hi i'm indy neidell and this is out of
the trenches where I sit here in the
chair of wisdom and answer all your
questions about the First World War
[Music]
Nick Vasquez right I read that the Swiss
Army rapidly increased the size of its
standing army from 38,000 in November
1916 to over a hundred thousand in the
winter of 1617 because of concerns of a
proposed French invasion plan called
plan 8 Wu plan H I can't find any more
information on plan H I was wondering if
you guys could go into more detail about
it I love the names of plants they're
always good right okay um Switzerland
right Switzerland they mobilize their
army in August 1914 but there were ups
and downs over the years in terms of men
seeing active service depending on the
current threat of an invasion for
example two hundred thousand five
hundred and forty seven men were
mobilized right after the outbreak of
the war but when it became clear that
both Germany and France would respect
Swiss neutrality more and more of them
were sent home late 1916 did indeed
bring renewed concerns about an invasion
though from Germany and not from France
as a reaction the Swiss General Staff
consulted with French military leaders
who created Army Group 8 Helvetia under
Ferdinand Bosch which was supposed to
aid Switzerland in the event of a German
invasion but that winter passed without
any such attack and over the following
years it became increasingly clear that
all of the warring nations profited from
a neutral Switzerland that could serve
as a forum for diplomats or spies by
September 1918 Swiss armed forces
guarding the Swiss borders had been
reduced to 20,000 124 men
James Fox writes sometimes hey you know
you know Michael J Fox you know what's
funny is you think you know he's a whole
actors named Michael J Fox but if you
want to freak people out if you're
talking about a Michael J Fox movie say
hey last night I saw that Mike Fox movie
and I'll go what yeah Mike Fox you know
you know that actor did all those movies
in the 80s and they'll say Michael J Fox
and you'll say yeah Mike Fox isn't it
fun to think of him as Mike Fox
I hope Mike Fox walks is my show if he
does somebody show this to Mike Fox
James maybe he's your bed or something I
hope so
okay anyway sometime between 1915 and
1916 my great-grandfather was presented
with a white feather ooh denoting him as
a coward which made him feel it
necessary to join the British army to
prove otherwise was this white feather
smear campaign supported by the
government did other countries in the
Great War have a white feather campaign
did attitudes towards people mostly
women from what I understand change or
become hostile towards the end of the
war well the white feather campaign was
not officially supported by the British
government but it was brought to life by
Admiral Charles Cooper Penrose
Fitzgerald as a private effort it gained
momentum through press coverage and the
endorsement of prominent women from both
the suffragettes and anti-suffrage
eight-count over the following years the
campaign it did start to cause problems
for the government when more and more
public servants or workers in essential
industries came under pressure to enlist
and leave those industries to go to war
as a response Home Secretary
Reginald McKenna issued badges reading
King and country to those who perform
tasks that were essential to the war
effort it seems like the campaign still
enjoyed a certain degree of support
among the civilian population while it
was unpopular among soldiers since they
would sometimes be presented with white
feathers while they were home on leave
or after having been honorably
discharged since Britain introduced
compulsory service conscription of all
men aged 18 to 41 in January 1916 I
suspect that the feather campaign lost
some of its momentum nevertheless there
are several reported instances of men
still receiving feathers in mid or late
1916 okay this also sheds a bit of light
on the question whether similar
campaigns occurred in other countries
during the war
since all continental European powers
relied on conscription no such campaign
were really necessary to shame the men
into volunteering the white feather
campaign did however spread through the
British dominions like Canada and
Australia
Michael Jerome de Guzman asks I heard
there was a German monoplane design
during the first world war
this was the Yonkers j1 and Yonkers d1
models and I have read that they were
being experimented on during the war my
question is why did injure minee
continue the planes development well as
for the Yonkers Jay series it turned out
that airplanes made out of Steel were
simply not able to meet military
requirements at the time
Hugo Yonkers wrote in the summer of 1916
as a result of the 1st and 2nd aircraft
one would ascertain that the aerodynamic
efficiency was very good we thought we
were over the hill this unfortunately
was not the case we had to start again
from the very beginning the reason was
that in spite of the favorable
horizontal speed the aircraft could not
meet the military climb specifications
the Yonkers d1 was made out of lighter
metal and performed relatively well as a
fighter but it came too late in the war
to be produced in significant numbers
the resource-intensive all-metal design
only around allowed for around 30
machines to be manufactured and only 12
of those were ever delivered to the
Troops speaking of Ferdinand Fox we did
a bio special about him and you can
check it out right there and if you'd
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