Posted on 02/27/2014 1:25:30 PM PST by C19fan
A fascinating archive of almost every original First World War recruitment poster ever issued has emerged for sale after spending 30 years hidden in an attic. The extremely rare collection includes nearly 200 posters issued between 1914 and 1916 to persuade British men to do their bit to protect King and country by enlisting in the army. The posters have an increasingly menacing tone in the months before compulsory conscription was introduced in 1916 after Britain had suffered so many losses on the Western Front.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Just saw the film War Horse. What a waste.
What? No 1921 version of Pajama Boy urging his brother to serve in the forces? Quele Suprise!
Not the film, it was tremendous. The war.
KIDDING!
Yeah, truth in lending didn't apply back then or the posters would read "Join the Army and end up chopped up by machine guns during a mass infantry assault and dying in the mud, or being blinded by gas, or losing a couple of limbs!" It isn't really quite as inspirational.
Gosh, I really cannot get it righ, BTD
War Horse the film was tremendous.
WWI was an abysmal waste.
My first husband’s great uncle was gassed in WW1. He and his wife lived in a military Quonset hut set up in the back yard of a relative. He was quite disabled by the time I met him, back in 1970.
Glad you corrected that. I loved the film.
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World War 1 was a waste. The technology that supported defensive warfare; machine guns, trenches, railway transport, far outpaced the state of offensive technology. Internal combustion engine transportation, radio communication equipment and airpower was not sufficiently developed. And so it became, by necessity, mass slaughter.
America did not have to enter this war. But our bankers had loaned so much money to the British, who had bundled all of the Allied war debt, that they could not afford the Allies to lose.
I wonder what our CW2 posters will look like....
They call WW1 Royal family feud Seem all Royal families in Europe had everybody in that war
We entered the war but had little to do with the outcome other than convincing the Germans that our sheer numbers would eventually defeat them. They had been fighting a war of attrition and were running out of bodies. Our troops were under-trained novices who were lucky the war ended as soon as it did after they arrived. WWI was fascinating. The two best books I have found on the subject are:
A World Undone by G.J. Meyer
Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie
My Great Grandfather was a Captain in the AEF. He’d lied about his age to get into the Spanish American War, and was in the Puerto Rico Campaign, which led him to think it was splendid adventure.
On the Western Front he was involved in an attack across a pontoon bridge against machine guns. His view of war was considerably different after that.
A great and unnecessary waste that paved the way for the rest of the 20th century in all it’s bloody glory.
“Castles of Steel by Robert K. Massie”
Massie’s book was very good. I also enjoyed, The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman (I think that’s the name)
Tuchman write “Guns of August” as well.
Yup, good as well. A great portrait of the world prior to the war. The anarchist movement was at full flower at that time with William McKinley’s assassination as it’s crowning achievement.
Another excellent read. Thankd Pappy
As for American intervention in the war, I believe our two main contributions to the Allied victory were money and food. We financed their war debt, and fed their troops and people. The collapse of the Central Powers was as much done by starvation in Germany and Austria-Hungary as it was a matter of military defeat. Starvation also led to Russia's exit and revolution (land, bread, peace).
A great and unnecessary waste that paved the way for the rest of the 20th century in all it’s bloody glory.
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Agreed!
"The Illusion Of Victory: America In World War I"
http://www.amazon.com/Illusion-Victory-America-World-War/dp/0465024696/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393613544&sr=1-1&keywords=illusion+of+victory
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