Fun Facts on WWI (World War I)

World War 1 or the First World War, 1914 – 1918, was the first war that involved nations spanning more than half the globe.

The war was fought by the Allies on one side, and the Central Powers on the other.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. He was the heir to the Austrian throne and was murdered by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. This was the spark that caused war to be declared.

The World War 1 was commonly called “The Great War” or sometimes “the war to end wars” until World War II started .

More than 70 million military personnel were mobilized in World War 1.

First known use of chemical weapons (mustard Gas) was in World War 1.

There were 70,000,000 men and women in uniform of that number one-half were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war.

More than 9 million died on the battlefield, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat.

One in five of the Australians and New Zealanders who left their country to fight in the first world war never returned, 80,000 in total.

In World War 1 "Coffin Nails" was a term used by British soldiers to describe cigarettes.

US entered the war on April 6, 1917.

The world's worst train accident occured in France, in December 1917 with the deaths of over 600 soldiers.

There were 70,000,000 men and women in uniform of that number one-half were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war.

Austria-Hungary faced 90% casualties of their total troops mobilised.

Russia faced more casualties than any other nation in WW1, their total casualties were 9,150,000.

Russia mobilised 12 million men during the war; France 8.4 million; Britain 8.9 million; Germany 11 million; Austria-Hungary 7.8 million; Italy 5.6 million; and the USA 4.3 million.

A total of 65,038,810 troops were mobilized during the WW1, out of which 8,538,315 were either killed or they died. 21,219,452 were wounded. 7,750,919 were made prisoners.

So, the total casualties of World War 1 were 37,508,686 which makes 57.6% of the total troops that were mobilized.

116,000 soldiers of US army died in a short period of seven months.

296 US soldiers committed suicide during the 7 months US was part of the World War 1.

1,808,000 German soldiers killed in four years of World War 1. More German soldiers were killed than any other nation in WW1.

During World War 1 "Harry Tate" was the nickname given by British pilots to the R.E.8 aircraft.


Sources:
http://www.strange-facts.info/facts-about-world-war-1
http://iinterestingfacts.blogspot.com/2009/02/interesting-facts-about-world-war-1.html