11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour

[RPM 26382]

If you know you know. If you don't, find out. Thank you.

Edited November 11, 2023 by RPM

[Willfully Horn 8068]

🤘🤘🤘

[AUS-97HORN 11825]

with attack orders issued at 10am by multiple Generals.....   11,000 needless fucking casualties, and almost 3,000 dead just to gain another yard of dirt after EVERYONE knew the cease fire was taking effect later that morning. 

[RPM 26382]

 

[UpperWestside 6193]

I read a book called A World Undone over the summer and oh man does that take you on a wild ride through The Great War and the many insane decisions made by those who were leading it. It’s by GJ Meyer and it’s well worth the time spent reading it.

[Not that Bob 739]

My grandfather was in France with Pershing. Grandmother said "He loved that man. He would have followed him anywhere". When I was about 10 or 12 Granddad took my finger and placed it in an indention on his forehead. It was as if an inch long cigar shaped rod had burned an indention in his skull. I had never noticed it before. He said, "That's where a piece of shrapnel got me". That is all he ever said about his time in France. I wish I had asked him to talk more, but I didn't know enough at that age to understand that I had let a huge piece of world history get away from me.

I got this much...a cut and paste email from my mother when I asked her where her Dad was in France. Email from mother dated 9/12/14, just a few months before she died. 

Mostly in France;the first time I went to Europe I rode the

train and recognized some of the places he had talked

about like Meuse Argonne and Chateux Thierry, They

are just little villages now  under his commanding officer 

 who at that time was a lesser

general but was transferred to WWI and became a full

General don't know how many stars he had but he was

commander in chief during WWI ,His name was Pershing

My dad and his men were transferred with him,

Dad lied about his age so he could join the army, made

himself older then he was. He went with the detachment

from Brenham,  He greatly admired both the commander

from Brenham (whose name excapes me) and General

Pershing ,both were father-figures to him because he

never knew his own father. His mother told the three

boys that their father had been shot in a baroom brawl

He later found out that this was untrue from his brother

John,who found out through the Masons.

You came from noble stock !!!  mom

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Not that Bob

[UpperWestside 6193]

Thank you for sharing that story. That’s honestly really awesome to get hear about the experience of the regular soldier who fought in those places.

[InkaUtexas 26277]

Walked from Amsterdam to Paris. Wanted to see what the terrain was like. 

Graves everywhere. 

Thank you to those who went. 

Been brought up on other threads but the opening to the Guns of August is amazing. 

[pacman 7380]

11 hours ago, UpperWestside said:

I read a book called A World Undone over the summer and oh man does that take you on a wild ride through The Great War and the many insane decisions made by those who were leading it. It’s by GJ Meyer and it’s well worth the time spent reading it.

Just picked that up at half price yesterday..

[UpperWestside 6193]

1 minute ago, pacman said:

Just picked that up at half price yesterday..

Aww man you’re gonna enjoy it. My copy is sitting about 10 feet away underneath the TV. Very meticulously researched, but written in a way where it feels like you are there.

[RDCanecutter 26515]

I had just shown up in Amiens, Northern France, for a job, was living in hotels the first week but had an apartment lined up in a few days. Said "fuck it," why not travel if I'm staying in hotels anyway, rented a bike, and pedaled off towards Albert and La Boisselle crater from the battle of the Somme.

Near side of Albert, off a tiny road, went in my first British cemetery. Immaculate. Walked up to a grave, almost exact same name as my grandfather, just a few years older. Hello cousin.

Albert is a 1920s frozen-in-time town because that's when it was rebuilt.

Got out to the long open slopes of the crater, climbed up to the rim. BLAM BLAM BLAM I about shit myself and wondered if I ought to hit the dirt. BLAM. Some farmers on the other side, shooting at birds. A few Englishmen of the type where you know they are Englishmen looked at me, I said "Frenchmen with shotguns." "FRENCHmen!?" they said, all Cleesian, "and someone gave them GUNS?"

Edited November 15, 2023 by RDCanecutter
excusez-moi

[Not that Bob 739]

On 11/12/2023 at 12:50 PM, UpperWestside said:

I read a book called A World Undone over the summer and oh man does that take you on a wild ride through The Great War and the many insane decisions made by those who were leading it. It’s by GJ Meyer and it’s well worth the time spent reading it.

It is very helpful that this book has a "Major Characters" list. I can never keep all the names straight and this list is a great help. 

[Gatorubet 30335]

My grandfather was certainly drafted, although I’m not sure what his World War I experience amounted to.  Like my other grandfather, he could never be bothered with actually meeting me, so I never had a chance to ask him about WWI.    I do know that on his way back to Wyoming after the war, he stopped by a Nebraska farmhouse long enough to impregnate the farmer’s 15-year-old daughter, my late grandmother.  I never met her either, but she has a better excuse: her husband’s father flipped their open top touring car and killed her when my dad was nine.

Not a whole lot of happy history on either side of the family until my parents met and decided to do the opposite of everything they learned from their dysfunctional parents.     

My floozy grandmother did look a bit like the lead singer from Bow Wow Wow tho….

[SimonBolivar 10961]

[atomheartbevo 89903]

2 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

My grandfather was certainly drafted, although I’m not sure what his World War I experience amounted to.  Like my other grandfather, he could never be bothered with actually meeting me, so I never had a chance to ask him about WWI.    I do know that on his way back to Wyoming after the war, he stopped by a Nebraska farmhouse long enough to impregnate the farmer’s 15-year-old daughter, my late grandmother.  I never met her either, but she has a better excuse: her husband’s father flipped their open top touring car and killed her when my dad was nine.

Not a whole lot of happy history on either side of the family until my parents met and decided to do the opposite of everything they learned from their dysfunctional parents.     

My floozy grandmother did look a bit like the lead singer from Bow Wow Wow tho….

You need to tell your kids that it's a photo of Bonnie and Clyde holding your dad.