The Twisted History of WWI

Twisted History produced by John Kelly, research by Saint Anne

Large Loves German Words (BLOG) Full Video ⬆️⬆️⬆️

Schattenparker (Shadow parker) - is part of a series of insults for men which accuse them of unmanly behavior. In this case, of parking their car in the shadow to avoid heating up the interior of their car (soft egg).  Alternatives include Warmduscher (someone who showers with warm water), Sitzpinkler (a man who urinates while sitting down)

Weichei (Soft egg)-  Means someone who is weak and cowardly. The same is also conveyed by calling someone Würstchen, the which means little sausage.

However, we DID NOT call White Sox Dave "a little sausage," on the podcast. That would be a shame if people thought that ...

Anyway, we debuted a new recurring segment on the pod called "Monster of The Week," which is exactly what it sounds like. A really fucked up story.

Back to WWI. Chief knows his history, I imagine we might do a part II in the future (get it?)

Large broke out the flamethrower this week, as we talk modern weaponry and trench warfare:

A list of WWI "Firsts"

• WWI was the first time that aircraft were used in war, which meant that soldiers and civilians had to look up.
• Advances in medicine also meant that for the first time, deaths in battle outnumbered death by disease.
• Modern flamethrowers were first used in WWI by the German forces in an attack against British in Flanders. The earliest flame throwers dated back to the 5th century, but the Germans refined the designs that were used in the war.
• On April 22, 1915, German soldiers attacked the allied soldiers along the Western Front by releasing 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas at Ypres in Belgium. It was the first introduction of poison gas as a weapon in the war, and immediately after the battle, France and Britain began developing their own chemical weapons and gas masks.
• For the first time, the tanks used in WWI were categorized as either male or female. The male tanks had cannons, and the female tanks had heavy machine guns and had to take a couple of days off every 28 days or so. (hehe)
• Big Bertha was the name of a 48-ton howitzer (giant gun) used by the Germans during WWI and was named after the designer’s wife Bertha. It could fire a 2,000 pound shell over 9 miles and took a crew of 200 men six hours to put one together.  Germany had 13 of these “wonder weapons” scattered throughout the battlefields of Europe.
• UK women who made TNT during WWI were called canary girls, because being exposed to TNT was toxic, and it turned their skin the same orange-yellow color as the canary. "Munitionette" was another nickname for the women. Despite the endearing nicknames, almost one in four canary girls died from the toxic effects of their work.

Here's the best of @TwistedHistory covering WWI on Twitter, FOLLOW US!

Tomorrow it's The Twisted History of Canada. Sorry Canada!

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Oh, in case you forgot, we covered some of this fascinating WWI stuff back in April with Jerry Thornton (who just wrote another book) on The Twisted History of The Butterfly Effect:

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