The Forgotten Front Military history archive
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Conflict · 1914–1918 · 10 files

First World War

From 1914 to 1918 the Great War was fought in the trenches of the Western Front, in the Balkans, the Middle East and at sea. These stories and films recover the soldiers, medics and volunteers whose part in it was almost forgotten.

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Written stories

Case files from the First World War

General John J. Pershing presents a medal to Stubby, with Robert Conroy behind them, 1921 File 028Article Western Front, France · 1917–1919 The Stray from the Yale Bowl A brindle stray wandered into an Army training camp in Connecticut in 1917, was smuggled to France, and spent eighteen months in the trenches with the 102nd Infantry. He was gassed and wounded, and came home a celebrity. General Pershing pinned a medal on him. His rank of sergeant was never official, but nobody in the regiment argued. Sergeant Alvin C. York, 1919 File 011Article Argonne, France · 1918 Sergeant York’s Seventeen A Tennessee blacksmith’s son who had asked not to fight led the survivors of a seventeen-man patrol in the Argonne on 8 October 1918. By the end of the morning they had more than a hundred prisoners. Sergeant Major Flora Sandes in Serbian army uniform File 007Article Serbia · Macedonia · 1914–1922 Sergeant Major Sandes A clergyman’s daughter from Yorkshire went to Serbia in 1914 as a volunteer nurse and came home a decorated infantry officer, the only British woman known to have served as a soldier in the First World War. Men of the 369th Infantry who won the Croix de Guerre, 1919 File 006Article Argonne, France · May 1918 The Sentry Post in the Argonne On sentry duty in the Argonne in May 1918, Private Henry Johnson of the Harlem Hellfighters fought off a German raiding party with grenades, a rifle butt and a knife. It took the United States ninety-seven years to give him its highest honour.
Films

Watch the documentaries

John Barkley ▸ Film Western Front John Barkley Alone in a wrecked tank, he broke two German attacks with their own machine gun Freddie Stowers ▸ Film Western Front Freddie Stowers They faked a surrender to wipe out his company. He took the hill anyway Stubby ▸ Film Western Front Stubby A stray dog caught a German spy and survived 17 battles — his men called him Sergeant Henry Johnson ▸ Film Western Front Henry Johnson He ran out of bullets and fought off two dozen Germans with a knife — alone Dan Daly ▸ Film Western Front Dan Daly Two Medals of Honor, denied a third — the Marine they couldn't promote Alvin York ▸ Film Western Front Alvin York He used a turkey-hunting trick to kill 25 Germans and capture 132