Crime & Law Enforcement: Word War One

By: Isabel Roman

Unless you watch a military TV shows, war movies, or read up extensively on the subject, you’re not likely to know what happens when soldiers commit crimes. Do we think of our soldiers committing crimes? Or do we hold them in such high esteem?

The US has the UCMJ: Uniform Code of Military Justice established under the Constitution in 1789, Article I, Section 8. It’s very long and very detailed. Feel free to read about it here.

For the purposes of this blog, I’m taking from British Military Crime & Punishment 1914-1918. It's concise, easy to read, and in everyday wordage, as opposed to military and legal jargon. Plus it has this nifty table and a bunch of cool stats.

Table of offences tried by Court Martial Charge Maximum penalty
Shamefully delivering up a garrison to the enemy Death
Shamefully casting away arms in the presence of the enemy Death
Misbehaving before the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice Death
Leaving the ranks on pretence of taking wounded men to the rear Penal Servitude
Wilfully destroying property without orders Penal Servitude
Leaving his CO to go in search of plunder Death
Forcing a safeguard Death
Forcing a soldier when acting as sentinel Death
Doing violence to a person bringing provisions to the forces Death
Committing an offence against the person of a resident in the country in which he was serving Death
Breaking into a house in search of plunder Death
By discharging firearms intentionally occasioning false alarms on the march Death
When acting as a sentinel on active service sleeping at his post Death
By discharging firearms negligently occasioning false alarms in camp Cashiering or imprisonment
Causing a mutiny in the forces, or endeavouring to persuade persons in HM forces to join in a mutiny Death
Striking his superior officer Death
Offering violence or using threatening language to his superior officer Penal servitude
Disobeying in such a manner as to show a wilful defiance of authority, a lawful command given personally by his superior officer Death
Disobeying a lawful command given by his superior officer Penal servitude
When concerned in a quarrel, refusing to obey an officer who ordered him into arrest Cashiering
Striking a person in whose custody he was placed Cashiering or imprisonment
Deserting HM service, or attempting to desert Death
Fraudulent enlistment First offence imprisonment; second penal servitude
Assisting a person subject to military law to desert Imprisonment
Behaving in a scandalous manner unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman Cashiering
When charged with the care of public money, embezzling the same Penal servitude
When charged with the care of public goods, misapplying the same (applicable to Quartermasters) Penal servitude
Wilfully maiming himself with intent to render himself unfit for service Imprisonment
Drunkenness Cashiering or imprisonment
Committing the offence of murder Death

Notes to this table: (1) offences where cashiering is shown as maximum punishment applied to officers only; (2) in order to enable a court-martial to award a field punishment, it was essential to allege 'when on active service'.

In all, 5,952 officers and 298,310 other ranks were court-martialled- just over 3% of the total of men who joined the army. Of those tried, 89% were convicted; 8% acquitted; the rest were either convicted without the conviction being confirmed or with it being subsequently quashed. Of those convicted, 30% were for absence without leave; 15% for drunkenness;14% for desertion (although only 3% were actually in the field at the time); 11% for insubordination; 11% for loss of army property, and the remaining 19% for various other crimes. The main punishments applied were : 3 months detention in a military compound - 24%; Field Punishment Number 1 - 22%; Fines - 12%; 6 months detention - 10%; reduction in rank - 10%; Field Punishment Number 2 - 8%.

3.080 men (1.1% of those convicted) were sentenced to death. Of these, 89% were reprieved and the sentence converted to a different one. 346 men were executed. Their crimes included desertion - 266; murder - 37; cowardice in the face of the enemy - 18; quitting their post - 7; striking or showing violence to their superiors - 6; disobedience - 5; mutiny - 3; sleeping at post - 2; casting away arms - 2. Of the 346, 91 were already under a suspended sentence from an earlier conviction (40 of these a suspended death sentence).


Isabel Roman is the pseudonym used by writing team Christine Koehler and Marisa Velez. Their Victorian Druids series has been featured on The Home Shopping Network and is available in bookstores everywhere. Currently they're working on a Prohibition-era series and wondering why time flies so quickly. Visit the Isabel Roman blog!

An Ordinary Day In: WWI Trenches

By: Isabel Roman


Life in the trenches of France, Belgium, and Germany were treacherous even when there was no imminent attack. Here's a video of a German soldier digging a trench in France. From the First World War website:

The daily routine of life in the trenches began with the morning 'stand to'. An hour before dawn everyone was roused from slumber by the company orderly officer and sergeant and ordered to climb up on the fire step to guard against a dawn raid by the enemy, bayonets fixed.

This policy of stand to was adopted by both sides, and despite the knowledge that each side prepared itself for raids or attacks timed at dawn, many were actually carried out at this time.

Accompanying stand to, as the light grew, was the daily ritual often termed the 'morning hate'.

Both sides would often relieve the tension of the early hours with machine gun fire, shelling and small arms fire, directed into the mist to their front: this made doubly sure of safety at dawn.

With stand to over, in some areas rum might then be issued to the men. They would then attend to the cleaning of their rifle equipment, which was followed by its inspection by officers.

Breakfast would next be served. In essentially every area of the line at some time or other each side would adopt an unofficial truce while breakfast was served and eaten. This truce often extended to the wagons which delivered such sustenance.

With breakfast over the men would be inspected by either the company or platoon commander. Once this had been completed NCOs would assign daily chores to each man (except those who had been excused duty for a variety of reasons).

Example - and necessary - daily chores included the refilling of sandbags, the repair of the duckboards on the floor of the trench and the draining of trenches.



*Novices were cautioned against their natural inclination to peer over the parapet of the trench into No Man's Land. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper's bullet.

*It has been estimated that up to one third of Allied casualties on the Western Front were actually sustained in the trenches. Aside from enemy injuries, disease wrought a heavy toll.

*Rats in their millions infested trenches. There were two main types, the brown and the black rat. Both were despised but the brown rat was especially feared. Gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver) they could grow to the size of a cat.

*A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring in a year, spreading infection and contaminating food. The rat problem remained for the duration of the war (although many veteran soldiers swore that rats sensed impending heavy enemy shellfire and consequently disappeared from view).

*Lice were a never-ending problem, breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing men to itch unceasingly.

*Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. Recovery - away from the trenches - took up to twelve weeks. Lice were not actually identified as the culprit of Trench Fever until 1918.

*Many men chose to shave their heads entirely to avoid another prevalent scourge: nits.

*Trench Foot: a fungal infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench conditions. It could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench Foot was more of a problem at the start of trench warfare; as conditions improved in 1915 it rapidly faded, although a trickle of cases continued throughout the war.

*Finally, no overview of trench life can avoid the aspect that instantly struck visitors to the lines: the appalling reek given off by numerous conflicting sources.

*Rotting carcases lay around in their thousands. For example, approximately 200,000 men were killed on the Somme battlefields, many of which lay in shallow graves.

*Overflowing latrines would similarly give off a most offensive stench.

*Men who had not been afforded the luxury of a bath in weeks or months would offer the pervading odour of dried sweat. The feet were generally accepted to give off the worst odour.

*Trenches would also smell of creosol or chloride of lime, used to stave off the constant threat of disease and infection.

*Add to this the smell of cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke and cooking food... yet men grew used to it.

Isabel Roman is the pseudonym used by writing team Christine Koehler and Marisa Velez. Their Victorian Druids series has been featured on The Home Shopping Network and is available in bookstores everywhere. Currently they're working on a Prohibition-era series and wondering why time flies so quickly. Visit the Isabel Roman blog!

Real Life Heroes: Sgt. Alvin C. York

By Isabel Roman

Those who take their celebrity status and use it for good always have my admiration. Let's not even go into today's so-called celebrities--it's a joke.

Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887–September 2, 1964) was one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War I. He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking out 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132 others. This action occurred during the U.S.-led portion of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France, which was part of a broader Allied offensive masterminded by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to breach the Hindenburg line and ultimately force the opposing German forces to capitulate.

All that is well and good, but why do I really admire him? In the 1920s, York formed the Alvin C. York Foundation with the mission of increasing education opportunities in his region of Tennessee. Plans called for a non-sectarian institution providing vocational training to be called the York Agricultural Institute. York concentrated on fund-raising, though he disappointed audiences who wanted to hear about the Argonne when he instead explained that "I occupied one space in a fifty mile front. I saw so little it hardly seems worthwhile discussing it. I'm trying to forget the war in the interest of the mountain boys and girls that I grew up among."

It opened in December 1929. As the Great Depression deepened, the state government failed to provide promised funds, and York mortgaged his farm to fund bus transportation for students. Even after he was ousted as President in 1936 by political and bureaucratic rivals, he continued to donate money.

How can you not admire a man who saw what he saw and did what he did and all he cared about was helping his community become more educated?

The Seasons: The 1914 Christmas Truce

By Isabel Roman

It's been immortalized in books (Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce by Stanley Weintraub and Truce by Jim Murphy), movies (The Christmas Truce and Joyeux Noël), songs ("Belleau Wood" by Garth Brooks) and even by cartoon characters (Snoopy vs the Red Barron or Merry Snoopy's Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen).

But what really happened? And was it as prevalent as the myth that surrounds it leads us to believe?

December 1914 alternated between freezing cold and miserable wetness. Seems logical soldiers who thought the war would be won and they'd be home in their own beds by Christmas 1914 would want a little comfort for the season.

It's important to note that this truce happened between the German and British troops, not so much with the Belgium (Flanders) and French troops, whose countries were occupied and who probably weren't in a holiday mood. Plus Germany and Britain were closer culture-wise, language-wise, and monarchy-wise. While I don't know if that had anything to do with the truce, it's worth mentioning.

Along the front the enemy was sometimes no more than 70, 50 or even 30 yards away. Both Tommy and Fritz could quite easily hurl greetings and insults to one another, and, importantly, come to tacit agreements not to fire. Incidents of temporary truces and outright fraternisation were more common at this stage in the war than many people today realise--even units that had just taken part in a series of futile and costly assaults, were still willing to talk and come to arrangements with their opponents.

FirstWorldWar.com

And then came presents from home. Gifts, baked goods (though I don't know how those survived to be at all edible!). A British Daily Telegraph correspondent wrote that Germans slipped a chocolate cake into British trenches. Yum...German chocolate...

I was going to summarize what happened, but frankly the site says it perfectly:

[A] message asking for a ceasefire later that evening so they could celebrate the festive season and their Captain's birthday. They proposed a concert at 7.30pm when candles, the British were told, would be placed on the parapets of their trenches. The British accepted the invitation and offered some tobacco as a return present. That evening, at the stated time, German heads suddenly popped up and started to sing. Each number ended with a round of applause from both sides.

The Germans then asked the British to join in. At this point, one very mean-spirited Tommy shouted: 'We'd rather die than sing German.' To which a German joked aloud: 'It would kill us if you did'.

Along many parts of the line the Truce was spurred on with the arrival in the German trenches of miniature Christmas trees--Tannenbaum. The sight these small pines, decorated with candles and strung along the German parapets, captured the Tommies' imagination, as well as the men of the Indian corps who were reminded of the sacred Hindu festival of light.

It was the perfect excuse for the opponents to start shouting to one another, to start singing and, in some areas, to pluck up the courage to meet one another in no-man's land.

Of course, the British high command didn't like it, but they were in a luxurious chateaux, some 27 miles behind the front. Typical. German high command didn't like it, either, but the trench officers had the same attitude as British trench officers, with the result that those who protested are now considered idiots and those who didn't 'one of the soldiers'.

Was it tradition? Yes. It was tradition to celebrate Christmas no matter where they were. They celebrated with the enemy and it evolved into a beautiful story about a horrific war that stands today.

Guest Author: Maureen Lang

Today we're welcoming Maureen Lang! She is the author of nine novels, the first of which won a Golden Heart before its publication. Since 2006, Maureen has been writing for the Inspirational market. Her newest historical romance, LOOK TO THE EAST, released by Tyndale House, is the first of a three-book series.

Once, in a little village forgotten by time, there lived two feuding families: the Toussaints and the de Colvilles.

As with most enduring feuds, no one knows exactly why it began. Some say it was over une aventure--an in indiscreet love between one man and a woman not his wife. Others insist money was the cause--a squabble between the miller and the baker over the price of flour. Still others recall it beginning with a simple difference of opinion on the faults and merits of Napoleon between two old men sharing a cup of chocolat...

It is not, however, the origin but rather the result that matters. One hundred years later, even the purest flour made into the flakiest pastry would leave a bitter taste if made by one clan and sampled by the other.

Except for one brief moment in history, the feud rages to this day...

***

What inspired you to write a novel set during the First World War?

I've always been fascinated by this era. In my family, I'm one of the youngest children of a large family--which I mention only because people are surprised that my grandmother (not a great-grandmother or some other distant ancestor) used to tell me about living in the era where "motorcars" shared the roads with carriages. Where airplanes were something people stared at when they had the chance to view one overhead. Where telephones were common in the city but certainly not in rural areas and not in every home, even homes in the city. She seemed to me to be a link between history and nostalgia to this modern world we shared.

And war...well, with a grandfather who fought in the First World War and a father who fought in the Second, I grew up hearing about war and I guess it made an impact!

Was marketing a novel set during the First World War a tough sell?

Initially it was. LOOK TO THE EAST is actually my third novel set during this time period, although those first two are not related to this novel. When I started circulating my first WWI idea, I received several rejections stating it wasn't "historical enough to be historical, or contemporary enough to be contemporary." But I'm happy to say the books sold despite those initial rejections.

However, when I mentioned to my agent that I had not one but THREE more novels set during this era, he was...shall I say, less than enthusiastic. At first.

I think the thing that convinced him was my own enthusiasm. I'd already done an American setting with this war, but this time I wanted to do a European setting--close to the war itself, but not a book of battles and war scenes. I wanted the drama of the war as played out in a relational story as seen through civilians, not soldiers. Book One, LOOK TO THE EAST, is set in a fictional little town in Northern France; Book Two, out early next summer, is set in Brussels, Belgium, and Book Three will be set in Germany.

None of these settings are your typical women's fiction or romance genre settings, but I've always been of the opinion that any story, in any setting, can work just so long as the characters and their goals are sympathetic or exciting enough to grab a reader. And that starts with the author's enthusiasm to write the story to begin with.

How did you choose the exact location for the setting?

The location for LOOK TO THE EAST had to be quite specific, since this story was inspired by real life events that took place in a town in France, near the front lines established during World War One. I've always been an avid reader of this era, and I came across a book titled The Englishman's Daughter, about a soldier who was caught behind enemy lines and had to take refuge in a little village in France.

So the backdrop needed to be in the same general area as the town that inspired this idea. I was fortunate enough to take a trip to France during the time I wrote this book, and was able to visit the towns in that area. I took pictures of buildings and churches, walked the streets and just generally soaked up the experience. Much of this particular area remains rural even today, so some of the landscape I saw was probably similar to what my characters would have seen.

How much research was involved in writing LOOK TO THE EAST?

Since research is one of my favorite parts of writing, I probably recall it taking less time than it actually did. I read many books on the subject of the war and what people in the occupied territories experienced, starting with The Englishman's Daughter, which I read more than once! Going to Northern France (and Belgium, where the second book the series takes place) was incredibly valuable, not only for orienting my characters to the area, but getting into context what went on at the time as it's commemorated over there.

As I write any novel, I usually start out with at least a couple of months of research and then search out more details as I need them--those unexpected little turns plots like to take, which lead to the demand for more knowledge.

One of my favorite parts to research was finding a church to have in mind as I wrote the scenes where my hero, Charles, is hiding. I needed to know if they were similar to churches here, if they had a basement, if they had pews the way churches here do, how ornate they might have been, etc. I'm convinced the authority an author conveys for writing a novel is found in the details.

So as my husband and I drove through Northern France, we often stopped to get a closer look at different churches. It was fun!

How can readers find you on the web?

My website is www.maureenlang.com, but if readers would like a peek at the journey this novel took--from the sale through the European research trip and on through the editing process--they should visit my blog archive starting from August of 2008. It was great fun to catalogue the process!

***

Thanks so much for stopping by, Maureen. She's giving away a copy of LOOK TO THE EAST to one lucky person, so leave a question or comment for your chance to win. I'll draw the winner next Sunday. Void where prohibited. Good luck!

Excerpt Thursday: Maureen Lang

This week on Unusual Historicals, we're featuring award-winning inspirational author Maureen Lang as she celebrates the release of her latest historical romance, LOOK TO THE EAST, set in 1914 France! Join us on Sunday when we'll be talking with Maureen and giving away a copy!

At the dawn of the First World War, the small village of Briecourt is isolated from the early battles while a century-old feud between the Toussaints and the de Colvilles still rages in the streets. But when the German army sweeps in to occupy the town, families on both sides of the feud are forced to work together to hide stragglers caught behind enemy lines.

Julitte Toussaint may have been adopted from a faraway island, but she feels the scorn of the de Colvilles as much as anyone born a Toussaint. So when she falls in love with one of the men in hiding--a wealthy and handsome Belgian entrepreneur--she knows she's flirting with danger.

Charles Lassone has been waiting in the church cellar, safe from the Germans for the moment. But if he's discovered, it will threaten the entire village--including Julitte--and could cost Charles his life.

***

Briecourt, Northern France

Julitte Toussaint sucked in her breath and shut her eyes, as if by closing off her own vision she, too, might become invisible. Stuck high above the ground where someone so grown--just turned twenty and two--should never be caught, she shot a fervent prayer heavenward. Please let neither one look up! She clutched the book-size tin to her chest and went death-still in hopes of going unnoticed.

"...those days may be behind us, Anton. At least for a while."

She heard his voice for the first time, the man who had come to visit the only château within walking distance of her village. The man whose blond hair had reflected the sun and nearly blinded her to the rest of his beauty. The perfect nose, the proportionate lips, the blue eyes that, with one glance, had taken her breath away.

Now he was near again, and her lungs froze. She feared the slightest motion might betray her.

She knew the other man was Anton Mantoux without looking. He was the closest thing to aristocracy the town of Briecourt knew. Though Julitte had never spoken to him, she had heard him speak many times. Whenever the mayor called a village meeting, M. Mantoux always held the floor longest.

"You'll go back, Charles? join this insanity when you could follow me the other way?"

Charles...so that was his name. "Who would have thought I had a single noble bone in my body?"

M. Mantoux snorted. "You'll follow your foolhardy king, will you?"

"Much can be said about a man--a king, no less--who takes for himself the same risks he asks others to bear. I should never have left Belgium. I know my sister never will. How can I do less?"

"Ah, yes, your beautiful and brave little sister, Isabelle.... What is it you call her? Isa?"

"Careful with your thoughts, Anton," said the man--Charles--whose voice was every bit as lovely as his face. "She's little more than a child."

"A child, but not much longer. And then you may have me in the family!"

Feeling a cramp in her leg, Julitte wanted nothing more than to climb down the tree and scurry away. Let them move on! she silently pleaded to God. Send a wind to blow them on their way before--

As if in instant answer to her prayer, a gust tore through the thick leaf cover of the beech tree in which she hid. In horror she watched the tin, dampened by her perspiring hands, slip from her grasp and take the path designed by gravity. She heard a dull thud as it bounced off the perfect forehead of the taller of the two men below, grazing the blond hair that so intrigued her.

A moment later both men looked up, and she might have thought their surprised faces funny had she planned the episode and still been young enough to get away with such a prank.

"I thank You for the answered prayer of the wind, Lord," she whispered in annoyed submission, "but not for the result, as You well know."

Holidays & Celebrations:November 11, 1918

By Eliza Tucker

On November 11, 1918, the Allied Forces and Germany signed an armistice agreement that signaled the ceasefire on the Western Front. This marked the end of World War I, even though fighting continued in other regions, such as Russia and the Ottoman Empire.

In the United States, the truce was met with great celebrations, even though the country's involvement in the war had only lasted a little over a year and a half. A year later Americans were still feeling the effects of the war, and a good number of soldiers who had not been reported dead had been left behind. New York City, with the rest of the country, planned elaborate meetings and parades to remember the day the truce was made, and no social leader gave up the opportunity to remind his audience of Patriotism and to preach against the continuing threats of anarchy and communism. The following quotes are pulled from a November 12, 1919 article that ran in the New York Times.

With a note of solemnity that contrasted sharply with the delirious joy with which the singing of the armistice was greeted a year ago, city, Sate, and nation yesterday observed the second Armistice Day with tributes to the memory of the heroic dead.

Combined with the eulogies of heroism that rises supreme in the history of the conflict were warnings from clergymen, from soldiers, and from statesmen to make swift action against Bolshevism and other forces of disintegration so "that these dead shall not have died in vain."

In all the exercises in observance of the first anniversary of the signing of armistice which brought to a close the world's greatest war to the most impressive moment was when audiences stood with bowed heads in a moment of silent prayer for those who perished on the fields of battle. None of the speakers failed to point out, and none of the audiences failed to recognize, that those who paid most dearly for victory were the soldiers whose names were missing from the muster rolls when the guns were hushed.

More than 100 separate meetings and memorial services were held in this city yesterday under the auspices of the American-Legion and the veterans of the regiments and military organizations which took their part in the war. In the schools the pupils heard tales of new heroes whose bravery rivals that of the outstanding figures of other wars. In many sections of the city these pupils joined the veterans in impressive pageants of victory.

Throughout the city the joyous celebration of the signing of the armistice was forgotten. Remembered only was the feeling that every citizen felt when he saw that immense field of gold stars borne past in tribute to the dead.

In cities throughout the country the same note of solemnity prevailed, and in none was the ceremony of paying tribute to the fallen a minor part of he exercises. Six States had set aside the day as an official holiday, and in their proclamations the Governors had expressed a desire that the Armistice Day should be observed in the same manner as Memorial Day had been observed since the idea was adopted, in tribute to the veterans of the civil war.

In twenty-two other states, where no holiday had been proclaimed, exercises were held under the auspices of the State Governments and the State military forces took part in the ceremonies. In the State, the New York Guard turned out to aid in the membership drive of the American Red Cross, which had set aside this day to make a special effort in memory of those who were killed or wounded on the battlefields.

The rest of the article is available here (.pdf file)

The 1919 push to make Armistice Day a national holiday succeeded. America isn't the only country to recognize the truce annually. In Australia, Canada, and the UK, it's called Remembrance Day; in South Africa and Malta it's Poppy Day per the red poppies worn in recognition of the poppies that bloomed in many of the Belgium burial grounds, as referenced in John McCrae's famous poem, "In Flanders Field." On November 11, Poland celebrates Independence Day, per its reinstatement of sovereignty after 120+ years of foreign rule. In New Zealand and France it's still called Armistice Day. After World War II, the US renamed Armistice Day "Veteran's Day."

As for me? I celebrate the day as the advent of the holiday season by remembering the celebrations for peace that took place nearly ninety years ago.

Here's hoping for peace on earth, and good will toward men. May these things begin in your home and spread into your community.

Interests

I'm currently on my way to Myrtle Beach for my annual week-long family vacation. We've done this for about 15 years now, and somehow it never tires. Maybe because it's so relaxing and I'm not required to see things or do things.

We talk a lot about the different histories we love and adore. We discuss what we've written about--New Orleans pre-1803, the Ancient World, India, China. It's funny how romances set in WWII are considered unusual--have you seen a war movie lately? Flipped on the History Channel? WWII is all over the place.

Pirates are big now, (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). But anyone growing up with Errol Flynn or on the 80s pirate romances will have already known that. (Come on ladies, raise those hands!)

Ancient Greece is big, too. (The 300. If you watch it for no other reason, check out those 300 Spartans' abs--wow.)

The late 1800s is becoming popular at least as related to the occult. (The Illusionist and The Prestige).

If you could read one book set anywhere, any time, and with any conflict what would it be? That one book you're dying to write because you adore the period but there're others to write about first because they fascinate you. If you've already written that book, what's next? More in the same era/place, or is there another that tempts you?

I've thought about this for a while, and have finally settled on one only because I forced myself to. World War I. I love that era, and not nearly enough attention is given to something whose effects we're still feeling almost 100 years later. It can be on either front, Western or Eastern, or The Gallipoli Campaign at the Dardanelles. I'd even love a political thriller set before then. Of course that's covering a good 40 years previous, but it's all fascinating stuff.

Further reading:
Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (1962 Pulitzer Prize winner in general non-fiction since Pulitzer's will stated the history category had to be American history). Possibly the best book on the convoluted alliances that led up to the war. There's also a 1964 documentary based on it by the same name.

The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914 by Barbara Tuchman. Not as clear as her previous, but if you want to understand what led to WWI, a must read.

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918 by G.J. Meyer. A popular history book that's much shorter and readable than the 3 volume scholarly The First World War by Hew Strachan, also a great book, if you can get through it. (I couldn't.)

The Fall of Eagles by Cyrus Leo Sulzberger. More on what led up to WWI and its aftermath; the collapse of three great European dynasties -- the Romanovs, the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns. Also a mini-series with Patrick Stewart. Yes, that Patrick Stewart.

First World War. A great site with everything from battlefield tours to how it all began.

The World War I Document Archive. This archive of primary documents from World War I has been assembled by volunteers of the World War I Military History List (WWI-L).

PBS's The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. It's PBS, I think that says it all.

BBC -- History -- World War One. From beginnings to the new air war, this site has it all.