Excellent indeed,
thanks for sharing,
Chr.
Thank you very much. Virtual Time travel.
I'm convinced that WWI ranks with the rise of Christianity and the Reformation as the three most important turning points in western civilization; the rise, splintering, and fall of Christendom.
“In the Somme valley, the back of language broke. It could no longer carry its former meanings. World War I changed the life of words and images in art, radically and forever. It brought our culture into the age of mass-produced, industrialized death. This, at first, was indescribable.”
Robert Hughes
I dunno that it was such a turning point. Would you rather have been a soldier on the front lines in WWI or in the much earlier battles with 10,000 meeting 10,000 with lances, arrows, maces, and spears?
Whenever I think of WWI, I remember the story of my great uncle James.
His unit was due to rotate off the front at noon for 2 weeks of R&R, during which time it turned out the armistice was signed. An attack came at 10 AM. He was two hours fromo getting out uninjured.
In that attack, he was badly wounded; among other wounds he took it in the face. When things calmed down he was conscious enough to hear the medics picking up the wounded. He heard them say "skip that one, he's gone," but was able to summon the strength to wiggle his fingers. "Oh, wait, he's alive." He came that close to dying on the field.
He spent a couple years in hospitals getting what reconstructive surgery they could do. I remember him well as a quiet farmer with a sunken face and only half of his jaw.
That's precisely why our Roxie's Uncle Phil Ochs used to sing "I ain't marchin' any more!"
Let the Koch brothers fight their own dang wars.
And I don't mean this in a political sense, but there's always going to be Koch brothers sending us off to die.
🙁
Don
I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.
In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.
You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.
Thanks Jerry.
It makes me wonder. Do we really remember? The price these young men paid.
We are raising a generation that does not know.
N
I got a reccomendation for a podcast of another site
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History, episode Blueprint for armageddon
3 hours of really interesting facts, and opinions, about the lead up to WW1.
I'm just starting episode 2
It's WWI that kept me from ever meeting my grandfather Ingram. The movie "Sgt. York" could have just as easily have been "Sgt. Ingram". From reading his various commendations I gather he did exactly the same thing - went off by himself, got behind the German lines, wiped out some machine gun nests, and captured some prisoners. The only difference I could see between him and Sgt. York is that he didn't capture quite as many prisoners and he "only" got the DSC instead of CMA - along with a slew of other medals.
He was also gassed and that is ultimately what killed him.
He came home and was a Revenue Agent (aka Elliot Ness) in Detroit for several years before the effects of the gassing put him in a hospital and killed him.
He must have been one heck of a man. Sure would have liked to have met him.
My grandfather was a WW1 vet and returned disabled and lived a quiet life (except for the Roaring 20s) thereafter such that he never talked about the war. He built a wall around him of his experience much the same that I have known decorated WW2 and Vietnam vets do.
It is understood that he was hit by machine gun fire and also lost his hearing. I have seen his commendations and purple hearts. He was a machine gun feeder as seen on the page that Jerry linked. Who knows. That may be him. My understanding it was a 3 man squad of a gunner,ammunition feeder and ammunition hauler. I guess that is the ammunition hauler sitting away from the line of fire. I could say more but won't about his service at Argonne Forest etc.
It wasn't until the late 1940s with the advance of hearing aids that he was able to hear some sounds like his grandkids laughing and playing and participate in conversation to a small degree. He was a working man al of his life and good husband and father. Because of his hearing, he could never advance in working life
He was my father's hero in life as well as mine. As kids, we would play with his doughboy helmet that had a bullet indentation in it. I guess that he kept as a memento and reminder.
I named my son after him.
Tomorrow evening, I am dropping of swmbo and him at the beautifully restored Saenger Theater to see War Horse. The tickets were a Mom's Day gift from me. Mothers don't send your children off to war.
Scary real pictures...
