Interesting Facts

11th November 1918 - On the 11th hour of the 11th Day in the 11th month the Armistice that officially ended the First World War was declared. https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/first-world-war https://flic.kr/g/fnA5wu 2005 - Lord Lichfield, the Royal photographer died at the age of 66 after suffering a major stroke. (Apart from being an excellent photographer he endeared himself to me by using a whistle to keep the Royal Family in order when taking the photographs at Charles and Diana's wedding - I am sure that he and Diana will have a few interesting words to say to each other.)

25th August 1944 - U.S. troops liberated Paris from the Nazis in World War II.

4th August  1914 - Germany declared war on Belgium 1914 - Britain declared war on Germany. 1914 - The US declared neutrality. A woman gives flowers to a German soldier leaving for the front, Berlin, August 1914  pic.twitter.com/AbpfIdFCN9 — History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics)  August 5, 2014 1944 - Anne Frank was arrested in Amsterdam by German Security Police (Grüne Polizei) following a tip-off from an informer who was never identified.1964 - FBI agents uncovered the bodies of three missing civil rights workers at a dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi.

1st July The nation remembers those who died and were injured at the Somme during the First World War. At 7:28 am The Lochnagar mine, which had been placed under the German lines, was detonated, creating the largest man-made mine crater created in the First World War. At 7:30am a whilstle was blown and hundreds of soldiers "went over the top" in what is now called Zero Hour, only to be mown down by machine gun fire.  No one seems to know how many German soldiers were killed in the explosion. By the end of the day thousands had died, and the Battle of the Somme continued for 141 days, at the end of which an estimated million soldiers were killed and wounded. The bodies of 72,000 men were never recovered. You can read more about the Lochnagar crater here .

888,246 poppies have been planted by volunteers at the Tower of London, and an estimated 4 million people have visited the installation, Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red, since the first ceramic poppy was placed on 5 August. Taken by Stu Smith CC by ND 2.0 (The exhibition was the brainchild of Derbyshire-based ceramic artist Paul Cummins. It was set up to commemorate the 100 years since the beginning of the First World War with each poppy representing each British and Commonwealth death during the conflict. The day after Armistice Day, a team of 8,000 volunteers will begin dismantling the poppies, and a nationwide tour will see smaller installations set up temporarily across the UK. It is expected that the last poppy will be taken away down from the Tower of London in three weeks’ time.) More information on the significance of the poppy (opens in a new window):- The Poppy Poppy Day

The Honorary PDSA Dickin Medal, has been posthumously awarded to famous war horse Warrior, dubbed "the horse the Germans could not kill". (Warrior arrived on the Western Front on August 11 1914 and stayed there throughout the war.  He was injured several times, but survived to eventually return home to the Isle of Wight in 1918 where he lived until his death aged 33. The Dickin Medal, also know as the Animal VC, is the highest award an animal can achieve while serving in military conflict. 65 of these medals have been awarded - to 29 dogs, 32 Second World War messenger pigeons, four horses, and a cat.)

British soldier, Private John Henry Parr (19 July 1897 – 21 August 1914), is believed to be the first soldier of the Commonwealth killed by enemy action in the First World War. (He is buried in the St Symphorien military cemetery, just southeast of Mons, in France, but his age on the gravestone is given as 20, because the army id not know his true age: 17.)

During World War I, France allegedly tried using parrots on the Eiffel Tower as an early warning system for enemy aircraft. (The experiment was abandoned because the parrots were very good at raising the alarm for approaching aircraft, but were unable to distinguish friend from foe, and they quickly grew bored.)

D-Day was the biggest seaborne invasion and the greatest military campaign the world has seen. From 6th June to 11th June (D + 5), 326,547 troops, 54,186 vehicles and 104,428 tons of supplies had been landed on the beaches.According to the D-Day museum in Portsmouth, the number of military personnel were:- Allied troops landed in Normandy 156,115 American (Omaha & Utah beaches + airborne) 73,000 British (Gold & Sword beaches + airborne) 61,715 Canadian (Juno Beach) 21,400 Airborne troops (included in figures above) 23,400 Aircraft supporting the landings 11,590 Sorties flown by allied aircraft 14,674 Aircraft lost 127 Naval vessels in Operation Neptune 6939 Naval combat ships 1213 Landing ships and landing craft 4126 Ancillary craft 736 Merchant vessels 864 Personnel in Operation Neptune 195,700 American 52,889 British 112,824 Other allied 4988 According to the D-Day museum website the following casualties were suffered:- Casualties on the British be...

For over 70 years Briton Josie Ellis and American Mary Lasch have been penpals. (Through WWII and beyond, they shared all the significant milestones of their lives. After decades of letter writing the pair came face to face for the first time in 2006, but as far as I know they are still writing to each other.) Source

According to the Spiegel more than 2,000 tons of munitions from the two world wars are recovered in Germany each year. (Barely a week goes by without a city street or motorway being cordoned off or even evacuated in Germany due to a UXB being discovered. Between 1991 and 2007 10,733 tonnes of munitions were disposed of, at a cost of €259 million.)

Gracie Fields lost her British citizenship. (British born, Dame Gracie Fields, DBE, was a singer and comedian who became one of the greatest stars of both cinema and music hall. She entertained the troops during World War II and was known as the forces sweetheart. Despite this her citizenship was revoked. Her crime? She married an Italian.)

It's only 62 years since the last person was prosecuted for witchcraft in the UK. (Helen Duncan (1897 – 1956) was a Scottish medium. During World War II, she held a seance in Portsmouth at which she indicated knowledge that a warship had been sunk. Because this fact had been kept from the public, the British Admiralty chose to attempt to discredit her. She was arrested and eventually charged at first with conspiracy and then witchcraft, she was jailed for nine months. Winston Churchill was less than impressed with the whole thing and eventually repealed the Witchcraft Act in 1951.)

During WWI, drinking water was often delivered to the front in old petrol canisters. (I'd always wondered where the idea for that Coca Cola taste came from.)