50 Facts

from the First World War

Weapons
Over 86 million British 18 pound artillery shells
were fired during the war
The largest gun of the war was made by German
manufacturer Krupp. Nicknamed the ‘Paris Gun’ it
could fire a 210Ib shell over 80 miles
 Approximately
75,000,000
British No.5 grenades
were made during the
war
 ‘Little Willie’ was the first prototype tank. Built in
1915, it carried a crew of 3 and could travel as fast
as 3 mph (4.8 km/h)
Approximately 30
different poisonous gases
were used during WWI
Trench warfare
All frontline trenches were built
in a zig-zag with angular ‘fire-
bays’ to minimise the effect of
shell fire and to prevent the
enemy from firing down the
length of the trench
During the night, perhaps 1 man in 4 was posted
on sentry duty. Their job was to listen and watch
for signs of enemy activity
During dawn and dusk, the entire front line on all sides
was ordered to ‘Stand To!’
Every man was put on full alert in case of enemy attack.
The Germans started constructing the Hindenburg Line in
September 1916 and it was still being built in late 1918
 In the trenches in the Vosges area of the front winter
temperatures dropped so low that bread and wine froze
The Air War
The Allies lost 2.2 planes for every one lost by Germany and
the Central Powers
The temperature in the gondolas of Zeppelins
would often fall to -25°C and below
To become a British ‘Ace’ a British fighter pilot had to score 5 kills.
It was the same for French and American pilots
The most successful fighter of the entire war
was Rittmeister Manfred von Richthofen.
He shot down 80 planes.
The Royal Flying Corps decided not to issue their pilots with parachutes
because they thought that this would encourage them to bail out of
their distressed plane rather than try to bring it home safely
The War at Sea
The Battle of Jutland took place at the
end of May 1916 and was the largest
naval battle of the war
 By the end of the war a total of 375
German U-boats had been commissioned
7,646 Allied ships were hit (sunk/damaged/captured)
by U-boats between 1914 and 1918
A total of 16,500 depth charges were used by
The Royal Navy during the war
Infantry Battles
In the preliminary artillery bombardment for the Battle of the Somme,
British artillery fired 1.73 million shells on to the German lines
 Kaiser Wilhelm was so
confident of victory at Ypres in
1914 he travelled to the front
to lead his troops through the
town on a victory march.
He would be disappointed.
During the landings on the Gallipoli peninsular, 17,000 ANZAC
troops were dropped off at the wrong beach
The battle of Verdun caused almost 1 million casualties,
making it one of the most deadly battles in history
During 100 days of fighting the Third Battle of Ypres, the
Allies managed to advance a little over 5 miles
Combatants: Britain & The Commonwealth
Almost 5.4 million men from the British and
Commonwealth armies served on the Western Front
at some point during the war
It is thought that 15% of
British wartime volunteers
were underage
 3,080 British men were sentenced to death (1.1% of all convicted).
Of these, 89% were reprieved and the sentence converted to a lesser one
Within two weeks of
Kitchener’s ‘Call to
Arms’, 100,000 men had
signed up: Kitchener’s
first army of volunteers
(K1) was born
Combatants: Imperial Germany
8 of the German scientists who worked on their gas warfare project
went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize
During the war the Germans used
600 million sandbags
Paul von Hindenburg
wrote 1,500 letters to
his wife Gertrude
during the war
The Pickelhaube was gradually replaced with
the distinctive Stahlhelm. The coal scuttle steel
helmet was also used in various guises
throughout WW2
Bravery

VC, DSO and Bar, MC and Bar, MM group

awarded to Captain James McCudden, RFC
During the Battle of the
Somme, 51 Victoria
Crosses were awarded.
17 of them were
awarded posthumously
Captain Noel Chavasse (RAMC) was the only man
awarded the Victoria Cross twice during the war
119 Americans were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
during the war
Known informally as ‘The Blue Max’ the Pour le Mérite was the
highest order of merit issued by the Kingdom of Prussia
The youngest recipient of the Victoria Cross was Boy (First Class)
John Cornwell. He served on HMS Chester and was 16 years old
Animals at War
8 million horses died on all sides during the war
Sergeant Stubby, a Boston Bull Terrier, was the most
decorated dog of the war and the only dog to be
promoted to the rank of sergeant
By 1918 there were around 22,000 pigeons carrying
post to British soldiers along the western front
Germany had 6,000 trained dogs ready for
action at the beginning of the war
Casualties Casualties
Each British soldier was given 2 bandages as part of their field
dressing kit. This was to enable them to treat a bullet wound
that passed completely through their body – thus causing 2
wounds
There were 863 British and Commonwealth deaths on
11 November 1918
At the end of the war
there were over 250,000
wounded British and
Commonwealth soldiers
who suffered total or
partial amputation
There were approximately 37,500,000 casualties
(killed/wounded/missing/prisoner) during the war
Surrender and Armistice
There were 3 separate Armistices signed towards
the end of the war:

Turkey signed an armistice on 30 October 1918,

Austria-Hungary signed one on 3 November, and
finally, Germany signed an Armistice on 11
November 1918
The original peace treaty signed by Germany on 11 November was
only actually valid for 30 days but was continually renewed until the
signing of the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of
Versailles was the
formal peace
settlement signed
after the war had
ended. It was signed
on 28th June 1919
French Field Marshal
Ferdinand Foch, who was
of the opinion the
restrictions on Germany
didn’t go far enough, said
of the Treaty of Versailles:

‘This is not peace. It is an

Armistice for twenty years.’
All of these facts have been
taken from The First World War
Fact Book by Scott Addington

Available on Amazon Kindle for

less than the price of a takeaway
coffee.

Download your copy now!

Amazon UK

Amazon.com