Armistice Day: The Great War and the words we mustn't forget

[bobbyw24]

Poets and soldiers recorded the horror of the Great War in writing that has affected generations. But as English evolves in the digital age, asks Robert Fisk, will their powerful words soon stop making sense?

Why has the Great War of 1914-18 remained so central to our lives? The Second World War produced its crops of names, easy to remember, like punctuation marks: Dunkirk, the fall of France, the Battle of Britain, el-Alamein, Stalingrad, Normandy, Dresden, Hiroshima. But somehow those earlier 1914-18 slaughters, their geographical location so scarred into our historical conscience, are wounds that will not close. Or wounds whose terrible consequences cannot be erased. Ypres, Verdun, the Somme have a doom-like quality that have fully retained their semantic origins. The very name of the Somme has an assonance which still fills us with despair. Just as Passchendaele seems to include the very word "passion" in English and French, the Somme is like "sombre", the funereal mood of the graveyard.

Here, for example, is Frederic Manning's truly sinister account of British troops moving up to the Somme at night, marching through a tiny French village, to the sadness and consternation of the few French men and women still awake:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/armistice-day-the-great-war-and-the-words-we-mustnt-forget-1818092.html

[libertarian4321]

I doubt 5 American adults in 100 has even the vaguest notion of the significance of Verdun, let alone Ypres or the Somme or any other WWI battle.

The USA largely sat out the first world war, so it has far less significance for the USA than it does for Brits (since you linked a Brit news story).

[jmdrake]

Let's see. World War 1. A Serbian terrorist allegedly murders a royal couple. Serbia refuses to hand the terrorist over. Austria declares war on Serbia. Great Britain declares war on Austria. Germany declares war on Great Britain. Woodrow "father of the fed and avowed racist" Wilson starts secretly sending supplies to Britain. Germany sinks a supply ship the Lusitania that also was doing double duty as a cruise ship causing the deaths of many Americans. We go to "war to end all wars" and to "make the world safe for democracy". With our help the allies win. The agreement heavily punishes Germany even though Germany didn't start the war. The unjustifiable result destroys the German economy and later paves the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler. Did I miss anything?

Personal note, my grandfather fought in that war, was gassed, came back and died soon after due to tuberculosis, was stiffed out of his veteran disability benefits by our loving government, and left my mom and her 3 siblings without a father and broke right at the onset of the Great Depression.

2001 Osama Bin Laden allegedly commits an act of terror against the United States. The Taliban won't hand him over. The U.S. goes to war against Afghanistan.........

Regards,

John M. Drake

[CMoore]

Let's see. World War 1. A Serbian terrorist allegedly murders a royal couple. Serbia refuses to hand the terrorist over. Austria declares war on Serbia. Great Britain declares war on Austria. Germany declares war on Great Britain. Woodrow "father of the fed and avowed racist" Wilson starts secretly sending supplies to Britain. Germany sinks a supply ship the Lusitania that also was doing double duty as a cruise ship causing the deaths of many Americans. We go to "war to end all wars" and to "make the world safe for democracy". With our help the allies win. The agreement heavily punishes Germany even though Germany didn't start the war. The unjustifiable result destroys the German economy and later paves the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler. Did I miss anything?

Personal note, my grandfather fought in that war, was gassed, came back and died soon after due to tuberculosis, was stiffed out of his veteran disability benefits by our loving government, and left my mom and her 3 siblings without a father and broke right at the onset of the Great Depression.

2001 Osama Bin Laden allegedly commits an act of terror against the United States. The Taliban won't hand him over. The U.S. goes to war against Afghanistan.........

Regards,

John M. Drake

Thank you. Sometimes I think I am the only one in America who sees the significance of The Great War for us today. Americans are oblivious to this war, but everyday, we see history repeating itself.

[Pericles]

I doubt 5 American adults in 100 has even the vaguest notion of the significance of Verdun, let alone Ypres or the Somme or any other WWI battle.

The USA largely sat out the first world war, so it has far less significance for the USA than it does for Brits (since you linked a Brit news story).

The vets of that war are gone, so it will tend to fade from our minds. Even visiting Verdun over the past 20 years has changed. My first visit there in '88 still had much od the effects still in place - yellow grass and nothing growing over a foot tall because of the poison gas, shell holes and barbed wire littering the landscape. On my last visit a couple of years ago, the area around Duomont (scene of the heaviest fighting) was starting to look like a park and some landscaping in eveidence, some of the ruins of the fort had been worked on to make them more safe for visitors.

It is also important to learn the right lessons from an experience. As a result of Verdun, the French learned that if a postion is made strong enough, it can not be taken, and then built the Maginot Line of forts. The Germans learned that static warfare is to be avoided at all costs and built armored divisions.

[pcosmar]

The"War to end all Wars", Didn't.

[klamath]

I was just reading today that one of the only 3 surviving veterans of WWI in the world, refuses to attend war memorials because he feels it glorifies war. He was also a vet of WWII. I'm sure someone needs to go up to his face and call him a "murdering scum"

YouTube - Liam Clancy - Band Played Waltzing Matilda (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg&feature=related)

YouTube - Green Fields of France (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQnnZJ68Xo)

[awake]

The"War to end all Wars", Didn't.

That war sewed the seeds for the current wars we are fighting now, literally.

[Reason]

Let's see. World War 1. A Serbian terrorist allegedly murders a royal couple. Serbia refuses to hand the terrorist over. Austria declares war on Serbia. Great Britain declares war on Austria. Germany declares war on Great Britain. Woodrow "father of the fed and avowed racist" Wilson starts secretly sending supplies to Britain. Germany sinks a supply ship the Lusitania that also was doing double duty as a cruise ship causing the deaths of many Americans. We go to "war to end all wars" and to "make the world safe for democracy". With our help the allies win. The agreement heavily punishes Germany even though Germany didn't start the war. The unjustifiable result destroys the German economy and later paves the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler. Did I miss anything?

Personal note, my grandfather fought in that war, was gassed, came back and died soon after due to tuberculosis, was stiffed out of his veteran disability benefits by our loving government, and left my mom and her 3 siblings without a father and broke right at the onset of the Great Depression.

2001 Osama Bin Laden allegedly commits an act of terror against the United States. The Taliban won't hand him over. The U.S. goes to war against Afghanistan.........

Regards,

John M. Drake

+1

[klamath]

Let's see. World War 1. A Serbian terrorist allegedly murders a royal couple. Serbia refuses to hand the terrorist over. Austria declares war on Serbia. Great Britain declares war on Austria. Germany declares war on Great Britain. Woodrow "father of the fed and avowed racist" Wilson starts secretly sending supplies to Britain. Germany sinks a supply ship the Lusitania that also was doing double duty as a cruise ship causing the deaths of many Americans. We go to "war to end all wars" and to "make the world safe for democracy". With our help the allies win. The agreement heavily punishes Germany even though Germany didn't start the war. The unjustifiable result destroys the German economy and later paves the way for the rise of Adolf Hitler. Did I miss anything?

Personal note, my grandfather fought in that war, was gassed, came back and died soon after due to tuberculosis, was stiffed out of his veteran disability benefits by our loving government, and left my mom and her 3 siblings without a father and broke right at the onset of the Great Depression.

2001 Osama Bin Laden allegedly commits an act of terror against the United States. The Taliban won't hand him over. The U.S. goes to war against Afghanistan.........

Regards,

John M. Drake

As in the song it happened again and again and again and again.. By far that was the worse war that the US ever got involved in with more downstream consequences. Any involvement in WWII cannot be addressed with out going to the Root, WWI.