‘An army marches on its stomach’, Napoleon once famously proclaimed, or so it is believed. When thinking about war, we usually don’t think about what the soldiers had for breakfast or when their lunch break started, but instead, we imagine fighting armies, bullets whizzing through the air, and tanks rolling into enemy territory. The First […]
Tag: First World War
Forgiven yet not forgotten: Victor Spencer’s execution
Twenty-one-year-old Private Victor Spencer was the last soldier during the First World War in the New Zealand army to be executed for desertion. His death was scarcely mentioned afterwards, as the fact was a great shame to his family and country. However, the silence changed after 2000 when the Pardon for Soldiers of the Great […]
The Anti-Gas Fan: How a Female Inventor Found a Way Into a Man’s World of War
It’s the 22nd of April, 1915 in Ypres. You’re a British soldier during the First World War and you’re looking in the direction of the enemy. It is a cloudy day, but below the rain clouds you see a cloud that is much closer to the ground, and it is moving towards you. Then, all […]