Avenge Them!

"Another well-known rumor imputing unique vileness to the German is that of the Crucified Canadian. . . . The image of crucifixion was always accessible at the front because of the numerous real physical calvaries visible at French and Belgian crossroads, many of them named Crucifix Corner."

- Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory

 

British soldiers with spiked road traps

British soldiers display spiked boards laid across roads to injure advancing Allied troops and horses.

The War of the Nations Portfolio (New York: The New York Times Co., 1919), 165.

 

George Creel, chairman of the Committee on Public Information in the United States, was criticized for purportedly giving the impression in 1918 that Germans "had abandoned the practice of cruelty." In the article below, from the October 24, 1918 edition of the Philadelphia newspaper The North American, Creel responds to the charges. Note that at the end of the article, Creel essentially accepts the report of a soldier being crucified, contesting only the soldier's nationality.

news clipping

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(image 21 of 45)

United States
72 x 56 cm
W. N. Wilson
1917-1918