Interesting History Behind BF1 Weapon Skin Names?

M1907 SL skins
Legendary: The Blue Devil, De Pierrot, The Old Drum
Distinguished: Deadlock, Frantz, Voisin, Ypres

Ypres skin for M1907 SL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ypres): Ypres (Dutch: Ieper; West Flemish: Yper; German: Ypern) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name Ieper is the official one, the city's French name Ypres is most commonly used in English. During the First World War, Ypres (or "Wipers" as it was commonly known by the British troops) was the centre of the Battles of Ypres between German and Allied forces. Ypres occupied a strategic position during the First World War because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north (the Schlieffen Plan, reference to the Gewehr 98's von Schlieffen skin). The German army surrounded the city on three sides, bombarding it throughout much of the war. To counterattack, British, French, and allied forces made costly advances from the Ypres Salient into the German lines on the surrounding hills. In the First Battle of Ypres (19 October to 22 November 1914), the Allies captured the town from the Germans. The Germans had used tear gas at the Battle of Bolimov on 3 January 1915. Their use of poison gas for the first time on 22 April 1915 marked the beginning of the Second Battle of Ypres, which continued until 25 May 1915. They captured high ground east of the town. The first gas attack occurred against Canadian, British, and French soldiers, including both metropolitan French soldiers as well as Senegalese and Algerian tirailleurs (light infantry) from French Africa. The gas used was chlorine. Mustard gas, also called Yperite from the name of this town, was also used for the first time near Ypres, in the autumn of 1917. Of the battles, the largest, best-known, and most costly in human suffering was the Third Battle of Ypres (31 July to 10 November 1917, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele), in which the British, Canadian, ANZAC, and French forces recaptured the Passchendaele Ridge east of the city at a terrible cost of lives. After months of fighting, this battle resulted in nearly half a million casualties to all sides, and only a few miles of ground won by Allied forces. During the course of the war the town was all but obliterated by the artillery fire. The Cloth Hall today is home to In Flanders Fields Museum (reference to the M1911 Pistol's In Flanders Fields skin), dedicated to Ypres's role in the First World War and named for the poem by John McCrae.

Deadlock skin for M1907 SL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_during_World_War_I): Chemical weapons were first used systematically in this war. Chemical weapons in World War I included phosgene, tear gas, chlorarsines and mustard gas. At the beginning of the war, Germany had the most advanced chemical industry in the world, accounting for more than 80% of the world's dye and chemical production. Although the use of poison gas had been banned by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, Germany turned to this industry for what it hoped would be a decisive weapon to break the deadlock of trench warfare. Chlorine gas was first used on the battlefield in April 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres (reference to the M1907 SL's Ypres skin) in Belgium. The unknown gas appeared to be a simple smoke screen, used to hide attacking soldiers, and Allied troops were ordered to the front trenches to repel the expected attack. The gas had a devastating effect, killing many defenders or, when the wind direction changed and blew the gas back, many attackers. The wind being unreliable, another way had to be found to transmit the gas. It began being delivered in artillery shells. Most chemical weapons attacked an individual's respiratory system. The concept of choking easily caused fear in soldiers and the resulting terror affected them psychologically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Front_(World_War_I) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Front_(World_War_I) To break the deadlock of the trench warfare on the Western Front, both sides tried new military technology, including poison gas, aircraft, and tanks. The adoption of better tactics and the cumulative weakening of the armies in the west led to the return of mobility in 1918. The German spring offensive of 1918 (reference to MP18's The Kaiserschlacht skin) was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that ended the war of the Central Powers against Russia and Romania on the Eastern Front. Using short, intense "hurricane" bombardments and infiltration tactics, the German armies moved nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the west, the deepest advance by either side since 1914, but the result was indecisive.

The Blue Devil skin for M1907 SL https://battlefield.fandom.com/wiki/The_Empires_Best_(Codex_Entry) With the French Blue Devils, The Italian Arditis (reference to Modello 1915 Pistol's The Arditi skin), and the German Stormtrooper using radical Hutier (reference to MP18's The Hutier skin) infiltration tactics, a new aggressive combat style saw the light of day during the Great War. This revolutionary approach to warfare was a clear departure from the costly practice of using mass infantry for frontal assaults. Stormtrooper attacks usually began with a smaller but violent artillery barrage concentrated on a smaller point rather than a wide front, after which the Stormtroopers did a rapid assault across no man's land, taking key positions and continuing beyond the trench lines to create confusion and paralyze the enemy in the rear. In many cases, this was then followed up by regular infantry sent forward to secure the captured territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chasseurs_Alpins The chasseurs alpins (English: Alpine Hunters) are the elite mountain infantry force of the French Army. They are trained to operate in mountainous terrain and in urban warfare. France created its own mountain corps in the late 19th century in order to oppose any Italian invasion through the Alps. In 1859–70 Italy became unified (reference to the Modello 1915 Pistol's Il Risorgimento skin), forming a powerful state. The French army saw this geopolitical change as a potential threat to their Alpine border, especially as the Italian army was already creating troops specialized in mountain warfare (the Alpini). On December 24, 1888, the first troupes de montagne ("mountain troops") corps were created from 12 of the 31 existing Chasseurs à pied ("Hunters on Foot'"/"Foot Rifles'") battalions. Initially these units were named bataillons alpins de chasseurs à pied ("Alpine Battalions of Hunters on Foot"/"Alpine Foot Rifle Battalions"). Later this was shortened to bataillons de chasseurs alpins ("Alpine Hunter Battalions"/"Alpine Rifle Battalions"). From their establishment the chasseurs Alpins wore a plain and practical uniform designed to be suitable for mountain service. This comprised a loose-fitting dark blue jacket and blue-grey breeches, together with a large beret carrying the yellow (daffodil) hunting horn insignia of the Chasseur branch. Various traditions: When marching with the band and horns, the marching pace is 140 steps a minute - faster than most other armed forces units, with the exception of the Italian Bersaglieri (reference to the Cei-Rigotti's Bersaglieri skin), whose pace is 180 steps per minute. The chasseurs alpins are informally known as Les diables bleus (Eng: The Blue Devils). Monuments and memorials to the unit, such as Memorial to the Chasseur Alpins are marked Aux Diables Bleus (Eng: To the Blue Devils).

Voisin skin for M1907 SL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voisin_(aircraft) Aéroplanes Voisin was a French aircraft manufacturing company established in 1905 by Gabriel Voisin and his brother Charles, and was continued by Gabriel after Charles died in an automobile accident in 1912; the full official company name then became Société Anonyme des Aéroplanes G. Voisin (English: Aeroplanes Voisin public limited company). During World War I, it was a major producer of military aircraft, notably the Voisin III. After the war Gabriel Voisin abandoned the aviation industry, and set up a company to design and produce luxury automobiles, called Avions Voisin. The company, based in the Parisian suburb of Billancourt, was the first commercial aircraft factory in the world. It created Europe's first manned, heavier-than-air powered aircraft capable of a sustained (1 km), circular, controlled flight, including take-off and landing, the Voisin-Farman I (reference to the Model 8 Autoloading's Farman skin). Having learned to fly with a Voisin, on 8 March 1910, Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to receive a pilot licence when the Aéro-Club de France issued her licence #36. Production of the Voisin III Type LA and LAS increased with the outbreak of the First World War, with examples being built under licence in Italy by S.I.T., in Russia by Anatra, Breshnev-Moller, Dux Lebedev and Schetinin, and in the UK by Savages of King's Lynn, with production exceeding 1,350 airframes. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, it became apparent that the French aviation industry could not produce aircraft in sufficient numbers to meet military requirements. Manufacturers from various other fields became aviation subcontractors, and later license-builders as did many smaller aircraft manufacturers who had been unable to secure orders for their own designs.

Frantz skin for M1907 SL (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Frantz): Joseph Frantz, né le 7 août 1890 à Beaujeu (Rhône) et mort le 12 septembre 1979 à Paris1, est un aviateur français de la Première Guerre mondiale, célèbre pour avoir participé au premier combat aérien victorieux de l’histoire. L’année suivante, toujours sur avion Voisin, Frantz descendit un second appareil. Il met ensuite ses qualités d'ingénieur et de pilote d'essai au service de la firme Voisin et met au point douze prototypes d'avions dont le biplan quadrimoteur Voisin de 37 mètres d'envergure. https://earlyaviators.com/efrantz.htm October 5, 1914, Sergeant Joseph Frantz (born in 1890, died in Paris in 1979) and his mechanic Louis Quénault (dates unknown), were attached to flotilla V 24. Flying a Voisin Type 3 biplane (reference to the M1907 SL's Voisin skin), they fired on a German Aviatik with a Hotchkiss machine gun. It was being piloted by Sergeant Wilhelm Schlichting with Lieutenant Fritz von Zangen as his observer. They were engaged in a reconnaisance mission close to Jonchéry on Vesle. After they exhausted the ammunition for the machine gun, they found themselves being fired upon by the German observer with his rifle. Sergeant Quénault responded with his own rifle and one of the shots hit the pilot. The plane, out of control, crashed to the earth and was destroyed. This event marked the first confirmed air victory of the First World War, and indeed in History at the same time.
There had been occasional exchanges of shots between the pilots of planes during the first weeks of the conflict, but Frantz and Quénault are credited with being the first aviators to shoot down an enemy plane.

De Pierrot skin for M1907 SL (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierrot): Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and commedia dell'arte, whose origins are in the late seventeenth-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne. Performing unmasked, with a whitened face, he wears a loose white blouse with large buttons and wide white pantaloons. Pierrot played a seminal role in the emergence of Modernism in the arts. He was a key figure in every art-form except architecture. In music, historians of Modernism generally place Arnold Schoenberg's (reference to the Maschinenpistole M1912/P.16's Schoenberg skin) 1912 song-cycle Pierrot lunaire at the very pinnacle of High-Modernist achievement. Students of Modernist painting and sculpture are familiar with Pierrot (in many different attitudes, from the ineffably sad to the ebulliently impudent) through the masterworks of his acolytes, including Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Georges Rouault, Salvador Dalí, Max Beckmann, August Macke, Paul Klee (reference to the Parabellum MG14/17's Paul Klee skin), Jacques Lipchitz—the list is very long. In film, a beloved early comic hero was the Little Tramp of Charlie Chaplin, who conceived the character, in Chaplin's words, as "a sort of Pierrot". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Troupe The Diamond Troupe was the concert party of the 29th Division, a First World War infantry division within the British Army. Also known as the "Incomparable Division", the 29th was formed in 1915 by combining units that had previously been acting as garrisons about the British Empire. The division fought throughout the Gallipoli Campaign and, from 1916 to the end of the war, on the Western Front in France. Concert parties were an integral element of the war effort, and by 1917, virtually every division had at least one. They mirrored the Pierrot troupes of music halls and seaside resorts, offering soldiers a respite from war, reminding them of home, and providing a neutral outlet to air grievances about "food, conditions, and sergeants". The Diamond Troupe was one of a small number of concert parties to achieve considerable notoriety, both on the battlefield and at home. The name “Diamond Troupe” was inspired by the 29th Division’s logo, a red half-diamond, and by the tactical superiority of the diamond formation in a military advance.

The Old Drum skin for M1907 SL triple question mark (???) or why are there dog breeds (The Golden Retriever skin, The Boykin Spaniel skin, ...) as skin names in Battlefield 1? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Graham_Vest George Graham Vest (December 6, 1830 – August 9, 1904) was a U.S. politician. Born in Frankfort, Kentucky, he was known for his skills in oration and debate. Vest, a lawyer as well as a politician, served as a Missouri Congressman, a Confederate Congressman during the Civil War, and finally a U.S. Senator. Vest was best known during his lifetime for his "a man's best friend" closing arguments from the trial in which damages were sought for the killing of a dog named Old Drum on October 18, 1869. It was at this time in 1869 that Vest was asked to represent Charles Burden and Old Drum in the case that would make him famous, Burden v. Hornsby. Vest took the case tried on September 23, 1870, in which he represented a client whose hunting dog, a foxhound named Drum (or Old Drum), had been killed by a sheep farmer, Leonidas Hornsby. The farmer (Burden's brother-in-law) had previously announced his intentions to kill any dog found on his property; the dog's owner was suing for damages in the amount of $150 (equivalent to $3,471 in 2022), the maximum allowed by law. During the trial, Vest stated that he would "win the case or apologize to every dog in Missouri." Vest's closing argument to the jury made no reference to any of the testimony offered during the trial, and instead offered a eulogy of sorts. Vest's "Eulogy of the Dog" is one of the most enduring passages of purple prose in American courtroom history (only a partial transcript has survived): Gentlemen of the jury - The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. Vest won the case (the jury awarded $50 to the dog's owner) and also won its appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. A bust of the dog resides in the Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City, Missouri. In 1958, a statue of the dog was erected on the Johnson County Courthouse lawn containing a summation of Vest’s closing speech, “A man’s best friend is his dog.”