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Armistice.
The cessation of all hostilities prior to the beginning of official peace negotiations. An armistice is not a peace treaty and does not end a war; it only stops all combat activities (usually for a fixed period of time) so that negotiations for a permanent cease-fire can occur.
Atrocity.
Any horrible and violent action taken against an innocent or unarmed person or group.
Attrition.
The act of weakening or exhausting by constant harassment, abuse or attack.
Big Bertha (Grosse Bertha in German).
The name given by the Allies to the German 420-mm artillery that could shoot a one-ton shell 9 miles.
Collective indiscipline.
Refusal to take orders by military units; objection not to the war, but to the way it was conducted. (Describes the mass mutiny of the French army, April-July 1917.)
Daylight savings time.
Time change invented by the British during the war to help save on coal burning so that more coal could be converted from home use to war use.
Doughboys.
Name given to the American soldiers. Most likely origin of this nickname is from the large brass buttons on the uniforms of the Union soldiers during the American Civil War that looked like dumplings or "dough boys."
Dreadnought.
Class of super battleships introduced by Britain in 1906. Each ship carried ten 12-inch guns, had extra heavy armor and had a top speed of 21 knots; its nearest rival battleship carried only four 12-inch guns, had less armor and had a top speed of 18 knots.
Genocide.
The activities associated with trying to kill all members of a particular race or ethnic group, solely because of their race or ethnicity.
Hanging on the wire.
Slang for dead; also "gone west" and "bought the farm."
Kaiser.
German for "Caesar" or "Emperor."
Land ships.
Original name given to tanks. "Tank" was used as a code name, so that if Germans intercepted a message they would think the Allies were only bringing tanks of water up to the front.
Liquid fire.
Original name given to flames shot from flame throwers. Introduced by Germans at Verdun in 1916.
Mobilization.
All the activities associated with preparing the armed forces of a nation to go to war.
National self-determination.
The policy of allowing peoples to determine their own form of government and national boundaries; the nations so created should be sovereign ones, independent of all controls by another nation.
Over the top.
An expression referring to climbing out of a trench or over the front edge of the trench to begin moving across no man's land.
Paris gun.
An artillery capable of firing shells 75 miles, but not as accurate as Big Bertha; so named because it was first used to shell Paris.
Propaganda.
Ideas and messages created to promote a cause or to damage an opposing cause and to persuade people to think in a particular way or to take particular actions.
Race to the sea.
Name given to the continuous series of flanking movements by Germans and British in October and November 1914; resulted in a continuous line of trenches from the Marne to the English Channel.
Stick bombs.
A hand grenade attached to the end of a special wooden handle or "stick."
Tsar.
Russian for "Caesar" or "Emperor."
U-boat.
Short for Unterseeboot, the German name for submarine.
Wastage.
Term for the daily deaths and other casualties in military units, whether or not in battle.
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