The sound of the guns - then the silence. (end of WW1)

[dogtag]

Finally, the boys could hear themselves talk.
I think I can imagine what they said - " about ferking time"
or something.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/07/eerie-recording-reveals-moment-the-guns-fell-silent-at-the-end-of-ww1-8114109/

[Roadkingtrax]

Recreated. The birds were long gone!

[Major Tom]

Quite a few of our commanders and even Pershing himself knew of the end time for cease fire. But, for some idiotic reason, they sent their men 'over the top' and hundreds were killed minutes before the official end. That war was such a waste of human life (more than other wars) and for what, cause some king or something was assasinated?

[togor]

For a nice treatment of how it started, "The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman is a classic.

[rayg]

Quite a few of our commanders and even Pershing himself knew of the end time for cease fire. But, for some idiotic reason, they sent their men 'over the top' and hundreds were killed minutes before the official end. That war was such a waste of human life (more than other wars) and for what, cause some king or something was assasinated?

Typical of those leaders sitting out of danger giving others orders to attack, Ray

[Major Tom]

There are photos on the internet of the tombstones of those killed just before the cease fire. How horribly sad!

[p246]

Lost of life waisting was ordered and observed through out this blood bath.

[Vern Humphrey]

We see WWI through British eyes -- we speak the same language, and they intensively propagandized us.

The British had two problems -- first to build a mass army "under fire" as Keegan says, and secondly to keep the Russians in the war to offset the Central Powers' advantage in manpower.

The mass army received only rudimentary training, and old-line British senior officers did not trust it to do anything complicated. So they used it for frontal attacks. (To see how they should have used it, read Erwin Rommel's Infanterie Greift An.)

To keep the Russians in the war, they launched a LOT of those attacks -- with two goals in mind, first to take pressure off the Russians, and secondly to reassure the Russians that the British were doing their share. In light of that latter goal, heavy casualties were a GOOD thing -- proof of British sincerity. And British senior officers did not visit the trenches to see the fighting for themselves. Sir John French went into the trenches only to say good bye -- and burst into tears, saying, "Did we send men to fight under conditions like this?" His successor, Douglas Haig, would not even visit the wounded -- for fear it would make him "soft."

And not so long ago, the Smithsonian published an article critical of Pershing -- ridiculing him for NOT breaking up the American Army and parceling it out to the British and French!

[sid]

General Douglas Haig did not give a damn about how many British soldiers were killed. He told one interviewer that "it doesn't matter since God was calling them for a higher purpose."

He was also a totally incompetent idiot who was incapable of learning anything new. After the war he actually published a paper which said that tanks, airplanes and machine guns were vastly over-rated and that in the next war the horse would be the deciding factor.

[JB White]

The rate of carnage at Gallipoli was just as bad as on the Western Front. That too was to please the Russians. Take Constantinople and establish a second front. Easy on paper when underestimating the resolve of the Turks. Churchill got himself fired over that debacle.
Pershing learned from the ANZACS about letting the British control a "foreign" army. Every last individual was deemed expendable.

[Vern Humphrey]

The rate of carnage at Gallipoli was just as bad as on the Western Front. That too was to please the Russians. Take Constantinople and establish a second front. Easy on paper when underestimating the resolve of the Turks. Churchill got himself fired over that debacle.
Pershing learned from the ANZACS about letting the British control a "foreign" army. Every last individual was deemed expendable.

You betcha -- the British would have been willing to fight to the last American.

[clintonhater]

And not so long ago, the Smithsonian published an article critical of Pershing -- ridiculing him for NOT breaking up the American Army and parceling it out to the British and French!

Pershing's most distinguished division (arguably) was parceled out to the British 4th Army, which meant re-arming with SMLEs: the 27th, otherwise known as the New York Division as it consisted entirely of the NYS National Guard. (Less the illustrious Fighting 69th Reg., re-assigned to the 42nd Rainbow Div.)

[Vern Humphrey]

Pershing's most distinguished division (arguably) was parceled out to the British 4th Army, which meant re-arming with SMLEs: the 27th, otherwise known as the New York Division as it consisted entirely of the NYS National Guard. (Less the illustrious Fighting 69th Reg., re-assigned to the 42nd Rainbow Div.)

Wellll -- the 2nd Infantry Division (including it's Marine Brigade) was not farmed out. Nor was the 3rd which stopped the Germans at the 2nd Battle of the Marne. Nor any of the others. And there WAS an American Army fighting in France, not just a bunch of parceled-out small units.

[JB White]

Pershing's most distinguished division (arguably) was parceled out to the British 4th Army, which meant re-arming with SMLEs: the 27th, otherwise known as the New York Division as it consisted entirely of the NYS National Guard. (Less the illustrious Fighting 69th Reg., re-assigned to the 42nd Rainbow Div.)

The first contingents to arrive were reissued arms as a matter of logistics. That is the reason the AEF was initially handed SMLE's when they first arrived. We entered a fight which had been going on for years and somebody had to finish training the rookies. It didn't last for long and it probably saved a lot of lives...except for that damned French Chauchat.

[Vern Humphrey]

If it hadn't been for the M1917 -- a rechambered British P13, we would have never been able to arm our troops in time.

Why did this happen? Because 1916 was an election year. Wilson ran on the slogan "He kept us out of war." He could hardly do that while drafting millions of men and issuing huge orders for weapons and ammunition. He won the election, was inaugurated on March 4th and 5th, 1917, and declared war on April 2nd, 1917 -- leaving the US Army flat-footed.