World War I

[Guest Sean]

[SIZE=1][RIGHT][I]Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March
As they lowered you down?
Did the band play "The Last Post And Chorus?"
Did the pipes play "The Flowers Of The Forest?"[/I][/RIGHT][/SIZE]

[size=1][CENTER][b]World War I[/b][/CENTER]

I'm betting a lot of members here must know of the terrible events that happened during World War I, mustard gas, trench warfare, shell shock, AWOL, death. Then, peace?

World War 1 started when the *Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (I think) was killed by an assasin who had ties to the Russians, but Franz Ferdinand was killed in a small and unknown country, needless to say that Austria attacked this small country* and Russia came to it's aid.

But Germany, who was allied with Austria and Hungary, went against the Russians, and with the Russian alliance with France and the United Kingdom, everyone got involved. 1914, when the war started, it was only meant to last till Christmas of 1914, that's what the UK's government informed there citizens, it lasted until 1917.

[RIGHT][I]Did all those who lay here really know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end war?
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dying were all done in vain.[/I][/RIGHT]

So many lives lost, on Allied and Axis sides, and people have the nerve to completley ignore what's being told to them, some people would rather talk about revolving toilet seats than listen to a private ceremony.

Well I can tell you that the stories and music of World War 1 had me in near tears, and I want to know what you think of what happened to our countries. And I'm in no way going into "It's all 'enter country here' fault", it was everyones fault, equally, people were ordered to kill, and they took there orders.

So, opinions please, thank you.


*Information might be slightly out of tune.[/SIZE]

[Lafleur]

[COLOR=DarkRed][FONT=Garamond]Massive arms races, secret alliances, grabs for power, all were causes for WWI. The Archduke of Austria-Hungary was killed in his own country by a Serb from an Terrorist orginisation known as the Black Hand, that is widely credited for the start of WWI. Quite simply WWI was unavoidable. The Franco-Prussian war, not to mention Germany-Prussia's countless attacks on French territory afterwards, had turned France and Germany into mortal enemies. England and France, which had been enemies practically since they first came into being, now found themselves close allies. The Russians, still pissed over the loss of much of their Baltic Territories, were itching to unleash their incredibly large armed forces onto the rest of Europe.

Aye, they were strange times. But WWI was unavoidable given the circumstance. The first Air Forces were coming into being, and countries couldn't wait to test them out. Machine Guns and other automatic weapons, as well as heavy artillary, were also just appearing at this time. Franz Ferdinand was just the spark that ignited the powder keg, so to speak.

Personally, I find WWI to be a facinating study. My favourite battles took place at Ypres, especially the Second Battle of Ypres, better known as Vimy Ridge, in which 6,000 or so Canadians, all exhausted from taking Ypres (In which they experianced the first gas attack) from the Germans, took on 60,000 Fresh German battalions, and they held them off. At a terrible cost, by the end of the battle only 1300 Canadians were left alive, half that number would ever fight again. That battle LITERALLY turned the tide of the war. No other Allied forces were in the area. Vimy Ridge was the road to Paris, Calais, all of France and than all of England. Had the line broken, the war would have gone a much different way.

I also loved the ariel combat of the day, a much more personal way of combat which gave rise to aces such as Billy Bishop, Billy Barker, Albert Ball, and the imfamous Red Baron.

The Battle of Verdun was another battle faught at terrible cost that, had it gone the other way, would have spelt disaster. The French and the Germans both lost over 100,000 men and not 1 km of land had changed hands.

It was quite literally the most terrible war ever faught. My Grandfather faught at Vimy, one of the only survivors, and lived to fight durnig WWII, and he lived through that one too. I truely pity him for the horrors he has seen.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Ezekiel]

[COLOR=#F84E20][SIZE=1][quote name='Ilium][COLOR=DarkRed][FONT=Garamond]Massive arms races, secret alliances, grabs for power, all were causes for WWI. The Archduke of Austria-Hungary was killed in his own country by a Serb from an Terrorist orginisation known as the Black Hand, that is widely credited for the start of WWI. Quite simply WWI was unavoidable. The Franco-Prussian war, not to mention Germany-Prussia's countless attacks on French territory afterwards, had turned France and Germany into mortal enemies. England and France, which had been enemies practically since they first came into being, now found themselves close allies. The Russians, still pissed over the loss of much of their Baltic Territories, were itching to unleash their incredibly large armed forces onto the rest of Europe.[/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote]

Illium has got it down; the assassination of the Archduke was merely the spark, as it as known, for the start of WWI. I studied this in year nine and a little more in detail now I'm doing GCSE History. There was much hypocrisy behind the war with most of the countries wanting a simple excuse to attack each other. It's truly a shame how it all ended, though.

I see what you mean, Sean, how the countries were being very obnoxious, especially the UK. We (speaking as someone from the UK) told our men that it would be something interesting for them to do, a good thing to get experience. The sad thing is, most men and boys thought it[I] would[/I] be good and considered it to be more of a holiday than a real war. I don't think many of them fully comprehended what war was even about.

WWI was a tragedy, and my greatest sympathies go out to the brave men who lived through it all and have those memories to this day.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Guest Sean]

[SIZE=1]Ah, Vimy Ridge, I have to say my favourite battle that took place was for Passchendaele Ridge, also known was the 3rd Battle of Ypres. Where soldiers started sinking into the mud, and when if a soldier felt a resistance and no pull down then he would most likely be standing on one of his comrades'.

It's strange to think that if Adolf Hitler had been killed during the first World War then things could have been completley different, same if Churchill had been killed, maybe we would all be speaking German.

But even though both wars have been played through, would have technology and medical science increased so much if the Wars didn't take place. I'm not saying that the wars were essentially a good thing, but we would be able to cure things today if we didn't have the medical research provided by the Germans.

What else is horrible to think that children/teenagers younger than 17 were in the war, they faked there age, and signed-up with a new name, they were that much of patriots that they wanted to fight for King and Country at the age of 14.

But I can't say if I would have joined, simply because I've heard and saw what has happened to the people of the war, the losses at the Somme, Ypres, Passchendaele, Vimy Ridge and Newfoundland Park. Just looking at the graves at Tyne Cot and other British Graveyards thinking those gravestones as soldiers, imagining them as actual people really hits you hard.[/SIZE]

[Lafleur]

[COLOR=DarkRed]Come to think about it, I might have been confusing Vimy with Passchendaele or Kitchener Wood... Well, it was an amazing little scrap nontheless![/COLOR]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Interesting, most interesting.

People have really gone over most of what could be said, WW1 was a war just waiting to happen, Franz Ferdinand merely offered the match to the fuse.

[FONT=Trebuchet MS][B]Base Details[/B] - Siegfriend Sassoon

IF I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I?d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You?d see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotels,
Reading the Roll of Honour. ?Poor young chap,?
I?d say??I used to know his father well;
Yes, we?ve lost heavily in this last scrap.?
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I?d toddle safely home and die?in bed. [/FONT]


This is a poem I first learned back in First Year for my Junior Cert, the poem was written by Siegfried Sassoon an ex-officer turned satirical poet. It does really represent the officer class back in the Great War was saw the infantry as little more than cannon fodder for victory. [/SIZE]

[QUOTE=Sean][SIZE=1]It's strange to think that if Adolf Hitler had been killed during the first World War then things could have been completley different, same if Churchill had been killed, maybe we would all be speaking German.

But even though both wars have been played through, would have technology and medical science increased so much if the Wars didn't take place. I'm not saying that the wars were essentially a good thing, but we would be able to cure things today if we didn't have the medical research provided by the Germans.

What else is horrible to think that children/teenagers younger than 17 were in the war, they faked there age, and signed-up with a new name, they were that much of patriots that they wanted to fight for King and Country at the age of 14.[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

[SIZE=1]Indeed, the computer we all take for granted today made it?s first appearance in World War One to crack enemy codes, though it?s not surprising as science and technological development seems to spurred on much quicker during wartime than it is during times of peace.

It does strike me how easily history might have changed if Hitler had been killed on World War One as he very nearly was, or if Winston Churchill hadn?t survived the war, makes you wonder what the world might be like today. The fact that children so young were willing to die is an admirable trait, though no less tragic when you consider how many youths may have died for such patriotism. [/SIZE]

[Ezekiel]

[COLOR=#F84E20][SIZE=1]Talking about Hitler...I also wonder what would have happened if the Treaty of Versailles had not been so harsh in the eyes of the German people? Makes you think, doesn't it, as that was one of Hitler?s main ways of convincing Germany that they should fight for their country.

All these factors that add up to one thing, history is fascinating, in my opinion. ^_^;[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Guest Sean]

[size=1][RIGHT]
[I](1) The surrender of all German colonies as League of Nations mandates;
(2) The return of Alsace-Lorraine to France;
(3) Cession of Eupen-Malmedy to Belgium, Memel to Lithuania, the Hultschin district to Czechoslovakia,
(4) Poznania, parts of East Prussia and Upper Silesia to Poland;
(5) Danzig to become a free city;
(6) Plebiscites to be held in northern Schleswig to settle the Danish-German frontier;
(7) Occupation and special status for the Saar under French control;
(8) Demilitarization and a fifteen-year occupation of the Rhineland;
(9) German reparations of £6,600 million;
(10) A ban on the union of Germany and Austria;
(11) An acceptance of Germany's guilt in causing the war;
(11) Provision for the trial of the former Kaiser and other war leaders;
(12) Limitation of Germany's army to 100,000 men with no conscription, no tanks, no heavy artillery, no poison-gas supplies, no aircraft and no airships;
(13) The limitation of the German Navy to vessels under 100,000 tons, with no submarines.[/I][/RIGHT]

Indeed Gavin, with a harsh a treaty as that then when you think about it, World War 2 was going to happen someday, it was only a matter of time. But with such an atrocity of World War 1, I can see no reason why the Paris Peace Conference didn't make it even harsher. Submitting there land to the countries around them, giving up their colonies, and a limited army and navy.

But you have to think that the Germans were told exactly the same as what the Britons, French and Russians were told, that it wouldn't last long. They had to go through the same trench environment as the Allied troups had to.

But I think the war has a lot to owe to the Canadians in World War 1, they fought off the poison gasses and took what they had to.

And indeed Jamie it is, I never took History for my Standard Grade course, but I find it very interesting to look at, and by reading and seeing what happened to the troops of both sides, it really does change the way you think.[/size]