WWI 100th anniversary

The French government has been doing lots of remembrances, especially doing Le Tour.

 

Not really ancient, just somewhat out of date. And the sides were very quick to abandon many obsolete tactics (like cavalry) and figuring out systems that worked (such as wire and trench design). There was just a slow, trial-and-error period of trying to find larger-scale tactics that worked.

 

Worth a read

 

I like Dreadnought by Robert Massie.

 

NY Times: WWI Battlefields

 

I will go back this morning
From Imbros o'er the sea.
Stand in the trench, Achilles,
Flame-capped, and shout for me.

 

Blueprint for Armageddon, Parts 1-4

 

Heroism And Loss from WWI

 

The Gallipoli Campaign. April 25, 1915

 

32 Irish students from each of the 32 counties adopt an Irish soldier killed in WWI and research his story. This clip is about the students visit to the graves of the soldiers.

You'll have to sit through 2 minutes of commercials first.

http://www.rte.ie/player/us/show/nationwide-21/10491771/

 

Battle of the Somme kicked off July 1, 1916

 

Stories From No-Man's Land

 

Soldiers From The Empire

This is available on Netflix.

 

Stunning infographic about the 1.4 million French soldiers killed in action during WWI, day by day :

https://www.lefigaro.fr/fig-data/tombes-champ-honneur/

The first months of the war were the most terrible. And so were the relatively forgotten Artois and Champagne campaigns in 1915 (look at 25th september ).

 

Among many figures, this one strikes me the most : the average number of deaths per hour in the French side : 37... On average 37 French soldiers were killed every hour for 4 years 1/2.

 

I still have my Dad's WWI era draft card. He was classified as "5F".