Posted on 04/20/2020 4:09:08 AM PDT by gattaca
Virtually time travel back to 1918.
Peering into this room in France is as if you are stepping into a time portal into the early 1900s. The bedroom, which belonged to a French soldier, hasn't been touched since 1918.
If you drive three hours southwest of Paris, you'll find Belabre, a quaint French village with a population of fewer than 1,000. That is where you will discover the home of the parents of Hubert Guy Pierre Alphonse Rochereau.
When World War I was ravaging Europe, a young Rochereau was deployed to the Belgian battlefield. Sadly, Dragoons' Second Lieutenant Hubert Rochereau died at the age of 21. Rochereau, who was a graduate of the elite French Saint-Cyr military school, passed away in an English field ambulance after fighting in the village of Loker, Flanders, on April 26, 1918. World War I would officially end a few months later, on Nov. 11, 1918.
Rochereau was buried in a British cemetery, and his family didn't track down his burial site until 1922. Rochereau's parents brought their son's body back to their home town of Belabre.
The parents made Rochereau's bedroom a makeshift shrine of sorts, refusing to alter the room. The only change they made was placing a small bottle of soil from the Belgian field where he lost his life. The vial is labeled: "The earth of Flanders in which our dear child fell and which kept his remains for four years."
The memorial to Hubert Rochereau still stands today, 102 years after he breathed his last breath on that WWI battlefield. Rochereau's bedroom is untouched, seemingly frozen in time.
Hubert's parents wanted to honor their son past their time here on Earth, so they included a request in the home's deed: Leave the bedroom exactly how it is for the next 500 years. In 1935, the parents bequeathed their home to a military friend, General Eugene Bridoux, under the condition that their son's room would remain untouched for 500 years.
A small twin bed sits in the unspoiled chamber, as well as a wood desk. Books are stacked up high as they collect dust and spider webs. Rochereau's medals, the Croix de Guerre and the Legion d'Honneur, sparkle in the achromatic room. Black and white photographs of friends who also died in the war decorate the somber walls.
Scattered about the room, you can see Hubert's blue uniform jacket, pistols, knife, keys, a notebook, military manuals, a filled pipe, and hand-rolled cigarettes. "I tried to smoke one," the current owner of the house, Daniel Fabre, said of the old cigarettes. "It wasn't very nice."
"He was young, a military officer, and I imagine him to be quite provincial, perhaps even narrow-minded," Fabre told the BBC. "But it's part of the history of the house, so I keep it."
"I like to say I live in his house, but not with him," Fabre said.
Fabre's daughter will inherit the house, and she too has agreed to never touch Hubert's room.
Miss Haversham.
WWI was terribly grim and virtually preventable. So many mistakes and so much hubris. I recommend Winston Churchill’s five volume (technically six, but Volume III was written in two parts) The World Crisis. He began the the war as First Lord of the Admiralty, and later (after the Gallipoli failure) served in the trenches of France before being recalled to Government by David Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions. It can be a bit of a slog in places but even so it is riveting reading by a master historian who was an actual actor in the tragedy of WWI.
Oh, no, not nearly that bad.
Both of my grandfathers missed the grim realities of the Western Front. My dad’s father was a coal heaver (fireman) on USS Wyoming BB-32. My mom’s father was a steam engine mechanic as a member of the Spruce Division in Western Washington State.
Their mission was to log spruce to be used in airplane construction.
I’d bet those who served on the Eastern Front might disagree.
Thanks
Thats an amazing story. It feel very much like a another Great War is being seeded right now with what is going on.
Ran out of people to kill.
“Ran out of people to kill.”
men
My Grandfather was an Infantryman in the 42nd Division, in the trenches.
He was wounded by artillery and had bone splinters working out for several years.
He taught me to hunt, fish and garden. He owned and operated a hardware store for over 50-years.
His greatest gift to me was talkig me out of volunteering for Viet Nam. I told him it was my turn, but he said that unlike WWI and WWII, we werent in Viet Nam to win. He kept my name off of that Wall.
“...I imagine him to be quite provincial, perhaps even narrow-minded...”
Daniel Fabre sounds like the typical product of 21st century Europe. He’s not fit to carry Hubert Rochereau’s water, much less smoke his cigarettes.
The world would have been a much better place had Britain and the US stayed out of WWI.
WWI was the result of a cascade of alliance triggers. Alliances should be more carefully considered, which is the travesty of many NATO members being allowed in.
I too have studied a lot on ww2. Currently into 18th, 19th and 20th century Russia. Russian Civil War is fascinating and now into The Great Game in central Asia. For ww1 skip the western front. Check out the Italian front, Russian front, Turkish front and Africa.
Thank you for your post!
That puts the current situation in some perspective.
I'm certain we've had a topic about this before, but I couldn't find it. Thanks a fool in paradise.
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