A great generation has now almost completely left us.
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To: SmoothTalker
R.I.P
Bump
2 posted on
11/21/2005 8:52:17 AM PST by
Fiddlstix
(Tagline Repair Service. Let us fix those broken Taglines. Inquire within(Presented by TagLines R US))
To: SmoothTalker
This would have been an amazing man to have a conversation with.
3 posted on
11/21/2005 8:53:08 AM PST by
cjshapi
To: SmoothTalker
Wow. Bonnie Rideout's bagpipe rendition of
O Come All Ye Faithful just came across on internet Accuradio as I clicked this link.
R.I.P., Mr. Anderson.
4 posted on
11/21/2005 8:55:28 AM PST by
SquirrelKing
(I'm not mean, you're just a sissy.)
To: SmoothTalker
Christmas Truce that saw German and British soldiers shake hands between the trenches in World War OneAstonishing. Somewhat proof that in very rare circumstances do large numbers of people want to fight, rather it is a small number of influential people who persuade them to fight. Sad.
5 posted on
11/21/2005 8:55:38 AM PST by
xrp
(Conservative votes are to Republicans what 90% of black votes are to Democrats (taken for granted))
To: SmoothTalker
Last allied witness of WWI Christmas truce diesMSM, Liberals: "Cue the revisionist history books..."
6 posted on
11/21/2005 8:56:38 AM PST by
frogjerk
(LIBERALISM - Being miserable for no good reason)
To: SmoothTalker
Another hero has gone on to his just reward.
God bless him and his generation. They were men.
7 posted on
11/21/2005 9:00:53 AM PST by
ZULU
(Fear the government which fears your guns. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
To: SmoothTalker
Here is a pic of German and British troops together during the Christmas Truce.
8 posted on
11/21/2005 9:03:00 AM PST by
Lockbar
(March toward the sound of the guns.)
To: SmoothTalker
My great grandfathers fought on opposite sides in that war. One immigrated from Germany as a young child then went back to fight on the American side at around 14 years old. The other wasn't much older when he fought on the side of Germany. The second grandfather immigrated here in the 30s as Hitler was rising to power.
11 posted on
11/21/2005 9:06:14 AM PST by
cripplecreek
(Never a minigun handy when you need one.)
To: SmoothTalker
You said it. I know every war has its own particular horrors, but from my reading I have always had the feeling that those who fought the Great War first hand went through the kinds of things the rest of us can only experience in our worst nightmares. What with trenches, mustard gas, tanks (which had never been seen before), mass advances against entrenched defenders, the most rudimentary medical aid for the wounded, etc. Nasty...
12 posted on
11/21/2005 9:07:31 AM PST by
chimera
To: sionnsar
I think this deserves an implied Bagpipery ping!
14 posted on
11/21/2005 9:09:17 AM PST by
Tax-chick
("Everything is either willed or permitted by God, and nothing can hurt me." Bl. Charles de Foucauld)
To: SmoothTalker
This is a pretty good article from the BBC from 1998. The actual cite contains an audio clip of an interview years ago with Frank Richards who was a long service enlisted man in the old 23rd Regiment (The Royal Welch Fusiliers) discussing the event.
The Christmas truce
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/197627.stm
The Christmas truce of 1914 really happened. It is as much a part of the historical texture of World War I as the gas clouds of Ypres or the Battle of the Somme or the Armistice of 1918. Yet it has often been dismissed as though it were merely a myth. Or, assuming anything of the kind occurred, it has been seen as a minor incident, blown up out of all proportion, natural fodder for sentimentalists and pacifists of later generations.
But the truce did take place, and on some far greater scale than has been generally realised. Enemy really did meet enemy between the trenches. There was for a time, genuine peace in No Man's Land. Though Germans and British were the main participants, French and Belgians took part as well. Most of those involved agreed it was a remarkable way to spend Christmas. "Just you think," wrote one British soldier, "that while you were eating your turkey, etc, I was out talking and shaking hands with the very men I had been trying to kill a few hours before! It was astounding!"
"It was a day of peace in war," commented a German participant, "It is only a pity that it was not decisive peace."
So the Christmas Truce is no legend. It is not surprising, however, given the standard popular perception of World War I, that this supreme instance of "All Quiet on the Western Front" has come to have something of a legendary quality. People who would normally dismiss that far off conflict of their grandfathers in the century's teens as merely incomprehensible, find reassurance, even a kind of hope, in the Christmas truce.
This was not, however, a unique occurrence in the history of war. Though it surprised people at the time - and continues to do so today - it was a resurgence of a long established tradition.
Informal truces and small armistices have often taken place during prolonged periods of fighting and the military history of the last two centuries, in particular, abounds with incidents of friendship between enemies.
In the Peninsula War British and French Troops at times visited each others lines, drew water at the same wells and even sat around the same campfire sharing their rations and playing cards.
In the Crimean War British, French and Russians at quiet times also gathered around the same fire, smoking and drinking. In the American Civil War Yankees and Rebels traded tobacco, coffee and newspapers, fished peacefully on opposite sides of the same stream and even collected wild blackberries together. Similar stories are told of the Boer War, in which on one occasion, during a conference of commanders, the rank and file of both sides engaged in a friendly game of football.
Later wars too have their small crop of such stories. It is rare for a conflict at close quarters to continue very long without some generous gestures between enemies or an upsurge in the 'live and let live' spirit. So the Christmas truce of 1914 does not stand alone; on the other hand it is undoubtedly the greatest example of its kind.
There are certain misapprehensions regarding the Christmas truce. One widely held assumption is that only ordinary soldiers took part in it; that it was, as it were, essentially a protest of cannon-fodder, Private Tommy and Musketier Fritz throwing aside the assumptions of conventional nationalism and thumbing their noses at those in authority over them.
In fact, in many cases, NCOs and officers joined in with equal readiness, while others truces were initiated and the terms of armistice agreed at 'parleys' of officers between the trenches.
There is also some evidence that while some generals angrily opposed the truce, others tolerated it and indeed saw some advantage in allowing events to take their own course while never for a moment doubting that eventually the war would resume in full earnest.
One other misapprehension about the truce calls for rebuttal. There has grown up a belief, even among aficionados of World War I, that the Christmas truce was considered to be so disgraceful and event, one so against the prevailing mood of the time, that all knowledge of it was withheld from the public at home until the war was over.
In fact, the truce was fully publicised from the moment news of it reached home. Throughout January 1915 numerous local and national newspapers in Britain printed letter after letter from soldiers who took part; in addition they ran eye-catching headlines ("Extraordinary Unofficial Armistice", "British, Indians and Germans shake hands"), and even printed photographs of the Britons and Germans in No Man's Land. Germany also gave the event press publicity, though on a smaller scale and for a shorter period of time.
Publishing a year later, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his history of 1914 called the Christmas truce "an amazing spectacle" and in a memorable description, saluted it as "one human episode amid all the atrocities which have stained the memory of the war".
The phrase sums up the attraction of the truce: it is the human dimension which means that this relatively obscure event in the fifth month of a 52-month war is still remembered and will continue to catch the imagination.
In a century in which our conception of war has changed fundamentally, from the cavalry charge and the flash of sabres to the Exocet, the cruise missile and the Trident submarine, the fact that in 1914 some thousands of the fighting men of the belligerent nations met and shook hands between their trenches strikes a powerful and appealing note. It is perhaps the best and most heartening Christmas story of modern times.
Adapted from the book Christmas Truce by Malcolm Brown and Shirley Seaton
To: SmoothTalker
Farewell brave and noble Scot.
Here's the official
BLACK WATCH website with lots of background on arguably Scotland's most famous Regiment from its founding to present day service in Iraq.
18 posted on
11/21/2005 9:20:53 AM PST by
GMMAC
(paraphrasing Parrish: "damned Liberals, I hate those bastards!")
To: SmoothTalker
In memoriam
Sgt. John Charles May
2/6 City of London Rifles, 1916-1919.
Military Medal, 1916. Gassed at Passchendaele, 1917.
19 posted on
11/21/2005 9:41:11 AM PST by
ccmay
To: SmoothTalker
The Nov. 5, 2005, international edition of
Le Figaro has an article on WWI and includes a photo of a living English veteran of WWI who is also 109 (born June 6, 1896), Henry Allingham, who is described as a pioneer in the Royal Flying Corps, flying a
Sopwith Camel. They also have a photo of a French veteran who is 107 (born October 20, 1898), Ferdinand Gilson.
I guess neither of them were in the trenches in 1914.
To: SmoothTalker
The Nov. 5, 2005, international edition of
Le Figaro has an article on WWI and includes a photo of a living English veteran of WWI who is also 109 (born June 6, 1896), Henry Allingham, who is described as a pioneer in the Royal Flying Corps, flying a
Sopwith Camel. They also have a photo of a French veteran who is 107 (born October 20, 1898), Ferdinand Gilson.
I guess neither of them were in the trenches in 1914.
To: SmoothTalker
Anyone know how many U.S. WWI veterans are still alive?
To: SmoothTalker
Most inspirational article. I'm feeling all teary and emotional. RIP, brave soldier.
29 posted on
11/21/2005 10:38:04 AM PST by
Ciexyz
(Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
To: rightwingintelligentsia
ping for your consideration.
30 posted on
11/21/2005 10:38:42 AM PST by
Ciexyz
(Let us always remember, the Lord is in control.)
To: SmoothTalker
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon
My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool.
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders, to Germany to here I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung
Our families back in England were toasting us that day Their brave and glorious lads so far away.
I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me Soon, one by one, each German voice joined in harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more As Christmas brought us respite from the war
As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
"God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent
The next they sang was "Stille Nacht." "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky
"There's someone coming toward us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one long figure trudging from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shown on that plain so bright
As he, bravely, strode unarmed into the night
Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's Land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeezebox and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men
Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each prepared to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wonderous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost, so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone forevermore
My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I, I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same
36 posted on
11/21/2005 11:18:35 AM PST by
mware
(Keeper of the I's.)
To: blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach
48 posted on
12/15/2005 10:58:00 AM PST by
SunkenCiv
("In silence, and at night, the Conscience feels that life should soar to nobler ends than Power.")
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