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Date: |
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Description: | MAY 1915
whole: the title is positioned in the upper half, in red and blue. The text is positioned over the lower half, in blue and
red, separated by horizontal blue dividing lines. All set against a white background.
image: text only.
text: MEN OF LEICESTERSHIRE
AVENGE THE LUSITANIA
HOW TO DO IT!
For every Man, Woman and Child lost 10 Men should join.
JOIN THE 10TH BATTALION LEICESTERSHIRE REGIMENT
21, HUMBERSTONE GATE.
14 DAYS LEAVE AT HOME ON JOINING
PAY AND ALLOWANCES 3/- PER DAY WHILST ON LEAVE.
WILLSONS, Printers, Leicester.
The sinking of the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania was one of the most controversial incidents of the First World
War.
On 1st May 1915 the Lusitania set sail from New York bound for Liverpool, with over 1,900 passengers and crew on board. Six days later a
German submarine, the U-20, sank her as she approached southern Ireland. 1,200 lives were lost, including 128 Americans, causing outrage in
both Britain and America.
In her defence, Germany argued that the Lusitania was carrying supplies of ammunition and also cited American press warnings discouraging
travel on Allied ships. Nevertheless President Woodrow Wilson issued an official protest and there were anti-German riots in American
cities. Meanwhile British propaganda capitalized on the incident (see PST 11782, PST 11803, PST 11821 and PST 11856), portraying it as an
act of German barbarism.
Though America remained for the time neutral, the sinking of the liner caused a significant hardening of opinion against Germany, which
eventually led to her entry into the First World War, in 1917, on the side of the Allies. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | civilian suffering British Home Front 1914-1918 Recruitment Campaign 1914-1916 Leicestershire Regiment British Army 1914-1918 British Army UK Home Front recruiting First World War Atrocities and War Crimes WW1 British Home Front | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Leicestershire Regiment | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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