Today we have a little something special in AskHistorians! A high school class is doing a bit of a “field trip” here today, and they have carefully prepared 12 questions about WWI that they have considered while studying the Great War this year. From their teacher:
These questions are from my 9th grade students taking World History at a small charter school in Charlotte, NC. My goal with this activity was to foster historical curiosity. Everything you learn should unlock more questions for you. We studied WWI for about a week, looking at videos, newspaper excerpts, and photo slide shows. These are a sample of the questions they developed.
I will be posting their questions as replies in this thread. Some of our flaired WWI experts are graciously waiting in the wings to answer their questions, but ANYONE is welcome to answer in this thread, holding to the usual standards of this subreddit of course.
So please take a look at the questions as I post them below!
How effective was dazzle camouflage on American ships?
How did both trenches on the front get dug without the other side seeing them and shooting them? How long did it take to build a trench?
How did the pilots communicate while in the air? Did the planes do more than just shoot other planes? What actually killed pilots while flying, bullets puncturing the engine or the wings?
I'm not certain if this is allowed and will gladly accept the removal of this comment if it's not, but I'd like to thank both the moderators, the teacher and the students for this special event. I definitely enjoyed reading the questions and responses, and I sincerely look forward to any more of these "field trips" that may happen in the future. A hearty thank you to everyone who contributed to this thoroughly enjoyable event.
Why did the Black Hand assassinate Franz Ferdinand when he was more moderate than the actual ruler of Austria-Hungary? Could they have assassinated Franz Joseph if they wanted to? What did the Black Hand think would happen after their assassination?
Besides the Christmas truce of 1914, how did the soldiers celebrate the holidays in the trenches? Was it just Christmas they celebrated?
What would a WWI pilot have even known about planes before he was expected to learn how to fly one?
Pictures that we looked at of the battlefields show trees shredded and destroyed. Is there any way to measure the environmental impact of WWI? What weapon mostly caused the destruction of the trees?
In class we learned how WWI decreased people's faith in God. Did that correspond to a decrease in clergy and other religious leaders?
It seems like Russia pushed Europe towards war by militarizing along its border before Serbia even answered Austria-Hungary's demands. Were they eager for war, and if so, why?
We learned that England banned the flying of kites during WWI. It sounds silly, but could that actually have been a good policy?
Did the American government just not care they were endangering ship passenger's lives by stowing weapons aboard them?
We learned about how terrible the trenches were for soldiers, but could they have actually protected soldiers from some weather-related events?