We have yielded no more than a few hundred yards of it as a prize to the enemy. “[I run] a store in Brohl, where among other things candy and cookies are sold to American soldiers…[I can] make a profit because the American soldiers will pay the price that I must ask, while the civil population would not.”, 27. "The Americans can very well serve as an example for our own troops whose behavior as they passed through here was none too good. I see how peoples are set against one another and in silence unknowingly foolishly obediently innocently slay one another. . "Only the dead have seen the end of war.". British soldiers lined up in a narrow . How the censors will rave when they read this letter, but I am only writing the truth. The Great War in Words: 20 Quotes by Contemporaries of ... They are wonderfully mild mannered men and a great contrast to the domineering attitude of our own soldiers. They feature statements from contemporary figures, political leaders, military commanders, service personnel, anti-war campaigners and historians of World War I. Anton Bursch, shopkeeper in Echternach, 38. by your works are ye justified--toil unrelieved ; “The casualty lists went on appearing for a long time after the Armistice - last spasms of Europe's severed arteries.”, “I had realized that it was not the courage and generosity of the dead which had brought about this chaos of disaster, but the failure of courage and generosity on the part of the survivors… Perhaps, after all, the best that we who were left could do was to refuse to forget, and to teach our successors what we remembered, in the hope that they, when their own day came, would have more power to change the state of the world than this bankrupt, shattered nation. "Eight to ten million soldiers will massacre one another and in doing so devour the whole of Europe until they have stripped it barer . Suddenly the enemy’s fire became precise and concentrated. “Powerful… Tells a singular story to illuminate a universal truth.”--The New York Times Book Review The shocking truth about postwar adoption in America, told through the bittersweet story of one teenager, the son she was forced to ... “History is philosophy teaching by examples.”, “Here there are no folds in the fields, only wide open plains, scarcely a hill in sight. He lay in my arms until he died, shrieking in his agony, and said he hoped I would excuse him for making such as a noise as he really could not help it. A Soldier on the Southern Front: The Classic Italian Memoir ... Electricity plants are over burdened and the inhabitants get a feeble current so that the Herr Americans may burn 3 lamps in every latrine.”, 26. What do you reckon?". And it all made me think of the Bible and the story of the Antichrist and Armageddon.” While moving up to the trenches during his first time on the Western Front, NCO Frederick Holmes witnessed someone suffering from it. With a cry of horror I threw it from me.” “[I] like the American soldier individually but do not like the nation as a whole…America entered the war for what money she could get out of it.”, 37. They flew fast and dangerous maneuvers in order to defend critical artillery observation balloons. If you would like to suggest a quotation, please contact Alpha History. Death and destruction surrounded them. “[American] troops lack the snap and precision of the German soldiers but…the cordial relations between the officers and men more than make up for the lack of iron discipline.”, 13.
They come into the world at our expense, and at our expense they're able to do whatever work they please uninterrupted.
World War I (1914-18) was one of the most climactic events of the twentieth century. 00:00. Charles Bean, Australian war correspondent, “At many places along the opposing line of trenches, a ‘live and let live’ system evolved, based on the realisation that neither side was going to drive out the other anyway. We live in a world of Somme mud.
The Red Baron of Germany was the war's greatest flying ace. Do you get as much chocolate as I do!
If only, somehow, the nobility which in us had been turned toward destruction could be used in them for creation, if the courage which we had dedicated to war could be employed, by them, on behalf of peace, then the future might indeed see the redemption of man instead of his further descent into chaos.”, “What do you think, Mr Alleyn? Ernst Junger, German lieutenant, “From the darkness on all sides came the groans and wails of wounded men; faint, long, sobbing moans of agony and despairing shrieks. "Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.". 30. And everyone says what everyone here knows: that there is not one soldier in 50 that wants to go back to the front. Otto Schranzkmuller, former Prussian Municipal Official, 12.
Throughout history, noted military leaders, war veterans, and statesmen, such as Nathan Hale (American soldier, spy, and captain in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War), Dwight D. Eisenhower (U.S. Army general and Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War II; 34th President of the U.S.), Giuseppe Garibaldi (Italian general), George S . World War 1 Soldiers Quotes. The poor fellow was brought in to me absolutely riddled. The arm of one of these crushed bodies stuck straight out of the clay. Just as he got outside my door a shrapnel shell burst full in front of him. They grew fat on the corpses in No Man’s Land and were known to bite sleeping soldiers’ faces and gather around the eating areas. Unidentified German Soldier. The Tomb of the Unknown Solider is dedicated to Soviet soldiers lost during World War II. 106. We will update these pages with new quotes from time to time. It resulted in arrangements such as not shelling the latrines or attacking during breakfast.
Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. “The girls are to blame, but one must not forget that the gentlemanly enemy are a decidedly forward people. Rudolf Binding, German captain, October 1914, “The whole earth is ploughed by the exploding shells and the holes are filled with water, and if you do not get killed by the shells you may drown in the craters. Your troops, not even one, have spoken a single disagreeable word to anyone, and when we offered them wood for cooking and heating purposes they accepted with what seemed to be a certain shyness.”, 15. In the flash of the exploding shells, he saw his comrades and friends lying still, small, some crouched behind trees, some cursing, all helpless. 2 1444. Quotes From Soldiers Ww1. The planes reached speeds of over 100 mph and fired machine guns, pistols, or rockets at each other. The train was very crowded, so the soldier walked the length of the train, looking for an empty sea . Below are some highlights and excerpts from that report, which you can read in its entirety here. They battled other pilots either one-on-one or in squadrons, fought like heroes, and died in droves. We keep their homes pleasant fro them and provide them with all creature comforts, We satisfy both their loves and their lusts, and at our expense again they have the children they desire. It was too horribly obvious to me that dozens of men with serious wounds must have crawled for safety into shell holes.
Yet i know nothing . Roughly 10 million soldiers lost their lives in World War I, along with seven million civilians. "War means fighting, and fighting means killing."― Nathan Bedford Forrest. This is not a book about Afghanistan or the “War on Terror”; it is a book about all men, in all wars. “The attitude of the American officer towards enlisted men is very different than in our army in which officers have always treated their men as cattle.”, 14. Yet i know nothing of life but despair death fear and fatuous superficiality cast over an abyss of sorrow. And the dead were all along the road. As many as 250,000 boys under the age of 18 served in the British Army during World War One. But the officers and General are boasting scoundrels…in our house 10 men and 2 officers are quartered. Charles de Gaulle, French officer, on the Battle of the Frontiers, “These young fellows we have, only just trained, are too helpless, especially when their officers have been killed. Daniel Daly, US Marine, 1918. In comparison the church towers at home seem almost squat, hiding themselves away in the folds of the fields. ", 18. They feature statements from contemporary figures, political leaders, military commanders, service personnel, anti-war campaigners and historians of World War I. In this comprehensive history, John Keegan explores both the technical and the human impact of the greatest war of all time. But to be dismembered, torn to pieces, reduced to pulp, this is a fear that the flesh cannot support – and which is fundamentally the great suffering of the bombardment.”
And get the same jolt? In the Second World War, many Black soldiers again faced resistance. Number four platoon in the next trench, who made such a noise they woke up the enemy gunners… And of course the [general] staff, who could conveniently be blamed for everything.” When war broke out in Europe in 1914, Americans were very reluctant to get involved and remained neutral for the better part of the war. O, to be able to see it all again, a ghost world of gun-flashes at night. Holt was just 20 when he joined the American Ambulance Field Service in 1917 and sailed for France. In this revised edition of the best-selling memoir that has been read by over a million people worldwide, with translations in 29 languages, Bronnie expresses how significant these regrets are and how we can positively address these issues ... Their story, as told by goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though War is a formidable force, it's no match for the ...
No living thing remained. We will update this page with new quotes from time to time. These World War I quotations about the lives of soldiers have been compiled by Alpha History authors. Explore our collection of motivational and famous quotes by authors you know and love. "There were only a handful of Americans there but they fought like wildmen." —Antone Fuhrmann of Mayschoss. “A German officer said that the Americans came over here only to see the world and for the sake of adventure.”, —Mrs. National Archives video . War confers many . The largest battle of the World War 1 - the Battle of the Somme - is known as one of the bloodiest battles in history. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. Quotes During World War 1.
And now the water was rising above them, and powerless to move, they were slowly drowning.” Presents Eurydice, the information network on education in Europe, which encourages the exchange and production of information on educational systems and national policies. They slam the doors so hard that the whole building shakes.”, 25. (not sure of the spelling) “[I] cannot understand the general desire if the American soldier for the “Gott mit uns” belt buckles and the German Iron Crosses…[I] alone have sold more Iron Crosses to American soldiers than the Kaiser ever awarded to his subjects.”, —Fianale Fappen, novelty shop owner in Neuenahr. World War 1. World War I propaganda influenced the young Hitler, who was a frontline soldier from 1914 to 1918. Medical care during the First World War - how hospitals managed the influx of injured soldiers. Edwin Vaughan, British lieutenant, 1917, “I was looking straight at [Corporal Matthews] as the bullet struck him and was profoundly affected by the remembrance of his face… He was alive, and then he was dead, and there was nothing human left in him. The French left the rats alone. "Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. But God, if there is one, notices nothing here. Three were almost completely driven into the lips of the crater, stuffed in like rags. He had finally been granted R&R and was on a train bound for London. Figures for British WWI and French and German dead at Verdun from: Home, Alistair, The Price of Glory, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1963, O'Brien Browne is the pen name of an American with degrees from The University of California at Berkeley. Le Poilu : Certainly the best known World War One word. "[American] officers are not well dressed….All officers in the German army even when in active field service have one or more trunks and from time to time are allowed to leave for the purpose of obtaining uniforms.”, 11. Everybody is rushing, running, trying to escape almost certain death in this hail of enemy shells. For more information, visit Alpha History or our Terms of Use.