Student eager to start Vimy trip

How many US Americans would know this history so important to Canadians?

Scott Morphet is getting ready for a major reality check.

He's one of about 25 students from White Pines collegiate who will mark the 95th anniversary of the Canadian capture of Vimy Ridge in France in April.

The victory, after other Allied forces were defeated by the Germans, was a major accomplishment for Canadian soldiers during the First World War. The battle marked the first time all four Canadian divisions fought together.

"We all know it's one of the biggest things that was part of Canada's history," said Morphet, 17.

"Going there is going to be a huge awakening to what it really means to be a Canadian."

Student eager to start Vimy trip - The Sault Star - Ontario, CA

Syria: World War 1 Continues

From Austin Bay’s response to Fouad Ajami’s essay on Syria as the final stage of the Cold War.  I’ve always felt as Bay below, no, this is the last act of World War 1 and the resolution of all that was left undone with the Ottoman Empire.

The current Syrian revolt, the entire Arab Spring phenomenon, and for that matter, the Cold War share a sobering (and I suggest more explanatory) origin: World War I, the Great War. Four authoritarian empires fell in that conflagration: the Ottoman Turk, the German (Hohenzollern), the Austro-Hungarian (Habsburg) and the Russian Romanov. The Western Front slaughterhouse damaged France and Britain; though decolonization came decades later, the democratic imperialists never really recovered. What to do with all the imperial fragments? The Nazis, exploiting German grievances with World War I's outcome, tried to create a super German empire, but lost. The Soviets did resurrect the Russian empire, and extended it, until 1991. Gone forever? As Ajami noted, Putin exhibits commissar tendencies. He is not above creating an empire with an authoritarian sword.

Syria: World War I Continues

Heather Jones: Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War. Britain, France and Germany, 1914-1920. Cambridge 2011.

From the conclusion of the review,

Jones is to be commended for her balanced comparative approach. When evaluating German and Allied prisoner treatment, she considers the unique circumstances facing each captor nation, such as the size and composition of its prisoner population. Jones’ examination reveals that the German army was more willing than its enemies in Britain and France to employ brutal tactics in pursuit of victory. In doing so, she provides evidence in support of Isabel Hull’s argument that the German army’s tendency to embrace extreme, violent solutions during the Kaiserreich was facilitated by a lack of civilian control of the armed forces.[3] This meticulously researched study will require historians to reconsider mass captivity’s importance to the First World War and the conflict’s role in the evolution of forced labor. Jones accomplishes her goal of establishing the centrality of captivity to the war and demonstrates that prisoners could be open to acts of violence throughout their captivity. This book is sure to establish Jones’ reputation as one of the leading scholars of wartime captivity.

Heather Jones: Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War. Britain, France and Germany, 1914-1920. Cambridge 2011. - H-Soz-u-Kult / Rezensionen / Bücher

Birdsong, BBC One: first review - Telegraph

More WW1 films coming….

It’s been nearly 20 years since it was first published, but at last Sebastian Faulks’s First World War novel Birdsong - the book that British readers voted the 13th best ever read in 2003 - has reached the screen.

Birdsong, BBC One: first review - Telegraph

Previously unseen faces of the First World War - History - The Independent

 

Portraits of British Service Members: Previously unseen faces of the First World War - History - The Independent

Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War

Coming soon: Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War | BRILL

Brill’s Encyclopedia of the First World War is an unrivalled historical source and reference work. Written by prominent historians and World War I experts from 15 countries, it offers surveys and descriptions, information and interpretations on people and events, countries, institutions, and ideas. It presents a thematic account of the military course of the Great War, as well as of its political, economic, social, and cultural history.

Warrior, the REAL 'War Horse' who braved the bullets, barbed wire and shell fire of World War I

More on horses and WW1,

It was Winston Churchill who intervened to secure the safe return of tens of thousands of war horses stranded in Europe after the First World War.

Equine support: It was Winston Churchill who intervened to secure the safe return of tens of thousands of war horses stranded in Europe after the First World War

War Office documents found in the National Archives at Kew show that tens of thousands of the animals were at risk of disease, hunger and even death at the hands of French and Belgian butchers because bungling officials couldn’t get them home when hostilities drew to a close.

Churchill, then aged 44 and Secretary of State for War, reacted with fury when he was informed of their treatment and took a personal interest in their plight after the 1914-1918 war.

He secured their speedy return after firing off angry memos to officials within his own department and at the Ministry of Shipping, who had promised to return 12,000 horses a week but were struggling to get a quarter of that number back.

Churchill’s intervention led to extra vessels being used for repatriation, and the number of horses being returned rose to 9,000 a week.

Warrior, the REAL 'War Horse' who braved the bullets, barbed wire and shell fire of World War I | Mail Online