i'm indy neidell and this is out of the
trenches where Ernie and I sit here in
our chair of wisdom and answer all your
questions about the First World War
Ernie I'm going to take this first one
okay okay
[Music]
Daniel noi writes hey Indian team I love
how the quality of the show just keeps
getting better and better yeah that are
any great as I was reading about the war
I came across a story about the French
building a fake Paris that was meant to
fool German bomber crews into attacking
the wrong target were these types of
tactics prevalent and were there any
other notable occurrences of the warring
nations making use of decoys or
camouflage to confuse enemy air raids it
was as early as 1917 when the French
government began creating a top-secret
project the building of a so Paris
Filippelli I guess Germany had changed
its strategy and replaced Zeppelin's
with bombers and these were mostly Gotha
bombers they could travel long distances
and carry up to 300 kilo bombs but the
French anti-aircraft guns were still too
dangerous during the day so those
bombers had to fly at night this was
before radar or any technical help so
the pilots would usually orient
themselves with geographical features
like like rivers or railway lines which
were easy to follow and at night they
mostly had to rely on lights the French
government began erecting fake buildings
and replica monuments made of wood and
fabrics they did an arc de triomphe the
Champs Elysees and even a fake railway
line in the region between San Germain
and mizzen Lafitte close by the river
sent the real trick was the lighting
system though street lamps lined the
streets of the city of course and every
fake building was lit up by electrical
lights so it would look like Paris from
up in the air and fooled the pilots the
French actually planned three decoy
Paris's which I guess would be the
plural of Paris although you don't use
that word in a portal very often three
decoy Paris's after the design designs
of Fernan Jacko Potsie who would become
the forerunner of modern illuminated
advertising billboards I said the plans
were top-secret and they were they only
came to light around 10 years ago pun
intended the decoy city was never fully
realized though and we don't have any
reports if it actually worked
the French authorities quickly tore down
everything as the war ended but pretty
much all nations had built some sort of
decoys against aerial reconnaissance but
mostly on a smaller scale like like
using wooden logs and wheels to simulate
artillery pieces
Pamela Clara writes hey Indian team hey
Pamela Claire thanks so very much for
this program my son and I have visited
the Verdun and the song battlefield
together you ran some of his photos from
inside the wall literally a fort vote on
one of your segments that's pretty cool
I'm glad we did that the subject of
World War one is dear to our hearts my
question and the u.s. Revolutionary Wars
and the Civil War there were women who
dressed up as boys in order to serve at
the front some ended up fighting
alongside men were there any examples of
women disguising themselves as young men
so they could fight also we visited the
American military cemeteries in France
and saw their graves of female YMCA
volunteers as well as nurses are there
any figures for the number of women who
were killed serving in some capacity in
this conflict
thanks again that is a long question
okay well when we think of women serving
alongside men at the front we mostly
think of women like Maria Bush Kerava
who petitioned the Czar to fight in
uniform and who would later build the
Russian women's battalion of death
herself from the ground up
women like Flores Sanders or malinka
Savage who officially joined the Serbian
army and were wounded in active combat
or like a Katarina Teodoro who who was
killed fighting for the Romanian army
and is still remembered as a heroine in
Romania to this day there were highly
decorated nurses ambulance drivers and
fundraisers who put their lives in
constant danger like mary borden at the
writer Edith Wharton Helen Fairchild who
was killed actually by the effects of
mustard gas in 1918 others actively
reported from the front lines a loretta
Walsh became the first female Navy petty
officer in the United States Naval
Reserve in March 1917 Helen Gwyn Vaughan
who became commander of the women's
Royal Air Force a lot of women actually
flew during the war women like Helen do
true
flew reconnaissance missions for the
French air service marine Marvin was not
only among the first women of the air
ambulances but also apparently flew
bombing missions into Germany Princess
Eugenie M chuckles skaia flew sorties
for the Russian artillery and the
Ukrainian nadezhda begged ER Eva was the
first woman injured in aerial combat
over the Galicia in front okay so as you
can see the list goes on and on and
these brave women didn't need to
disguise themselves as men it is of
course true that women were usually not
allowed or not openly drafted to fight
alongside men in combat no and those
women that did were more individual
cases but many many women noticed or
unnoticed by the history books of today
supported the men at the frontlines and
countless roles and were not just
violent spectators of the war lorenzo
Chivo lonnie writes hi Andy this is my
first time on patreon and I created my
account just to support you in the
beautiful work you and the guys are
doing with this show that's great guys
right all right Lorenzo thank you so
what do you got for me okay I'd like to
ask you which were the rules of the
naval warfare back in time it was common
to rescue enemy sailors after sinking
the ship or were they just left alone in
the sea thank you very much
since the 1860s there were several
attempts by the Red Cross to
institutionalize the rescue of the
wounded from battlefields the sea battle
of Lissa showed that a lot of lives
could have been saved by such
regulations it took until 1899 and the
third Hague Convention that settled
respect and protection laws for the
shipwrecked but as it was with a lot of
things from The Hague Convention much of
it just went straight out the window
during the war nevertheless there was a
certain code of honor and of course the
sense of common humanity that compelled
many to rescue their defeated enemy like
providing first aid to crewman that
bailed out of burning tanks or airplanes
you just you don't simply stand by and
let other people die but naturally only
if you could do it without endangering
yourself of course and that became the
problem at sea the first duty of the
captain was to make sure that his ship
and his crew was safe but the war
brought new often unseen dangers to
these valuable ships during engagement
most warships could not simply stay in
place until everyone was safe submarines
small torpedo boats floating mines
threatened the ship's if they stayed too
long in one area many captains were
reprimanded for saving enemy sailors for
exactly that reason and for many it
became a back and forth between the
moral obligation and the grim
calculations of war that had become
reality if you'd like to see our episode
about anti-submarine warfare and tactics
you can click right here for that do not
forget to subscribe and Ernie and I will
see you next time