Posted on 11/11/2018 7:36:41 AM PST by harpygoddess
Today is the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, when at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, the First World War came to an end after more than four years of carnage. (Armistice Day became Veterans' Day in 1954.) Described by British historian Corelli Barnett as a war that had "causes but no objectives, "the "Great War" left a legacy of disillusionment in its wake and made a shambles of the rest of the 20th century. All told, there were ten million military dead and seven million civilians killed.
The resulting economic collapse, the draconian terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and the conviction of many Germans that they had been "stabbed in the back" led to an even more destructive rematch only two decades later. One could argue - and I do - that World War I was the greatest misfortune that ever befell Western civilization.
It destroyed the West's belief in inevitable human progress. It brought down the Austro-Hungarian, German, Russian, and Ottoman empires, bankrupted France and England, and put the British Empire on the skids. It was the proximate cause of the triumph of Communism in Russia and the formation of the Soviet Union, drove the United States into two decades of international isolation, and instilled in Germany a thirst for revenge that led directly to the rise of the Nazis and World War II.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
~ Lawrence Binyon (wiki), For The Fallen
And the stanza immediately before that one is just as poignant:
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
To the fallen ...
My grandfather (my mom’s dad) served on the BB-3 Oregon...
I made a point of going to the Col. John McCrae Memorial Museum in Guelph, Ontario early this morning for the commemorative service at 06:00 (equivalent to 11:00 in France), where the Guelph Pipe Band played “The Battle’s Over” at the exact moment when the Armistice took effect 100 years ago. (information on the event is here: http://guelphmuseums.ca/event/remembrance-day-4/)
I couldn’t think of any place that felt more appropriate to be at that particular moment, but the birthplace of the man, who wrote “In Flanders Fields”.
It was a very profound moment, to say the least.
Thanks for the memory
In every German's mind
When you broke the ties that bind
And dictated a pact called the Treaty of Versailles.
How rotten that was!
Thanks for the memory
Of British aims divine,
French Negroes on the Rhine,
Your food blockade and misery
All over the German Reich.
What an injustice that was.
Many's the time that you feasted,
And many's the time that we fasted.
For you, it was swell while it lasted.
You did have fun, but harm was done.
Well, thanks for the memory.
It gives us strength to fight
For freedom and for right.
It might give you a headache, England,
That the Germans know how to fight
And hurt you so much.
I’m still angry that the left wants to remove more WW1 memorials than Hitler did. Hitler only got rid of one because it was basically a middle finger to Germany. He made sure that the rest were protected. Libs, how does it feel to know that Hitler had more respect of our troops who fought in WW1 than you do?
They need space for their socialist heroes like Che Guevara
Sheer brute power on the high seas.
The armistice was signed about five thirty that morning, and for some unfathomable reason, the cease fire was set for the elevens.
I suppose they wanted the alliteration.
Their bullheadedness sentenced over 2500 soldiers to a needless death. A Canadian solder was killed at 10:58.
The Texas is a sight to behold, even though she is moored.
To my grandfather, who served in the AEF and carried shrapnel in him for the rest of his life.
That pos Pershing killed almost 2700 Americans needlessly on the last day of the war when the Germans had already asked about a surrender four days earlier.
Had things been just a little different my grandfather would have still been in the NYS NG and called up but he finished enlistment in 1916 after making believe he and his fellow NYS NGers chased Ponco Villa. He was not called up because he was marries and my mom’s dad already.
My father’s cousin Jimmy was KIA on Oct 20 1918.
I guess I'm lucky Dad was "stranded" in the U.S. He became a naturalized citizen and served the Navy during WW II. Still, I wish I could have known my grand-parents.
While the politicians and the military geniuses who prosecuted the war got men needlessly killed before the armistice.
The beginning of a 21 year truce.
According to my Dad I had many relatives who were doughboys in the trenches. Some lived, some died, some were gassed and suffered horribly after the war. I salute all the gallant men who served.
Please elucidate.
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