Wwi Rheims
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Grandpa collected a series of about 350 photos, reprints and postcards from the First World War when he was an American soldier. For some reason, wanted to save all tables and to fill almost two albums. Maybe it was knowing that one day as I watched the images and reflect on the true nature of war. Who knows. But whatever their reasons I'm glad you saved them. The effect is sobering view albums.
There is not much glory in the photo of his grandfather. It appeared that could have been any kid of any state. Or any country for that matter. It was her album of photos of soldiers and the First World War was the event of his life. It was like that for Many who survived.
The war ended in 1918 and Grandpa died in 1960. Almost everyone who fought in that great war is now dead. That much I know. The first disc is full of fellow soldiers and take shots of the towns and cities in Europe, especially France. The images include many shots of battlefields at Rheims and Belleau Wood, two of the bloodiest battlefields of the war.
The second album is almost entirely battle scenes.
It was a war fought not in the air or sea but on land and in the trenches. Funny how in the trenches "is still with us today. The First World War will be remembered as the last war in the trenches or the last war one could literally see the whites of the eyes of the enemy, but perhaps a couple of hundred meters away. One side is charged and that the capture of trenches on the other side. The other side would be a hasty retreat, leaving everything behind, including their dead and wounded. After a while counterattack.Day after day. Week after week. Month after month.
The casualty rate was off the charts. The battlefields are often filled with dead, since he had no time to bury them. And it was not safe outside the trenches. There's a photo of a soldier in a trench behind barbed wire. The barbed wire is assumed that to help stop the other side of the load right into the trenches. He is barely visible behind the tangle of barbed wire.
Continuing attacks, the poisonous gas, bombardment, all combined with a trip to hell. Not much to smile about. The real face is not clearly behind the barbed wire, but obviously not is smiling.
The Germans looked so much like us. How long does it take a dead body into a skeleton? I imagine that at some is seeking a German place in a similar album and watching the way it "look so much like us – How long does meat in the head to the putrefaction, leaving only a skull?
In the middle of the trenches was "no man's land 'and nobody controls the area. There are numerous photos of the earth anyone and dead soldiers and destroyed mostly rural. Aerial shots of the earth show that not only was no one that was destroyed, much of the surroundings in a battle was also destroyed.
The standard military strategy was to bomb a ditch for days to loosen and demoralize the troops before charging. The intention was to destroy morale, but also destroyed much of the surrounding landscape. The charge is often done by letting a scream, standing and running towards the trenches the enemy, as it had for centuries.
Horses were used to pull wagons and artillery. There's a photo of U.S. troops went pulling the artillery battle with horses. A lot of horses also died. One photo shows a dead horse that was blown into a tree.
Supposedly the First World War was the last war he was allowed to poison gas. Interestingly the countries that use the bombs and artillery mega gas giant felt it was too deadly outlaw it by treaty. I'm not sure if technically it is more humane to kill by bullets or gas. As a result, only renegades as the use of poison gas to Saddam Hussein.
The real problem was the poison gas was heavier than air, so it would sink into the trenches. If a recipient gas-filled trench of the best defense was to go out and law course at the line of fire from enemy snipers. That was part of the idea, your choice, or gas odor a bullet in the head.
Powerful gases like chlorine gas and mustard gas or lungs burn out immediately or destroy the central nervous system. A breath and over.
After the war the world was crazy about him that made Germany pay war reparations and the German economy collapsed. In the inflation in early 1920 wiped out any hope of economic recovery and the conditions were ripe for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party to take their turn. And they did.
I felt a little dizzy after seeing all the pictures carnage, especially knowing that this was not a Hollywood set. N Charlie Chaplin and Tom Mix in these photos. Only with the kids next door, ma'am. And the kids next to another country, too. Of course World War did not end all wars and has been a series bad since then. Or rather it would be more correct to say that there has been no good wars since. Maybe.
Everything depends on our perspectives and we learned from grandfather's war.
Marc Chagall