You are quite right to remind us of Veterans Day and what it implies. As a child I recall my father, a veteran of World War II, coming home wearing a red flower in his lapel and offering an explanation which at the time I little understood. Years later, I happened to be in London on a dreary November 11 when so many people on the streets were wearing red poppies but it took a while for me to connect what I was seeing with my childhood experience. The carnage of World War I was disproportionately borne by the British as compared to the Americans. A whole generation of young men was nearly wiped out. So many young British men were killed that the society resorted to hyphenating names to preserve the male line. Yet, as devastating as British casualties were they actually suffered less than their allies and enemies.
The House of Windsor survived but the Hohenzollerens, Habsburgs, Romanovs, and Ottomans were destroyed by the war as was the culture which we English-speaking people know as the Edwardian age. The Edwardian values were discredited as was the aristocracy to a degree as the realization sank in that the elite classes had conducted the country into a catastrophe. Communism, Fascism, National Socialism emerged out of the blood and rubble. The war launched the world into its bloodiest century.
One of the most poignant and prophetic scenes must be that of the observation of Lord Edward Gray, knowing the Germans would receive Britain's ultimatum making war nearly inevitable, he looked out on the gas lights of London being lit at dusk and was heard to say, "The lamps are going out all over Europe. I fear we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."
We honor our men and now our women who served and sacrificed in that war and in America's wars.
Where I live here in Bavaria the landscape is dotted with charming villages, ("Dörfer"), and in virtually every town square somewhere near the Catholic Church one will see a "Denkmal" (Monument) with a list of names of the fallen from that village. Relative to the diminutive size of the village the list is appallingly long. The list is longer for World War II. Yet the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month will go largely unremarked here in Germany.
World War I had other consequences. Lessons were drawn from that war which were to shape how we see the world even to this date. Few are aware of the character of the war as it evolved in 1918. Almost everyone of reasonable education has been informed that World War I was a static war in which the defensive deployment of artillery and machine guns situated in trenches prevailed against human bodies attacking over open ground.
The French and English drew tactical lessons which were that the offensive was no longer a viable war tactic, rather the casualty count had proved that it was madness to assault fixed positions and therefore the Army should be structured around a defensive posture. The English especially forgot the lesson that they taught the world, not excluding the Germans, of the shattering impact of tanks against forces arrayed on the defensive. The Germans went to school on those battles in places like Cambrai and learned that lesson only to use what they had learned to school in another war the British who had forgotten their own invention.
After the war the French drew back behind their Maginot Line and the English drew back behind their channel. Worse, the French extrapolated an even more faulty lesson beyond favoring the defensive, they became defeatist.
By early 1918 at least the Germans had learned another equally important lesson. They had found the key to breaking through the defense which had frustrated both sides at the cost of millions of lives for nearly 4 years. Strategists had attempted to break through static lines with concentration of force preceded by earth shattering bombardment. In the main the bombardment had served only to warn the adversary of the impending attack and to so furrow the ground that made it virtually impassable for attacking troops. The Germans went the other way, they abbreviated the bombardment and broke up the attacking force into elite commando type squads thoroughly trained and disciplined to infiltrate and avoid strong points. They could do this because of the extraordinary training, unit cohesion, and staff support, especially of their veterans.
Ludendorff very nearly won with this tactic but simply did not have the reserves required, even throwing into the battle 1 million troops arrived from the Russian front. The attempt, although unsuccessful in winning the war before the Americans could be brought to bear, nevertheless demonstrated the possibility of aggressive, offensive warfare.
Combine these tactics with the concentrated use of tanks, add air and coordinate all three by communications and staff work, and you have blitzkrieg.
The Germans, principally Gudarian, took one set of lessons from World War I and the Allies, with few exceptions like Charles de Gaulle, took a whole different set of lessons from that war. The French especially but even the English reacted emotionally to the carnage. The English forgot the lessons they had taught the world about the use of tanks. The French who had thought that élan would win the day now went to the other extreme and became defeatist.
Understandable as these emotional reactions were in view of the ghastliness of the World War I battlefields, succumbing to these emotions at the cost of rational evaluation only cost millions more lives.
This lengthy discourse on Veterans Day is meant to make a point about our catastrophic election loss. It is vital that we take the right lessons from this campaign and not draw feel good emotional conclusions.
We lost this war, let us not lose the next.
