Guys a glory hound without two braincells* to rub together. Good riddance.
*OOC: Did they know about braincells in 1915?
Indiscriminately dropping things on people from high in the sky - and on a town at that, and not a battlezone - is barbaric and about what we’d expect from those sausage-eating baby-killers. But you won’t win a war like that.
Oh, absolutely: give them a fair trial (the outcome of which will be certain and beyond doubt), and then put them up against the wall…
…as for that vulgar tawdry Southend place: if Fritz feels he absolutely has to clobber towns of ours from the air, I consider that a good one to choose 
.
The French took Ablain today, a Russian counter-offensive forced the Austrians to retreat in east Galicia, the Italians occupied Valona, and Anglo-French forces took Njok (Cameroons).
And here we are.
A year later . . .
First six months
Second six month
This thing continues even though not much seems to happen somethimes.
President Wilson just sent a contingent of Marines ashore… in Haiti. I think they’re needed just a bit more in France.
One hundred years ago, Great Uncle Captain John Clarence Milne, 28th Battalion (Northwest), Canadian Expeditionary Force, fell at Hooge on 6 June 1916, at which time the Germans detonated four mines beneath the British trenches and retook the Hooge crater and the British front line.
“In their next action, however, the battle of Hooge, on June 6, they suffered even worse losses than those sustained by the other battalions of the Brigade in April. Two companies, " A " and " B," were all but wiped out–the former being victims of more German mines, while the latter came under one of the most terrific enemy bombardments of the war. The 6th was the blackest day in the history of the unit, and while the casualties in the ranks were exceptionally high, some of the noblest and most experienced officers were lost. These included Captains Milne and McGovern, of "A Company, both killed.”
The Arab Revolt began two days ago against the Ottoman Empire. Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, is leading it; it seems he and his followers hope to create a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo to Aden. I wonder if the Allies will be able to make common cause with the rebels and, in time, make a significant difference against the Ottomans?
I hear the British have had better days.
Hard fighting last few months and two years. But surely, the Germans will get some sort of settlement now.
Thousands of American troops, inexperienced aren’t going to do much, but be machine gun fodder.
By 1918, the USA had a bigger army in Europe than the British. They learned the hard way.
I can understand Pershing insisting his forces fight under his command- and not be used to bolster losses in other forces- but it cost a lot of lives.
This week, Third Battle of the Aisne (Wikipedia):
The bombardment was followed by a poison gas drop. Once the gas had lifted, the main infantry assault by 17 German Sturmtruppen divisions commenced, part of an Army Group nominally commanded by Crown Prince Wilhelm, the eldest son of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The Kaiser came to inspect the progress of the battle.
Taken completely by surprise and with their defences spread thin, the Allies were unable to stop the attack and the German army advanced through a 40 kilometres (25 mi) gap in the Allied lines. Reaching the Aisne in under six hours, the Germans smashed through eight Allied divisions on a line between Reims and Soissons, pushing the Allies back to the river Vesle and gaining an extra 15 km of territory by nightfall.
Victory seemed near for the Germans, who had captured just over 50,000 Allied soldiers and over 800 guns by 30 May 1918. But advancing within 56 kilometres (35 mi) of Paris on 3 June, the German armies were beset by numerous problems, including supply shortages, fatigue, lack of reserves and many casualties.
On 6 June 1918, following many successful Allied counter-attacks, the German advance halted on the Marne, much as the “Michael” and “Georgette” offensives had in March and April of that year.
And so, after 4 years, the guns fall silent at 11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month.
Europe is different now. The vast Austro-Hungarian empire was split, Germany cut down, new countries formed in the aftermath. The Ottoman Empire was similarly partitioned, it’s Middle Eastern territories given to France and the UK.
But, for the people of Europe, the war was over. War dead estimates vary wildly, but it seems likely that over 30 million, both military and civilian, lost there lives due to the war.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
Well if you want to split hairs, the war wasn’t over until 1919. This was simply an Armistice and there was still a war going on in the Soviet Union. However, by and large, this was the end.
It seemed so pointless that attacks continued on the morning of the 11th even though the Generals knew that the Armistice was about to be signed.
That poetry is the fourth verse of “For the Fallen”
My grandfather had, less than a month before the armistice, turned eighteen years old, so he was not drafted and didn’t go to war. He probably would have been shooting at cousins, as his own father left Germany to avoid the draft, at the age of sixteen. He didn’t fancy being cannon fodder for Bismarck’s ambitions.