Depth of War - Episode 3 and 4

During World War I, tanks were categorized by gender and had different weapons. The prototype tank was called Little Willie. Franz Ferdinand's car had a number plate that some interpreted as a reference to the Armistice Day. Many underage boys, including Sidney Lewis, joined the British Army. Lewis fought in the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Delwood Wood. After the war, he received medals and later served in the police force and Bomb Disposal during World War II. The Ottoman Empire, once powerful, declined during the war. Bulgaria, facing economic and military challenges, joined the Central Powers and gained territories before surrendering to the Allies. While this may not directly impact the actions of World War I's leaders, these are some interesting facts. At the beginning of the war, tanks had genders. They were grouped by their genders. Males had cannons and females had machine guns. The prototype tank was named Little Willie, which was constructed in the autumn of 1915. Another unknown fact about war is the number plate of Franz Ferdinand's car. His car's number plate is seen saying A111118, which some people have read to be Armistice 11th November 1918. More on this later. The last fact comes from how men used to fake their age to go to war. This was not the most uncommon action during World War I. The British Army recruited over 2,500,000 boys. The youngest person to sign up was named Sidney Lewis, who we will talk about because he has an interesting history. The first person, 13 or below, was a young boy named George Maher. His age was 13 years old, but he claimed he was 18. We'll skip over him as he is not a priority. Out of the 250,000 underage boys recruited in World War I, this one is the youngest. His age is 12 years old and he enlisted in August 1915. However, this boy was a heavily built person who would grow to be 6 feet 2 as an adult. His name is Sidney Lewis. Lewis fought the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The battle took place between the 1st of July and the 18th of November. The area where it took place was at the upper reaches of the Somme River, meant the hastened victory for the Allies in the war. Lewis was shipped off the front in 1917, aged 13 at the time, with lots of underage boys from various regiments. He also fought the Battle of Delwood Wood, a subsidiary battle relating to the Battle of the Somme, witnessing some of the worst casualties on the Somme. His mother later was told where his missing child was and demanded that the War Office, the organisation of the war, release him. After the War Office released Lewis, he was rewarded with the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. Just a year later, in 1918, he was re-enlisted to help fight for Austria. He managed to survive throughout the war and joined the police force in Kingston. In the Second World War, he served in Bomb Disposal, which he also survived, and later ran a pub in France East Sussex. He died in 1969. While nations such as Great Britain, France and Germany are often sought first when thinking of World War I, they only account for less than half of the deaths, and yet they are considered the major fighting powers of the First World War. But what are some of the minor powers that accounted for more than half of the deaths during World War I? The once glorious Ottoman Empire that had defeated the Byzantine and had taken over a good portion of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. The very empire that took the Christian world's sword and shield was falling to its knees. It shifted from one of the most powerful empires to ever exist, to one that failed to even stand up for themselves. It was being pushed around. Its slow decline can be traced back to the Great Turkish War of 1683. But the First Balkan War was easily one of the most main factors for its decline. From Britain to Russia, both empires were constantly fighting the Turks on both sides. When the British never delivered the dreadnoughts the Ottomans bought, they couldn't even stand up for themselves. They were weak and declining empire, where the British were a rising power, constantly showing up on the doorstep of kingdoms and absolutely demolishing them. Shields would be dissemination. When the First World War broke out, the Ottomans were shown which side they preferred. Although the Ottomans were far more aligned with the Central Powers, and especially Germany, they weren't quite sure if they were able to win the war at all. Prior to World War I, Bulgaria was a fairly chaotic state. The economy and military was lying in the dumps due to the pastly Balkan Wars, which saw Bulgaria lose a good portion of its land, of which accounted for a third of their grain production, triggering a huge famine across the country and hopefully demolishing most of their military. When Bulgaria got news of the start of World War I, they immediately sided with the Central Powers, which were far more aligned with Bulgaria and shared a similar hate to Greece, Romania and Serbia, as Bulgaria did. Bulgaria eventually joined the conflict on the 14th of November, 1915, around a year after the outbreak of World War I. With the help of Bulgaria, the Central Powers were able to swiftly take Serbia and most of Romania in less than a few months. Bulgaria would be given their promised territories that were supposed to be given to Bulgaria after the first Balkan War before Serbia and Greece ripped them off, which included Macedonia, Eastern Serbia, and eventually all of Dobrudja after Romania surrendered to the Central Powers. Like all of the Central Powers though, Bulgaria would end up being invaded and would submit to the Allies on the 29th of September, 1918.