[Kartographer]

“So this then was the culmination:

To die—

Die in the stinking mud.

Twice before I’d crossed this no-man’s land,

Darting from shell hole to shell hole.

I’m no hero—

I was numb with fear.

But this time a barrage was on.

I lay there at the waste land’s edge—

Thinking.

Was there any way?

To the right lay crack shot snipers,

To the left in the brush,

Machine guns,

Hungry – waiting.

And fair in front great bursting mud clouds

Playing toss

With bodies.

“Get through once more, son,”

The colonel had said.

“Communications down, our guns firing short,

Killing our boys.”

Yes, it must be done, but how?

Wait!

The barrage, sweeping across the field and back,

A deadly windshield wiper –

Were I to follow it down

And when it returned

Dig in – I might –

NOW!

Drunk with fighting fear,

I chased the mud cloud down the field

Kicking dead bodies,

Twisting like a ghost,

And I laughed, and I yelled,

“You bastards! You can’t get me!”

Our trenches ahead,

Almost there!

Back came Hell’s windshield wiper

Vomiting death and I dug in—

Dug in with all I had.

Mom—dear God help me!

On it came. Forty feet—

Twenty feet—

God!

My head—torn from my body!

________________________

Is this what being dead is like,

Peace, quiet, clean white sheets?

My head must still be here,

It hurts me.

These must be my fingers

I can move them.

And now a voice,

“My boy. For you

The war is over.”

You hear that, Mom?

I’m still alive, I did not die.

I’M COMING HOME!”

From the diary of:

Ralph T. Moan Service: Army Rank: Mechanic Division: 26th Division, American Expeditionary Forces recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross for actions during WW 1

[llevrok]

I’ve read a few times that with the Armistace within hours, junior officers commited their troops to one last push for reasons all too selfish.

They had been told this was the war to end all wars and their chance to show combat leadership in future moves up in rank was waning.

Sad if so.

[dfwgator]

What a stupid, unnecessary war. F Woodrow Wilson.

[MercyFlush]

The feckless and heartless British and French insisted on having men die needlessly fighting after the Armistice was signed instead of simply holding in place.

This disgusting act of callousness towards their own men had much to do with the end of the Empire and the rise of the leftists in the Labour Party.

[Fiji Hill]

I have always called the holiday Armistice Day.

[freefdny]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPOrIkoh_iI
Very good documentary from BBC and Michael Palin of Monty Python on the last day of the war.
Insanity.

[Tijeras_Slim]

WW I was a poet’s war. My Great Grandfather had one in a compilation called “Yanks”, almost impossible to find.

[Vermont Lt]

Dulce Et decorum est pro patria mori.

[The MAGA-Deplorian]

If anyone wants to see a fantasitc war museum, the WWI museum in KC MO is absolutely top notch. Never really was interested in the war. I visited it several years ago and man just incredible job they did there. https://www.theworldwar.org

[rx]

It's more than ironic that car in which Archduke Ferdinand was shot in (catalyst to The Great War (WWI)) bore number plate 'A111118' - Armistice 11 11 18.

Many leaks from the world's "enlightened folk" have made clear that they intended all along to converge on a known end date for their bloody folly, whose achieved result they then have used to prove to each other and satan's many subsequent converts (e.g., among Masonry) how powerful they supposedly were.

The analogy they sought to emulate is in Revelation, where the end of the world would occur at a specific time that only the God the Father knows. Satan, seeks to supplant God in this in determining the minute, hour, day, month and year of the world's end.

[blam]

Both my parents were born in 1918. Bless their souls, RIP.

[Albion Wilde]

bump