Exclusive–O’Donnell: A Bridge to Hell, The Tragic Last Hours of WWI

Breitbart ^ | 11/8/2021 | PATRICK K. O'DONNELL

[Kartographer]

Many Americans have no idea why we celebrate Veterans Day on November 11. Those who know that the holiday began as Armistice Day typically think of it as a day of victory and peace.

However, for those on the ground in Europe the last twenty-four hours before the cessation of hostilities on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, that day was nothing less than hell on earth.

[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.

[dfwgator]

And F Clemenceau too!

[Fiji Hill]

I have always called the holiday Armistice Day.

[dfwgator]

It’s also Polish Independence 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.

[Fiji Hill]

Let's go, Woodrow!
Let's go, Georges!
Let's go, David!

[SkyDancer]

It was originally called Armistice Day.

[Tijeras_Slim]

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

[SkyDancer]

Wilson didn’t cause it; we only came in because of the return of unrestricted sub warfare and most importantly The Zimmerman Telegram.

[MercyFlush]

Does my heart good to know someone else who knows their history!

(-:

[aposiopetic]

As ‘gator doubtless knows, Foch (St.) and Pershing (Ave.) in Fort Worth do not intersect.

[KamperKen]

"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.

I read years ago that during WWI the soldiers worst enemy was their generals. I've read a number of books on World War I or touch on it heavily this past year and understood why Robert Graves permanently disowned his country and moved abroad and why T.E. Lawrence literally walked out in the middle of his knighthood ceremony.

One of the myths of the Great War was that is was a stalemate toward the end which it was not. The Germans at the end of the war broke thru the British and French lines and were about to capture Paris like they did in 1870. What reversed the tide was the intervention of the American Expeditionary Force. Pershing refused to let the American troops be integrated into the British and French troops so the generals couldn't continue the mass slaughter now using American troops.

The British and French lost the war though they repeatedly lied to their citizens about their great victories. These victories were pure propaganda. They also lied about the German casualties which were about 1/3 to 1/2 of those of the British. Britain was exhausted at the end, both of manpower and economically. After the war they saw that Germany was not exhausted at all but had a vibrant economy.

Toward the end of the war the British troops were surrendering en masse rather than having to charge thru the no-man's land to certain death. The German troops themselves couldn't believe the tactics. They would actually take pity on the British troops and suspend fire so they could evacuate the wounded.

Then in gratitude for Wilson's intervention the Allies ignored his 14 points (which were quite reasonable) and inflicted the Treaty of Versailles on Germany which as many noted at the time would be the basis for the next great war.

The British and French generals of WWI were the first mass murderers of the 20th century.

[larrytown]

Absolutely the case - there were really egregious instances in the 89th Division area that went up literally to the very last minute.

[NWFree]

I’ve seen the same in the most extensive documentaries of WW1.

Died for nothing at the very end

[PUGACHEV]

My grandfather’s younger brother, Joseph, was wounded on one of the last days of WWI. He died forty years ago, and I’ll tell his story for him, if only to keep the memory alive. A cigarette saved his life. He was taking cover in a large shell hole with two groups of men huddled on either side. He wanted a smoke, but no one on his side had a match. He was halfway across crawling to the other side when another shell fell into to the hole, killing everyone on either side. The shell ripped open his leg from ankle to hip, and he spent the next two years in the hospital.

[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