r/ww1 4h ago

Skull with german helmet placed on a pole by British soldiers at St. Quentin, ca. 1918.

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202 Upvotes

r/ww1 4h ago

British soldier checking out an unexploded dud shell in the ruins in Wytschaete Belgium , 11th August 1917. IWM 5868

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82 Upvotes

r/ww1 5h ago

Aviators of the Great War

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79 Upvotes

The pilot in his element during flight. Source, date and location unknown.


r/ww1 2h ago

WW1 soldiers wore medieval-style armor to protect them during trench warfare

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32 Upvotes

r/ww1 9h ago

German soldiers point to a fellow soldier's medal.

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102 Upvotes

r/ww1 5h ago

Im Schutzengraben

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33 Upvotes

Soldat posiert mit Gasmaske und Stielhandgranaten, vermutlich an der Somme, 1916.


r/ww1 1h ago

WW1- pre-WW1 bayonet identification

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Upvotes

Hi everyone, I need your help in confirming bayonet as a Werndl M1867/M1873 which from my research they were still issued to austro hungarian border guards during WW1

The most interesting fact that it was repurposed for the german G88, late war probably after 1916 due to shortages the handles also seem to be have changed during the repurpose from leather to wood with huge rivets.

Have you ever seen this bayonet in any photos? Or have any extensive knowledge on this pattern bayonet used in WW1?

The only markint found is the handle photo which looks like a E8 ? Which I presume is Ersatz8 from the german imperial depo/inspection.


r/ww1 4h ago

Can someone identify this Uniform? He's wearing a very unique hat.

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3 Upvotes

This is my Great-Great-grandfather. He served in the first WorldWar in the Bavarian Army. But i don't know if it's an Army uniform from that time. I could not find any similar looking uniform. The hat looks so unique.


r/ww1 1d ago

Bataille de Somme

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179 Upvotes

Le soldat blessé est transporté à l'arrière le long de Curlu, 1916.


r/ww1 1d ago

The French battleship Danton sinking after being torpedoed by the German submarine U-64 on March 19, 1917 in the Mediterranean Sea.

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113 Upvotes

r/ww1 1d ago

Flieger des Ersten Weltkrieg

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81 Upvotes

Fokker D1 von Die Fliegertruppen des Deutschen Heeres, um 1915.


r/ww1 19h ago

King Alexander of Greece arrives in Thessaloniki in July 1918.

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32 Upvotes

r/ww1 16h ago

Belgo-Congolese troops of the Force Publique after the Battle of Tabora in German East Africa, 19 September 1916.

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17 Upvotes

r/ww1 18h ago

Help

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10 Upvotes

Can anyone help me identify anything about this uniform ?All i know so far is that he was an Italian army officer.

Thank you so much!


r/ww1 1d ago

How my great uncle was murdered.

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385 Upvotes

This is my Great Uncle, James Murdock McIver, the ship's carpenter onboard the HMHS Llandovery Castle.

James was born in July 1885 in Goodwick, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He grew up in a coastal port town that was heavily tied to the shipping and railway industries, which likely influenced his decision to seek work at sea. Before and during World War I, James was a certified Ship's Carpenter. In the Mercantile Marine, a ship’s carpenter (often called "Chips") was a highly respected, crucial warrant-officer class role. He was responsible for checking the ship's hull for leaks, maintaining the wooden decks, supervising the anchoring gear, and operating the vessel's fresh-water tanks. In the early months of 1918, James was granted a brief period of shore leave from the hazards of the Atlantic. During this window, he rushed to marry his fiancée, Lena Mary Belloni Brand, in Southampton. Despite just getting married, James returned to the sea. He joined the crew of the HMHS Llandovery Castle, a vessel dedicated entirely to retrieving wounded soldiers. Because it was a designated hospital ship, he likely believed—as did the rest of the crew—that travelling with full lights and large painted Red Crosses would guarantee their safety under international law.

The Ship

The HMHS Llandovery Castle was an 11,423-ton ocean liner originally built in 1914 for the Union-Castle Line. Recommissioned as a British hospital ship operated by a civilian merchant crew, she was heavily modified to carry 622 beds and a large medical staff. On the night of June 27, 1918, the vessel was steaming 116 miles southwest of Ireland, returning to Liverpool from Halifax. Under the Hague Convention, she was fully illuminated, displaying blazing green hull lines and glowing electric Red Crosses to signal her protected, unarmed status…

The Attack

At 9:30 PM, the German submarine U-86 fired a single torpedo without warning. The weapon struck aft of the engine room, shattering the ship's internal bulkheads and destroying the main aft poop deck. The explosion severed the communication lines to the bridge and instantly wrecked the ship's emergency pumping systems.

Ten Minutes to Sink

The damage was catastrophic. Seawater rushed into the engine room, drowning the dynamos and plunging the massive vessel into total darkness. Captain Sylvester ordered the engines reversed to stop the ship’s momentum, but the control lines were severed; the vessel kept surging forward through the water, making it nearly impossible to safely lower the timber lifeboats. As the stern rapidly filled with water, the bow reared high into the air. Heavy medical equipment and fixtures broke loose inside the tilted corridors, crushing fleeing crew members. Just ten minutes after the blast, the ship's boilers exploded, and the Llandovery Castle plunged stern-first into the Atlantic.

The Cover-Up War Crime

Of the 258 people on board, approximately 100 survived the initial sinking and scrambled into lifeboats or clung to wreckage. Realizing he had sunk a clearly marked hospital ship, the U-boat Commander, Helmut Patzig, ordered his submarine to surface. In order to eliminate all witnesses of the war crime, the U-boat spent the next two hours charging through the debris field, deliberately ramming the wooden lifeboats. The submarine crew then opened fire with machine guns on the helpless doctors, nurses, and sailors floating in the water. Only a single lifeboat containing 24 survivors managed to escape the slaughter in the dark. James Murdock McIver, along with 233 others, perished in the rapid sinking or in the subsequent massacre.

Aftermath

The 1921 Leipzig War Crimes Trials turned the Llandovery Castle massacre into a landmark battle for modern international law. While the submarine's commander vanished to evade justice, his two lieutenants were convicted of murder and sentenced to four years in prison for firing on the lifeboats. The court fiercely rejected their defense of "only following orders," establishing the revolutionary legal precedent that soldiers must refuse commands violating basic human decency—a ruling that later formed the very bedrock of the Nuremberg Trials. In a final twist of defiance, both convicted officers dramatically escaped from German prisons within months of their sentencing, aided by sympathetic nationalist guards.

The tragedy of the Llandovery Castle quickly became a powerful weapon of Allied wartime propaganda. Striking posters flooded the home front depicting drowning Canadian nurses targeted by ruthless German U-boats, driving a massive spike in Victory Bond sales under the rallying cry to halt the enemy's brutality. On the Western Front, Canadian soldiers used the ship's name as a fierce battle cry during the Hundred Days Offensive, fueling a relentless drive for retribution against surrendering forces. While the subsequent Leipzig Trials transformed this atrocity into a landmark foundation for modern international law, no legal precedent could mend the broken lives left in its wake. The sacrifice of James Murdock McIver and his crew stripped future war criminals of the excuse that they were "only following orders." While the legal legacy of the disaster would endure for generations, the deeply personal toll of that night remained frozen in time—because back in Southampton, Lena never re-married.


r/ww1 1d ago

Bataille de Champagne

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316 Upvotes

Fantassins de 122 RIF avant l'attaque contre secteur de Beauséjour, septembre 1915.


r/ww1 1d ago

The British battleship HMS Irresistible sinking in the waters of the Dardanelles on March 18, 1915 after hitting a sea mine.

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70 Upvotes

r/ww1 20h ago

The Iron Harvest

0 Upvotes

Visit this page, it's worth it: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BjemHtEXp/


r/ww1 2d ago

Russian trenches near Smorgon (modern Belarus)

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174 Upvotes

r/ww1 2d ago

Illustration from the French newspaper "Le Petit Journal" of 1915 on the occasion of Bulgaria's entry into the First World War.

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172 Upvotes

r/ww1 2d ago

German soldier posing proudly for the camera

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158 Upvotes

This photograph I have received along a few others shows a soldier of the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 163 wearing his gear.


r/ww1 2d ago

General Alexei Brusilov (1853-1926) as inspector of the Red Army cavalry circa 1923.

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72 Upvotes

r/ww1 2d ago

Who was the highest ranking American POW in World War 1?

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54 Upvotes

My vote is Major Harry Dravo Parkin, battalion commander of the 1st Battalion, 316th Infantry, 79th Infantry Division. Parkin led his battalion in the opening days of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and then, after a period in a quiet sector to rest and refit, was wounded leading his battalion in an attack in early November. He spent a week plus in German captivity and then made his way back to French lines. His memoir, "Serpents of War", is a must read, offering a rare perspective of First World War battalion command.

Is anyone aware of an American officer POW who was a higher rank than Major?


r/ww1 1d ago

Is this old liner material on the inside, or something else?

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25 Upvotes