Grandpa collected a series of 350 or so photos, reissues and postal cards from World War Iodine when he was an American soldier. For some ground he wanted to salvage all the images and they fill up almost two albums. Maybe it was knowing that one twenty-four hours person like me would look at the images and reflect on the true nature of war. Who knows. But whatever his grounds I'm glad he saved them. The consequence of looking at the record albums is sobering.
Not much glorification there in Grandpa's photo. He looked like he could have got been any immature child from any state. Or any state for that matter. It was his soldier's photograph record album and World War Iodine was the event of his life. It was like that for many that survived.
The warfare ended in 1918 and grandfather died in 1960. Almost everyone that fought in that great warfare is now dead. That much Iodine make know. The first record album is full of soldier brother shots and shots from towns and metropolises in Europe, mostly France. The images also include numerous shots of the battlegrounds at Rheims and Belleau Wood, two of the war's bloodiest conflict sites.
The 2nd record album is almost entirely battleground scenes.
It was a warfare not fought in the air or sea but on land and in the trenches. Funny how 'in the trenches' is still with us today. World War Iodine will be remembered as the last trench warfare or the last warfare where one could literally see the Whites of the enemy's eyes, though maybe a couple of hundred paces away. One side charged and would capture the other side's trench. The other side would do a headlong retreat and go forth everything behind, including their dead and wounded. After a piece they would counterattack.Day after day. Week after week. Calendar Month after month.
The casualty charge per unit was off the charts. The battlegrounds were often littered with the dead as they did not have got clip to bury them. And it was not safe outside the trenches. There is a photograph of a soldier in a trench behind barbed wire. The barbed wire was supposed to assist halt the other side from charging right into your trench. He is barely seeable behind the tangle of barbed wire.
The changeless attacks, the poisonous substance gas, the bombardments; it all added up to a trip to hell. Not much to smiling about. The human face is not existent clear behind the barbed wire but it's apparent he is not smiling.
The Germans looked so much like us. How long makes it take a cadaver to go a bare skeleton? I conceive of somewhere a German is looking at a similar record album and remarking how they 'look so much like us -- how long makes it take the meat on a caput to putrefaction and go forth just a skull?'
In between the trenches was 'no man's land' or the country that no 1 controlled. There are numerous photographs of no man's land and dead soldiers and mostly destroyed countryside. Aerial shots demo it wasn't just no man's land that was leveled, much of the encompassing countryside in a conflict was also destroyed.
It was standard military scheme to bombardon a trench for years to loosen it up and demoralize the military personnel before charging. The purpose was to destruct morale but it also destroyed most of the encompassing landscape. Charging was often done by letting out a yell, standing up and running consecutive for the enemy trenches, just like it had been done for centuries.
Horses were used to draw waggons and artillery. There is a photograph of U.S. military personnel headed to conflict pulling their heavy weapon with horses. A batch of Equus caballuses also died. One photograph shows a dead Equus caballus that was blown up into a tree.
Supposedly WWI was the last warfare that poisonous substance gas was allowed. Oddly adequate the states that used mega bombs and elephantine heavy weapon felt gas was too deathly so it was outlawed by treaty. I'm not certain if technically it is more than humane to kill by slug or by gas. As a consequence only turncoats like Saddam Husain usage poisonous substance gas.
The existent job was poisonous substance gas was heavier than air so it would drop into the trenches. If a gas case shot filled your trench the best defence was to acquire out and of course of study right into the line of fire from enemy snipers. That was portion of the idea; your choice, puff of gas or a slug through the head.
Potent gases like Cl gas and mustard gas would either fire the lungs out or instantly destruct the cardinal nervous system. One puff and it was over.
After the warfare the human race was huffy so it made Federal Republic Of Germany wage warfare reparations and the German economic system collapsed. In the early 1920's rising prices wiped out any hopes of an economical recovery and the statuses were put for Adolf Adolf Hitler and the Nazi political party to take their turn. And they did.
I felt a spot queasy after screening all the photographed slaughter especially knowing this wasn't a Film Industry set. No Charlie Charlie Chaplin or Uncle Tom Mix in these pictures. Just the male children next door, ma'am. And the male children next door from another country, too. Of course of study WWI did not stop all warfares and there have got been a figure of bad 1s since. Or rather it might be more than right to state that there have got been no good warfares since. Maybe.
It all depends on our positions and what we learned from Grandpa's war.
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