The Forgotten Front Military history archive
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First World War · 1914–1918 · 9 files

Western Front

Researched stories and films about the people who served on the Western Front in the First World War, with the sources behind every account.

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Written stories

Case files from the Western Front

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. 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