Thank you for such a sentimental reminder of the sacrifices made by others, for the freedoms we have today. I tried to read that letter to my wife but I didn’t quite make it without a pause to regroup. Thanks for sharing this.
To My Buddy Jim --- Killed, Sept. 29, 1918; Buried, Somme: Plot A, Row 32 Grave
- Thread starter bigwheelzip
- Start date
bigwheelzip....thank you for the tributes to our fallen protectors and heroes. May they all R.I.P. God Bless.
Don
Don
Sistema1927
US Veteran
When I read things like this I am reminded of President Reagan's speech, Where Did We Find Such Men?":
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Z912lMf0c[/ame]
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Z912lMf0c[/ame]
My grandfather was a veteran of WW1, serving overseas 18 months, was in active combat with the Germans something like 180+/- days of that time. His division, the 42nd (Rainbow), had nearly 15,000 casualties in their nine months of combat. They also served as occupation troops along the Rhine after the Armistice, so he got to see and understand the German fairly well.
Around 1935, he told my Mom they never should have agreed to an Armistice, which allowed the German Army to go back to Germany intact. He said we should have driven them to Berlin and demanded surrender, and because we did not do that, that there was going to be another terrible war. He was startlingly prescient, but didn't live to see his prediction come true, dying in 1936 from the effects of being gassed in WW1.
OP
bigwheelzip
Absent Comrade
Sorry to read of the gas's effect on your grandfather. Cpl Doane's diary speaks to the fear of those attacks. Even the division newsletter was named "Gas Attack".
Last edited:
