Poster from the fifth bond campaign, 1918 – 1919; with the Great War over, Liberty Bonds became known as Victory Liberty Loans

Delaware unquestionably did more than its share for the war effort from 1914 – 1918, which we now call World War I but was then named “the Great War.” Ten thousand Delawareans served in the military, 43 of them making the ultimate sacrifice. Two large naval bases were set up at Cape Henlopen and across Delaware Bay in Cape May, NJ to safeguard the movement of troops and materiel into Philadelphia, a major embarkation port to the European Theater. Industrial production in New Castle County and agricultural production in Kent and Sussex kept our allies supplied and fed before the U. S. entry into the war, and then did likewise for our own troops. Civilians were exhorted to not waste food and to buy bonds. The latter were loans to the U. S. government that were repaid at a good interest rate for the time (about 4%).

There were, in fact, four bond drives before and during the war, and one afterward. The first four promoted the sale of Liberty Bonds, and the fifth, post-war drive sold Victory Liberty Loan bonds. The justification for the fifth drive was the need to maintain about two million of our troops in Europe through 1919 while they engaged in gathering enemy weapons, protected the armistice declared on November 11, 1918, and prepared for demobilization and return to the U. S.

The Victory Liberty Loan campaign employed a bit of extra huckstering to engage the public. Aside from the printing of posters such as the one featured at the beginning of this post, the U. S. government put on a road show: the Victory Loan War Exhibit Train, or more simply, the War Trophy Train. This short train toured the country carrying a British Whippet (fast attack) tank, American, German, and French machine guns, German 77mm artillery pieces and other captured German weaponry on a flatcar. Inside a coach, very lifelike wax figures of German soldiers in cages and hundreds of other articles were exhibited. The displays captured the interest of thousands everywhere they stopped and were highly successful in attracting people to buy bonds.

Delaware in 1919 was crisscrossed with hundreds of miles of railroad track, and many towns along the right-of-way had a depot or a suitable area that would permit a crowd to gather for a look at the Trophy Train. An itinerary for Delaware was published in the Milford Chronicle on April 18, 1919. The train would begin at Dover early on April 22, and proceed down the line through Felton, Harrington, Greenwood, Bridgeville, Seaford, Laurel and Delmar. Most of these stops were for an hour or so, but longer stops were scheduled for Harrington, Bridgeville and Seaford where the larger equipment could be rolled off the flatcar. On the 23rd, the train would proceed to Selbyville via Salisbury and Berlin, MD. Starting at 8:00 AM at Selbyville, the train would proceed north through Frankford, Millsboro, Georgetown, and Lewes. From Lewes it would travel to Milton (arriving 5:00 PM on the 23rd), Milford, and Ellendale, and end the day at Wilmington.

British Whippet tank on parade in London, outside the High Courts of Justice, probably 1919. To the people of Milton, who had only read about tank warfare late in the war, the sight of this new war machine in lower Delaware would have been quite amazing, if it were actually part of the touring exhibition. In the next photo, there is no Whippet tank on the flatcar. (tankmuseum.com)

War Trophy Train in New Jersey; notice the line of young boys waiting to mount the flatcar (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC)

Wax figures of German soldiers in cages (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC)

Wax figures of German soldiers from early years of war, one with Pickelhaube (spiked) helmet discontinued around 1916, surrounded by other war relics (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC)

Oddly enough, an event such as the visit of the War Trophy Train should have resulted in a good deal of press coverage in the Milford Chronicle. After publication of the Trophy Train’s itinerary, the only reference to the train in the lower Delaware press was a single sentence in the in the Chronicle edition of April 25, 1919, Magnolia column: Quite a number went from here to Dover to see the trophy train Monday night.

A better justification for the Victory Liberty Loan campaign was offered by Lewis B. Franklin, chairman of the campaign. He maintained that the vast production of armaments and munitions that the U. S. military was preparing to ship to Europe had the war continued in 1919 convinced the German general staff that they were beaten and helped bring about the armistice sooner. With around 63,000 dead and many more than that wounded after only six months of fighting, early termination of the war had potentially saved hundreds of thousands of American soldiers’ lives. Paying the bills that were coming due for the massive buildup was a more than reasonable price to pay for avoiding the carnage that befell the Allies and the Central Powers in the trenches.