My German grandfather getting fixed up before heading back to the front.
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ANZACs in the village of Surafand, Palestine
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Arab tribesmen had a black reputation for theft, grave robbery, and murder of the occasional isolated soldier, and the British occupational authority found them to be nigh ungovernable, so they went out of their way to ignore what the locals were up to.  With the war just over the ANZACS were waiting around waiting to ship for home when a New Zealander soldier was murdered while chasing a thief carrying off his pack.  The thief dropped a native hat and his tracks ran into the village of Surafend, an official investigation entering the village the next day received no local cooperation and appeared to be impotent.  That night about 200 of the New Zealanders, with some minority Australian participation, cordoned off the village and adjacent Bedouin camp, set aside the women and children, then killed with bayonets and clubs every adult male they found and burned the village to make sure they got them all.  This happened within sight and sound of divisional headquarters, which apparently failed to intervene, and hundreds of Australian soldiers turned out to watch.  Death estimates vary from 40 to 120.  In the following investigation not a single man admitted to it or identified a participant, the surviving Arabs declined to cooperate, and no charges were brought.  
The Surafend Massacre  
NZ .gov

Sounds like they fucked around and found out.

A couple months before the Lusitania there was the sinking of the Falaba (or the "Thrasher Incident").   Sailing from Liverpool to West Africa in March 1915 with 95 crew and 147 passengers, cargo included 13 tons of ammunition.  U-28 encountered her in daylight on the surface, the Falaba ran for it for about an hour but halted when U-28 caught up and threatened to otherwise sink her immediately.

Photo of U-28 pulling up alongside Falaba:
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The Germans claim they gave the Falaba 20 minutes to evacuate but that the Falaba's Captain wasted time radioing the Royal Navy for help; according to a British inquiry survivors from the Falaba (the Captain died) claim they only gave them an insufficient 8 minutes (both accounts should be taken with salt).  In any event the evacuation became chaotic, half the crew elected to prioritize their lives over the passengers, some boats hung up or capsized, and boats that successfully launched weren't fully loaded.

Passengers and crew mill about in primitive lifejackets:
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Men cling to a Falaba lifeboat that has hung up in the davits:
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German claims that they had to hurry away because Falaba called in a warship are somewhat supported by a photo taken by U-28 indicating that the torpedoing (rather than deck gunnery) was done hastily, fired from the stern tubes while pulling away rapidly, at an angle that risked a dud:
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Several lifeboats had not yet launched and were destroyed by the torpedo explosion - and the secondary explosion of the munitions cargo - or became tangled when the ship listed. 104 people were killed including one American, mining engineer Leon Thrasher, whose body washed up in Ireland 106 days later.  Despite opposition by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, and several Congressmen who argued the US shouldn't risk war over "some fool, or idiot, or nonpatriotic rascal", the US issued a sharp diplomatic note to the Germans over the incident.

Survivors recovered - some would die from hypothermia after being brought aboard:
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In 1917 the cargo of ammunition aboard the ironically named SS Olive Branch exploded with such great violence that it sunk the U-28, which was shelling it with her deck gun after a crippling torpedo hit.  Some U-28 survivors were seen swimming, but Olive Branch's lifeboats didn't pick any up.

Tag...

My grandfather made multiple trips across the pond delivering supplies to the troops on the USS Celebes. I think he hated the English more than the Germans as they'd lie about how fast their ships could go which caused the convoys to be more spread out, and made it harder for the escorting warships to do their job.

https://www.shipscribe.com/usnaux/ww1/ships/celebes.htm

Not sure how I missed this thread. Good stuff.

Not a period pic, but period rifles. Bonus for who knows what they are.

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Enlighten us.


No freeloading:



Fiat 2000 replica.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_2000

On this day in 1914

Zeppelin-Staaken R.V bomber view from the nose.  No style or aerodynamics points for that radiator.  Just one built (but she had a cousin go into mass production), 16 combat missions, cracked up landing in fog
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There was an engineer and gunner seated in each nacelle

squadron emblems at Wright Patterson Airforce Museum

The woman with a stick:  The 50th Aero Squadron... insignia is the Dutch Girl, the trademark emblem of Old Dutch Cleanser. This image was adopted by the men of the 50th Aero Squadron to represent that their focus was to "clean up on Germany" during WWI.  

Flew observation/photo recon in France, attempted the first resupply of American troops by air to the Lost Battalion (failed due to heavy losses to ground fire, one pilot and gunner receiving the Medal of Honor posthumously).

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The Zeppelin-Staaken 8301 for the Navy was a handsome bird
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German "lozenge" pattern camouflage looked cool
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It sure does

another pic from my recent trip to Wright Patt.

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@Gewehr98

they are his name lol

I went to WPAFB as a kid on field trips from school in the early 70's.  It was always a favorite for the entire group.

It's surprising to me that a mere 10-12 years after the first airplane flew about 100' and never got 10' off the ground, there were thousands of airplanes that were flying miles upon miles and had ceilings of thousands of feet.

@4xGM300m

Gewehr 98's that were brought back by the US government and given away to civilians who had bought war bonds to support our efforts. We employed French civilians to 'demil' a lot of the 70 trainloads (not cars, train loads) of stuff we considered our part of captured enemy equipment.

Their method was to press drill rod into the muzzle and chamber and grind down the bolt face. Gew88's had the firing pin tip clipped and the separate bolt head discarded. Some have shown up with only the bolt handle being welded to the reciever.

Rifle on the left has solid provenance to being part of a VFW display in Manchester NH since 1921. Never cleaned or disassembled since the Great War, still has French soil on it. These can be brought back to life with some machining and parts replacement. I've done a few, but prefer to keep them as what they are.

First time I went it was still on the main base and was there when they moved to the current location.  Richard Nixon was at the dedication.

Dad was stationed at Wright Patt and we lived in Huber Heights.

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German submarine crew on shore leave in Baltimore, 1916
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Second voyage, New London CT Nov 1916
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Deutschland was a privately built and operated "merchant submarine" (unarmed blockade runner), trading dyes, medicine, and gemstones for metals and rubber.  The Germans signed an agreement with the primary US Navy submarine contractor to construct a fleet of merchant subs in US shipyards, but the US would enter the war first.  Five other merchant submarines were built in Germany; sister ship Bremen (carrying banknotes to pay for the American-built submarine fleet) disappeared on her first voyage September 1916, with various rumors about her sinking and some debris washed up in Maine.  Deutschland was taken into the Imperial Navy and armed after the US declared war and had a successful war career, was surrendered at the end of the war, then sold to a newspaper and used for promotion for a few years until scrapped.

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@Gewehr98



Thanks for the info.

Demilitarization of bolt action rifles in a time when FA guns were free? Why had they done this?

No freeloading:





After the Battle of Cambrai, France; 20-November to 7-December-1917, German soldiers prepare load a captured British Mark I tank onto a railroad flat car.

@4xGM300m

Good pics. The entire WW1 German panzer system was based on captured Allied tanks.

I think the demil was because they were meant to be distributed to civilians, though GI's could bring back whatever. My local Carnegie library had a full sled MG08 on display when you walked in. I was always in awe of it as a kid. I think they ended up giving it to the alphabet boys

There are images of German pickle hats stacked in huge pyramids. I think the level of your contribution decided what you got as a bond gift.

Many of the Gew98's were given to US national guard for training and ceremony. I've come across some that were crudely reamed out to accept 30-06 blanks for gun salutes. There was an issue in the early 2000's when the Alabama NG sold off a bunch of them, seemingly against the .gov wishes. They tried to track the sales and get them back. Lots of noncompliance.

I can't find the link, but there is a site that has many images of a German tank rebuilding facility. May already be in this thread.

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ETA another of my war time DWM G's. Still need a 14 and a 18.

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Battleship USS South Carolina (BB-26) drydocked at the Brooklyn Navy yard, september 1912



HMA submarine J1 being refitted in Sutherland Dock, Cockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney Harbour, 18 November 1919

1915 DWM P08 and 1917 unit marked DWM LP08

Simply mind blowing.

IIRC the youngest midshipman to command a landing craft at Gallipoli was 14 years old.  The RN was severely stressed and deployed every cadet they had.


One doughboy asked to hold the Dachshund when they posed for the group photo.  
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That makes him the strange one.

Here's a ton of WW1 photos of the Hun

https://www.flickr.com/photos/drakegoodman/sets/72157608970862941


A young Austrian soldier serving in the Imperial German Army, Corporal Hitler

https://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/revealed-1-in-3-wwi-british-naval-heroes-were-underage/
Analysis of over 380,000 digitised historic naval records reveals that nearly a third of the sailors who helped Britain achieve naval supremacy in World War I were 'underage' volunteers.

The Royal Navy Registers of Seaman's Services, 1900-1928, now available on Ancestry, detail each sailor's name, birthdate, birthplace, vessels served on, service number, and other service details. Additionally, the records include more personal information such as remarks on appearance, conduct, promotions and reasons for discharge.

The records reveal that a large percentage of new entrants to the navy were adolescent boys aged 14-17, despite a legal combat age of 18. Numbering over 100,000, these boy sailors rushed to enlist following the outbreak of war in 1914, many of them leaving home for the first time.

16 year old Claude Choules, battleship Revenge
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Sobering.

Wounded almost 70 times...

Wow!!!  It's fucking criminal that we don't teach this kind of history in public schools.

Indeed!!!

There's a lot of story in that photo!

Betcha that cocky young Marine on pre war sea duty isn't the same man that returned from France.

Damn!

First I've heard of the term, Canary Girls.  Fucking sad fate.

Wow

Childbearing hips!

I suspect they are Lancers, but yeah... You're not wrong!!.

Hell yeah, he did!

That is how it is done.

Agreed!  Nobody would be the same after that horror.

French soldier with a German Mauser 13 mm Tank-Gewehr M1918, the world's first anti-tank rifle
WW1

Looks like it can shoot around corners.

Gott strafe England ("May God punish England") was printed on posters and postcards, stamped in belt buckles and buttons, and was common graffiti.
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Recaptured village near Soissons
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Another captured village
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A German civilian internee in Australia was punished for wearing this sweet hand made jacket in the camp
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unusual SPAD S.A.

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The torpedo room of a WW1 German U-boat, 1917



French soldiers camouflaging a 370 mm railway gun on September 5th, 1917