The World War I : some amazing facts you must know!
The First World War began on the 28th of July 1914 and lasted until the 11th of November 1918. We call the conflict the First World War or World War I because it was fought over every ocean and on almost every continent on the planet.
At the time, and for a number of years afterwards however, people around the world referred to it as The Great War; at the time it had a bigger impact on the world than any other conflict in history. The word ‘great’ refers to the huge scale of the war, a meaning very far from the positive connotations the word often carries today.
The war was mainly fought between the allies (Britain, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (Germany and Austria-Hungary). Italy, Japan and the US did eventually join the allies, with Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire siding with the central powers.
It was referred to as " the war to end all wars " - sadly however , this did not prove to be the case.
The key battleground of the war was the Western Front , a line stretching from the North sea to the swiss fronitier with France.
More than twenty thousand miles of trenches were dug on the Western Front.
Soldiers would give nicknames to their trenches , which included reference to real places ( such a Bond street or Park Lane ) as well as names that referred to the units that fought from there, such as Black Watch Alley (for the Black Watch Regiment) or Munster Alley ( for the Royal Munster Fusiliers ).
140,000 Chinese labourers worked on the Western Front digging trenches for British and French troops.
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