Last WW1 combat veteran passes away

May he and all the veterans of World War I rest in peace.

One day a man came to the Pearly Gates.
To Saint Peter he would tell.
"One more soldier reporting for duty, sir!
I've served my time in Hell."

It really is sad. RIP, sir. You served your country, proudly. The memory of him and the other fine men who served in that war will forever be engraved in my gray matter. I can only hope that others will do them the same courtesy.

This got me looking back at the photos I took of the Great War cemeteries in Belgium and with those thousands and thousands of tombstones and names of people lost in the mud it's surreal that someone from that war would live this long, no matter where they were stationed. It just seems like the weight of the dead would be crushing.

I didn't think this would happen this early.

We do, and that's a good thing.

I'm surprised it took this long.

We have an article on why that's a Flanderisation*

It would probably be more accurate to say that WW 1 doesn't lend itself well to a "War is Glorious" feel, whereas WW 2 does.

I don't think there were too many fronts in WWII where war was "glorious" in the sense that's usually meant when people say things like "Dulce et decorum est pro Patria mori" or "war brings out the best in us" or stuff like that.

The North Africa campaign(s) might count, as well as potentially the Pacific naval and air campaign (definitely not island hopping - or any campaign if you were taken prisoner).

No "glory" in the Atlantic, little in Western Europe, none in Burma, none in China, only for the British and the other allied air forces in the Battle of Britain, and the main front (Germany's Eastern front) was the least glorious of all.

I'm talking more about popular perception than the real thing though. Which tends to be Flanderized if it's not an outright myth. WWII's popular perception has the Heroic Allies against the Evil Nazis. WWI's popular perception is people dying pointlessly in trenches. Kind of a big difference.

I would disagree. We'll always need sheepdogs.

The Pacific Front was about as depressing as WW 1 as well. My great grandpa served there and told me a pretty good deal about his time there.

edited 7th May '11 2:39:51 PM by Barkey

It was a violent, nasty, horrifying of a meat grinder campaign. Both sides fought so viciously.

I think the amazement of WWI vets comes from both the horror the trenches, gas, the shelling, the horrible conditions, and the clumsy and pointless battles.

I've heard it said that WWI was when armies implemented new ways of attacking, and WWII was when they figured out how to defend against those attacks. The same old defenses against new weapons got soldiers killed in droves.

Also, WWI was the first war to feel more like a sci-fi story than an actual event. Metal war machines? Gas weapons? Seriously?

I liked that story btw.

Indeed which is why it is impressive for some of these men who saw battle and lived to come out alive at the end. The devastation of WWI was frightening. WWII was so horrible the world is still afraid of another world war.

He survived two world wars one of them as POW.

edited 7th May '11 5:12:39 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Yeah, and let's not forget the Flu pandemic of 1918-19, which occurred in the middle of said war, was transmitted rapidly partially because of the movement of soldiers and materials, and killed 6-12 times more people than all the combat combined. *

The 1910's were not a great time to be alive.

edited 7th May '11 10:18:09 PM by deathjavu

But damn, those Roaring 20s...

Until 1929, sure.

Then the 30's and 40's sucked too.

Win some decades, lose some decades.

Damn the stories these guys must have told. I would love to just sit and listen some time. I have always loved various forms of "story time"