#the great war

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Canadian soldiers in a reserve trench, during the battle of the Somme, watch shrapnel bursts above t

Canadian soldiers in a reserve trench, during the battle of the Somme, watch shrapnel bursts above them. 

Original image source: Library and Archives Canada


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Meet the bird that captured the heart of this Canadian soldier… and maybe some of his things.

The four photographs below show a jackdaw who was found sometime during the Battle of the Somme. It became the mascot of this Canadian Army Service Corp despite the fact that he was a bit of thief and “continually stealing” from them. The pictures below were taken in March, 1917.

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Photographs:1,2,3,4 from the Canadian Library and Archives.

Looking for more photographs of animals at war? Check out the Atlantic’sphoto series on the very topic.



Taking a break from colourizing, GWIC Takes Five is a feature which brings to you primary source material from the First World War. Whether it be postcards, posters, or letters. To see more, track the tag GWIC Takes Five.

Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Nation, pictured at the burial of the Unknown Soldier.  The sarcophagus familiar to modern visitors was not completed until 1931.

November 11 1921, Arlington–On Armistice Day 1920, the United Kingdom and France had both buried unknown soldiers in places of honor–the former in Westminster Abbey, the latter under the Arc de Triomphe.  In 1921, the United States followed suit.  An unknown soldier was transported back across the Atlantic from France, where he laid in state in the Capitol rotunda for two days.  On Armistice Day, the same day that the peace treaty with Germany would finally enter into effect, the casket was at the front of a procession down Pennsylvania Avenue as far as the White House, followed on foot by President Harding and General Pershing.  

Wilson in a carriage at the end of the procession down Pennsylvania Avenue.

At the end of the procession were Woodrow and Edith Wilson in a rented carriage.  The New York World wrote that the “pale face of the man who gave his health and strength to uphold the same ideals for which the Unknown Soldier died seemingly unleashed the pent-up emotions of the watchers.”  Wilson did not continue on to Arlington, due to a combination of his health concerns preventing him from climbing the stairs at the amphitheater there, and Harding’s desire not to be upstaged by his predecessor.

General Jacques of Belgium, General Diaz of Italy, Marshal Foch of France, General Pershing of the United States, and Admiral Beatty of the United Kingdom, pictures at the dedication of the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City on November 1.

At the service in Arlington, President Harding gave a brief speech.  He was followed by General Jacques of Belgium, Admiral Beatty (who presented the Unknown Soldier with the Victoria Cross), Marshal Foch, and General Diaz.  The four military men were at the end of a tour of the United States, along with General Pershing, which also included the groundbreaking of the Liberty Memorial (now the National World War I Memorial) in Kansas City on November 1.  Also in attendance were a large number of foreign civilian notables, among them Arthur Balfour and French PM Briand, who were in Washington for the start of the Washington Naval Conference on arms limitation the next day.

The burial service ended with a brief statement by Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow Nation, the sounding of “Taps” on a bugle, and a twenty-one gun salute.

Sources include: Patricia O’Toole, The Moralist (includes image credit for the picture of Wilson).

A massive crowd rallies outside the former Royal Palace and the Kaiser Wilhelm Monument, expressing their support for the Republic.  Both structures were demolished by the East German government after World War II, though a reconstruction of the palace was completed in 2020.

August 31 1921, BiberachMatthias Erzberger, leading advocate of peace since July 1917 and signer of the Armistice, quickly became a bête noire to the German right, who viewed him as a traitor.  By 1921, he had retreated to the backbenches of the Reichstag.  Organisation Consul, a violently anti-Semitic and ultranationalist terror group formed after the dissolution of the Ehrhardtbrigade (the main force behind last year’s Kapp Putsch), assassinated Erzberger on August 26.  The two assassins escaped Germany and would not stand trial until after World War II.

His funeral, on August 31, became a political rally for his Zentrumparty; the keynote speaker was his long-time ally, Chancellor Joseph Wirth.  In Berlin, over 100,000 workers, mostly members of the SDP and other left-wing parties, demonstrated in support of the fragile German Republic.

August 25 1921, Berlin–Republican objections to the League of Nations had prevented American ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, and Harding’s election to the presidency in 1920 sealed its fate.  This, however, left the United States still officially at war with Germany.  On July 2, 1921 the United States officially declared that the state of war with Germany, Austria, and Hungary was over, but a formal peace treaty still needed to be signed.  This came on August 25, with a brief treaty signed in Berlin.  This effectively was the United States ratifying the Treaty of Versailles with extreme reservations:

  • The United States would not join the League of Nations or the International Labour Organization.
  • The United States would not concern itself with Germany’s borders or other strictly European matters agreed to in the treaty.
  • The United States did not recognize the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles considering German concerns outside Europe (apart from the surrendering of her colonies); in particular, this included the handover of Shantung to the Japanese.
  • The United States would not attempt to conduct war crimes trials of the Kaiser or other German war criminals.
  • The United States would not join the International Labour Organization.
  • The United States would not be compelled to participate in any commission called for by the Treaty of Versailles.

In the same week, similar treaties were signed with Austria and Hungary; the United States never declared war on Bulgaria or the Ottoman Empire.

General Silvestre pictured in 1921, before his death, along with much of his army, at Annual.

July 22 1921, Annual–Spain had received a protectorate over portions of northern Morocco in 1912, but had not consolidated their power in the mountainous Rif, away from their strongholds in Ceuta and Melilla.  Many in Spain were opposed to colonial adventures in Morocco, and the First World War may have postponed Spanish action there, both due to economic hardship caused by the war and perhaps by uncertainty over Morocco’s status should Germany win the war.  However, by 1920, with Allied victory secure, King Alfonso XIII pushed for a Spanish military conquest of the region.

However, Spain would face severe opposition in the Rif, led primarily by Abd el-Krim, who had been imprisoned during the war for alleged pro-German intrigues.  The limited Spanish presence in the east outside Melilla was confined to blockhouses with limited ability to support each other and with unreliable water supplies.  Abd el-Krim’s men seized an outlying blockhouse and laid siege to another at Igueriben.  Spanish General Silvestre brought a relief expedition to the larger fort at Annual, arriving on July 21.  Igueriben fell that night, and the Rifians then surrounded Annual.  Silvestre finally realized that he had overextended his forces, and on the morning of the 22nd ordered an immediate evacuation and retreat back to the east.  However, the retreat almost immediately turned into a rout, and the Rifians, despite being numerically weaker than the Spanish, killed or captured at least 90% of the Spanish forces. Silvestre was killed in or committed suicide during the battle.

In the coming weeks, the Rifians overran most of the Spanish positions outside Melilla, killing at least 13,000 Spanish soldiers.  The “Disaster of Annual” launched Spain into an immediately unpopular war in Morocco, and much of the blame was placed on King Alfonso.  Abd el-Krim, in the meantime, was able to declare an independent Republic of the Rif in September.

July 11 1921, London–The Sinn Féin sweep of the Southern Irish elections, winning every seat unopposed except the ones associated with Trinity College, put a deadline on British efforts in Ireland.  A Southern Irish government was, by the terms of the Government of Ireland Act 1920, to be established no later than July 12.  Sinn Féin, following its usual abstentionist policies, would not take their seats in any Southern Irish parliament, leaving the British forced to either impose military rule on all of Southern Ireland, or reach a negotiated settlement with Sinn Féin.  The former was never seriously considered, so it became a question of finding an agreeable basis for negotiations with the Irish.

At the opening of the Northern Irish parliament on June 22, King George gave a conciliatory speech.  In the meantime, Jan Smuts, who had recently arrived from South Africa for a conference, began his own negotiations through Tom Casement (brother of the late Roger), and both agreed that a peaceful solution could be found which did not involve British recognition of an Irish Republic.  Casement and Smuts arranged the release of additional negotiators, and a truce was agreed to on July 9, entering into effect on July 11.  The terms were slightly unclear, with the Irish and British ultimately publishing different versions, but both sides would stop attacks and raids, and the British would cease military maneuvers and searches.

The truce came as something of a surprise to many in the IRA, and it would attract some criticism from those who felt they could beat the British without making concessions regarding Ireland’s political future.  British criticism of the truce was more muted, as it was clear the only alternative was a military occupation of the whole island that nobody was in favor of after nearly seven years of war.

Sources include: Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence

Greenwood destroyed.

June 1 1921, Tulsa–White mob violence against black communities had abated nationwide since the Red Summer of 1919, but the threat was still ever-present and materialized once again at the end of May 1921 in Tulsa.

On Memorial Day, May 30, a 19 year-old black shoeshiner, Dick Rowland, entered the elevator operated by 17-year-old white Sarah Page, on his way to use the segregated bathroom on the top floor of the building.  A clerk in a nearby store heard a scream, saw Rowland running from the building, and called the police.  Page denied an assault had taken place, did not want to press charges, and said that Rowland had done nothing beyond grabbing her arm.  It has been speculated that Rowland tripped as he entered the elevator, and grabbed onto a shocked Page as he fell, before understandably fleeing the scene, knowing the likely fate of a black man found alone with a screaming white woman.

Roland was arrested the next morning, and was taken to the city jail, and then to a more secure location at the top of the Tulsa County Courthouse to protect him from a possible lynching.  The afternoon edition of the Tulsa Tribune reported the story under the headline “Nab Negro for Attacking Girl In an Elevator,” and a now-missing editorial discussed (and perhaps called for) Rowland’s potential lynching.  By sunset, a white crowd of several hundred had gathered outside the courthouse.

Two hours later, a few dozen black World War I veterans arrived from the Greenwood neighborhood with guns to help defend the courthouse from a lynch mob.  Some of the mob went to secure arms of their own; the National Guard did prevented them from raiding the armory, but many others retrieved their own guns from their houses.  After 10 PM, another group arrived from Greenwood to offer additional defense for the courthouse.  Gunfire soon broke out; the black men retreated towards Greenwood, while the white mob pursued and looted stores for more guns and ammunition.  The National Guard units in the area defended the courthouse, the armory, and a few other buildings, along with detaining a number of black Tulsa residents, but did not take any action against the rioting white population.

Gunfire continued through the night, along with the occasional automobile raid into Greenwood.  At around 1 AM, fires were set in black businesses at the southern end of Greenwood; fire fighters were kept away by force.  After sunrise, large numbers of armed white men moved into Greenwood, supported from the air by at least one plane.  A handful of the rioters were killed by black defenders, but the neighborhood was quickly overwhelmed; many were able to flee to the north, but several thousand were detained.

Martial law was declared shortly before noon, and the rioting stopped within minutes, though the fires continued.  Greenwood was destroyed, and up to 300 Tulsa residents, the vast majority black, were killed.  None of the perpetrators were convicted of any crimes; the police chief was dismissed later in the summer and imprisoned on unrelated charges.  Dick Rowland was released in September, the charges against him dropped.

Fascist Violence in Bolzano

April 24 1921, Bolzano—Despite firm prohibitions from the Allies on Austria joining Germany, the idea remained quite popular there. On April 24, despite no official recognition from the Austrian government (let alone the Allies), the portions of Tyrol remaining in Austria held a plebiscite on becoming part of Germany, and the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the idea. Nothing would become of this (nor a similar vote in Salzburg in May) until the 1938 Anschluss.

South Tyrol, on the other hand, was now part of Italy, despite a majority-German population. They did not take part in the plebiscite, but Italian fascists saw the opening of the Bolzano Spring Fair that same day, complete with a parade in traditional German costumes, as part of the same movement. On that morning, local fascists joined with others who arrived by train and attacked the parade, killing one and injuring fifty. Only two fascists were arrested, and they would be released within a week after a threat of further violence from Mussolini, who was the undisputed leader of the extreme right since D’Annunzio’s ignominious expulsion from Fiume in December 1920.

April 2 1921, Yerevan–TheSoviets took over most of Armenia in December 1920, seeming a better alternative to the approaching Turkish armies.  Soviet control was short-lived, after the Soviets quickly alienated much of the population, the Dashnaks were able to retake Yerevan and much of the surrounding area in mid-February.  After conquering Georgia and negotiating a peace treaty with the Turks in March, the Soviets were once again able to concentrate on Armenia, launching an offensive on March 24 and retaking Yerevan on April 2.  The Dashnaks fell back into the mountains in the Syunik province, where they continued to fight against the Soviets until July.

March 27 1921, Budapest–The Romanians, after their successful invasion, had allowed monarchists to take over the government in Hungary.  Many Hungarian monarchists were still loyal to the Habsburgs, but the Allies and Hungary’s neighbors were adamant that neither former Emperor Charles nor any other Habsburg would be allowed to rule in Hungary.  As a result, when the monarchy was officially restored in March 1920, there was no monarch, and Horthy was declared Regent.

Charles wanted to return and claim the throne, and believed he would have support from the Hungarian people and French PM Briand, while Hungary’s neighbors would not again intervene in an internal Hungarian matter.  He shaved his mustache and arrived in Hungary on March 26, hoping that the Easter holidays would smooth his return to the throne.  The next day, Easter Sunday, Charles met with Hungarian PM Teleki near the Austrian border early in the morning.  Teleki told Charles he had come back “too soon, too soon” and that he should head back to Switzerland; an attempt to claim the throne now could lead to civil war and another round of invasions.

Undeterred, Charles proceeded to Budapest to meet with Horthy, dragging him away from his Easter dinner.  Teleki’s car conveniently made a wrong turn on the way, and he was not present at the meeting.  Charles attempted to appeal to Horthy’s oaths he had taken to him personally as his Emperor, and while this did have an effect, he reminded Charles that he had also sworn an oath to the nation of Hungary.  Horthy eventually gave Charles three weeks to leave Hungary, whether to return back to Switzerland or to attempt to claim the Austrian throne in Vienna.  Charles incorrectly interpreted this as Horthy telling him he would try to arrange his restoration to the throne within three weeks.

Over the coming days, it became clear that Charles’ optimism was ungrounded; the Czechs and Yugoslavs threatened war if he were restored, the Hungarian Diet voted in favor of Horthy’s continuation as Regent, and Briand refused to offer any support; Charles returned to Switzerland, defeated, on April 5.

A map of the plebiscite results, with red areas voting for Poland and gray areas voting for Germany.  Complicating a division of the region was the fact that many of the towns in the east had large German majorities, but were surrounded by Polish-majority countryside.

March 20 1921, Opole–TheTreaty of Versailles called for a plebiscite in Upper Silesia to decide on the final border between Germany and Poland in that economically-valuable region.  Allied troops had been sent to the area to administer the plebiscite and to attempt to keep the various German and Polish paramilitary forces in the area under control; a recent need for British reinforcements had precluded British participation in the occupation of Düsseldorf.  One concession the Germans had won in the negotiations in Paris was the right of anyone born in the area to return for the plebiscite, even if they had left decades ago, and multiple German trains brought in such eligible voters.

The vote was held on March 20, and the results featured a substantial lead for Germany, 59.6 - 40.4%, out of over a million votes cast.  However, unlike in other plebiscites, where a vote in a pre-defined region meant that the region would join one country or another, the results of the vote in each commune were to be used as input in the drawing of the border (along with “geographical and economic conditions”).  Quickly, it became apparent that the French favored a final border far more favorable to Poland than the British did, so the plebiscite did not resolve much by itself.

Sources include: Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919.  Image Credit: Leo Baeck Institute.

March 19 1921, Crossbarry–The war in Ireland had escalated since Bloody Sunday, but for the most part the pattern in much of the country was occasional ambushes of British troops and police by IRA flying columns, followed by British reprisals.  On March 19, the British attempted to reverse this pattern and trap a several IRA columns near Crossbarry, about 12 miles southwest of Cork.  The British had learned of their presence from a prisoner captured in a failed train ambush the previous month.  Several hundred British troops proceeded to the area by lorry, then began a sweep on foot and by bicycle to lessen their chance of detection; they did manage to kill one IRA officer before the IRA realized what was happening.  The IRA, despite only having 104 men, decided to try to fight their way out of the encirclement before the cordon tightened too close, and laid an ambush for one of the approaching British columns.

This ambush was successful, and the IRA then defeated three additional British columns in turn before effecting their escape from the area under fire.  Six IRA men were killed; British figures are disputed, but range from ten to thirty.  The fighting at Crossbarry was, according to historian Michael Hopkinson, “the closest approximation to a conventional battle in the whole War,” demonstrating the vastly different character of the Irish War of Independence when compared to other European conflicts of the time period.

Sources include: Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence.

A Belarusian cartoon lamenting the partition of Belarus between the Soviets and the Poles in the Treaty of Riga; note that the original Soviet proposals would have placed MInsk (center) on the Polish side.

March 18 1921, Riga–The Soviets and Poles had concluded an armistice in October, but a formal peace treaty had proved elusive.  The Soviets, eager to normalize their relations with their neighbors, were fine with drawing the border roughly along the armistice line.  Many of the Polish negotiators, however, did not want to annex so much eastern territory whose inhabitants were mostly Belarusians and Ukrainians, and the Polish delegation rejected the offer, much to Piłsudski’s chagrin.

By March, Lenin, who had other more pressing internal concerns with Kronstadt, strikes, and peasant unrest, pressed for a resolution to the negotiations, and on March 18 a treaty was signed in Riga.  A border was agreed to about 60 miles west of the original Soviet proposal (but still around 150 miles east of the modern Polish frontier).  Most notably, this meant that Minsk would return to Soviet hands.  Poland would also receive 30 million rubles in compensation for Russia’s hundred-year occupation of the country.

The deck of the Petropavlovskafter the defeat of the rebellion.

March 17 1921, Kronstadt [Kotlin]–The failure of the initial attack on Kronstadt was an embarrassment for the Communists, who on the same day convened their Tenth Party Congress in Moscow.  On March 10, after Trotsky reported on the situation, 320 delegates volunteered to join the fight.  With the spring fast approaching and the ice in the Gulf of Finland threatening to melt, Tukachevsky had to act quickly.

While he prepared another offensive, events moved even quicker at the Congress in Moscow.  Lenin had found himself facing direct threats from Kronstadt, strikes in the major cities, and widespread peasant rebellions, along with internal opposition in the form of the Alexander Shliapnikov and Alexandra Kollontai’s Workers’ Opposition.  The strikes had largely petered out by mid-March, with promises that trade would resume with the countryside and the food situation would improve.  Kronstadt would be crushed by force.  The Workers’ Opposition would be effectively dissolved by a ban on internal Communist Party factions, passed without fanfare on April 16 but which would confirm a dictatorship until Gorbachev.  

The farmers, Lenin chose to mollify.  Food had heretofore been requisitioned from communities in large quantities by the government.  This system was to be turned into a tax, 45% lower than the previous rate, and levied on an individual basis.  Any remaining food could be sold on the open market, and additional incentives were provided to boost production.  What would become the New Economic Policy pleased the farmers who directly benefited, and the city-dwellers whose food worries would be alleviated; it had only taken a betrayal of Communist ideals.  Lenin justified this before the Congress on March 15 by saying that an alliance with the peasants was needed if Communism was to survive in a relatively non-industrialized country like Russia without outside help–but after years of war, there was little opposition to a policy that might bring an end to the conflicts.

The announcement of the land tax also boosted the morale of Tukachevsky’s forces, which had also been reinforced with loyal Communists from around the country.  He began another bombardment of Kronstadt on the afternoon of the 16th, and his infantry attacked across the ice in the wee hours of the 17th.  Casualties were high; over 10,000 (including 15 of the party delegates who had volunteered from Moscow) were felled by the defenders or were lost through holes in the ice.  But shortly before midnight, the Communists had captured the Petropavlovskand most of the other rebellious ships.  About 8000 of the rebels escaped across the ice to Finland; most of those captured by the Communists were shot or died in a concentration camp on the White Sea.

Sources include: Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy; W. Bruce Lincoln, Red Victory.

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Soviet and Turkish signatories of the Treaty of Moscow.

March 16 1921, Moscow–TheSoviet invasion of Georgia brought Soviet Russia into direct contact with Turkey, which soon thereafter invaded the country from the south.  The Soviets had already repudiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that had given up large areas to the Ottoman Empire.  Kemal’s government in Ankara wanted to keep these gains, but was also diplomatically isolated and was more worried about the Allies occupying Constantinople and Smyrna.

On March 16, representatives from Kemal’s government and the Soviets signed a treaty in Moscow.  Turkey got to keep most of the gains from Brest-Litovsk, with the exception of Batum [Batumi], while Turkey recognized the Soviet republics in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Both sides repudiated Brest-Litovsk and Sèvres, and the question of navigation of the Straits was deferred to a later time.  Residents of the territories Russia gave up in Brest-Litovsk were to have the right to leave Turkey with their property intact.  Azerbaijan’s control over the Nakhchivan exclave, which continues to this day, was confirmed by both sides.

The treaty brought an end to Turkey’s adventures in the Caucasus (for many decades), and the borders established by the treaty remain largely unchanged to this day.  The last organized Georgian resistance to the Soviet invasion collapsed two days after the treaty, leaving the Soviets free to concentrate on the Dashnaks in Armenia.

Sources include: Evan Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War

Russian soldiers preparing chlorine cylinders for a gas attack on German positions near Ilukste, 191

Russian soldiers preparing chlorine cylinders for a gas attack on German positions near Ilukste, 1916


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Nikolai Konstantinovich Marshalk (1895 - 1951)Since 1918 he was in the Volunteer Army (White army) aNikolai Konstantinovich Marshalk (1895 - 1951)Since 1918 he was in the Volunteer Army (White army) a

Nikolai Konstantinovich Marshalk (1895 - 1951)

Since 1918 he was in the Volunteer Army (White army) and participated in the Ice March. He was serving as Second Lieutenant in the Kornilov shock division, and was wounded twice. In 1919 he returned to his homeland Latvia but was enlistend in the North-Western Army the same year. In December 1919 he transfered to the Rifle Division of the 5th Infantry Division. He survived the civil war and emigrated to Germany. In 1938 he was arrested by Gestapo for criticizing Nazi policies and was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. After the end of the war he stayed and lived in Germany for the rest of his life together with his family.


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Estonian soldiers with British 18 pound guns during the Estonian War of Independence / Russian civil

Estonian soldiers with British 18 pound guns during the Estonian War of Independence / Russian civil war.


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