HISTORY AND UNDILUTED DAILY NEWS

British entry into World War I The United Kingdom entered World War I on 4 August 1914, when King George V declared war after the expiry of an ultimatum to the German Empire. The official explanation focused on protecting Belgium as a neutral country; the main reason, however, was to prevent a French defeat that would have left Germany in control of Western Europe. The Liberal Party was in power with prime minister H. H. Asquith and foreign minister Edward Grey leading the way. The Liberal cabinet made the decision, although the party had been strongly anti-war until the last minute. The Conservative Party was pro-war. The Liberals knew that if they split on the war issue, they would lose control of the government to the Conservatives. For much of the 19th century, Britain pursued a foreign policy later known as splendid isolation, which sought to maintain the balance of pow...

First World War. This photograph from the archives of the League of Nations shows a soldier killed in World War I. The war raged for more than four years, from August 1914 to November 1918, and resulted in the deaths of more than nine million combatants. As many as seven million civilians also were killed in the war or died as a consequence of it. In the hope of ensuring that such a destructive conflict would never recur, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson and other leaders established, at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, which was to be the centerpiece of a postwar international order. The organization ultimately proved powerless, however, to prevent the outbreak of an even more destructive war in 1939. The League of Nations was formally dissolved in April 1946 with the founding, after World War II, of the United Nations. The archives of the League were transferred to the United Nations and are housed at the UN office in Geneva. They were inscribed on the UNESCO ...

 Fake Tree Observation Post of WW1 Credit: Imperial War Museum in London ----------------------------------------- Because the front was constantly watched by the enemy, one just couldn’t erect a new tree, because any new tree appearing out of nowhere would have instantly drawn attraction and fire.  The fake tree had to replace an existing tree. A dead tree, blasted by a bomb, located ideally near the trenches was chosen.  The tree was then photographed and extensively studied, measurements taken and sketches made. A hollow, steel replica was then made in the workshop far behind the lines.  At night, under the cover of darkness and artillery fire, the real tree was felled and the fake one installed in its place. The artillery fire also drowned out the noise of the work. During the WWI, both sides kept constant watch of the enemy lines for movement, but that was not an easy task. Anyone who stuck his head above the trench parapet for more than a few seconds was shot. ...

Hastein was a prominent Viking chieftain and pirate in the 9th century.  Known for his extensive raids across Europe, he led expeditions to France, Spain, Italy, and possibly even North Africa. Hastein's cunning and tactical prowess made him a feared adversary, leaving a lasting impact on the regions he targeted. expand it to 200 words Hastein, also known as Hasting or Hæsten, was a prominent Viking chieftain and pirate who lived during the 9th century. His name is often mentioned alongside other legendary Norse figures due to his extensive and daring raids across Europe. Unlike many of his contemporaries who focused on specific regions, Hastein's expeditions were notable for their vast geographical range. One of Hastein's earliest recorded raids was in France, where he targeted monasteries and towns along the Seine River. His fleet then moved further south, reaching the Iberian Peninsula. In Spain, Hastein's forces encountered both Christian and Muslim territories, dem...

German soldier lighting his cigarette with a flamethrower, 1917. Two German soldiers with a Wechselapparat (“Wex”) flamethrower. The Germans introduced this small flamethrower in 19 17 to replace the earlier Kleif. The Wechselapparat (“Wex”) had a doughnut-shaped backpack fuel container with a spherical propellant container in the middle. This design was updated during the Second World War to become flamethrower model 40. However, model 40 was considered too fragile so it was soon replaced by model 41, a simpler construction with smaller, horizontal, cylindrical backpack containers. “Wechselapparat” is German for “exchange apparatus”. The flamethrower, which brought terror to French and British soldiers was used by the German army in the early phases of the First World War in 1914 and 1915 (and which was quickly adopted by both). The Flammenwerfers (flamethrowers) tended to be used in groups of six during the battle, each machine worked by two men. They were used mostly to clear forwar...

A German woman who joined the Islamic State and chained up a five-year-old Yazidi slave girl, leaving her to die of thirst in the sun, has been handed a 14-year prison sentences. Jennifer Wenisch joined ISIS in Iraq and allowed the young girl to die of thirst for wetting the bed in 2015. She and her husband, an ISIS fighter, had bought the young Yazidi girl and her mother as slaves, and went on to commit horrific acts of abuse. The woman argued in court that her husband had restrained the girl and left her to die, but judges decided that she was equally responsible for the girl's fate. Jennifer was originally given 10 years in prison in 2021 for her involvement in the death of the five-year-old Yazidi slave girl. The Court finally increased her jail term to 14 years and her husband is serving life imprisonment.

Trench warfare Trench warfare  is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. It became archetypically associated with World War I (1914–1918), when the Race to the Sea rapidly expanded trench use on the Western Front starting in September 1914. Trench warfare proliferated when a revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, resulting in a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage. On the Western Front in 1914–1918, both sides constructed elaborate trench, underground, and dugout systems opposing each other along a front, protected from assault by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to artillery fire from both...

Sergeant Spencer Gwynne of the 10th Light Horse Regiment sitting on his horse as it lies on the ground in Palestine during WW1. Many soldiers from the light horse regiments taught their horses to lie down, which was a very useful form of protection if caught in the open under fire from an enemy. Western Front during WW1, it's said that the life of a horse was more valuable than a soldier's life. Photograph from the Australian War Memorial.

A US Marine gives a cigarette to a Japanese soldier buried in the sand. Iwo Jima, 1945.  "US Marine gives a Japanese soldier a cigarette before pulling him out of a shell hole. Armed with a grenade, the soldier was lying in wait for 36 hours.  Marines saw him buried in the black sand and were able to knock the grande out of reach.  He surrendered, but thinking he might be booby trapped, they approached cautiously. He requested a cigarette and got it; then he was dug out of the shell hole.  The 3rd and 4th Marine Divisions broke up the remaining organized resistance on March 16, 1945, the same day this photo was taken.

Although we see this during the bombings of London, how many recall doing this during air raid drills during school hours? With seemingly endless bombing campaigns reducing cities to rubble, those lucky enough to not be directly engaged in combat still often lived in constant fear of death.  Pictured above are British schoolchildren during an air raid drill.  It is unlikely that either their wooden desks or their hand placement would have provided much protection had they suffered a direct hit from a German bomb.

The story behind this photo continues to shock anyone who recognizes it. In 1968, two men kidnapped Kim Bird. They put her in a homemade coffin, took this photo and buried her in the woods. They hung the photo on a local bulletin board and signed on the back, "I am buried in the woods, you have no more than 5 days to find me." For days, passersby looked at the photo and thought it was a joke. Until a former colleague of Kim's saw the photo. She immediately went to the police, but they didn't know what to do. After all, they only have the photo, but where it is buried is unknown. Then Kim's classmate started looking at the photo and realized that some letters are written strangely, highlighted in bold, and if you look closely, you can read the girl's secret message.... On the leaf was written Kim + Brad (classmate's name). It was exactly the kind of inscription they had once left on a tree during a vacation in the woods as a token of their love fo...

  Hideki Tojo, who was executed with a secret message engraved on his false teeth. Tojo was the man behind the attack on Pearl Harbor, millions of civilian deaths and war crimes against enemy soldiers.  He was Prime Minister of Japan during WWII, and a proponent of pre-emptive attacks on Japan's enemies, including America. The wholesale slaughter of Chinese civilians, and the terrible treatment of Allied POWs were carried out on his watch.  Upon his arrest by American GIs he shot himself in the chest, but missed his heart and was revived. Whilst awaiting trial he was issued new dentures by American medical staff. What he didn't know was that 'REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR' had been engraved on the inside of them in Morse code. During his trial he was unrepentant, claiming Japan was righteous and brave. He did request that the Americans treat the Japanese with dignity and respect in defeat - unusual considering the Japanese treatment of their enemies. They were fans of things li...

 The Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass shootings during World War II. I did not know until today about this group. Did you?  The Nazi Einsatzgruppen and other mobile death squads were operational on the Eastern Front specifically tasked to kill Jews during World War II. These units were primarily responsible for carrying out mass shootings, mass killings, and other forms of violence against civilians, particularly Jews and other perceived enemies of the Nazi regime. The Einsatzgruppen were composed of SS and police personnel and were responsible for implementing the "Final Solution," which aimed to exterminate the Jewish population in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. Their operations included rounding up and executing large numbers of people, often in mass shootings, in places such as forests, ravines, and pits. These death squads played a significant role in the Holocaust, and their actions resulted in ...

  Making Sense of a Rape Photograph: Se.xual Violence as Social Performance on the Eastern Front, 1939-1944 This article begins with a disturbing image that has a no-less unsettling provenance. It shows a group of fifteen young German soldiers standing in a semicircle, carousing and laughing as one of their comrades emulates a sex act with an unidentified woman who may or may not be dead. The laughter of his comrades suggests approval for the actions of the man on the ground. Although it is not clear if the photograph depicts an act of actual rape, its aftermath, or mere mimicry, what is certain is that the depicted scene ascribes the woman only one function: she is an object of amusement that mediates coercion and asymmetric power relations It is very possible that this picture was taken before or after the soldiers raped the woman. However, irrespective of whether any penetration actually occurred, the men imitated a rape scene showcasing the woman’s body as a sexualized objec...

 British Troops of the 7th Green Howards, 69th Infantry Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Infantry Division with an Ordnance QF 6-pounder anti-tank gun cover a lane near Lingèvres Normandy - June 16, 1944 Designed in the UK before WW2, the Ordnance QF 6-pounder didn’t enter service until 1942, first being deployed in North Africa.  The 6-pounder design was also adopted by the US Army as the “57 mm Gun M1”, US production guns had a slightly longer barrel. About 1/3 of the US production guns were delivered to the British Army with a further 400 guns being sent to the Soviet Union as Lend-Lease. Thanks Bo Fønss and John Klear for their assistance  IWM - Midgley, A. N. (Sergeant) Photographer IWM B 5642

 VIKING AGE  The Viking Age (793–1066 CE) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America.  It followed the Migration Period and the Germanic Iron Age. The Viking Age applies not only to their homeland of Scandinavia but also to any place significantly settled by Scandinavians during the period. The Scandinavians of the Viking Age are often referred to as Vikings as well as Norsemen, although few of them were Vikings in the sense of being engaged in piracy.  Voyaging by sea from their homelands in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Norse people settled in the British Isles, Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast and along the Dnieper and Volga trade routes in eastern Europe, where they were also known as Varangians.  They also briefly settled in Newfoundland, becoming the first Europeans to reach ...