Hello Steemit group. Here I bring you some interesting anecdotes about the First World War, little-known anecdotes and that I hope will please all of you, especially those who like history, the curiosities that this has and surprises us.
The First World War was a conflict on a global scale that began in 1914 and ended in 1918. Its cause was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Habsburg, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, committed in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 by Gavrilo Princip , a Serbian nationalist.
Participated more than 30 countries where the protagonists were: the Triple Alliance formed by Germany, Austria and Italy, and the Triple Entente formed by France, England and Russia.
FUN FACTS
#7 Medical advances
The large number of wounded during this confrontation, which lasted more than four years, contributed to the doctors learning better wound management and bone adjustment. In this war a series of innovations was developed that served to save lives, not only in this conflict but also in those that continued it.
World War I changed to the world of medicine.
#6 The Spanish Influenza
In this conflict, more than 10 million soldiers died and another 21 million were injured. But not all those killed in combat were the product of the use of weapons or bombs. A third of the soldiers succumbed to the Spanish Flu, one of the most devastating pandemics in the history of mankind, causing the death of between 50 and 100 million people.
Improvised hospital in Kansas City, USA (1918).
#5 The Christmas truce
On December 24, 1914, the soldiers of the western front (Germans and British) left their differences aside and met in a friendly way in neutral territory. They exchanged gifts such as: cigarettes, chocolates, alcohol; They even sang Christmas carols and played soccer games. It is said that one of those results favored Germany 3-2.
Moment of peace during the conflict. The Germans won 3-2 in a friendly match.
#4 The young man who unleashed the confrontation
Gavrilo Princip, author of the assassination of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, was a young Serbian member of a terrorist association called "Black Hand". Princip, being only 19 years old, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died at the age of 23 when he was the victim of tuberculosis.
Statue of the Magical Princip in a Sarajevo neighborhood (2014).
#3 Changing the role of women
The role strengthened for centuries that women only had to take care of the home and their children while the man worked, had become obsolete. Due to the great mobilization and loss of men during the war, several powers were forced to incorporate women into the labor market, where their main task was to replace those killed in combat and to work in munitions factories. Even shortly after the war, several nations gave them not only the right to work but also to vote.
Operators working in an ammunition factory during the First World War.
#2 The last fallen of the First World War
The agreement to suspend the conflict, also called the Armistice of November 11, 1918, was signed at 5:12 in the morning, but came into effect six hours later. Henry Gunther was a 23-year-old US sergeant who had been demoted and went into battle trying to regain his lost hierarchy. When facing the Germans in a suicidal act, he was shot in the body that ended his life at exactly 10:59. A minute later the war ended.
Henry Gunther, last soldier fallen in World War I.
#1 The Briton who almost killed Hitler
Adolf Hitler, protagonist of the Second World War, participated as a German soldier in the first conflict. Although he was an Austrian by birth, he requested permission from the German army to enlist and he was granted.
Henry Tandey was a British soldier. Perhaps the most decorated in his country during the First World War. On September 28, 1918 Tandey and Hitler were entrenched in the French town of Marcoing in full battle. The men came out of their trenches and started fighting against each other. The British managed to put the Germans to flight. However, Tandey, observed a German soldier so close to him that he could even see the eyes. The German, wounded, was not able to raise his rifle even. Tandey thought about it for a moment and, finally, lowered his weapon. Hitler nodded his thanks and left.
22 years later, Henry Tandey regretted to the press that he had left that German soldier alive a few years ago.
Henry Tandey.
Undoubtedly, this war was one of the historical events that marked the end of one era and the beginning of another.