100 Years Gone - no FJ content

[PaulG]

Earlier this year I read Hell in Flanders Fields: Canadians at the Second Battle of Ypres  .  I've read a fair amount of military history of all ages, and found this book particularly well written.  It brings the overall scheming of the politicians and generals and scales it down to the individual in the field and what their experience was due to that.  Sad to say though that I picked this up in a bargain bin for $10.

There was one passage that has stuck in my head these past months.


Ypres, Belgium, 8-May-1917, The Battle of Frezenberg Ridge
T. Richardson, Machine Gunner, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry

"Our gun barrels were blistering hot from firing hours upon hours.  Then they sent over another wave.  We gave them all we had.  It was nearly enough to stop them, but not quite.  A few of them entered our trench.

We looked into each others eyes.  He laughed hysterically and sprang down at me with his bayonet lunging at my stomach.  The butt of his rifle was in his shoulder as he literally dived at me, bayonet first, trying to pin me through the body.  I gathered my hands and feet under me faster than I can tell, and tried to throw myself backwards.  I was too weak to get quite clear.  He pinned me to the ground through the side of my left thigh.  He was laughing hysterically still.  I never carried a rifle that day... But I always carried a .45 Colt automatic pistol.  Now as I lay there on my back with that German bayonet through my leg, and the German face laughing down at me, I pulled that pistol and shoved it into his face.  A more surprised man there never was.  His expression changed as if a hand had wiped that hysterical laugh off his face.  The laugh changed to a scream.  His first word was "Kamerade."

But I laughed now.  And I pulled the trigger."

Cold.  Brutal.  Survival.  For me personally, once you strip away the Empires, Politicians, and Generals, that sums up what happened 100 years gone now, and I will leave it at that.  Take a moment to Remember this Sunday. Thx.

[big r]

My Grandfather was there. He wouldn't talk about very much other than say the Jerries were a tough bunch. He was with the Seaforth Highlanders

[Tuned forks]

Paul et al, if you would like to read another book that discusses the aftermath of WWI and how the peace accords shaped the post war world, check out this book.  For instance, in my lifetime Yugoslavia was always one country.  After the Balkans conflicts I was curious about the various regions and why they hated each other and what made them into one country.  This book answered that curiosity and many more.

https://www.amazon.com/Paris-1919-Months-Changed-World/dp/0375760520

Joe

[PaulG]

I have that book in my "collection" waiting. It was also made into a very good documentary  Paris 1919 which you can stream for free off the NFB website. (National Filmboard of Canada). Interesting note: the author Margaret MacMillan is the granddaughter of Lloyd George, Englands PM during that time.  I also have her prequel The War That Ended Peace. Very smart cookie.

[TexasDave]

Strange how things work out in the world. Both my grandfathers fought in WWI. My Dad's father fought across France, Belgium and Germany. Came home and his hair was completely white. Later learned this was from being chlorine gassed in the trenches. He never talked about the war to his two sons and I only got a couple of stories out of him. I know he dispatched a lot of Germans but he only told me of one. He had far better eyesight and shooting ability than most and they used him for counter sniper duties. He was called to the other end of the trenches and told of a sniper they thought was in a tree. He said after his first shot the rifle fell out of the tree and after his second the man fell out. This was open sights on a 1903 Springfield 30-06. He was part of the occupying forces after the war and lived with a German family almost a year. He had great respect for the Germans. When my uncle got to be a Navy Commander he requested his Dad's records service records. He said he had no idea his Dad was in the middle of some of the worst shit.
After the war he married a girl with the last name of Brandt. A good German name. In fact her father was German and her mother was Norwegian. She grew up speaking German, Norwegian and English. Her father and his brother were young farmers about to be conscripted to fight in one of the Kaiser's wars long before WWI. Deciding they did not want to fight they snuck over to Norway where they met and married two Norwegian sisters. They then migrated to America to farm. So I do have a German draft dodger in the family. Strange how things work out in the world.

Dave

[Motofun]

My grandfather was also in France and Belgium during WWI.  I have all his discharge papers, medals and many pictures.  They were a different bunch of people from most of us...had to be to be able to do  and put up with the situation they had.  Dan Carlin has an extensive podcast on WWI.  It is in many sections and will take quite a while to listen to it all.  Caution, don't start it if you don't want to spend most of a day listening....it is fascinating and will blow your mind.

[Millietant]

Paul et al, if you would like to read another book that discusses the aftermath of WWI and how the peace accords shaped the post war world, check out this book.  For instance, in my lifetime Yugoslavia was always one country.  After the Balkans conflicts I was curious about the various regions and why they hated each other and what made them into one country.  This book answered that curiosity and many more.

https://www.amazon.com/Paris-1919-Months-Changed-World/dp/0375760520

Joe

I spent some time riding in "Yugoslavia" when I went to the Yugoslavian Grand Prix at Rijeka in 1990. That was one scary place at that time.....tanks appearing out of nowhere and crossing the roads in large numbers, lots of military helicopters flying around, road blocks and armed soldier/police questioning.....once we'd been to Split, we high-tailed it back to Austria and out of there for the rest of our tour. The extreme animosity between the various groups of people in towns at that time was obvious and scary.

Mind you, the GP was goooood. Met Randy Mamola (he gave us pairs of his race boots) and chilled out with Wayne Rainey and Ron Haslam for a couple of hours on the Monday after the races.......great memories.

[Mike Ramos]

It is amazing how wars have disrupted societies down through the ages.  The true costs of war are incalculable, in the carnage inflicted upon mankind and in societal decline as a whole.

As this discussion pertains World War One here is a different take as that promulgated by the politicians & merchants of death.  Below is a link to a particular moment early in the War: while there are numerous articles on the "Christmas Truce" this one is fairly comprehensive.

Beneath the link is a poem describing the "Christmas Truce" from the soldier's point of view.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/12/john-v-denson/the-christmas-truce/


A Carol from Flanders

by Frederick Niven

This poem recounts the true story of the 1914 spontaneous Christmas truce
along the lines of the Western front.

In Flanders on the Christmas morn
The trenched foemen lay,
the German and the Briton born,
And it was Christmas Day.

The red sun rose on fields accurst,
The gray fog fled away;
But neither cared to fire the first,
For it was Christmas Day!

They called from each to each across
The hideous disarray,
For terrible has been their loss:
"Oh, this is Christmas Day!"

Their rifles all they set aside,
One impulse to obey;
'Twas just the men on either side,
Just men -- and Christmas Day.

They dug the graves for all their dead
And over them did pray:
And Englishmen and Germans said:
"How strange a Christmas Day!"

Between the trenches then they met,
Shook hands, and e'en did play
At games on which their hearts were set
On happy Christmas Day.

Not all the emperors and kings,
FINANCIERS and they
Who rule us could prevent these things --
For it was Christmas Day.

Oh ye who read this truthful rime
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.

[Troyskie]

Lest We Forget

[Mike Ramos]

Lest We Forget

Absolutely true....

A current article:  https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/11/eric-margolis/the-stupidest-most-tragic-war/

[TexasDave]

Lest We Forget

Absolutely true....

A current article:  https://www.lewrockwell.com/2018/11/eric-margolis/the-stupidest-most-tragic-war/

Just how bad was this war? Of the 358 men in my grandfathers original company only (9) were not killed or seriously wounded. My grandfather was only slightly wounded and was one of the lucky few.

Dave

[Bones]

Great song written by Bob Dylan about war.

https://youtu.be/c53RqNwogQI

[PaulG]

Just how bad was this war? Of the 358 men in my grandfathers original company only (9) were not killed or seriously wounded. My grandfather was only slightly wounded and was one of the lucky few.

Dave

He was a very lucky man. 40 million estimated casualties military and civilian. Approx 20 million dead.  The scope is still unimaginable, considering Canada's population at that time was 11 million.

Events like the slaughter of the Newfoundland Regiment at The Somme were not uncommon.

"The attack was a devastating failure. In a single morning, almost 20,000 British troops died, and another 37,000 were wounded. The Newfoundland Regiment had been almost wiped out. When roll call was taken, only 68 men answered their names - 324 were killed, or missing and presumed dead, and 386 were wounded." 

When America finally entered the war in 1917 they initially took many unnecessary casualties as they used the same tactics that had failed the British & French earlier in the war. Such as at the Somme.  So consider his service your luck too in a perverse way. However he managed to survive, allowed you to exist today.

Just imagine the millions that were never given the chance. Really puts things into perspective as to how fortunate we are.