Posted on 07/14/2014 12:17:39 PM PDT by mojito
To say that that the First World War was the greatest cataclysm in human history since the fall of the Roman Empire is to put it mildly. The war destroyed so many good things and killed so many good people that civilization has not recovered and probably never will. Long after it officially ended, it continued to cause millions of deaths and tragedies, most obviously during its encore performance of 1939-45. But it did not stop even then. Many of its worst consequences came during official periods of peace and are unknown or forgotten, or remain unconnected with it in the public mind.
The loss cannot be measured in cash because it was paid in the more elusive coin of faith, morals, trust, hope, and civility. The war is the reason why Europe is no longer a Christian continent, because too many churches supported it. Pointing to the poverty and scientific backwardness of the pre-1914 world is a false comparison. Who is to say that we could not have grown just as rich as we are now, and made just as many technological and medical advances, had we not slain the flower of Europe’s young men before they could win Nobel Prizes, or even beget and raise children?
The astonishing thing is that so many conservative, Christian, and patriotic people have yet to understand the damage this event did to their causes. It is at least partly because we can barely begin to imagine the world that we lost.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
The Boer War presaged the end of the British Empire, but WWI doomed it. Britain spent its future on the Great War, and was finally exhausted by WWII. America’s Boer War equivalent was Vietnam, which demonstrated to the world that we were not invincible, and two decades of war in Southwest Asia have taken our treasure and our resolve but left our enemies standing for another, bigger round. Only the devil is truly satisfied by war.
I had a similar experience when I toured Eton. On the walls around the courtyard are the names of the WWI dead from that venerable school. I was appalled by the sheer number and horrified that they were all close to my age, 18, 19, 20. So tragic.
Walter J SCHERER
prairiegirl.familytreeguide.com/.../Scherer
Notes : Walter sailed for France on the 14th. of May 1918, with the 33rd. Div., 130th. Inf. Company K. He was killed in action in the Arrogone Forest, Oct. 14, 1918 ...
Looked his name up on Google and got this hit, but the link is no longer active.
"Le pantalon rouge c'est la France!"
I thought Barbara Tuchman's "Guns of August" was an excellent read about WWI (which is where I first saw the quote about red pants).
My dad was born in 1906, thus too young for WW 1 and almost too old for WW 2. Yet, he volunteered for service in the AAF, flying C-46s over the Hump in the China-Burma-India Campaign.
Japan had over one million troops on the Asian mainland, taking large swaths of territory from the Brits and French who had colonized the nations. Sadly, we sowed the seeds of Europe's blunder in SE Asia and another 58,000 + young men were lost, like Walter Scherer...
Yep. They should send the kings, presidents, czars, parliaments, congresses, politburos of nations to fight one another. All nations would benefit.
Indeed. And the illegals should be housed by politicians/enablers.
bfl
Thanks for this post.
I can only imagine the House of Representatives battalion under the command of Major Boehner. They'd file a lawsuit against the enemy and surrender.
My paternal grandfather enlisted early in 1915. He spent most of the war as a prisoner of war. His regiment was the famous "Buffs". The Germans were being slowly starved themselves by the blockade and thus prisoners suffered. He died when I was only four years old and I never knew him. He never really recovered, nor did his country enable him to ever work steadily afterward.
You may have this information but there is a very fine and detailed record of Walter in Ancestry.com
Somehow I was intrigued and checked it out. There he was in various census. Born Eagle Creek, Scott, Minnesota - the 1910 census tells us of his parents. Jacob 59 yrs. and Kate 47 yrs. A farmer with his own farm. Kate born in Canada and Jacob born in Illinois. Both their fathers ironically were born in Germany.
Walter is 17 yrs. and has five siblings all younger. His letter written as a soldier while training in Texas is shown. Also a photograph in his uniform. The telegram telling of his remains being returned is shown. A bit of a ramble on my part, but thought it might interest posters on this thread.
The negative influence of WW I can never be over-stated.
It ushered in the absolute destruction of so much that was civilized, and paved the way for so much that was barbaric, that we can still see the effect every time we stroll through an American city.
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I-35 was the first “improvement” from north to south, then the often flooded old Ferry Bridge across the Minnesota River at Savage was replaced with a new four lane span that moved Prior Lake from a 4th or 5th tier suburb to 5 minutes from I-494.
Walter J. Scherer probably never dreamed that homes on the little “perched” lake would command annual taxes of $10-$12,000 annually but they did when we lived there.
In many ways, PL is still a small town on the edge of the countryside. There was corn planted just a few blocks from where we lived in 1999-2000. Dairy cows would wander into the lake on hot summer days and it was not unusual to see one of the local farmers whistle the cows up in the late afternoon for milking.
The Bastille Day parade featured contingents from all the Alllies during WWI. Somehow I see it fitting that the French, who set the bar for class and joie-de-vivre as far as I am concerned, commemorate such a human tragedy in this way.
A strong (stronger than Britain's) German Navy meant a German challenge to English control of the seas. The British needed to trade, administer colonies, communicate, and to maintain a standing in world politics despite its small land mass. They couldn't do that without a world class navy.
The Kaiser kept on enlarging and modernizing his navy and was a threat to Britain the whole time. The British HAD to respond or lose it all. No effort against Germany in WWI could be needless for the Brits.
Thanks for the great article.
“it was going badly and had no military, diplomatic, or economic purpose.”
Woah up there, old Hoss. You wrote above, “Germany started the war because she wanted and hoped to gain enormous prizes through a swift victory, first over France and then over Russia.” Establishing a world in which that sort of thing is not allowed is a good and sufficient purpose.
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