I was just given my great grandfather’s service medals from WWl and discovered that the medal has his rank, name , number and unit.

He was in the army from 1914 to 1920 and at some point he moved from the Lovat’s Scouts to the Cameron Highlanders.

I was young when he died but I do seem to recall pictures of him with horses.

Can anyone tell me anything about this unit? I have his name and number if that’s helpful.

The Germans in World War I developed and deployed mustard gas (sulfur mustard) as part of their chemical warfare program. Here's how they manufactured it:

Chemical Process

The synthesis of mustard gas involves the reaction of compounds containing sulfur and chlorine. The primary method used during World War I was as follows:

1. Key Ingredients:
   • Thiodiglycol (a sulfur-containing compound): Acts as the base compound.
   • Chlorinating Agent: Typically phosphorus trichloride (PCl₃) or sulfur dichloride (SCl₂), both of which were readily available at the time.
2. Reaction:
   • Thiodiglycol reacts with a chlorinating agent under controlled conditions to produce sulfur mustard.
   • Example reaction: C₂H₄(OH)₂ + SCl₂ → C₄H₈Cl₂S\text{C₂H₄(OH)₂ + SCl₂ → C₄H₈Cl₂S} In this reaction:
     • Thiodiglycol (C₂H₄(OH)₂) reacts with sulfur dichloride (SCl₂).
     • The resulting product is mustard gas (C₄H₈Cl₂S).
3. Distillation:
   • The crude product is purified through distillation to ensure it is in a usable form, typically as an oily liquid.
4. Storage and Deployment:
   • The gas was loaded into artillery shells or dispersed as an aerosol using specialized delivery systems.

Industrial Scale Production

The Germans set up chemical plants to produce mustard gas on an industrial scale. The Haber-Bosch process (initially developed for ammonia production) enabled them to scale up chemical manufacturing for warfare purposes.

• Factories: Facilities like those in Ludwigshafen (owned by BASF) were repurposed for the large-scale production of chemical agents, including mustard gas.
• Chemical Engineers: Prominent chemists like Fritz Haber, known for his work on chemical warfare, played a key role in designing and improving the production methods.

Deployment in WWI

• First used on the battlefield in July 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele).
• Delivered via artillery shells, bombs, or spray systems, it caused severe injuries and incapacitation rather than outright fatalities, making it a fearsome weapon.

Aftermath

• The widespread use of mustard gas during WWI led to the development of international treaties like the Geneva Protocol (1925), prohibiting the use of chemical weapons. However, the basic methods of mustard gas production are still studied today in the context of chemical weapon disarmament and defense.

Ethical and Historical Context

While the chemical synthesis is straightforward, the use of mustard gas in warfare is considered a severe breach of human rights and is strictly prohibited under modern international law. The study of such weapons today focuses on disarmament, detection, and mitigation.

I love history and world war 1, but something that I often think about is the end of the war on the western front. Did the clock strike 11 and they packed up and headed home? Did they just leave the ripped up fields of france as they were? Where do you even start to clean up and reconstruct after this?

Hello WW1 Redditors! I'm an American, but my Great Granddaddy, William Richard Hosken was a Cornish man who fought for Great Britain in WW1. Below is a photo of him (The man on your left when you look at the photo), and the man we think is his CO (The man on your right). I did some searching on Microsoft Copilot and I think that Great-Granddaddy was a captain and his CO was a color staff-sergeant. Am I correct in this? Also, was it common for men of whatever ranks they were to be friends and take photos like this together?

William Hosken was from Penzance, England, and supposedly had 10 siblings. If anyone with Hosken blood and connections to Penzance recognizes him from family photos, please reach out to me. Thank you so, so much!

https://preview.redd.it/1gk2x6bgow2e1.jpg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b06b43d91a1ff6dad6fb721cab119be008ebd41f

My Great-grandfather (Left) and his CO (Right)

The Paris Gun, used by Germany in World War I, was a massive artillery piece capable of firing shells over 120 kilometers, reaching the outskirts of Paris from behind German lines. Its shells traveled so high into the atmosphere—nearly 40 kilometers—that they entered the stratosphere, making it a precursor to modern long-range weaponry and space exploration.

I’m doing a research project on the conditions in Passchendaele and how it affected the soldier. Do you all have recommendations on where I could find such sources? Thanks

(I just chose a random tag it doesn’t have to do with the question) This might me a very very dumb question but like How did anyone survive the war? Death was more than commonplace, people dropped like flies daily and dozens of strategies to go around “safe places” like cover or trenches, or being a very good veteran doesn’t stop a 75 caliber artillery shell Advanced and retreats with thousands of bodies in their wake. Like How did anyone survive this? I just don’t know how. A late deployment or early leave are about the only ways I can imagine

look at my adrian helmet. look at it.

Good evening,

I've been thinking about buying a replica uniform of an austro hungarian soldier. Could anyone help me with what model was used from 1916 to 1918? Was it still the "hechtgrau" or did they switch to grey uniforms like the germans had?

Thanks in advance 🙂.

I found this video very good, unfortunately it was removed from youtube and it can't be uploaded again because some music copyright.

I would like to share here direct from my drive if no problems. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q2q33Gz3Lqx2RI5pFt7M-WcGuD0zyFoD/view?usp=drivesdk

I was reading alot of world war 1 poets, wilfred owen, siefried sasoon, rupert brooke. While just looking through the wikipedia of rupert brooke I saw that in july 1917 when general Allemby got the news of his sons death he broke down in public and started crying and recited rupert brookes poem. Although i have read this accound elsewhere i have not been able to pin point which poem did he recite, if anyone knows it would help me a great deal.

I keep hearing about how Germany was unfairly blamed for the war and how Versailles helped radiclalize Germany.

Is this a fair assumption? While all powers in the war had their share of hood and bad, Germany far and away seems like the aggressor in the war, at least according to the “ Guns of august” by Barbara Tuchman.

She describes world war 1 as at some level just the sequel to the Franco Prussian war of 1870.

That war was totally started by Bismarck only for the sake of German prestige and knocking France out as the principal power of Europe, and getting Alsace Lorraine as a prize.

Germany was in some levels not too different from the Reich of ww2. They wanted worldwide and continental supremacy, and were willing to crush France and settle vast areas of eastern Europe to do that. They committed huge atrocities in Belgium which propaganda just barely exaggerated, and due to overzealous desire for a Baghdad to Berlin railway were happy to ignore or facilitate the Armenian genocide.

It hardly could have been a good outcome for the world if Germany won that war, and perhaps maybe it was good to stop them?

What do you think?

Hey guys, I am currently writing my scientific work related to German perception of the Russian enemy in propaganda during WWI. Any sort of sources would be deeply appreciated:

• scientific articles
• visual arts
• satirical magazines
• documents
• literature
• diaries

Any recommendations would be also greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all, I just finished Chevrons by Leonard Smith, and wow! Such a great story, and historically accurate (apparently?). Between Chevrons and Fear by Gabrielle Chevallier, I am now totally hooked on WWI.

Any book recommendations for more WWI fiction? I am due to read the more famous works such as All Quiet on the Western Front, but I'm looking for some lesser-known stuff. Chevrons, for example, was hard to come by and there isn't much about it online.

Anyways, figure I'd ask some WWI buffs.

Thank you in advance!