Armistice Centennial

Happy Veterans' Day RIU!

While our #riuhistorian, now BarnBuster, has already posted about them on the two appropriate threads, this is a jubilee day, and I decided to give it its own thread.

The Great War (which we call World War One now, showing that this was simply the first half of the great conflict of our grandparents' times) was the first war in which the speed of technical development changed how war works. The static entrenched fronts, high-explosive artillery and practical machine guns turned the campaign into a vast killing field that left an estimated 15-19 million dead, of which 7 million or so were civilian casualties.

The end of the war saw remobilizing technologies (improved aircraft and motorized armor broke the trenches) that really blossomed in the sequel, which came in less than twenty-one years and then left us with a long cold war guaranteed by thousands of strategic nukes that could kill a nation quickly and completely.

But that war did not go hot, and we survive to this day. I wish to honor the Great War's dead and (now all deceased) wounded. Their sacrifice laid the foundation for our current, arguably prosperous but certainly lively world of humanity.

In Flanders Fields
BY JOHN MCCRAE

(1915)

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Also marked the dawn of "plastic" surgery, facial reconstruction. Trench warfare necessitated men to peer over the ramparts and..

'The floodgates in my neck seemed to burst, and the blood poured out in torrents... I could feel something lying loosely in my left cheek, as though I had a chicken bone in my mouth. It was in reality half my jaw, which had been broken off, teeth and all, and was floating about in my mouth.'
John Glubb, hit by a shell fragment in August 1917

"Sir Harold Gillies was a New Zealand surgeon who had trained in England. Posted to France in 1915, he witnessed the rise in horrific facial wounds inflicted by this new style of warfare. On his return to England, Gillies set up a special ward for facial wounds at the Cambridge Military Hospital in Aldershot. He even sent his own casualty labels to the field hospitals in France to make sure that men with such injuries were sent directly to him.

By 1916, Gillies had persuaded his medical chiefs that a dedicated hospital for facial injuries was required to meet the demand. This pioneering work by Gillies and his team marked a huge advance in reconstructing the faces of severely injured men. It also laid the foundations of modern plastic surgery."

https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/birth-plastic-surgery
https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/remembrance/ww1-centenary/thank-you/what-is-thank-you/pioneers/the-development-of-plastic-surgery-during-ww1/

Also for those too disfigured for surgery, the "Masks for Facial Disfigurement Department" was created:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/faces-of-war-145799854/

My maternal grandfather was in WWI. He would tell stories about the 'Great War'
Foot soldier through Europe, got a taste of mustard gas but not debilitating.

My dad was in WWII, South Pacific for 3 years. Jungle fighting and on boats island hopping to the next jungle.

They both liked to drink beer and whiskey. A lot. My dad had a bar, my grandfather liked to sit at it.

In the '60's I had an old bulky Webcor reel to reel tape deck. I would discretely set it up behind the bar and turn it on.

I still have tapes of those two (both long gone) arguing over which war was the worst. Or greatest. Or whatever. Lol.

It's the only place on earth I can still hear their voices. Those tapes are huge hits at Christmas get togethers over the years.

"Did you ever have to shoot an anti-aircraft gun at an incoming Japanese Zero trying to sink your boat?" is one of my favorite lines. A lot of historical study between the lines as well.

Both saw things that would turn your stomach. War is hell. All those guys deserve a salute, whether they're still around or not. WWII survivors dwindle daily, not many left.

tangerinegreen555 said:

My maternal grandfather was in WWI. He would tell stories about the 'Great War'
Foot soldier through Europe, got a taste of mustard gas but not debilitating.

My dad was in WWII, South Pacific for 3 years. Jungle fighting and on boats island hopping to the next jungle.

They both liked to drink beer and whiskey. A lot. My dad had a bar, my grandfather liked to sit at it.

In the '60's I had an old bulky Webcor reel to reel tape deck. I would discretely set it up behind the bar and turn it on.

I still have tapes of those two (both long gone) arguing over which war was the worst. Or greatest. Or whatever. Lol.

It's the only place on earth I can still hear their voices. Those tapes are huge hits at Christmas get togethers over the years.

"Did you ever have to shoot an anti-aircraft gun at an incoming Japanese Zero trying to sink your boat?" is one of my favorite lines. A lot of historical study between the lines as well.

Both saw things that would turn your stomach. War is hell. All those guys deserve a salute, whether they're still around or not. WWII survivors dwindle daily, not many left.

Click to expand...

Back in the 90s I worked with this somewhat dyspeptic 50ish guy whose dad was in his 50s when Son was born.

I went with Son to the VA one day for Dad's 100th birthday party. I was told that Dad was the second last surviving WW1 vet in the USA.
When I saw him, he was far gone in dementia. I imagine he had stories to tell otherwise.