Solidaire

A thread dedicated to the Great War, for all fans of its history.

Let's share historical material, trivia, photos, stories, battle accounts and thoughts.

Brisieis

Great idea Solidaire.

I will surely add to this thread.

bartieboy

Let the sacrifice never be forgotten

Larrey

Stuff one can find on YouTube...

Gueules cassées - Men with broken faces (1918) - Music by Igorrr (2008) - YouTube

(Though I would mute it since the accompanying music is annoying as all hell.)

beorna

three of my great-grandfathers fought in WWI. They fought for the III./164 Infantry Rgt (4. Hannoversches Infantry Regiment Nr. 164), the Niederrheinische Füsilier-Regiment Nr. 39 "Ludendorff" and the Infanterie-Regiment „Prinz Friedrich der Niederlande“ (2. Westfälisches) Nr. 15. All three survived although they participated in the most famous battles of WWI, like Flandern, Verdun, Somme, cambrai, Loretto...I wished I has some photos

Von Ranke

This is a poem by Isaac Rosenberg one of the great war poets who was tragically killed in april 1918, the last year of the war :

Louse Hunting







Nudes—stark and glistening,
Yelling in lurid glee. Grinning faces
And raging limbs
Whirl over the floor one fire.
For a shirt verminously busy
Yon soldier tore from his throat, with oaths
Godhead might shrink at, but not the lice.
And soon the shirt was aflare
Over the candle he’d lit while we lay.

Then we all sprang up and stript
To hunt the verminous brood.
Soon like a demons’ pantomime
The place was raging.
See the silhouettes agape,
See the gibbering shadows
Mixed with the battled arms on the wall.
See gargantuan hooked fingers
Pluck in supreme flesh
To smutch supreme littleness.
See the merry limbs in hot Highland fling
Because some wizard vermin
Charmed from the quiet this revel
When our ears were half lulled
By the dark music
Blown from Sleep’s trumpet.

Afrasiyab

Twitter

You may want to follow this; all the details of the campaign in twits.

beorna

that's how a Füssilier had looked like


Here the monument for the comrades of my great-grandfather otto


comrades from my great-grandfather Heinrich


the regimental banner

Vintersorg

An obvious in Memoriam would be the poem "In Flanders Fields":

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt down, was sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If you break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields
By Major John McCrae – 1915 - Boezinge

And there's also the story (in Belgium) of madame Oriane of Londerzeel, who took care of burying the dead (both allied and German). I don't remember the details about her story, but I'm thinking about reading up on it, and to make a blog post about this amazing lady.

tjadams

An often forgotten war.