tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post7997849731920162029..comments2024-03-26T03:11:42.678-04:00Comments on Behind Their Lines: The ExtraConnie R.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-19315020823974817412021-01-19T10:12:05.186-05:002021-01-19T10:12:05.186-05:00Thank you for reading and remembering....Thank you for reading and remembering....Connie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-35132229089506429922021-01-19T03:22:24.451-05:002021-01-19T03:22:24.451-05:00A very moving piece. Recalling their names, their ...A very moving piece. Recalling their names, their story & the unknown thousands who passed through their care. Rest in Peace.Riaschttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04317420024196024445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-85327213553936260232020-01-20T21:47:50.359-05:002020-01-20T21:47:50.359-05:00Chris, your insights are always stunning. I especi...Chris, your insights are always stunning. I especially appreciated the quotations from Burckhardt and your home-town war memorial.<br />Connie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-35035414165521603182020-01-20T04:04:56.829-05:002020-01-20T04:04:56.829-05:00Even Vera Brittain, in her deeply moving 'Lett...Even Vera Brittain, in her deeply moving 'Letters from a Lost Generation' reports the self-same harrowing situations, impressions and reflections.<br /><br />More importantly, she consciously keeps referring to all of these in the initial letters she addresses to the frightened people, not untypically women, who constitute the reading (and writing) public of her 'Wartime Letters to Peace Lovers'. <br />The book does not include the expression of the worries of Vera's readers, only her own concerns and reflections. <br /><br />This she wrote, having by that time become a respected pacifist, at the onset of the Second World War. If my memories are correct, she starts to write her letters at the end of 1939, when Hitler's war machine is steaming ahead, and the world is entering the early stages of this equally harrowing World Conflict. This she does in an ultimate, dramatic appeal to reason, with a view to stopping the new war, which she fears will prove unstoppable, whatever man is attempting to do to 'make it stop', as Siegfried Sassoon wrote in one of his WWI poems. <br /><br />Vera's Wartime Letters to Peace Lovers, not quite untypically, has lost none of its appeal for the reader of our times who feels concerned about the road that this world might once again be taking.<br /><br />It all goes to show the truth in cultural philosopher and historian Jacob Burckhardt's adage, which said that "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". <br />The core of this very statement was echoed by Winston Churchill after the end of the Second World War.<br /><br />One often wonders just why our kind never seems to come to its senses until after another military conflict has had time to wreak its havoc before finally extinguishing itself. Small wonder tragical situations like the one described in this contribution show and keep showing the effect that the scourge of war has upon its survivors. <br /><br />In the case of my grandmother's experiences, it meant losing her 41-year-old husband and having to move on with 5 kids (the youngest being my dad, who was 3 months old when it happened) and having to cope with a life of extreme poverty. <br /><br />My region, my country, our beloved continent of Europe, I think, they all have an age-old tale to tell when it comes to 'talking war'.<br /><br />Need it surprise that the inscription at the foot of the statue erected for the fallen in my home town is summed up in the following rhetorical question:<br />"What use is there in the shedding of our blood?" <br /><br />Warm regards from our beloved, godforsaken Fields of Flanders, <br />Chris S.c.spriethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03362112445796023444noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-20036810181928557412019-01-23T07:02:05.527-05:002019-01-23T07:02:05.527-05:00The following excerpt from, 1918—Amiens to the Hin...The following excerpt from, 1918—Amiens to the Hindenburg Line, by Peter Burness is a wounded man’s witness to the excruciating strain on nurses…<br /><br />“Lieutenant Harold Williams was badly wounded in the final stage of the battle and was roughly evacuated for treatment at a casualty clearing station at Daours, a village from where a month earlier he had joined the battle of Amiens. His account of this time recalls another consequence of battle. It also shows his admiration for the nurses attending the wounded and provides a brief insight into their conditions: <br /><br />“That these women worked their long hours among such surroundings without collapsing spoke volumes for their will-power and sense of duty. The place reeked with the odors of blood, antiseptic dressings, and unwashed bodies. The nurses saw the war stripped of even the excitement of an attack. They saw soldiers in their most pitiful state—wounded, blood-stained, dirty, reeking of blood and filth. [T]he strain was such that it was almost incredible that a woman could stand it and retain her sanity.”<br />Sincerely, David T.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-22199463028620482982019-01-18T18:55:58.568-05:002019-01-18T18:55:58.568-05:00Thanks for reading, Ian. I'd like to ask you ...Thanks for reading, Ian. I'd like to ask you a few questions about sources you've posted to Lives of the First World War (IWM) -- can you message me either on email listed at the blog or on twitter (@wherrypilgrim)? Connie R.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00887098543181126157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4970554022397463322.post-72417135192976319282019-01-18T07:44:19.074-05:002019-01-18T07:44:19.074-05:00What an extraordinary storyWhat an extraordinary storyIan Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10253106381895084914noreply@blogger.com