| Grandpa collected a series of 350 or so | | | | just a skull?' |
| photos, reprints and postcards from World War | | | | |
| I when he was an American soldier. For some | | | | In between the trenches was 'no man's land' |
| reason he wanted to save all the pictures and | | | | or the area that no one controlled. There are |
| they fill almost two albums. | | | | numerous photos of no man's land and dead |
| | | | soldiers and mostly destroyed countryside. |
| Maybe it was knowing that one day someone | | | | Aerial shots show it wasn't just no man's |
| like me would look at the pictures and | | | | land that was leveled, much of the |
| reflect on the true nature of war. Who knows. | | | | surrounding countryside in a battle was also |
| But whatever his reasons I'm glad he saved | | | | destroyed. |
| them. The effect of looking at the albums is | | | | |
| sobering. | | | | It was standard military strategy to bombard |
| | | | a trench for days to loosen it up and |
| Not much glory there in Grandpa's photo. He | | | | demoralize the troops before charging. The |
| looked like he could have been any young kid | | | | intent was to destroy morale but it also |
| from any state. Or any country for that | | | | destroyed most of the surrounding landscape. |
| matter. It was his soldier's photo album and | | | | Charging was often done by letting out a |
| World War I was the event of his life. It was | | | | yell, standing up and running straight for |
| like that for many that survived. | | | | the enemy trenches, just like it had been |
| | | | done for centuries. |
| The war ended in 1918 and grandpa died in | | | | |
| 1960. Almost everyone that fought in that | | | | Horses were used to pull wagons and |
| great war is now dead. That much I do know. | | | | artillery. There is a photo of U.S. troops |
| | | | headed to battle pulling their artillery with |
| The first album is full of soldier buddy | | | | horses. A lot of horses also died. One photo |
| shots and shots from towns and cities in | | | | shows a dead horse that was blown up into a |
| Europe, mostly France. The pictures also | | | | tree. |
| include numerous shots of the battlefields at | | | | |
| Rheims and Belleau Wood, two of the war's | | | | Supposedly WWI was the last war that poison |
| bloodiest battle sites. | | | | gas was allowed. Oddly enough the countries |
| | | | that used mega bombs and gargantuan artillery |
| The second album is almost entirely | | | | felt gas was too deadly so it was outlawed by |
| battlefield scenes. | | | | treaty. I'm not sure if technically it is |
| | | | more humane to kill by bullet or by gas. As a |
| It was a war not fought in the air or sea but | | | | result only renegades like Saddam Hussein use |
| on land and in the trenches. Funny how 'in | | | | poison gas. |
| the trenches' is still with us today. World | | | | |
| War I will be remembered as the last trench | | | | The real problem was poison gas was heavier |
| warfare or the last war where one could | | | | than air so it would sink into the trenches. |
| literally see the whites of the enemy's eyes, | | | | If a gas canister filled your trench the best |
| though maybe a couple of hundred yards away. | | | | defense was to get out and of course right |
| | | | into the line of fire from enemy snipers. |
| One side charged and would capture the other | | | | That was part of the idea; your choice, whiff |
| side's trench. The other side would make a | | | | of gas or a bullet through the head. |
| hasty retreat and leave everything behind, | | | | |
| including their dead and wounded. After a | | | | Potent gases like chlorine gas and mustard |
| while they would counterattack.Day after day. | | | | gas would either burn the lungs out or |
| Week after week. Month after month. | | | | instantly destroy the central nervous system. |
| | | | One whiff and it was over. |
| The casualty rate was off the charts. The | | | | |
| battlefields were often littered with the | | | | After the war the world was mad so it made |
| dead as they did not have time to bury them. | | | | Germany pay war reparations and the German |
| And it was not safe outside the trenches. | | | | economy collapsed. In the early 1920's |
| | | | inflation wiped out any hopes of an economic |
| There is a photo of a soldier in a trench | | | | recovery and the conditions were set for |
| behind barbed wire. The barbed wire was | | | | Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party to take their |
| supposed to help stop the other side from | | | | turn. And they did. |
| charging right into your trench. He is barely | | | | |
| visible behind the tangle of barbed wire. | | | | I felt a bit queasy after viewing all the |
| | | | photographed carnage especially knowing this |
| The constant attacks, the poison gas, the | | | | wasn't a Hollywood set. No Charlie Chaplin or |
| bombardments; it all added up to a trip to | | | | Tom Mix in these pictures. Just the boys next |
| hell. Not much to smile about. The face is | | | | door, ma'am. And the boys next door from |
| not real clear behind the barbed wire but | | | | another country, too. |
| it's apparent he is not smiling. | | | | |
| | | | Of course WWI did not end all wars and there |
| The Germans looked so much like us. How long | | | | have been a number of bad ones since. Or |
| does it take a corpse to become a bare | | | | rather it might be more correct to say that |
| skeleton? I imagine somewhere a German is | | | | there have been no good wars since. Maybe. |
| looking at a similar album and remarking how | | | | |
| they 'look so much like us -- how long does | | | | It all depends on our perspectives and what |
| it take the meat on a head to rot and leave | | | | we learned from Grandpa's war. |