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One Hundred Years Ago

Started by Rix Gins, January 01, 2016, 08:20:14 PM


Rix Gins

Quote from: (Sandman) Logan-5 on November 01, 2018, 02:55:35 AM
    102 die in a NYC BMT subway derailment at Malbone Street Brooklyn
    Yugoslav battleship Viribus Unitis sunk by Italians

Glad to see you're keeping the thread alive, Rix.     :)

Oh, my pleasure, Logan.  Special thanks should go to Lee for keeping everything just like it was.

Thanks for the nice links on the train wreck and the sinking of the battleship.  Ha, hard to believe that two Italian dudes caused it to sink.  If anyone clicks on the Viribus Unitis link then they will be in for a good read.

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 2, 1918.


QuoteAmerican ground crew repairing a Curtiss HS-2 flying boat at the Brest Naval Air Station, 2 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205165352 © IWM (Q 68946)


QuoteAir mechanics working on a Curtiss H16 flying boat at the American Brest Naval Air Station, 2 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205315719 © IWM (Q 70312)

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 3, 1918.  


QuoteBritish troops repairing roads in ruined Valenciennes, 3 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205323569 © IWM (Q 78809)


QuoteGeneral view of the Escaut Canal near Valenciennes, 3 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205323570 © IWM (Q 78810)


QuoteEntrance to the ruined town of Valenciennes, 3 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205323571 © IWM (Q 78811)




Rix Gins

From the Library of Congress.  Dziennik Chicagoski, November 04, 1918.


Rix Gins

Actor Cameron Mitchell was born on November 4, 1918.

Bio: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0593192/


Mitchell with Patricia Barry in The High Chaparral.
By NBC Television - eBay item photo front photo back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19854769

https://youtu.be/7hvuUn9zEug

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 5, 1918.


QuoteGeneral view of men of the September Replacement Draft, survivors of HMS Otranto, building an entraining platform for American troops, looking northwest at the Winnall Down rest camp at Winchester, 5 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205086765 © IWM (Q 114392)


QuoteClose-up, general view of men of the September Replacement Draft, survivors of HMS Otranto, building an entraining platform for American troops, at the Winnall Down rest camp at Winchester, 5 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205086768 © IWM (Q 114395)

WOTR

Quote from: Rix Gins on November 03, 2018, 03:05:02 AM
https://youtu.be/-_mVpqZwmLs

I hope on the 11th we get a short biography of the last soldiers to be killed in WWI.  I believe that there was an American and a Canadian within a few minutes of the armistice taking effect.  (I wonder if there is a record of the last German killed?  I may have to go on a search...)

I recall reading that thousands of soldiers died when Germany requested the cease fire take effect immediately, but the English refused and wanted it to be 11:00...

***Edit.  Found it.  Sad. (about all of the losses, and all of the casualties.  But the last German was after 11:00, if this article is correct.)  It lists 11,000 casualties and 2700 deaths between the signing and 11:00.  The article states "(on Nov 11th) more men were killed, wounded or missing than both sides suffered on D-Day in June 1944 during the Normandy Invasion."
https://owlcation.com/humanities/World-War-One-The-Last-Morning

Rix Gins

Quote from: WOTR on November 06, 2018, 01:57:07 AM
I hope on the 11th we get a short biography of the last soldiers to be killed in WWI.  I believe that there was an American and a Canadian within a few minutes of the armistice taking effect.  (I wonder if there is a record of the last German killed?  I may have to go on a search...)

I recall reading that thousands of soldiers died when Germany requested the cease fire take effect immediately, but the English refused and wanted it to be 11:00...

***Edit.  Found it.  Sad. (about all of the losses, and all of the casualties.  But the last German was after 11:00, if this article is correct.)  It lists 11,000 casualties and 2700 deaths between the signing and 11:00.  The article states "(on Nov 11th) more men were killed, wounded or missing than both sides suffered on D-Day in June 1944 during the Normandy Invasion."
https://owlcation.com/humanities/World-War-One-The-Last-Morning

What a fascinating link, WOTR.  Thank you very much.  I kind of thought that there were many senseless deaths in the closing hours of WWI.  (I guess the same could be said for all four years of the war.)  One book of remembrance I once read told of a soldier (American) chasing a German soldier in the waning moments of the war.  The German was hardly more than a boy and the doughboy had the kid well in his sights.  But something inside made him raise his gun and shoot over the German's head, and he let him get away.

I recall a local lad writing about the end of the war.  He was in France as a truck driver and he thought it most strange that as dusk approached, he was finally able to turn his truck's headlights on, after months of keeping them off at night.  (He also wrote about having to drive a truck through deep, wet sand during his training.  He was the only one to make it out of the sand pit.)

The very end of WWI is one of my destinations, if I can ever get access to a time machine.  Oh, about a couple hours before 11:00 am.  I'd like to be where there are lots of artillery pieces being fired, just so that I could experience the silence that ensues as the armistice takes place.

   

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 6, 1918.


QuoteAn American soldier manning a 1917 Browning machine gun near the Citadel Hill, Grandpre, 6 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205028824 © IWM (Q 79595)


QuoteMarshal Ferdinand Foch's train arriving at Compiegne for negotiations with the German representatives, 6 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205307643 © IWM (Q 58432)

Rix Gins

From the Library of Congress.  The Evening Star, (Washington D.C.) November 06, 1918.



Rix Gins

Some newspaper headlines from the Library of Congress, November 7, 1918.  (Only the Bridgeport Times got it right.)








WOTR

Quote from: Rix Gins on November 07, 2018, 04:15:16 AM
Some newspaper headlines from the Library of Congress, November 7, 1918.  (Only the Bridgeport Times got it right.)









"4th extra"
"Final edition."
I guess the appetite for the latest news 24 hours a day is nothing new.

Rix Gins

Quote from: WOTR on November 08, 2018, 10:18:47 PM
"4th extra"
"Final edition."
I guess the appetite for the latest news 24 hours a day is nothing new.

I wonder how many editions were out before the final one?

WOTR

Quote from: Rix Gins on November 08, 2018, 10:51:58 PM
I wonder how many editions were out before the final one?
Or what time it was printed.  I would assume that the press would shut down by 5:00 each day.

Rix Gins

Quote from: WOTR on November 08, 2018, 10:54:02 PM
Or what time it was printed.  I would assume that the press would shut down by 5:00 each day.

That's right.  There was probably a morning edition, an afternoon edition and an evening edition.  5:00 would certainly seem like an evening addition, especially during the winter, plus however long it took for the papers to hit the street.  That Seattle Star 4th extra, though.  I wonder if they were able to get their presses to work over on special occasions?

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 9, 1918.


QuoteFourth Army Headquarters in a camouflaged train at Honnechy, in France.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205091848 © IWM (E (AUS) 3803)

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 10, 1918.


QuoteLorry mounted QF 13-pounder 9 cwt anti-aircraft guns in action near Bavai, 10 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205235897 © IWM (Q 3354)


QuoteMen of the 3rd Battalion, Grenadier Guards marching into Maubeuge, 10 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205235883 © IWM (Q 3339)


QuoteMen of the 1st Battalion, Irish Guards crossing a river using a wrecked bridge at the village of Assevant, near Maubeuge, 10 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205235881 © IWM (Q 3337)


QuoteArmed German troops who have placed themselves under the workers and soldiers council, patrolling the streets of Berlin on a motor lorry. Photograph taken at the Brandenburg Gate (at the entrance to Under den Linden), 10 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205331741 © IWM (Q 88206)


QuoteThe Revolution in Berlin. Occupation of the Royal Stables. A fire-fight with rifles and machine guns against the houses and windows of houses behind the Neptune Fountain in front of the Royal Palace in Berlin. Sunday, 10 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205286313 © IWM (Q 52733)


QuoteThe Revolution in Berlin, 9-10 November 1918. An armoured car and riflemen (soldiers and sailors of the Soldiers' Council) before the Berlin Castle. Although said to be firing on Royalist Officers in the Palace who had fired on the crowd, they appear to be aiming at the roof of the adjacent Church. Probably a "posed" photograph. Sunday, 10 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205286316 © IWM (Q 52736)

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 11, 1918.


QuoteA British official cameraman filming 'The last shot fired before the Armistice' by a battery of 18-pounder field guns, 11.00 am, 11 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205019066 © IWM (Q 3353)


QuoteThe Armistice 1918: Crowds waving and smiling around the Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace in London on Armistice Day.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205022004 © IWM (Q 47894)


QuoteBelgian girls with English, French and American troops during the Armistice celebrations in Belgium, 11 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205086180 © IWM (Q 69031)


QuoteAmerican troops attending Armistice Service in Winchester Cathedral, 11th November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205296972 © IWM (Q 31232)


QuoteAmerican troops entraining for overseas after attending the Armistice Service at the Winchester Cathedral.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205296960 © IWM (Q 31219)



WOTR

Quote from: Rix Gins on November 11, 2018, 03:49:49 AM
https://youtu.be/2A6HQtPWatc
I seem to recall a MASH episode which featured that song (or a lack of Korean war songs, anyhow.)  Interesting to see the historical footage.


WOTR

Truth be told, I spent a fair amount of time this year contemplating that figure of the number of dead and wounded soldiers between 5AM and 11AM. 

A hundred years ago...

Rix Gins

Quote from: WOTR on November 11, 2018, 01:12:22 PM
Truth be told, I spent a fair amount of time this year contemplating that figure of the number of dead and wounded soldiers between 5AM and 11AM. 

A hundred years ago...

I've got an old vhs copy of a movie called I Accuse (1938) and it follows a French soldier who, in the closing days of WWI was part of a suicide squadron to go out and get information on the enemy.  The whole party was killed, and the French guy too, but then his finger moved and he was nursed back to health.  Of course the war was over by then and he was tortured by his experience and dedicated the rest of his life to developing a bullet proof suit to be worn in combat.  He also experimented with communicating with the dead and he had rented a cottage right next to a French WWI graveyard.  He dug a tunnel into the graves (not shown in the movie) and hooked them up with stuff and tried to establish contact with his dead squadron members.

I think that his invisible armor suit got stolen from him by a supposed business partner, just as WWII was heating up and the guy went crazy.  He sent out a call for all WWI dead to re-appear and by god they did.  They all appeared out of the ground and marched forward to wipe out everyone who was trying to start another war.  (Some of the actors who took part in the final scenes were actual WWI soldiers who had received horrible facial injury's.)

Anyway, what you said made me think that the earliest ghost soldiers to appear would most likely be the ones that were killed in the closing hours of the war.  Just speculation on my part.


K_Dubb

I was watching the Canadian ceremony like I always do and one of the announcers remarked that all personnel files for the CEF are now online.  Sure enough, I found my great grandfather, whose picture appears earlier in this thread, in a beautifully scanned, color 65-page pdf.  He was wounded at Ypres November 3, 1917, variously described in his medical record as GSW (gunshot wound) or SW (shell wound) that went in one side and came out the other, and spent the rest of the war in hospitals.  Checking the date against his battalion's war diary, that day was spent holding off a German attack and helping a neighboring Australian battalion recapture a portion of their line.  His wound was first treated at an Australian field hospital, so that pretty much confirms it.  He was damn lucky.

It is a great resource, but I can see why they waited a hundred years.  He'd earlier been hospitalized for several weeks for VDG (gonorrhea), so a charming lady from Armentieres must have a small part to play in his story.  Good on ya, pops.

Rix Gins

Quote from: K_Dubb on November 11, 2018, 06:48:53 PM
I was watching the Canadian ceremony like I always do and one of the announcers remarked that all personnel files for the CEF are now online.  Sure enough, I found my great grandfather, whose picture appears earlier in this thread, in a beautifully scanned, color 65-page pdf.  He was wounded at Ypres November 3, 1917, variously described in his medical record as GSW (gunshot wound) or SW (shell wound) that went in one side and came out the other, and spent the rest of the war in hospitals.  Checking the date against his battalion's war diary, that day was spent holding off a German attack and helping a neighboring Australian battalion recapture a portion of their line.  His wound was first treated at an Australian field hospital, so that pretty much confirms it.  He was damn lucky.

It is a great resource, but I can see why they waited a hundred years.  He'd earlier been hospitalized for several weeks for VDG (gonorrhea), so a charming lady from Armentieres must have a small part to play in his story.  Good on ya, pops.

Really cool that you have such detailed info about your great grandfather, K.  (Even the part about the gift given to him from Mademoiselle from Armentieres!)  Now you can probably guess what song is playing in my head, right?   

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 12, 1918.


QuoteBritish troops inspect a wrecked railway bridge over a canal near Maubeuge, 12 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205235895 © IWM (Q 3351)


QuoteTrains and railway lines wrecked by British aerial bombing at Maubeuge, 12 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205235898 © IWM (Q 3355)


QuoteBritish troops in the interior of burnt-out train at Maubeuge, 12 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205235902 © IWM (Q 3359)


QuoteCaptain A W L Paget MC and Second Lieutenant P R J Barry MC of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards reading news of the Armistice to their men at Maubeuge, 12 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205216098 © IWM (Q 3365)

Rix Gins

From the Imperial War Museum, November 13, 1918.


QuoteAmerican troops with a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun on an aircraft mounting near Jezanville, 13 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205313089 © IWM (Q 65991)


QuoteRailway Bridge, at Tournai blown up by the fleeing Germans. Photograph taken on 13 November 1918.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205245419 © IWM (Q 9684)

WOTR

Some photos are from a hundred years ago, some 50... It is an interesting collection.  I think the one that made me happiest was Einstein's desk (mine is in a similar state- and I like the pipe and tobacco jar featured prominently...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQcJ0d5yxCU

K_Dubb

Quote from: Rix Gins on November 12, 2018, 02:59:38 AM
Really cool that you have such detailed info about your great grandfather, K.  (Even the part about the gift given to him from Mademoiselle from Armentieres!)  Now you can probably guess what song is playing in my head, right?

Haha sure can!

That archive is maybe the greatest memorial ever erected to them.  You have to figure nearly every one of those guys with descendants has to have some history-minded person in the family who will dig them up and tell their story anew.

It's like the old days when we sat around the fire and told myths of our ancestors.  Wonderful to see how the facts in the file square with the misty stories passed down.  Brave, sure, but also horny and filthy -- check out the delousing certificate, ten days before war's end.  It's so easy to forget they were real people.


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