The FReeper Foxhole - Lazy Sunday and some WW1 Facts - October 17th, 2004

see educational sources

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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Just the facts, ma'am.

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WWI Facts



OTHER NAMES FOR THE GREAT WAR

World War One
The War to End All Wars
The War to Make the World Safe for Democracy
The War of the Nations
The First World War
The World War

Famous Alumni of World War One

Humphrey Bogart, Walt Disney, Charles DeGaulle,
Ernest Hemmingway, Pope John XXIII, Lawrence of Arabia,
Winston Churchill, Bella Lugosi, Fritz Kreisler,
Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussollini, Fiorello LaGuardia
Harry Truman, King Edward VIII, General Marshall,
General George Patton, General E. Rommel, G. Marconi
General Douglas MacArthur, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Field Marshall Montgomery, Walter Brennan



CASUALTY FACTS

During the summer and fall of 1914, France lost as many men on the battlefield as the U.S.Army would lose in all of the 20th century!

Russia's losses were never actually counted. It is estimated that over 6 million Russian soldiers were killed in WWI.

During World War One, 230 soldiers perished for each hour of the four and a quarter years it continued.

The world's worst train accident occured in France, in December 1917 with the deaths of over 600 soldiers.

There were 70,000,000 men and women in uniform of that number one-half were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war.

In Great Britian at the end of the war there were 250,000 wounded soldiers who suffered total or partial amputation.

The Spanish Influenza of 1918 killed 51 million people worldwide!

The U.S. was in the war in actual combat for only seven and a half months. During this time 116,000 were killed and 204,000 were wounded.

In 1916 in the Italian Alps a winter avalanche killed 10,000 men. In four years of conflict on the Italian Alpine Front 50,000 soldiers killed by avalances.

The Italian Front 1915-1918 was the site of the largest scale mountain warfare in history.

During the course of the Great War 11% of Frances's entire population was killed or wounded.

The site of the Battle of Verdun is remembered as the battlefield with the highest density of dead per square yard.

The biggest naval battle in history occurred off the coast of Jutland in the afternoon of May 31, 1916. More than 200 warships and 100,000 men of the rival navies were involved. The British "Grand Fleet" lost 14 ships. The German "High Seas Fleet" lost 11 ships.

Half of the dead of Great War have no known grave.

The largest man made explosion occured at Halifax Harbor, Nova Scotia, Canada 1917 with the collison of 2 ammo ships.

The 10 month Battle of Verdun, 1916 caused over a million casualties.

At the end of the war in France the 650,000 war widows became a powerful voting block .

Italian Front
60,000 Alpine troops would freeze to death in the "high mountains" (Dolomiti Adamello ranges) during 3 years of war.



WORLD WAR ONE FIRSTS

First war to be fought on 3 continents.
First industrialized conflict.
First use of chlorine & mustard gas.
First use of the flame thrower.
First tank battle.
First use of mass airplanes.
First use of x-ray in the military.
First use of a blood bank.
First use of guide dogs by blinded soldiers.
First four-star general, General John J. Pershing
First use of trillion in estimating war costs.
First commissioning of war art for propaganda.
First use of the IQ Test given to Doughboys of 1917.
First U.S. president to visit a European country while in office was Woodrow Wilson on 12/04/18.



WORLD WAR ONE ANIMALS

1917 - "Stubby" a mutt, who wandered into the Connecticut National Armory, goes overseas with the 102nd Inf. Regiment during WW1. The dog saves his regiment from surprise mustard gas attacks and locates wounded soldiers. "Stubby" was decorated for Valor by Gen. John Pershing.

1918 - "Cher Ami" a U.S. Army Singal Corps carrier pigeon is wounded during the Battle of Verdun, France. He dies of wounds in 1919 and is awarded the French Croix de Guerre.

1918 - "Rin Tin Tin" a German Shepherd dog was born in a trench in 1918 and rescued by an American Soldier. The dog became the nation's most famous dog and starred in more than 40 films.

It is estimated that over 800,000 horses were killed in the line of duty with the British Forces on the Belgium Front.

Over 40,000 war dogs were killed while serving with the Allied Armies.

Buddy, the offspring of a war dog, is the first seeing eye dog.

The Original Pooh Bear was a Canadian World War One Mascot.

Rin Tin Tin ,a German Shepherd war dog, helped shape our image of dogs, as a problem solver, paved the way for Lassie and made the dog into an American Folk Hero.

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

Good night feather. My goal is to be offline in 10 minutes!

[SAMWolf]

Most people think of the Pacific when they hear US Marines. The fact that they were in Europe during WWI doesn't seem to ring a bell for a lot of people. Our history isn't being taught very well anymore. :-(

[SAMWolf]

I thank "That Marine" for his service.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Snippy. :-)

[Soaring Feather]

You have 9 minutes left!

[snippy_about_it]

That turned out to be a real misnomer didn't it?

For some strange reason people seem to think wars solve things. I wonder if folks thought after WWII that war was over for awhile?

[SAMWolf]

I wonder if folks thought after WWII that war was over for awhile?

Not counting, revolutions, insurgency's and the founding of Israel, at least until 1950.

[snippy_about_it]

Hi Coleus. We are thankful for your grandfather's service.

Some history and some great propaganda posters;

To the American public of 1914, the outbreak of war in Europe came as a shock. At first the encounter seemed remote, but its economic and political effects were swift and deep. By 1915 U.S. industry, which had been mildly depressed, was prospering again with munitions orders from the Western Allies. Both sides used propaganda to arouse the public passions of Americans -- a third of whom were foreign-born or had one or two foreign-born parents. Moreover, Britain and Germany both acted against U.S. shipping on the high seas, bringing sharp protests from President Woodrow Wilson. But the disputes between the United States and Germany grew increasingly ominous.

In February 1915, German military leaders announced that they would attack all merchant shipping on the waters around the British Isles. President Wilson warned that the United States would not forsake its traditional right, as a neutral, to trade on the high seas -- a view of neutral rights not shared by Germany or Great Britain. Wilson declared that the nation would hold Germany to "strict accountability" for the loss of American vessels or lives. Soon afterward, in the spring of 1915, when the British liner Lusitania was sunk with nearly 1,200 people aboard, 128 of them Americans, indignation reached a fever pitch.

Anxious to avoid a possible declaration of war by the United States, Germany issued orders to its submarine commanders to give warning to ocean-going vessels -- even if they flew the enemy flag -- before firing on them. But on August 19, these orders were ignored and the British steamer Arabic was sunk without warning. In March 1916, the Germans torpedoed the French ship Sussex, injuring several Americans. President Wilson issued an ultimatum stating that unless Germany abandoned its present methods of submarine warfare, the United States would sever relations. Germany agreed.

As a result, Wilson was able to win reelection that year, partly on the strength of his party's slogan: "He kept us out of war." As late as January 1917, in a speech before the Senate, Wilson called for a "peace without victory," which, he said, was the only kind of peace that could last.

On January 22, 1917, the German government gave notice that unrestricted submarine warfare would be resumed. When five U.S. vessels had been sunk by April, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war. Immediately, the government set about mobilizing its military resources, industry, labor and agriculture. By October 1918, on the eve of Allied victory, a U.S. army of over 1,750,000 soldiers had been deployed in France.



The U.S. Navy was crucial in helping the British break the submarine blockade, and in the summer of 1918, during a long-awaited German offensive, fresh American troops, under the command of General John J. Pershing, played a decisive role on land. In November, for example, American forces took an important part in the vast Meuse-Argonne offensive, which cracked Germany's vaunted Hindenburg Line.

President Wilson contributed greatly to an early end to the war by defining the war aims of the Allies, and by insisting that the struggle was being waged not against the German people but against their autocratic government. His famous Fourteen Points, submitted to the Senate in January 1918 as the basis for a just peace, called for abandonment of secret international agreements, a guarantee of freedom of the seas, the removal of tariff barriers between nations, reductions in national armaments, and an adjustment of colonial claims with due regard to the interests of the inhabitants affected. Other points sought to ensure self-rule and unhampered economic development for European nationalities. The Fourteenth Point constituted the keystone of Wilson's arch of peace -- the formation of an association of nations to afford "mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike."



By the summer of 1918, when Germany's armies were being beaten back, the German government appealed to Wilson to negotiate on the basis of the Fourteen Points. The president conferred with the Allies, who acceded to the German proposal. An armistice was concluded on November 11.

http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/ch9_p2.htm

[snippy_about_it]

I'm five minutes late. LOL.

[snippy_about_it]

Not counting, revolutions, insurgency's and the founding of Israel, at least until 1950.

That's all? :-)

Good night Sam.

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Snippy.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[alfa6]

Boy I could use a Lazy Sunday today, busy, busy, busy. Off to the BORG to pick up some more trim and look at how much a 40" ladder is gonna set me back(groan)

Will rustle up some WWI pics later.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[The Mayor]

Still on the other computer with no ping list

October 14, 2004

Wholeness Of Life

Read: Mark 2:1-12

Son, your sins are forgiven you. . . . Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. —Mark 2:5,11

Bible In One Year: Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2

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A social worker told her colleagues about a young boy in an urban ghetto who appeared to be little more than a bit of twisted human flesh. He had been struck by a car several months before and had not received proper medical attention.

Although not part of her caseload, the social worker took the boy to an orthopedist, who performed surgery on his legs. Two years later the boy walked into her office without crutches. His recovery was complete. The two embraced. "If I accomplish nothing else in my life," said the social worker to herself, "I have made a real difference with at least this one!"

She paused, then said to her colleagues, "This was all several years ago now. Where do you think that boy is today?" Some suggested that he might be a school teacher, others a physician or a social worker. With deep emotion, the woman responded, "No, he's in the penitentiary for one of the foulest crimes a human can commit. I was instrumental in teaching him how to walk again, but there was no one to teach him where to walk."

We must point people to Jesus. Through Him, those with broken bodies, broken dreams, broken homes, and broken hearts receive wholeness of life. —Haddon Robinson

Lord, help us to tell of Your love for mankind—
A love for the sin-sick, the broken, the blind;
And help them to see by the way that we live
A wholeness of being that You long to give. —D. De Haan

A person may go wrong in many different directions but right in only one.

[Grzegorz 246]

[Humal]

Good morning, Snippy, Sam, and All.

My knowledge of WWI went up a great deal this morning. It's not a war I've studied very much, since I had no relatives fighting in it. My grandmother's oldest surviving son came of age in 1918, but it was too late for him to join. The war was over. Her youngest son did serve in WWII.

This is a "keeper" for me. Lots of new facts for me.

[U S Army EOD]

During Vietnam in the EOD circles, we had a basset hound named Red Dog, that went to Vietnam with a unit in 1965 and got back home in 1973. He was just a mascot and moved from unit to unit during his stay in Vietnam. In 1972 everyone in country contributed to the, "Bring Red Dog Home Fund", and a guardian was elected and appointed. Red Dog was wounded twice, once in a mortar attack and once shot with a 45 cal pistol. He died of cancer sometime around 1978 or so. The vet had to put him down, but when he examined and x-rayed Red Dog's body, he found more fragments of the mortar still in him. He was featured in Army Times once, with his guardian SGM Hole.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning, Mayor.

[SAMWolf]

Morning Aeronaut.