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November/December 2005

 

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The Great War

Features Page
   

HISTORY TIMELINE

Timeline of the Great War (WWI) and other world events from 1914 to 1919.

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A DAY IN THE LIFE DURING ... THE GREAT WAR
by Jacquelin Cangro
Meet young British soldier Simon Broadhurst and hear about his experiences during the Christmas truce on the Western Front in 1914.


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GAVRILO PRINCIP AND THE BLACK HAND SECRET SOCIETY
by Anna Davies
When nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip leveled his revolver and fired, he did not know the bullet hurtling through the air toward Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria would spark the greatest war Europe had ever witnessed. Who was Gavrilo Princip? What happened that June day in 1914? And how was it that one young man unwittingly launched the Great War?


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LIFE IN THE TRENCHES: A WORLD BELOW GROUND
by Joanne Liu
At the beginning of World War I, the British army owned twenty-five hundred shovels. Just four years later, it had over ten and a half million. Why did one army accumulate so many shovels? To dig trenches—deep, gaping holes in the ground. Find out what life was like for those who lived, fought, and died in these trenches.


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ACES HIGH: THE AVIATORS OF WORLD WAR I
by Hilary Smillie
Nothing excited people on the home front more than reading stories about dogfights, or battles between fighter planes above the air in war-torn Europe. Before the Great War, the use of aircraft in warfare was unheard of. By the end of the war, the part aircraft and aviators played were legendary. Hear the story of the evolution of fighter planes during the war and meet the famous aces from both sides who flew them.

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LANDSHIPS: TANKS IN THE GREAT WAR
by Captain Edward H. Carpenter
Impressed by a demonstration of a prototype armored vehicle mounted on caterpillar tracks rolling over a barbed-wire obstacle in 1915, Winston Churchill sponsored the development of the landship – whose codename was “tank.” Find out the role these new vehicles played in the First World War.

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AN AMERICAN AMBULANCIER IN FRANCE
Ellen B. Cutler
The people of the United States watched anxiously from the sidelines for almost three years after the onset of World War I in 1914. Thousands of Americans volunteered to help France and England in any way they could; many of them drove ambulances overseas. The French army, in particular, depended on these brave volunteers. Read a true account of one of these brave volunteers, Jerome “Jerry” Preston of Massachusetts.


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TOP SECRET: THE WAR PROPAGANDA BUREAU
by Shahbano Bilgrami
In August 1914, shortly after the outbreak of the war, David Lloyd George, the British chancellor of the exchequer, was asked to set up the War Propaganda Bureau (WPB). The aim of the Bureau was to recruit volunteers to the armed forces, as well as to help combat German war propaganda. Take a tour through the WPB and see what an average day’s work there was like.


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EDITH CAVELL AND THE BELGIAN RESISTANCE
by Pat Sherman

Can you imagine being an English nurse in Belgium during the Great War and joining the Belgian resistance, knowing that the penalty if you got caught was death? That is exactly what Miss Edith Cavell did! Read about the bravery of this dedicated nurse and how she became an inspiration to millions.


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THE TERRIBLE TRAGEDY OF THE LUSITANIA
by Sierra Morningstar


NOTICE! TRAVELERS intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.

This was the notice that the Germans placed in newspapers before the Lusitania set sail. Learn about the last voyage of the doomed ship and how it fanned the flames of war in the United States.


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BREAKING THE CODE: THE ZIMMERMANN TELEGRAM
by Rachel Hartman
Did you know that the Germans tried to get Mexico to join its side in World War I with the promise of helping Mexico regain territory it had lost to the United States? This is what was proposed in the Zimmermann Telegram - learn more about the men who deciphered the telegram and what the impact of this document was.


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MOINA MICHAEL AND THE START OF A TRADITION
by Rebecca Salomonsson
The Memorial Day poppy was once a well-kept tradition in the United States – a tradition dating back to World War I, initiated by a woman named Moina Belle Michael. For many years, the poppy stood as a symbol for the fallen, and many veterans’ organizations sold them to help raise money for veterans in need. The tradition has more or less fallen by the wayside in the United States, but just who was the woman who inspired the long-lived tradition?

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THE SEEDS OF VICTORY: LIBERTY GARDENS IN WORLD WAR I
by Kelly Austin
How do you feed an army of four million soldiers? The U.S. government realized that there wasn’t going to be enough food for everyone after America entered the war. Its citizens would have to conserve the food that was left and start growing their own. Find out how victory gardens helped play a role in feeding a nation.

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A DEADLY CLOUD OF POISON GAS
by Amy O'Quinn
The date: April 22, 1915.

The place: Ypres, France.
The significance: the Germans debuted chlorine gas as a weapon against the French army at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres. Chlorine gas was the first poison gas used in World War I, and the results were deadly. Learn how the use of poison gas in WWI opened Pandora's box and ushered in an era of new horror in warfare.


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SENDING MESSAGES: THE CHOCTAW CODE TALKERS
by Annie Laura Smith
When America entered World War I in 1917, the lack of secure communications was a critical problem. Coding and decoding messages was very time-consuming and delayed important information. Enter Native American soldiers from the Choctaw tribe. Discover how the Choctaw language provided the only coded messages never broken by the German army in WWI.


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THE PURPLE DEATH: SPANISH INFLUENZA
by Sara Francis Fujimura
In 1918, the Spanish flu, or influenza, left its devastating mark in both world and American history that year. The microscopic killer claimed the lives of more than twenty-one million people as it circled the earth. The United States lost more lives to the Spanish flu in one year – 675,000 people – than it did to the whole Great
War! Find out where the flu began, how soldiers unwittingly spread it and why the Spanish flu is in the news again today.

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NOT WILLING TO FIGHT: CONSCIENTOUS OBJECTORS
by Jim Cort
The battlefields of World War I were hungry. They devoured men in wholesale lots. To meet the demand for replacement troops, most governments turned to conscription, or the draft. Formal, large-scale conscription was an invention of the twentieth century. But with this new practice came a new problem. Conscription cast a wide net. In addition to the willing, it gathered up men who were not willing to become soldiers. These were the conscientious objectors. Find out why some men did not want to fight and how each warring nation dealt with them.

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CAPTURING THE KAISER
by Melanie Storie
Learn about the dramatic failed attempt of a former U.S. senator who hatched a plot to capture Kaiser Wilhelm II in Holland  in order to hold him accountable for war crimes at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.


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ARTS & CRAFTS Page
   

 

ACES IN THE AIR by Laurie Whitman

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MAKE A POPPY WREATH by Anne Davies

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LITERATURE STUDY GUIDES Page
   
LORD OF THE NUTCRACKER MAN (Ages 9-12)
by Catherine Morin
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THREE POETS OF THE GREAT WAR (Ages 12+)
by Jim Cort
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EARLY LEARNING Page
   
EARLY LEARNING UNIT
by Renee Millis
Activities to explore the Great War: the life of soldiers, life on the home front and the role of man's best friends during the war. Plus the story of one very famous bear.
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