeile and publishing under the name H. C. McNeile or the pseudonym Sapper, was a British soldier and author. Drawing on his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, he started writing short stories and getting them published in the Daily Mail. As serving officers in the British Army were not permitted to publish under their own names, he was given the pen name "Sapper" by Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the Daily Mail; the nickname was based on that of his corps, the Royal Engineers.
After the war McNeile left the army and continued writing, although he changed from war stories to thrillers. In 1920 he published Bulldog Drummond, whose eponymous hero became his best-known creation. The character was based on McNeile himself, on his friend Gerard Fairlie and on English gentlemen generally. McNeile wrote ten Bulldog Drummond novels, as well as three plays and a screenplay.
McNeile interspersed his Drummond work with other novels and story collections that included two characters who appeared as protagonists in their own works, Jim Maitland and Ronald Standish. He was one of the most successful British popular authors of the inter-war period before his death in 1937 from throat cancer, which has been attributed to damage sustained from a gas attack in the war. (Full article...)
Between 1903 and 1907 Kearsarge served in the North Atlantic Fleet, and from 1907 to 1909 she sailed as part of the Great White Fleet. In 1909 she was decommissioned for modernization, which was finished in 1911. In 1915 she served in the Atlantic, and between 1916 and 1919 she served as a training ship. She was converted into a crane ship in 1920, renamed Crane Ship No. 1 in 1941, and sold for scrap in 1955. (Full article...)
Fusō was modernized in 1930–1935 and again in 1937–1941, with improvements to her armor and propulsion machinery and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style. With only 14-inch (356 mm) guns, she was outclassed by other Japanese battleships at the beginning of World War II, and played auxiliary roles for most of the war.
Fusō was part of Vice-AdmiralShōji Nishimura's Southern Force at the Battle of Leyte Gulf. She was sunk in the early hours of 25 October 1944 by torpedoes and naval gunfire during the Battle of Surigao Strait. Some reports claimed Fusō broke in half, and that both halves remained afloat and burning for an hour; according to survivors' accounts, however, the ship sank after 40 minutes of flooding and caught fire when her fuel bunkers spilled open. Of the few dozen crewmen who escaped, only 10 survived to return to Japan. (Full article...)
Orizaba made 15 transatlantic voyages for the navy carrying troops to and from Europe in World War I with the second-shortest average in-port turnaround time of all navy transports. The ship was turned over to the War Department in 1919 for use as army transport USAT Orizaba. After her service in World War I ended, Orizaba reverted to the Ward Line, her previous owners. The ship was briefly engaged in transatlantic service to Spain and then engaged in New York–Cuba–Mexico service until 1939, when the ship was chartered to United States Lines. While Orizaba was in her Ward Line service, American poet Hart Crane leapt to his death from the rear deck of the liner off Florida in April 1932.
In World War II the ship was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration and again assigned to the War Department as USAT Orizaba. After completing one voyage as an Army transport, the ship was transferred to the U.S. Navy, where she was re-commissioned as USS Orizaba (AP-24). The ship made several transatlantic runs, was damaged in an air attack in the Allied invasion of Sicily, and made trips to South America. The transport also served in the Pacific Theatre, making several transpacific voyages, and one to the Aleutians. (Full article...)
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The Royal Navy's revolutionary HMS Dreadnought, launched in 1906, gave its name to the type The dreadnought was the predominant type of battleship in the early 20th century. The first of the kind, the Royal Navy's HMS Dreadnought, had such an effect when launched in 1906 that similar battleships built after her were referred to as "dreadnoughts", and earlier battleships became known as pre-dreadnoughts. Her design had two revolutionary features: an "all-big-gun" armament scheme, with an unprecedented number of heavy-calibre guns, and steam turbine propulsion. As dreadnoughts became a crucial symbol of national power, the arrival of these new warships renewed the naval arms race between the United Kingdom and Germany. Dreadnought races sprang up around the world, including in South America, lasting up to the beginning of World War I. Successive designs increased rapidly in size and made use of improvements in armament, armour, and propulsion throughout the dreadnought era. Within five years, new battleships outclassed Dreadnought herself. These more powerful vessels were known as "super-dreadnoughts". Most of the original dreadnoughts were scrapped after the end of World War I under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, but many of the newer super-dreadnoughts continued serving throughout World War II.
Dreadnought-building consumed vast resources in the early 20th century, but there was only one battle between large dreadnought fleets. At the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the British and German navies clashed with no decisive result. The term "dreadnought" gradually dropped from use after World War I, especially after the Washington Naval Treaty, as virtually all remaining battleships shared dreadnought characteristics; it can also be used to describe battlecruisers, the other type of ship resulting from the dreadnought revolution. (Full article...)
The Battle of Katia, also known as the Affair of Qatia by the British, was an engagement fought east of the Suez Canal and north of El Ferdan Station, in the vicinity of Katia and Oghratina, on 23 April 1916 during the Defence of the Suez Canal Campaign of World War I. An Ottoman force led by the German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein made a surprise attack on three and a half squadrons of the British5th Mounted Brigade, which was widely scattered to the east of Romani. The mounted brigade had been ordered to the area to protect the new railway and water pipeline being built from Kantara on the Suez Canal, as this infrastructure extended out past the Canal's zone of defences into the Sinai Peninsula towards Romani. Kress Von Kressenstein's attack was completely successful, decimating the equivalent of little more than a regiment. On the same day, an associated Ottoman attack on Duidar, very close to the Suez Canal, failed when it met with strong British opposition.
Kress von Kressenstein's force had been active in the area since the First Suez Offensive of early 1915, when three columns attacked the Canal along the northern, central, and southern routes across the Sinai Peninsula. The growing Imperial strength made attacks on the Suez Canal difficult, and ended the dominance of the Ottoman force in the area. The Ottoman Empire's attacks on 23 April demonstrated their intention to continue opposing the British Empire in the region.
The 42 cm kurze Marinekanone L/12, or Gamma-Gerät ("Gamma Device"), was a German siege gun built by Krupp. The Gamma-Gerät's barrel diameter was 42 cm (17 in), making it one of the largest artillery pieces ever fielded. The Gamma-Gerät began development in 1906 and entered service with the Imperial German Army in 1911. The Gamma-Gerät was the most powerful piece of artillery fielded by the Imperial German Army, but due to its extreme weight was mostly immobile and could only be emplaced near permanent rail lines. As a result, the Gamma-Gerät had limited effectiveness on the Western and Eastern Fronts of World War I. (Full article...)
Joseph Maxwell, VC,MC & Bar,DCM (10 February 1896 – 6 July 1967) was an Australian soldier, writer, and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry "in the face of the enemy" that can be awarded to members of British and Commonwealth armed forces. Often described as Australia's second most decorated soldier of the First World War, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 8 February 1915, and served at Gallipoli before being transferred to the Western Front. In just over twelve months he was commissioned and decorated four times for his bravery.
An apprentice boilermaker before the war, Maxwell returned to Australia in 1919 and worked as a gardener. In 1932, he published Hell's Bells and Mademoiselles, a book written in collaboration with Hugh Buggy about his war experiences. Attempting to enlist for service during the Second World War, Maxwell was rejected on the grounds of his age before enlisting under an alias in Queensland; his identity was discovered, and after a short period in a training position, he sought discharge. In 1967, aged 71, he died of a heart attack. (Full article...)
Image 46A German prisoner helps British wounded make their way to a dressing station near Bernafay Wood following fighting on Bazentin Ridge, 19 July 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. (Original caption: "Five British and German walking wounded, injured in their arms and legs, on the way to a dressing station near Bernafay Wood.")
Image 52An early model British Mark I "male" tank, named C-15, near Thiepval, 25 September 1916. The tank is probably in reserve for the Battle of Thiepval Ridge which began on 26 September.
Image 54A Gotha G.II bomber. Only ten were built before the aircraft was withdrawn due to repeated engine failures, but it set the pattern for the Gotha G.III through G.V bombers, with 460 more built for the later marks.
Public domain photograph, original source unknown.
Bombardment of Samogneux • Götz von König de • Black Sea Campaign (World War I) • Battle of the Nete • Battle of Musalla • Battle of Qasr-i-Shirin • Battle of Qom • Battle of Hamadan • Occupation of Tabriz • Affair of Umm at Tubal • Battle of Namacurra • Makombe rebellion • Auguste Clément Gérôme • Konrad von Hippel • Hermann von Ziegesar • Josef Freiherr Roth von Limanowa-Lapanów • Adolf Freiherr von Rhemen zu Barenfels • Hugo Martiny von Malastów • Battle of Kyurdamir • Army Detachment Scheffer • Egon Graf von Schmettow • Army Group Boroević (currently a redirect) • Max Hofmann (general)
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