# A Century Ago the Guns Fell Silent **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 11, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348 "2018-11-11T08:00:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/1 "2018-11-11T08:00:09Z")
16,000,000 dead - military and civilians. A permanent _Zone Rouge_ of poisoned and uninhabitable land in France. An Iron Harvest of century-old ordnance every year. Human remains still regularly uncovered. The lost villages of France, where people had lived and loved for centuries, gone. Four empires collapsed in turmoil. New countries and new ideologies arose. Unresolved tensions and a second round, 20 years later. The dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. It shaped our current world. 16,000,000 dead _In Flanders Fields,_ _The poppies blow_ _Between the crosses_ _Row on row_ _Which mark our place._ _And in the sky, the larks,_ _Still bravely singing, fly_ _Scarce heard amidst the guns below._ _We are the Dead._ _Short days ago,_ _We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow._ _Loved, and were loved._ _And now we lie_ _In Flanders Fields._ _Take up our quarrel with the foe._ _To you, from failing hands, we throw the torch._ _Be yours to hold it high._ _If ye break faith_ _With us who die,_ _We shall not sleep_ _Though poppies grow,_ _In Flanders Fields._ 16,000,000 dead. Jesus wept. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/2 "2018-11-11T09:39:31Z")
[And I can’t help but wonder oh Willy McBride](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqba0IUdiBk) Do all those who lie here know why they died? Did you really believe them when they told you the cause? Did you really believe that this war would end wars? Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame The killing and dying it was all done in vain Oh Willy McBride it all happened again And again, and again, and again, and again ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/3 "2018-11-11T14:15:59Z")
> **[The Unknown Soldier by Billy Rose](https://allpoetry.com/poem/8625939-The-Unknown-Soldier-by-Billy-Rose)** > > Comments & analysis: There's a graveyard near the White House / Where the Unknown Soldier lies, / And the flowe “The Unknown Soldier” by Billy Rose. It’s rather remarkable to me for having some bitter sentiment, no usual for the day and time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/4 "2018-11-11T14:31:21Z")
_Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards, everyone._ ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/5 "2018-11-11T15:33:30Z")
And one of the great efforts seen from Youtube, Indiana Neidell’s _The Great War_, teaching about the war in installments about what took place in a week 100 years ago, is in their last chapters. [Armistice - But Peace? I THE GREAT WAR Week 225](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa1ALtQqrVs) ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/6 "2018-11-11T15:51:52Z")
The guns were not silent for long… As one would expect, no veterans of the war live among us anymore. The memory is distant, the images faded, the names of some people and places may as well belong to a book of fantasy… “archdukes”, really? Social and cultural structures were shaken to their foundations, setting the table for the unimaginably worse toll of suffering to come. Borders drawn and promises broken in its aftermath continue to be cause for conflict today. That may be the worst broken faith. _They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them._ \*\* (glass raised) Lest We Forget\*\* ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2018, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/7 "2018-11-11T18:38:47Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > [The Unknown Soldier by Billy Rose - Famous poems, famous poets. - All Poetry](https://allpoetry.com/poem/8625939-The-Unknown-Soldier-by-Billy-Rose) > > “The Unknown Soldier” by Billy Rose. It’s rather remarkable to me for having some bitter sentiment, no usual for the day and time. You should read some of Sassoon’s poems for contemporary bitter sentiment: There’s “On Passing the New Menin Gate”: [https://m.poemhunter.com/poem/on-passing-the-new-menin-gate/](https://m.poemhunter.com/poem/on-passing-the-new-menin-gate/) and “Suicide in the Trenches” [https://m.poemhunter.com/poem-amp/suicide-in-the-trenches/](https://m.poemhunter.com/poem-amp/suicide-in-the-trenches/) ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/8 "2018-11-12T06:34:19Z")
Has anyone watched Peter Jackson’s BBC documentary _They Shall Not Grow Old_ ? This may be the best film ever made of the authentic experiences of soldiers in WWI - balanced, and not always what you might expect. I was a bit dubious about the restoration of silent films, and adding colour and sound, but it works exceptionally well. Trailer [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHYRfukHToc) ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/9 "2018-12-15T17:08:17Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > Has anyone watched Peter Jackson’s BBC documentary _They Shall Not Grow Old_ ? A four minute scene of British thoughts on German soldiers: Interesting interview with Peter Jackson about making the film: [https://www.recode.net/2018/12/15/18141509/peter-jackson-wwi-world-war-they-shall-not-grow-old-documentary-kara-swisher-recode-decode-podcast](https://www.recode.net/2018/12/15/18141509/peter-jackson-wwi-world-war-they-shall-not-grow-old-documentary-kara-swisher-recode-decode-podcast) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2018, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-century-ago-the-guns-fell-silent/824348/10 "2018-12-29T04:26:06Z")
I saw the movie yesterday at a limited screening, and I agree that it was outstanding. It was amazingly intimate; just bits of footage about unnamed individuals, yet one comes away feeling like one knows them well. It’s striking how committed the movie is to its ground-level perspective – there’s no context, no strategy, just one day following another. It was amusing how much WWI gear Peter Jackson has at his house. After he provided his uniform collection to advise the colorization, his period magazine collection to fill in gaps in footage, and his artillery pieces to the sound editors, I was halfway expecting him to produce some German soldiers that he’d cloned for purposes of verifying their accents.