PHOTOS: WWI Centennial, July 28, 2014
July 28, 2014
Battery "C", Sixth F.A., 1st Division which fired the first cannon shot from the U.S. on the Lorraine, France front at Beaumont during the Great War, are pictured Sept. 12, 1918. (AP Photo) ( WWI France U.S. Troops )
Today marks the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning a conflict that would claim over 16 million lives. Gas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun during the first battle of the Somme. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images) ( 2659143 )
US Army 37-mm gun crew manning their weapon on September 26, 1918 during the World War I Meuse-Argonne (Maas-Argonne) Allied offensive, France. (AP Photo) ( WWI France Argonne Forest Battle )
President Woodrow Wilson delivers a declaration of war to the joint session of Congress, in Washington, April 2, 1917. (AP Photo) ( Woodrow Wilson War Declaration )
Ypres Cathedral in Ypres, Belgium, seen from the market square during World War I in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI Belgium, destruction )
Men who were drafted into the U.S. Army, on their way to Camp Upton, stand on the street in New York, Sept. 10, 1917. (AP Photo) ( U.S. Army Conscription )
State Room of the Cardinal of Malines in Belgium which had turned into a Red Cross ward, wrecked by an enemy shell during World War I in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: Belgium )
Setting out from Brussels in the direction of Louvain in August. The overcoats and the heavy equipment carried on a hot day. (AP Photo) ( WWI Belgium Belgian Army )
An incident in the British advance on Bapaume. This soldier was stitching his shirt outside a captured shelter, but was disturbed by a German shell in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: British army )
Soldiers returned to the U.S. from France after the Great War march in a homecoming parade in Madison Square, New York City, 1918. In the background is the Flatiron building. (AP Photo) ( WWI U.S. Homecoming )
Prussian guard infantry in New Field gray uniforms leave Berlin, Germany to entrain for the front, August 1914 during World War I. Girls and women along the line of march and out flowers to them. (AP Photo) ( WWI German Army )
An American doughboy from the First Division throws a hand grenade in battle during World War I along the Western Front in France on March 15, 1918. (AP Photo) ( WWI U.S. SOLDIER HAND GRENADE )
German's bringing in Canadian wounded at battle of Vimy, France in 1917. (AP Photo) ( WWI Battle of Vimy 1917 )
A lone wounded Austrian soldier left on the field of battle during World War I in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: Austrian army )
German airman Manfred von Richthofen, called the "Red Baron," is shown returning from a mission at his squadron's aerodrome at the Front in World War I in 1916. Behind him is the German Cross that marks his plane. (AP Photo) ( WWI RED BARON )
U.S. Lt. Dwight D. Eisenhower watches Illinois troops dig trenches during training at San Antonio, Ft. Houston, Texas, in 1916. (AP Photo/The D.D. Eisenhower Library) ( WWI LT. EISENHOWER TROOPS TRENCH )
Benito Mussolini pictured as a soldier in World War I in 1914. He rose from the ranks of a corporal to the leader of Fascist Italy. (AP Photo) ( WWI Benito Mussolini )
German Red Cross workers carry bottle of liquid to help revive those who have succumbed to a gas attack during World War I. Date and location are unknown. (AP Photo) ( WWI German Red Cross )
Air fight between French nobleman De Terline and German Aviator Lt. Freytag. Both machines fell and were shattered to pieces, killing both airmen. Funeral of one of the aviators, July 31, 1916. (AP Photo) ( WWI French Army )
U.S. Army soldiers of the "A" Battery, Sixth Field Artillery, clean their boots before heading for the front in France during the Great War, Jan. 18, 1918. (AP Photo) ( WWI U.S. Army France )
Canadians are seen entering one of the many fires started by the Germans before they left Cambrai, France, on their way to the line with ammunition in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: Canadian army in France )
Refugees in Belgium during World War I in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: Belgian refugees )
French airship guarding American transports in an undated photo during World War I. Location unknown. (AP Photo) ( WWI French Army )
The first British troops to cross the Rhine to Cologne, to occupy their sector of the German Rhine provinces, Dec. 12, 1918. (AP Photo) ( WWI British Army )
Australian artillery operating a large caliber gun at the Somme front, France in 1916. (AP Photo) ( WWI Australian Army )
Gen. John J. Pershing, right, and Sir Douglas Haig are shown at Chateau Val des Ecoliers, April 4, 1919. (AP Photo) ( WWI Pershing Haig 1919 )
German officers discussing troop movements, near the Western Front. (AP Photo) ( WWI German Army )
Wounded Canadians seen to at a dressing station in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: Canadian army )
German mine-throwing troops, at an attack at the Keil and Poehl mounts, Germany in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI German Army )
Belgian families living in the fields near Antwerp after being driven from their homes during World War I in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI: Belgium )
German soldiers celebrate Christmas during WWI in Germany in an undated photo. (AP Photo) ( WWI Germany )
Two Frenchmen (in foreground) and an American soldier of the 168th infantry (originally Iowa National guardsman) coming over the top with sacks of hand grenades to harass the enemy in a French raid in 1919. (AP Photo) ( WWI France )
Photo shows a scene from a Russian battlefield in 1917. Exact date and location are unknown. (AP Photo) ( WWI Russia Battles )
A stretcher bearer patrol painfully making its way through mud near Bol Singhe during the British advance in Flanders, some of the men are nearly knee deep in the swampy ground , on Aug. 20, 1917. (AP Photo) ( WWII British Army )
The First Battalion of he 308th Infantry, the famous "Lost Battalion" of the 77th Division's Argonne campaign of the Great War, march up New York's Fifth Avenue just past the Arch of Victory during spring of 1919. (AP Photo) ( WWI U.S. Homecoming )
Col. Douglas MacArthur, second from left, looking up, watches practice maneuvers with his staff at Baccarat, France, during the Great War, May 9, 1918. Major General Charles T. Menoher, right, with cane, was also in the group. (AP Photo) ( WWI U.S. MacArthur )
President Woodrow Wilson leads the Draft Parade in Washington, D.C., Sept. 4, 1917. Five months earlier congress had adopted and approved the resolution declaring a state of war exists between the U.S. and the Imperial German Government. (AP Photo) ( WWI Woodrow Wilson 1917 )
German volunteers march on a German street to join the army for the Great War, Aug. 1914. (AP Photo) ( WWI German Volunteers )
King Peter I of Serbia (on horse) and his army are shown in retreat in Bagrdan, Serbia after giving full battle to the Germans in 1915. Exact date is unknown. (AP Photo) ( WWI Serbia King Peter I )
US President Woodrow Wilson, right, attends the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 where the League of Nations was born. Other members are from left to right: Italian Premier Vittorio Orlando, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and French Premier Georges Clemenceau. (AP Photo) ( France Paris Peace Conference )
Ships of the German Fleet, interned by Britain, are shown in Scapa Flow, a bay in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, at the end of World War I in late 1918. Under terms of the armistice, the Germans scuttled their fleet. (AP Photo) ( WWI Ships German Fleet )
This file picture of a post card released by the Historial de Peronne, Museum of WWI, shows Russian soldiers on the East Prussia front during the WWI. After a week of failed diplomacy, dithering and doubt, Tsar Nicholas II ordered Russia's armies to mobilize on July 30, 1914. There would be no turning back from a decision that set Europe on a course to war. AFP PHOTO / STRINGERSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images ( 532021915 )
A file picture of a post card released by the Historial de Peronne, Museum of WWI, shows Tsar Nicolas II, Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and titular King of Poland, reviewing troops in Poland during the First World War. After a week of failed diplomacy, dithering and doubt, Tsar Nicholas II ordered Russia's armies to mobilize on July 30, 1914. There would be no turning back from a decision that set Europe on a course to war. AFP PHOTOSTR/AFP/Getty Images ( 532011873 )
15th February 1917: A Victory War Loan rally in Trafalgar Square. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 3438118 )
December 1915: A crowd of young men queuing up at the Army Recruiting Office at Southwark Hall, south London, during Lord Derby's recruitment campaign. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 3336677 )
7th August 1930: A deserted trench in Ypres, Belgium, site of three World War I battles. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images) ( 3434541 )
circa 1916: Belgian Soldiers in trenches during World War I. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 3350434 )
1919: Germans take war machines apart outside Berlin. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles Germany was required to disarm. This tank is in fact a British tank, captured and put into service by the Germans. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 3286596 )
26th June 1918: American soldiers manning a French '37', a one-pounder in firing position behind barbed wire in a second line trench at Dieffmatten, in Alsace. (Photo by Allen H. Hanson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 3277151 )
circa 1917: An American machine gun post. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 3277157 )
June 1915: The grave of a German soldier, marked by a simple wooden cross and a skull. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 3277088 )
3rd March 1917: Children eating a penny's worth of Plum Duff from soup kitchens in Bermondsey, south London. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 3097002 )
circa 1916: A German U-Boat and some of its crew. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 3071666 )
30th June 1917: A flame thrower from WW I spits flame and black smoke into the air. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 3071549 )
5th October 1917: Supporting troops of the 1st Australian Division walking on a duckboard track near Hooge, in the Ypres Sector. They form a silhouette against the sky as they pass towards the front line to relieve their comrades, whose attack the day before won Broodseinde Ridge and deepened the Australian advance. (Photo by Frank Hurley/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2716367 )
11th November 1918: Crowds celebrating the signing of the Armistice at the end of World War I. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 3071468 )
July 1915: French soldiers at the front line are armed with the Mitrailleuse St Etienne 1907 machine gun. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 3067685 )
French troops under shellfire during the Battle of Verdun. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images) ( 2668884 )
Policemen looking after children while on duty in Berlin, during the revolution which broke out following Germany's defeat in World War I. (Photo by Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) ( 2667408 )
Battle of the Somme, France. The 39th Siege Battery artillery in action in the Fricourt-Mametz Valley. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2667208 )
British SE-5s locked in aerial combat with German Fokker D7s, circa 1915. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2665054 )
An early aerial photograph of the Belgium town of Ypres, the site of three major battles during World War I, and almost completely devastated by bombing. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2666628 )
German general Paul von Hindenburg with his officers, including General Erich Ludendorff (left). Original Publication: People Disc - HE0241 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2663045 )
A German rifleman beside the corpse of a French soldier in a trench at Fort Vaux, France. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2659024 )
A French soldier's grave, marked by his rifle and helmet, on the battlefield of Verdun. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2643288 )
Big Bertha, the Howitzer L/14, manufactured by the German industrialist Gustav Krupp. With a range of 122km, it bombarded Paris for 20 months during 1917. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2643972 )
British soldiers enjoy a jaunt on a British Mark IV tank. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2642148 )
Today marks the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, beginning a conflict that would claim over 16 million lives. Horse-drawn German ambulances suffer bomb damage, during World War I. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2638665 )
Australian walking wounded on the Menin Road returning from the front. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) ( 2642177 )