It's been a century now, but I'd like you to pause for just a moment to remember an incredibly important event in history. The Great War, the "War to end all wars," now known as World War I, began in 1914.

Statistics tell us that over 16 million deaths and over 20 million wounded resulted from that war. Those are staggering figures. The U.S. lost over 117,000 dead and had over 205,000 wounded. This was a paltry tally when compared to Russia, whose dead totaled well over 3 million.

Here's a pic of some of our "doughboys" displaying their brand new 1911 pistols - trigger discipline at that time was observably poor, but remember that these were new guys who were quickly trained and thrown into combat in France.



Two especially poignant poems came out of the war. This first one reflects the horrors of gas warfare - a terrible way to die - literally drowning in one's own uncontrolled blood and other juices in the lungs.


Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori. (It's sweet and noble to die for one's country)

- Wilfred Owen


In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- John McCrae

Please take a moment to remember the sacrifices our ancestors made a century ago and thank your lucky stars for brave men and women who are willing to place themselves in harm's way, risking death so that you may live in peace and comfort.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

This is the best single thing I have seen that " explains " WWI.

World War I: The "Great War"

Every once in a while I take out a nice 1917 dated #1 Mk. III* Lee Enfield and speculate as to where it was and what it saw.

Hegel once said that history was a butcher's block.

I don't want to believe it but some days you wonder.

Thanks for your post John. Two of my ancestors went over to France as doughboys. One was gassed but survived to come home to live out a shortened life. The other had what we now know as PTSD so bad he was disabled for the rest of his long life.

We send young men to war because they don't know enough yet to be afraid.

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Bob.
SWCA 1821

And always because old men have made stupid decisions. That certainly was the case in World War I. Then once there those young men learned to their horror that they were commanded by generals who were trying to employ the tactics of 1870 against massed machine guns, poison gas, and artillery on a scale never seen before.

In all the history of dreadfully stupid wars, that one ranks very high. Or low.

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Oh well, what the hell.

were the military cemeteries where the WW1 soldiers were buried considered off limits during WW2 so they didn't get targeted or damaged in any way?

Thanks for posting.