Interesting facts
- At the start of the war, many of the soldiers wore brightly coloured uniforms. It was only when it was noticed that the drab colours of some British regiments helped camouflage them that the colour was adopted by most other troops.
- In the early years of the war, many groups would often join up together; these would be known as pals’ battalions’. Groups included schoolboys, railway workers and even professional football teams.
- 628 men received the Victoria Cross during the war, a medal awarded for extreme bravery. The youngest recipient - Jack Cornwell - was just sixteen years old.
- Historians suggest that one of the most important consequences of the First World War was the subsequent foundation of the USSR, the world’s first communist state.
- Showing an ability for humour even in the most awful of situations, soldiers referred to bits of toilet paper blown around the battlefield by the wind as trench butterflies.
- Metal helmets were not introduced until 1915, being first used by the French.
- The United States joined the war in April 1917, however after eight months they began to withdraw their troops from the front line.
- Despite the fact that the US didn’t grant native Americans citizenship until 1924, almost 13,000 served in the war.
- More than half a million pigeons were used by allied forces during the war to carry messages from the front lines.
- Around 200,000 African Americans served in the war, but only around ten per cent were in combat roles, the rest being used for heavy manual labour. However, one African American unit called the Harlem Hell Fighters fought on the front line and displayed a number of acts of extraordinary bravery. Every soldier from the unit received the French Croix de Guerre, one of their highest accolades. Sadly, their heroism was largely ignored by their own country.
The French Heavy Cavalry in Paris, 1914