35 Amazing World War I Facts (Part 2) | Amazing Facts 4U
- Until it was suppressed forcefully during WWI, German was in fact the second most widely spoken language in the United States of America. Most of the local governments, schools, and newspapers operated in German.
- The ocean liner Olympic, sister ship to Titanic in fact became the only merchant vessel in WWI to sink an enemy warship when she rammed U-boat U-103.
- Hitler used to have a full-sized mustache but was ordered to trim it down to a ‘toothbrush’ during World War I to better accommodate wearing a gas mask.
- Adolf Hitler was adamant about not using poison gas on the battlefield in WWII as a result of his exposure to it during World War I.
- In WWI, British armed merchant cruiser RMS Carmania engaged and sank the German merchant cruiser SMS Cap Trafalgar. The amazing fact was the two ships had been disguised as each other.
- The pharmaceutical company “Bayer” discovered Heroin and until WWI in fact sold it as a cough treatment.
- Over 90,000 Chinese laborers were used by the British Army to dig trenches on the Western Front in WWI.
- Due to steel shortages during World War I, concrete ships were built. Only ten of them are in fact still afloat, all of them in a small coastal town of British Columbia.
- Karl von Müller, Captain of the German WWI vessel the SMS Emden allowed the passengers of the enemy merchant ships enough time to gather their belongings and abandon the ship before sinking it.
- Safety Razors were invented in the late 18th century but weren’t popularized until World War I. During World War I, Gillette worked out a deal with the U.S. Armed Forces to provide it to every enlisted man or officer on his way to Europe.
- Because metal was in great demand WWI, corsets began to fade and bras became popular.
- Kleenex brands of tissues were used as gas mask filters during World War I.
- New Zealand had one of the highest casualty per capita (wounded and dead) rates in WWI, at 58%.
- Amazingly people did not need passports until World War I.
- Amazing fact is that the Eiffel Tower was due to be demolished in 1909 after its lease ran out, but it became useful during World War I due to its antenna.
- Brushing teeth was not a regular practice among Americans before WWI. “So many recruits had rotting teeth the officials said poor dental hygiene was a national security risk.”
- During WWI, starving wolves amassed in such great numbers that Germans and Russians had to declare a temporary ceasefire just to fight off the wolf attacks.
- In World War I, when a pilot from either side went down behind enemy lines, the “enemy” would drop a note to inform his comrades whether he had been killed in a crash or taken prisoner.
- Ormer Locklear, a WWI pilot, amazingly got out of his plane, diagnosed the problem, and repaired it all while still flying the plane and then did this numerous times after that.
- An American hero in WWI had the amazing ability to sense approaching mustard gas, hear incoming artillery before anyone else and even caught a German spy. He was awarded multiple medals. He was a dog.
- A South African monkey served in the 3rd South African Infantry Brigade for three years at the frontlines in WWI, eventually being awarded the Pretoria Citizen’s Service Medal upon his return home.
- During World War I, the United States Government tried to rename hamburgers as “liberty sandwiches” to promote patriotism.
- In World War I, Canadians survived the first chemical attack by urinating on their handkerchiefs and holding them over their faces as masks.
- Germany made tires for bicycles out of metal springs after WWI because there was no more rubber available.
- Some cataract patients have an “extraordinary sensitivity” to ultra-violet light. They were used in World War I to detect flashing UV beacons.
- During World War I, a lone Portuguese soldier amazingly convinced the German soldiers that they were fighting against an entire unit for three days without eating or drinking.
- During World War I, a Hungarian soldier named Paul Kern was shot in the frontal lobe, resulting in him being unable to fall asleep. He lived for years after that and no one really knows how.
- Rudyard Kipling urged John, his 18-year-old son to join WWI. He had such a bad eyesight that he was repeatedly turned down. Kipling used his connections with a Commander-In-Chief of the Army to get him in.
- Hugh Lofting, not wishing to write his children about the horrors of trench warfare in WWI, instead wrote them imaginative letters that later became the Dr. Doolittle stories.
- Minnie Schönberg, the mother of the Marx Brothers, upon hearing that farmers were exempt from being drafted, bought a farm and forced the brothers to work on it, so they won’t be called to fight in WWI.
- In 1955, a thunderstorm in Belgium set off 40 000 pounds of buried explosives left over from the WWI battle of Messines. Luckily, the only casualty was a single cow.
- In 1964, the German government decided to pay back East African soldiers (Askari) that had fought for them in WWI. In fact most of them had no proof of service, so they had to perform the Manual of arms in German (handling and using weapons in formation) with a broom to prove themselves. Not a single one of them failed and did it perfectly.
- In 1978 in Yukon, Canada, a bulldozer uncovered buried reels of nitrate film during excavation of a landfill. About 500 old films dating from 1910 to 1921 were uncovered. This included long lost newsreels of World War I and many long lost silent movies.
- The last surviving Tommy of WWI died aged 111 years, 1 month, 1 week, 1 day. Also the oddest part is that WWI ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
- Germany finally paid off all of its World War I debt in 2010.
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