Kids playing Army in Paris in 1915

Kids hear and see everything, especially during a war like World War One, and they cope with it by pretend-playing, like these French children who played soldiers on the streets of Paris in 1915. These rare and vibrant colored pictures were taken by photographer Leon Gimpel:

Troops get recognition for their efforts in a war, even one that’s just for pretend, like the Rue Greneta contingent on 22 August 1915.

That lamppost must be awfully important if this pretend aviator strung up a wooden warplane to it to strike down any enemy that might attempt to reach the perimeter either by air, land, or sea.

These kids are laying on their stomachs with toy rifles pointed at whatever enemy might attempt to invade their lamp “out”-post.

These Parisian kids took down an enemy plane made of papier-mâché. That’ll deter the enemy from trying to take down that lamppost.

The French kids attempt to defend a Rue Dussoubs home despite the fact that it looks like it has been hit by a missile. Now that’s what we call determination.

This French aviator is not only happy to be on the ground, but stands tall and triumphant over his defeated paper plane enemy.

Sometimes you have to know when to give up, especially when the odds are stacked against you, like this unfortunate soldier, now a prisoner of war.

A tiny French prisoner undergoes an intense interrogation by his captors.

Even troops deserve a break, and what better way than to enjoy a lollipop with the battalion?

Rico says he played Army when he was a kid, but it was World War Two (not Vietnam; that was later, after Rico had discovered girls), and poor Malcolm Brown always had to play the Germans...