Remembering the WWI Vets Who Are Still Alive

Since Armistice Day (a.k.a. Veterans Day in the U.S.A.) just passed us by, I thought it was rather timely that I came across an article about the few remaining veterans of the First World War that are still alive. I was a bit surprised to find this article, but I guess I shouldn't have been, since living past one hundred years old isn't all that uncommon these days. However, out of the millions who served Britain in the "War to End All Wars" a mere ten survive. They're all that remain of a young generation that was squandered on the fields of Flanders...

The Race to Remember
by Megan Lane
BBC News Magazine - 11 November 2005

As someone who has had a life-long interest in military history, World War One has always fascinated me. One reason for this is that it's one of the greatest examples of not only the senselessness of war, but also a towering example of just how bull-headed and cold-blooded both military and civilian leaders can be. In addition to classics like All Quite on the Western Front, one of the best books for getting a feel for the huge number of human lives that were expended in order to capture tiny patches of real estate is Alistair Horne's The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916.

Other notable books on The Great War, which it was called until the even greater Second World War came about, include Dare Call It Treason, by Richard M. Watt, that I quickly read cover-to-cover after stumbling across it at a local book store. It's the only book that I know of which covers the little-known mutinies of the bloodied, frustrated and demoralized French Army of 1917 in sufficient detail.

However, a true non-fiction classic is Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August. Based on some of her other books, one might well accuse her of being an Islamophobe, but that's worth setting aside in order to enjoy this book about the origins of the First World War. Since it reads like a thriller, this fascinating and well-written book is nothing like the dry history that you learned in high school. As you read, you'll become increasingly fascinated and disgusted about how such a costly war was fought for no real reason. Indeed, rather than being fought over natural resources, ideology, religion or one of the other usual reasons, the First World War started when diplomatic stupidity and military paranoia caused mobilization plans to essentially take on a life of their own...and the rest is history.

Another worthwhile example of the type of slaughter that this war led to is A Storm in Flanders, by Winston Groom, who is also the author of Forrest Gump [Paperback][DVD]. As with other infamous meat-grinder battles such as Verdun and the Somme, the number of casualties produced in the Ypres are mind-boggling. Indeed, they make the number of casualties in the current Iraq War seem almost like child's play — and know that on the first day of the Somme offensive the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including over 19,240 who were killed outright or later died of wounds. Again, those were casualties for one day in which they only were able to advance, at most, several hundred meters from the trench line where they began. If you wonder how they managed to lose so many soldiers, especially when they were often deeply entrenched (although at the Somme the British marched straight into a steady stream of machine gun and cannon fire), here are some astonishing before and after photos of what massed artillery fire can do.

Such slaughter wasn't limited to the Western Front, since during the Gallipoli campaign of 1915, which was an amphibious attack along the coast of Turkey (which was still known as the Ottoman Empire), over 140,000 Allied troops became casualties (a number which doesn't even include at least another 140,000 lost due to disease). Gallipoli, by Alan Moorehead, remains about the best book on this unmitigated disaster for the Allies. This campaign, which eventually became an Ottoman victory (in spite of the fact that they lost over 200,000 soldiers in the campaign), had important ramifications for Turkey since it catapulted Kemal Atatürk to great fame and power. Likewise, the First World War produced some dire consequences for the entire Middle East, as David Fromkin demonstrates in his brilliant A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. After reading this must read book, it's easy to see how we're still living in the shadow of World War One, since many of the conflicts that are still on-going today, including those in Palestine and Iraq, have their roots in British and French actions at the end of the war in 1918.

To get a authentic feel of what it was like fighting in the trenches of the Western Front during World War I, Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography probably has the most renowned reputation and is certainly one of the best, if not the best, autobiography to come out of the war. Since it seems to be a twist on this title, although its author never admits this fact, I'll take the opportunity to mention Hello to All That: A Memoir of War, Zoloft, and Peace, by John Falk, which I read several months ago. It's a well told tale of a mentally ill American who decides to become a war correspondent and thus ends up in besieged Sarajevo during the latter stages of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. It's an interesting read, although not a great one, mainly because it contains some rather unexpected and colorful episodes. These somewhat make up for the fact that it has less about the actual war than I expected. If you're looking for that, read My War Gone By, I Miss It So, by Anthony Loyd, which is grisly, shocking and all that sort of thing. I found it interesting that these two books, along with War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges, tend to agree that the adrenaline rush of war is much like an addictive drug — and it's a drug that soldiers, war correspondents and others easily get hooked on. You can read my review of Chris Hedges' book, in which this topic is touched upon in some detail, here.

Below I've posted what is probably the most famous poem to come out of the First World War (at least in English) in a late tribute to all of the veterans on both sides. Keep in mind that a considerable number of these veterans were Muslims, since not only were there a lot of Muslims amongst the British and French colonial troops, many of whom served with distinction in the trenches, but there were hundreds of thousands of Ottoman Turks who served as well.

Here endeth the history lesson...

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In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— by LtCol. John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

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