I should hope so.
I did nor know that. Again, I help fight ignorance.
Her name should be kept in the public eye and consciouness as much as possible.
She took a royal screwing in the Pulitzer Prize fiasco just because she was a woman. She was brilliant. The prize should have been shared between her and Otto Hahn.
French did fight to defend Dunkirk but it is recorded that there were also very large numbers of French deserters skulking in cellars who refused to come up and fight even after their officers BEGGED them to do so.
The rearguard for Dunkirk was the Brit. unit The Royal GreenJackets who fought to the very end in the full knowledge that there would be no rescue for them, which is indeed what happened.
I can’t help but notice the difference between this thread and the First World War itself.
WWI was confined to Belgium and the French frontier, Poland, Romania and the Ukraine, the Tyrolean Alps, the Caucasus Mountains, the coast of Trebizond,
Mesopotamia, Palestine, east and west Africa, an Allied-sponsored native revolt in Sinai and Arabia, a Central Powers-sponsored native revolt in Lybia, Tsintao China, Several Pacific Islands including the bombardment of Papeete Tahiti, naval engagements off Chile, the Falklands and in the North Sea, submarine attacks in the Atlantic, an ugly incident involving a dachshund in Omaha, Nebraska, and a few other places where memory fails me.
This thread, on the other hand, is way all over the feaking place!
Taking that as my license, I recently read on Wikipedia’s list of surviving WWI vets that two of centarians in Finland are each veterans of their 1918 Civil War: Lennart Rönnbäck, who served in the White Guards, and Aarne Armas Arvonen, who served in the Red Guards. I must acknowledge a base impulse that we wheel them into the same, small room and settle this once and for all.
Well, it wasn’t hardly like that as it was a choice of supporting Slavery or being against it, and Britian had already publicly annnounced it was anti-slavery and was wiling to back that up with the British Navy.
And the second sell out is WWI itself. GB worked tirelessly on an unending campaign of lies to bring America into the war; costing us thousands of lives, millions of dollars and our national itegrity. This also IMHO delayed our entry into WWI, which was a war against Evil.
What!!!??? Hang on - are you complaining because Britain conned America in to a war that cost you “thousands of lives, millions of dollars and our national itegrity” or because the British “lies” delayed the US joining a war “costing us thousands of lives, millions of dollars and our national itegrity”?
Given the mountains of conspiracy theories out there, I’ve always been surprised that I’ve never seen a claim that the Zimmerman Telegram was faked by British Intelligence.
The second reference to WWI is a typo for WWII, right?
Right. WWII. :smack:
The British rearguard at Dunkirk was taken off on the second last night. The following night, about 25,000 of the French rearguard escaped. It should be noted though that the 51st Highland Division (amongst others) were still fighting in France, and the 50th Lowland Division was landing at ports further along the coast.
Well, there was also that little matter of the Brits getting careless with matches in 1812.
This would have been difficult, given that Zimmermann was dumb enough to admit the attempted conspiracy with Mexico at a press conference.
Ah the Teutons, masters of subtlety.
In mid-1918, the germans were able to transfer troops from the eastern Front, and started an offensive aimed at dividing the british and French armies. This offensive collapsed-and then the US entered the war. At this point, would the allies have accepted an armistice? Germany would have been far better off, had she quit at this point. The whole horror that was nazi germany probably would never have happened.
I don’t think the Allies would have accepted an Armistice after the Spring Offensive. While the Germans made some impressive territorial advances, they did not break either the British or French armies, as would have been necessary. It wasn’t a war of movement, and even that advance, deep as it went, ran up into the same problems - German supplies had to come up over broken ground, and the troops simply could not be supported.
I remember evidence (sorry, not got sources here) that the effect of the Spring Offensive on German morale was pretty brutal - they saw how much better the conditions were for Allied civilians than for their families back home, who were suffering massively from the blockade. They also saw how rations etc for the Allied troops were much better than their own. There was pretty widespread looting, and I seem to remember reports of German units refusing to advance further and enjoying the spoils of their success. While they inflicted 850,000 or so casualties on the allies, they suffered 700,000 of their own, and those exchanges were essentially a win for the Allies in the grim numbers game. In the end, all it did was create a salient for the Allies to exploit in the Hundred Days Offensive, and move the Germans away from their well prepared and geographically dominant defensive positions.
Thats not true. The American’s were in the field by this point, and in fact held key parts of the line throughout the German offensive. It wasn’t the offensive or even the military that collapsed for the Germans…it was a massive collapse on the home front. Simply put they were out of gas at home (digging up the lead plumbing pipes, melting down the church bells…and in general starving and miserable). THATS what caused the Germans to collapse finally. And the allies were only a little bit behind that or several of THEM would have collapsed first.
The US finally coming into the war on the side of the allies was the straw that broke Germany’s back…without that its a toss up as to who would have collapsed first (hell, maybe all of them).
-XT
I dont know how to do links but just googled “the Kings Royal Rifle Corps,a brief history” and it said that the R.G.J. batallion holding off the Germans at Calais to cover the evacuation at Dunkirk held on for three days before being overwhelmed .
I agree that the rearguard in the immediate vicinity of Dunkirk was evacuated
Ah, right, yes the Calais garrison was basically issued a “fight to the death” order.
I don’t know how you could ask for a better ally as the U.S. than England. England has been the bestest bud the U.S. could ask for.
Make to mistake, you English dopers…the attitude of many of the U.S. citizens is the same. If, in the future, England was threatened the U.S. would rush to their side.
As a friend once said…if France was invaded, he’d be very concerned but mainly about how the it would affect the U.S and him…same with Germany and other nations. However, if England was invaded, he’d look for a rifle to personally help. That is the difference.
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A popular viewpoint about WWI but it never happened.
Why the carnage?
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Germany’s artillery was superior to everyone else’s and they knew how to use it.
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France’s army was run by a committee.
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Germany had a better army structure with an army staff while France had little if any staff. A way to explain the difference is that a German general had, let’s say colonels, directly underneath him, not in charge of men but who were responsible for supplies. They had the full backing of the general and could go toe to toe with any other colonel to get the supplies where they were need by the general. While a general in France let each commander of a regiment fend for himself for supplies.
If it wasn’t for America, Germany would have won.
Cite: The Myth of the Great War: A New Military History of World War I
Forgive me, but I have not been impressed with Jon Mosier’s (author of ‘The Myth of the Great War’) work at all. His ‘Blitzkrieg myth’ was little more than a reassertion of stuff already reevaluated back int he 90’s, with a bunch of his own idiocy thrown on top. The poor quality of that book has kept me from buying or trusting any of his other works.
Before you get on my case, I do enjoy re-evaulations of military history. I have enjoyed Waterloo: A new Perspective as well as Shattered Sword.