China Town: San Fransisco 1899

San Francisco's Ross Alley, "Street of the Gamblers"by Arnold Genthe.

WW1: Fake trees on the battlefield

 Thanks to War History Online I am now aware that fake trees were used in WW1. Not sure I would liked to be the person who has to be stuck inside one when it was behind enemy lines! Did they use a radio to send back intelligence?  As you see the entrance to the tree was under ground level and normally well covered up.

 

Allied soldiers discover a fake tree entrance hole. You can see the huge stump next to this too, most probably planted in a large wood before bombs decimated the rest of the real trees. You just have to see Flanders fields to know what they ended up like.

Original drawing plans for fake trees. Right hand one in water location?

WW2 Trench life: Well and truly dug in!

Seen plenty of Trench photo's from across WW1 & WW2 but I really like this one. You can see from the dug out alcoves that this has been a home for soilders for a good period of time. Well dug out shelters to avoid not only gunfire but the weather conditions. Also it looks very dry, not the usual mud bath that we normally see across European trenches.  The soliders seem relaxed, most of the gear laid out across the floor and trench walls. Again this would make me believe it was not a front line trench but prehaps a secondry one a few hundred yards from the action.

WW1 Women in work: War Correspondents, Bomb Factory

 Women War Correspondents working in the European Theatre of Operations.

An interior view of a workshop in the Belgian Munition Works, also known as the Pelabon Works.

WW1 Propaganda Posters: Travel the World, Eat more cottage cheese

Times change and in the early 1900's only the very fortunate, middle class and rich actually went on holidays. So a key plus for recruiting so called 'normal' infantry was the chance for them to travel around the world. Although most would end up in a small part of Europe in a wet trench.

Changing peoples diet was essential in maintaining resources going to the front line and keeping up the War effort. Explaining that eating less meat and viable alternatives such as cottage cheese can provide the protein needed.

WW1 Propaganda: German cage, Australians Arise.

As a change I have selected a German WW1 propaganda poster. It shows the British Lion caged, crying and weak. This would give the impression to the Germans that we were there for the taking, swept under Germans power.

Australia played a huge part in WW1 & WW2, both in political influence and sending huge amounts of troops to fight. We can see by the poster that the fear of being 'Germanised' would have been key to recruiting for battle.

1800's Photos: Logging, trains and spiked suits.

 Logging North America late 1800s. As we can see two horses are meant to pull a whole lot of wood and men on a slay across icy/winter ground. Not sure about how safe the load looks! I am sure they knew what they were doing.

In the late 1800s railway across North America was a huge savior for the logging industry, allowing their products to be sent all across the country.

It seems a rather bizarre suit at first, what on earth could be its purpose of this in the 1800s? It was made of leather and had huge spikes attached. Hunters specifically hunters where bears roamed would wear these to protect themselves and warn off any bears having a swipe at them. The spikes would make sure they did not do it again.

WW1 Recruitment photos collection

I have often posted pictures of posters used in WW1 that were used to recruit for the forces. But I have found very few interesting images of people actually getting recruited. Hopefully this gives people some sense of the mass scale in which men signed up for WW1, the huge vacuum left of men of a certain age after the war.

This looks likes the recruitment stall is taking place in a city square, with large statue behind it. Gramophone most probably playing music or Propaganda.   Maybe the crowd are gathered for the photo or just that it might be the start of the War and this is the first drive to enlist men? The military man sat down seems to have a non British uniform on, looks North American.

A somewhat less grande recruitment setting but it seems to be drawing in the men to enlist. We can see from the mens facial expressions they look a little worried.

One step down the recruitment chain would be to get the men the correct uniform, turn up for medicals and getting the rest of their kit. 

Two of the new recruits must be still in the teens, I am guessing they had no idea what hell would await them in the battlefields...

WW1 Propaganda: The Start of the Great War.

I like this one, if your man does not sign up for WW1 is he right for you? likely to neglect you  as he did his country?  Very much the duty of ALL men to sign up and fight the enemy.

This poster gives the real impression that signing up can be a man real prospects in life. Unskilled or not there was a place for you.

There were a number of WW1 posters referring to "Remember Belgium". At the start of WW1 Germany invaded Belgium with such brutality to civilians it was used as a tool across Europe to sign people up against the enemy for a number of years following the event.

WW1 Centenary: 1914-2014

So we are here, the 100 year anniversary of World War One. It will be marked across the UK with a number of events. I found a very decent site here that gives information and calendar of them. I hope to have a number of WW1 themed posts over the year and give a real insight into life at the time.