Doughboys go to War ...

[dogtag]

and many die of the Flu. War is Hell - so is the Flu.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...World-War.html

Galloping around on Horses seems a little archaic.

[Vern Humphrey]

Here's a miracle:

American troops were nicknamed doughboys, either because haughty cavalry officers though their shirt buttons looked like fried dough cakes, or because during the Mexican-American war, marching through deserts covered soldiers' coats in dust, making it look like they were made of dough.

That's basically correct -- although it was adobe mud clinging to their boots in Scott's advance across the Mexican lowlands that resulted in the nickname. And "Doughboys" are INFANTRYMEN, period. The term "Doughboy" appears in print during the Mexican War and the Civil War, and always refers to infantrymen. Fredrick Remington drew an illustration for Collier's Magazine in 1895, entitled "The dough-boys on the march" showing men in the uniforms of the 1870s.

At Fort Benning, the Monthly List of instructional Material, sent out to every Infantry unit is called "The Doughboy." The post football stadium is called Doughboy Stadium. The post football team are the Doughboys, and the Doughboy Statue is in a WWII uniform.

[Major Tom]

My Dad was 5 years old in 1918 and had several older siblings. Three of the siblings died 1919-1920. I assume it was the flu tho not mentioned by family.

[Vern Humphrey]

Interestingly enough, in the Middle Ages, they believed bad smells caused disease (malaria, for example, means "bad air.") People used to go around with sachets or pockets full of sweet smelling herbs (hence the nursery rhyme, "Ring around a rosie, pocket full of posies.") There was a particular herb, asafoetida, which had a VERY strong smell, and was thought to be very effective against disease.

During the Spanish Flu epidemic, people clamored for the government to do something -- and the US government advised people to wear sachets of asafetida. You could buy then in drug stores. I knew a barber who used to talk all the time while cutting your hair, and among his stories was one about coming in from recess all sweaty, and gathering around the pot-bellied stove in the one-room schoolhouse. His description of the odor of sweaty, unbathed little children and asafoetida would make your eyes water!

[dogtag]

Do Barbers ever stop talking ?

[Vern Humphrey]

Do Barbers ever stop talking ?

Not this guy. His story about going to the outhouse -- not knowing a nanny goat had just given birth on the seat -- was hilarious!

[m1ashooter]

70,000 men KIA is a few short months is a huge number when you stop to think about it. My late Great Uncle was a young soldier who died stateside during the deadly flu. I never met him.

[Vern Humphrey]

We tend to see WWI though British eyes -- we speak the same language and they heavily propagandized the US. So our troops saw what they expected to see.

The British (and French) had a great nightmare -- that the Russians would make a separate peace (as they did in late 1917) and the Germans would send the troops fighting on the Eastern Front to the Western Front. Much of the history of WWI is the Allied efforts to keep the Russians in the war. One thing they did was to make repeated attacks on the Germans -- this would accomplish two things. First, it would take some of the pressure off of the Russians, and second a heavy butcher's bill would convince the Russians that the British and French were doing their share.

Therefore, in the eyes of the British High Command, heavy casualties were a GOOD thing. This was coupled with a real reluctance to lead from the front. Sir John French, the first commander of the British Expeditionary Force, never visited the front until he came to say goodbye -- and then he burst into tears, saying, "Did we send men to fight under these conditions?"

His successor, Douglas Haig, wouldn't even visit the wounded -- for fear it would make him "soft."

It's no wonder the British took such enormous casualties!

The British attitude rubbed off on the American Army -- although OUR generals DID lead from the front.

[sid]

The British commander Douglas Haig was a real butcher. He didn't mind the British casualties because he "believed God was calling them for a higher purpose." After the war had ended he actually published a paper saying that the machine gun, airplane, and tank had all been greatly over-rated and that in the next war "the horse would be the deciding factor."

[Vern Humphrey]

The British commander Douglas Haig was a real butcher. He didn't mind the British casualties because he "believed God was calling them for a higher purpose." After the war had ended he actually published a paper saying that the machine gun, airplane, and tank had all been greatly over-rated and that in the next war "the horse would be the deciding factor."

And believe it or not, the Smithsonian published an article not long ago EXCORIATING Pershing for not putting the American Army under British and French command!!