MetaFilter posts tagged with ww1

Harry Patch and Radiohead

A189Nut — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:21:42 -0800

We've covered Harry Patch before but as you might know he died recently. Now Radiohead have released a track in tribute to him and the fallen others.

Smoke me a kipper...

mattoxic — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:02:03 -0800

Need to build an FE2b, or perhaps an SE5a? Need to keep the Hun at bay with an RE8 ? Haven’t a clue? Don't worry Vintage Aviator’s got your back. You’ll need to source the correct linen be able to splice cable, and learn how to make the The site has an excellent section on posters, and galleries - Album 1, 2 and 3

Keep it under your Stetson.

OmieWise — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:04:33 -0800

Free Speech Doesn't Mean Careless Talk! World War II posters from the US Merchant Marine at War. More posters (Rivets are Bayonets, Drive them Home). There's lots of other cool stuff, like this brief history of privateers during the Revolutionary War.

Faces of Battle

infini — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 11:01:57 -0800

As Armistice Day approaches an exhibition reveals a hidden side to the horror of World War I. It contains previously unseen images of British servicemen who suffered terrible facial injuries in the conflict. The exhibition also tells the story of one surgeon - Harold Gillies – who through his efforts to help them became known as the father of modern plastic surgery. WARNING: Some of the following images are of a very graphic nature.

Beers & Sheilas

mattoxic — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:17:43 -0800

Today marks 90 years since one of the last successful cavalry charges of modern warfare - carried out by the Australian Light Horse. The charge was recently reenacted. Some say the Australians were so keen to take the desert outpost because the thirsty troops misheard the town's name as Beers and Sheilas. More on 20th century cavalry, site gets a little weird in a extreme-right-wing-gun-nut kinda way. The movie The Lighthorsemen attempts the story.

Biplanes and triplanes and Zeppelins-- Oh My!

dersins — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:16:14 -0800

WWI-era aviation photos (page 2): Biplanes and triplanes and Zeppelins-- oh my!

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier

feelinglistless — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 15:42:20 -0800

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. "Dear Kate, Just a line to let you know I’m going on alright. We had an exciting time and this time up the line. We had only been in about six hours when fritz’s came over to us. We had an hour and a half of it but we beat them back and they lost a good many men too not many got back I can tell you. We lost #### (pencilled out –censored?) which I’m sorry to say and about #### wounded. I think the mug will be all right for Willie which Jack is getting for him. If you send me anything it will come in very nice the chocolate is very good I should like a bit of cake, if you could afford it really gets crushed so if it is not packed careful. With best love from Harry"

The Faces of War

chrisbucks — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:08:50 -0800

The Faces of War, a fascinating document of the prosthetic masks used to cover serious facial injuries from the battlefield. Before plastic surgery was widely practised and used to reconstruct the horrific facial injuries of the First World War soldiers, men with the most serious facial injured were often hidden away from society.

Men such as those recorded in watercolour, and in pastels (warning: some may find these images disturbing); patients of Harold Gillies, pioneer of facial reconstruction at Queen's Hospital, Sidcup, the wars major centre for facial reconstruction and plastic surgery.

Curse you, Red Baron!

mwhybark — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 12:58:20 -0800

Triplane Madness presents photos of a large selection of triplane (and quad- and quint- and more) experiments in avionics conducted in a wide variety of countries in the early days of aviation.

11/11

mwhybark — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:16:14 -0800

The Great War in the Air is a 69-part video project, clearly a labor of love, by one Jan Goldstein, a musician, painter, and publican. Overwhelmed? Here's a representative sample: Part 7, on the French ace Georges Guynemer. Please note: extensive use of YouTube. Many of the images seen in the film may be perused at earlyaviator.com.

One evening in November, 1914, I found myself in Calais

mwhybark — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 14:58:22 -0800

The Great War: "People at the time experienced it differently. We may think they were misinformed and deluded, and perhaps they were, or maybe we have become incredibly cynical and mistrusting. What were once considered to be civic virtues are now thought to be quaint anachronisms at best or grand delusions at worst. Things change." The site proffers an incredible variety of popular-press articles and imagery concerning the unfortunate European events of 1914 to 1918.

Lest we forget

wilful — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:04:31 -0800

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori

wilful — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 17:34:20 -0800

Last Post. Evan 'Darby' Allan, the last of Australia's 330,770 World War 1 veterans, was buried with full state honours yesterday, closing one of the most dismal chapters in our history. Joining the navy at 14, Darby avoided the bloody horrors of the Somme and Gallipoli, which contributed heavily to the over 60 000 Australian war dead and 200 000 total casualties (from a population of only about 5 000 000), but he still played his part in what many historians suggest was the prime cause of 20th century totalitarianism, the second world war and the cold war. And it was all so pointless. He seemed like a nice bloke, and the reportage has thankfully avoided most of the 'hero' bullshit (I don't think he would have approved).

Segregation for the dummies

elgilito — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 06:49:03 -0800

Secret information concerning the Black American Troops. We must prevent the rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy between French officers and black officers. We may be courteous and amiable with these last, but we cannot deal with them on the same plane as with the white American officers without deeply wounding the latter. In August 1918, the French liaison officer at the American Expeditionary Force Headquarters gave his fellow officers a primer in US-style racial segregation, urging the military and civil authorities to implement similar procedures on French soil, as the local populations were felt by US authorities to be much too friendly towards American Black troops (PDF, page 13) (see also the first chapter of Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light). This memorandum, however, was never distributed and other similar leaflets were eventually destroyed by the French government. One soldier of the 93rd Division wrote his mother: These French people don't bother with no color line business. They treat us so good that the only time I ever know I'm colored is when I look in the glass.

concrete ships

dhruva — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 01:49:06 -0800

Concrete Ships Toward the end of the First World War, and during the Second World War, the United States commisioned the construction of experimental concrete ships.

11-11

mwhybark — Thu, 11 Nov 2004 09:12:42 -0800

Armistice Day: WW1 Document Archive. Verdun memorial. The Western Front today. A World War One Literature Blog. Trenches on the Web, unsurprisingly slammed today, it seems.

Consider visiting a nearby military cemetary today. I've found it to be a worthwhile use of my time in the past.

Color Photographs of the French Army in WW1

pandaharma — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 04:48:58 -0800

Color Photographs of the French Army in WW1 (via MemeFirst)

Nuclear 1914

stbalbach — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 23:50:46 -0800

June 28th is the 90th Anniversary of the terrorist assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which touched off the First World War. The world today is not much different then 90 years ago. Nuclear 1914: The Next Big Worry, by Henry Sokolski.

The Fatal Salient: letters and paintings of Harold Sandys Williamson

plep — Wed, 19 Mar 2003 10:54:20 -0800

The Fatal Salient. The First World War remembered; the letters and paintings of one of the participants, Harold Sandys Williamson. This and more via The Imperial War Museum's online exhibitions. [more inside]

beagle — Thu, 25 Oct 2001 05:48:18 -0800

Prototype mechanical soldier tried out in WWI! Your challenge on this site is to separate fact from fiction.