World War I: Difference between revisions

* [[Appropriated Title]]: The conflict was originally referred as ''The Great War'' or [[Tempting Fate|''The War to End All Wars'']] by its contemporaries and historians. It only got the name ''World War One'' after the sequel came out.

** The name was actually already being used by, or just after, its end — the more forward-looking military historians recognising that the war had left far too many scores unsettled for there ''not'' to be a rematch.

* [[Armored Coffins]]: Plane crews did not have parachutes. Some officers considered that the crew should not be allowed to leave the plane, as that would be cowardice. It was thought at the time that if a pilot had a parachute, he would jump from the plane when hit rather than trying to save the aircraft.

** Some German planes/pilots were equipped with parachutes towards the end of the war (Hermann Goering was saved by one.) Also, balloon observers and zeppelin crews on both sides had parachutes.

** To drive this home, [http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2011/254/2/f/in_coburg_by_alixofhesse-d49klk6.png this picture] shows [[Queen Victoria]] at Coburg inn 1894 with her some of her extended family. In that picture you have two future British Kings, as well as the last Kaiser (of Germany) and the last Czarina (of Russia), and those are just children and grandchildren.

* [[Foreshadowing]]:

"This is no peace, it is an armistice for twenty years." - French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, on the Treaty of Versailles. }}

** Continuing on the Foch quote; US general Pershing hated the idea of an Armistice, because he believed that unless they obtained an unconditional surrender the German people would come to believe that they were defeated for reasons other then military. [[wikipedia:Stab-in-the-back legend|He was right.]]

** He was also a [[Father to His Men]], insisting that his black troops be treated the same as his white troops. When Lettow-Vorbeck returned to east Africa in 1953, his surviving askaris assembled and serenaded him with their marching song.

** Lettow-Vorbeck was offered the ambassadorship to Great Britain by Hitler but, distrusting the Nazi party, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|told Hitler what he could do with the proposal]]. According to one interview:

"That's right, but I don't think he put it that politely." }}

** Also, Canadian troops are the origin of the term Stormtrooper. The German forces called them that because whenever you saw Canadians in the line, you knew there was going to be an attack in the morning. It eventually reached the point where the command could draw German troops away from an area by supplying them with misinformation on the locations of Canadian units. There was also a nasty rumour that Canadians were immune to gas attacks and the cold. Only the latter is true.

** Nice job training German soldiers in secret after the war, Russia.

* [[Only Sane Man]]: Charles I of Austria-Hungary, who became [[The Emperor|Emperor]] right in the middle of a war he didn't want to fight. He proposed a "peace without recriminations" in which all parties would simply lay down their weapons and go home to rebuild their shattered countries. The Allies simply scoffed at the proposal, the Germans were furious about Charles' plan to "abandon" them. Charles was then [[It Got Worse|deposed]] at the end of the war. He tried to [[Rightful King Returns|regain the Hungarian throne]], but the Allies would never have allowed it, and the [[Regent for Life|sitting ruler]] of Hungary didn't want trouble from them, even though it meant breaking his former oaths of loyalty to Charles. In the end, Charles died [[Impoverished Patrician|in poverty]], [[The Exile|exiled to]] the Portuguese island of Madeira. For everything he had done, he was Beatified by [[The Pope|Pope John Paul II]], and he will probably be [[Patron Saint|Canonised a saint]] before long.

** Benedict XV , too. He repeatedly said that the war was "the suicide of civilized Europe", even from the beginning, and proposed peace treaties similar to Blessed Karl's every year of the war. Nobody listened to him, either.

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: In September 1914 the British auxiliary cruiser Carmania, disguised as the German liner Cap Trafalgar, encountered the German auxiliary cruiser Cap Trafalgar, which was disguised as the British liner Carmania. [[wikipedia:Battle of Trindade|Oops]].