# Let's remember World War I **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226 "2007-03-16T17:16:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/41 "2007-03-16T21:45:12Z")
[QUOTE=Scupper] _Bloody Red Baron_, by Kim Newman, takes place during WWI, and explores that truly dark period when Dracula (after fleeing England) allied himself with the Germans and helped to turn Manfred von Richthofen and the rest of Jasta 11 into uber-vampires capable of fighting enemy aircraft. Thank goodness we had Herbert West and Dr. Moreau on our side! [/QUOTE] If you ever had super-secret papers, microfilm, a great old bottle of Scotch, or anything else you didn’t want me to find, you could hollow out this book and put those items in it and they would be safe forever. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/42 "2007-03-16T21:48:01Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] If you ever had super-secret papers, microfilm, a great old bottle of Scotch, or anything else you didn’t want me to find, you could hollow out this book and put those items in it and they would be safe forever. [/QUOTE] What?! That sounds like, quite possibly, the greatest thing ever written anwyehre about anything by anybody. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/43 "2007-03-16T22:01:16Z")
Here in Kansas City a recently opened museum is dedicated to this conflict: [National WW1 Museum](http://www.libertymemorialmuseum.org/) Housed at the Liberty Memorial, a monument to soldiers from that war. Check it out! ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/44 "2007-03-16T22:35:25Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] If you ever had super-secret papers, microfilm, a great old bottle of Scotch, or anything else you didn’t want me to find, you could hollow out this book and put those items in it and they would be safe forever. [/QUOTE] Well, I made it sound quite a bit sillier than it is, but if vampires aren’t your thing, Kim Newman’s probably not your favorite author. I hope you don’t mind if I steal this quote, though. It’s hysterical. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/45 "2007-03-16T22:43:56Z")
Just remembered: Tori Amos has a song called “Not the Red Baron” ([lyrics](http://www.hereinmyhead.com/collect/bfp/bfp14.html)) that references the Red Baron, Jean Harlowe (I’ve seen the line “with a hallowed heart” transcribed as “with a harlowed heart” in some places), fighter planes, and Charlie Brown. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/46 "2007-03-16T22:51:28Z")
Here’s probably the most famous WWI poem, at least in Britain: Wilfred Owen Dulce Et Decorum Est Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of disappointed shells that dropped behind. GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And floundering like a man in fire or lime.– Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,– My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Mods: this is public domain now given that Owen died in 1918 ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/47 "2007-03-16T22:53:01Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] Wow. I’d claim kinship with **koeeoaddi** ’s great mind, but I’m pretty sure she’s the Doper who recommended the book. 😃 [/QUOTE] Oh, how I’d love to own that “great mind” business, but the kudos should go to **Manda JO** who first brought it up in [this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=403678) I just read it and gushed. Thanks though, **AuntiePam**. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/48 "2007-03-16T22:56:36Z")
As long as we’re on the subject of poems, here’s the famous Canadian poem of World War I: In Flanders Fields by John McCrae 1915, public domain In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid 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. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/49 "2007-03-16T23:17:06Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] My favourite short story in the [Arrowdreams](http://www.northguard.com/mbs/arrowdreams/) collection is about von Richthofen surviving. It has trivial significance for WW1 but devastatingly changes the outcome of WW2. [/QUOTE] _An Anthology of Alternate Canadas_– “Is the Canada we know the only concievable Canada? Do we live in the best possible country in the best possible world?” I so need to get this book. “What if… a Canadian air ace hadn’t shot the Bloody Red Baron down?” My guess is that he would have been shot down by Australian ground troops instead. As a result, Australia would rule Canada today, instead of the other way round. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/50 "2007-03-16T23:50:18Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] “What if… a Canadian air ace hadn’t shot the Bloody Red Baron down?” My guess is that he would have been shot down by Australian ground troops instead. As a result, Australia would rule Canada today, instead of the other way round. [/QUOTE] Yanno - there’s something wonderful about a place where we can assume that most of the people reading this thread, at least, know exactly what you’re talking about. 😃 I’d like to second the reccomendation for The Great Influenza, a very engrossing book. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/51 "2007-03-17T00:05:46Z")
Lazarus Long enlisted and went to Europe at the end of Time Enough for Love. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/52 "2007-03-17T00:32:52Z")
[QUOTE=Scupper] I hope you don’t mind if I steal this quote, though. It’s hysterical. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Be my guest, and thanks. Sometimes I think the only person who thinks I’m funny is me. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/53 "2007-03-17T01:01:12Z")
IIRC, the title character in _Doctor Zhivago_, Yuri, meets Lara when they are both working in the medical facilities on the WWI front lines. Yuri as a doctor, (of course!) and Lara as a nurse. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/54 "2007-03-17T01:10:43Z")
But speaking of Canada, that reminds me of another book that I think is great for describing WWI in a social context, which is _Rilla of Ingleside_ by L.M. Montgomery, author of _Anne of Green Gables_. Rilla is Anne’s daughter and Rilla’s story is told from 1914 to 1918. The book was published in 1921. A sample passage, from a letter Rilla’s brother Walter writes to her: > [@](#): > > Rilla, the Piper will pipe me West tomorrow. . . . I’ll never write the poems I once dreamed of writing – but I’ve helped to make Canada safe for the poets of the future, the future, not of Canada only, but of the world – when the 'red rain of Langemarck and Verdun shall have brought forth a golden harvest – not in a year or two, as some foolishly think, but a generation later, when the seed sown now shall have time to germinate and grow. > > It isn’t only the fate of the little sea-borne island I love that is in the balance, nor of Canada nor of England. It’s the fate of mankind. That is what we’re fighting for. And we shall win – never for a moment doubt that, Rilla. For it isn’t only the _living_ who are fighting – the _dead_ are fighting too. Such an army _cannot_ be defeated. ---
**Author:** ![straight\_man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straight_man/32/3027_2.png) [@straight\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straight_man)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/55 "2007-03-17T03:54:17Z")
Keeping the theme of Canada: _The Bandy Papers_ series, starting with _Three Cheers for Me_, by Donald Lamont Jack, are worth the read. They’re quite entertaining. Also, the CBC had one of those high-budget mini-series about the [Halifax Explosion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion) the summer before last. Frankly, it was a much bigger deal for Europe and the Commonwealth than for the US, so we get less in the States than elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/56 "2007-03-17T04:37:23Z")
A very good German war movie: **[Westfront 1918](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0021542/)**. From Hollywood: _The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse_, _Hell’s Angels_ (directed by Howard Hughes), _Three Comrades_ (co-written by F. Scott Fitzgerald), _Paths of Glory_ (directed by Stanley Kubrick), _Johnny Got His Gun_. [Surviving veterans of World War I](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/57 "2007-03-17T04:53:25Z")
[QUOTE=TV time] …But wasn’t Joey in a play about WWI when he married Chandler to Monica (in _“Friends”_)? [/QUOTE] Yes, opposite Gary Oldman, who taught him the importance of copiously spitting when truly acting one’s heart out. 😉 A slight tangent: _Smithsonian_ magazine had an article a few years ago about a unit of French Army sappers whose assignment is to remove and defuse left-over and buried ordinance from WWI, year in and year out. A farmer or two dies every year when plowing over unexploded WWI shells. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/58 "2007-03-17T06:55:54Z")
All I can think of is a few episodes of _The Young Indiana Jones._ Does that count? Oh, and there was an episode of _Dinosaurs_ where the 2-leggers and the 4-leggers go into trench warfare over who was better. They kept throwing sticks at each other and everyone kept losing eyes. You know, that’s actually clever the more I think about it. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/59 "2007-03-17T09:08:41Z")
How the smeg did we get two pages into this thread without someone mentioning [Biggles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggles)??? Don’t tell me I’m the only person on these boards who grew up reading Biggles books… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226/60 "2007-03-17T11:05:59Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] Don’t tell me I’m the only person on these boards who grew up reading Biggles books… :eek: [/QUOTE] I certainly did as well. 😃 [Shout at the Devil](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075214/) has Lee Marvin & Roger Moore take on a German Cruiser. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-remember-world-war-i/396226.md?page=4)