26Soldier's Life Saved by a Book
The life of a soldier named Maurice Hamonneau was saved during World War 1 by a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim” he owned, which stopped a bullet. He befriended Kipling when he learned that he had lost his son in the war, and named his own after him.
27. During World War 1, California’s schoolchildren were enlisted in a war against squirrels with one-sided casualties exceeding 100,000 ground squirrels.
28. The Battle of Bolimów saw the first attempt at large-scale use of poison gas during World War 1. Germans fired 18,000 gas shells of Xylyl bromide at the Russians, but the gas inadvertently blew back to their own lines. Luck was on their side as the cold weather rendered the gas ineffective.
29. During World War 1, the USA recruited sportsmen who were skilled at trap shooting. They were then armed with shotguns and stationed where they could fire at enemy hand grenades in midair.
30. Italy’s World War 1 Special Forces were some of the best in the world. They were called Arditi (meaning “Daring Ones”) and they specialized in mountain warfare and fought with knives, flamethrowers, grenades, and machine pistols.
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31Jim Crow Laws
During World War 1, the American Expeditionary Forces tried to make the French treat Black soldiers in accordance with Jim Crow laws ''due to concerns that black soldiers and officers working with the French were being treated with too much “familiarity and indulgence.”
32. During World War 1, MI5 used Girl Guides to deliver secret messages. They used Girl Guides instead of Boy Scouts because they found out that Boy Scouts weren't efficient enough, boisterous and talkative.
33. During World War 1, specially trained dogs named Mercy Dogs or Red Cross Dogs used to go out into the warzone to find wounded soldiers. They brought medical supplies for the soldiers to patch themselves up or if the soldier was mortally wounded, stay and comfort them in their final moments.
34. During World War 1, the German government carried out a census of Jews to prove that German Jews weren’t pulling their weight in the war effort. They instead found that Jews were overrepresented on the front lines.
35. During World War 1, Nobel prize-winning physicist Marie Curie developed mobile X-Ray stations. These were sent to the frontlines and assisted army surgeons prevent amputations in cases where limbs were still intact. It is estimated that over a million wounded soldiers were x-rayed with her units.
