| Canadians at Ypres William Barnes-Wollen Source |
Growing up I was taught history, sometimes by very good teachers, sometimes by the hugely incompetent, and far too often by teachers who were biding their time until retirement. Far too many people, and I blame boring academics for this, find history to be dull and dry. When it's written by someone whose job is teaching at a university, it often is dull and dry. They pass that on to their less talented students, who often end up teaching.
So expect more on The Great War in the months to come. For now, here's a really good video by the folks at History Hit, narrated by one of my favorites, Dan Snow. These folks make history anything but boring, please turn your attention to 10 Big Myths of World War One.
Enjoy.
Well done, History Hit!
Well Sarge, finding out about a web site like History Hit is similar to running into free samples of chocolate at the grocery store for this history major..........:)
ReplyDeleteThey do some very good work.
DeleteAnother great one, Sarge. Yet another subject that teachers, or maybe school boards, suck the life out of. But somehow I managed to keep my interest in. Maybe because it's easier to dig into technology and how it came about and what it did to society than the thought processes of authors and artists..
ReplyDeleteGreat video, too. Well laid out and thought provoking.
It, for some reason, suggested a possible path for you to explore, the American invasion of Russia in 1918 https://youtu.be/8GvE1cWxwPA?si=BZe5LbB-l_8DFQ-7
That theater has been suggested before, who knows where the next tale will wind up?
DeleteThat is a topic I have been very interested in for a long time, and just the first couple minutes of the video above suggest it will be outstanding. Have to watch it all when I have time later. Remember, however, that Americans in Russia are really two simultaneous but totally different experiences.
DeleteOne in Northern Russia ("the Polar Bears") around Archangel and down the river and railroad towards Moscow which was mainly Allies (U.S., Brit, Canadian and some French) and local "White Russians" against the Reds.
The other, AEF-SIberia was about 5,000 miles to the east originating from Valdivostok was a far less organized and predictable melee ostensibly to safeguard vast amounts of supplies and material which had been delivered there intended to be delivered for Russian use on the Eastern Front, and to keep the Trans-SIberian Railroad open so that the "Czech Legion" could be evacuated from the now quiet Eastern Front and moved around the world to join the fight with the Allies on the Western Front. The Americans in Siberia were mainly regulars who had been stationed in the Philippines, augmented by volunteers and draftees totaling about 8,000. On our side (more or less) were some 70,000 Japanese more interested in gaining a foothold in Manchuria, and an assortment of locals (meaning +/- 500 miles along the railroad) who were "white Russians" with Tsarist loyalties, but mostly thugs and their warlords more interested in their own power and plunder.
Anyone intending to send Americans into harms way in remote parts of the globe should study these events and the outcomes and be forced to explain how this would be a vital U.S. national interest, and how the heck we would define victory, achieve it and get the heck out of wherever it is upon victory so the locals could resume their incessant intramural squabbles. Best, those advocating such interventions should have their own butts physically on scene for the duration, along with a dozen of their closest family members.
John Blackshoe
Amen to your last!
DeleteGood points, JB. That era of the First Red Scare was fueled by labor unrest, a growing labor movement -including the radical leanings and direct action of the Wobblies- and an influx of migrants from Eastern and Southern Europe (heathen Bo-hunks and papists, as bad as those Irish, if not worse). So when the Bolshivics took over Russia, it raised, pardon the phrase, red flags here.
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DeleteSarge, looking forward to your vignette!
ReplyDeletejuvat
And I'm looking forward to news of your complete recovery!
DeleteDITTO!!
DeleteJB
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DeleteSomething I know a little more about than the Napoleonic Wars but not much. Looking forward to it Sarge!
ReplyDeleteI'll see what I can do. 😉
DeleteGreat video making good points, Sarge. Yet another hole to gladly be sucked into.
ReplyDeleteBoth of my Grandfathers served in France in WWI; both made it home. We have photos and artifacts from both. Maternal Grandfather certainly enjoyed most, if not all of his time. Paternal Grandfather saw combat and among the possessions he brought back is a wicked trench knife; very well cared for ( as was his 1911) indicating the value he placed on them.
Drive on, Sarge; you know we'll lap up whatever ice cream you choose to offer
Boat Guy
One of my grandfathers was in the army during WWI, got no further than Panama. Where he served with an officer by the name of Eisenhower. There is (somewhere, it got lost after my grandmother died) a unit photo with my grandfather sitting near the front and Dwight D. Eisenhower standing near the back. Wish I knew where that was!
DeleteLet me see what ice cream flavors I can deliver.
Traditional tactics, centuries old meeting industrial revolution era weapons. It was the perfect recipe for wholesale slaughter and it cost Europe an entire generation of its best and brightest. Seems to me the entire 20th century of warfare was, in some ways, a continuation of the animosity WW1 fostered. (Over-simplification complete) :)
ReplyDeleteI would not disagree.
DeleteThe comment I heard from an eminent historian, it may have been John Keegan, but I'm not sure was that in 1914 Napoleon or Wellington would have known what was going on and what to do. By 1918 a British batallion commander would have understood the warfare of 1944-5. We underestimate the sheer speed of technical and tactical innovation that took place. The British Army in 1918 understood all arms warfare and had WW1 gone into 1919 would have had specialised ground attack aircraft (Sopwith Salamander) and a concept of total war. The 'hundred days' from August 1918 is little understood, even in Britain. The British army in WW1 went from a relatively small colonial gendarmerie to an army of about 5 million equipped to take on its major opponent in a continental war. The concept of the British army in WW1 as 'Lions lead by donkeys' is wrong. WW1 forced a rapid Darwinian evolution of armed forces and the British army evolved very quickly.
DeleteRetired
At the beginning of World War II the British Army was all mechanized as I recall. Lots of trucks, lots of mobility. Unfortunately, everything else went against them.
DeleteIt was the first army to be completely mechanised, there are films of what was called the experimental mechanised force in the 1920's. Everything that modern armies would use was there in embryonic form.
DeleteRetired
Ah, my memory didn't fail me.
DeleteReminds me of the old letters to The Times, "I heard a western wit warbler nuthatch at 0940 in Lowest-South-Saxon-on-Sea, did anyone else hear it?" Now see, I don't think Hitler was the cause of the war and he had almost nothing to do with the outbreak of the 2nd World War. I know, gasp! All right thinking members of the Bavarian aristocracy know that the single sole cause of WWII was the Treaty of Versailles. That was it. Nothing else, except maybe those idiots in Prussia deciding to put Lenin on a train and send him to Saint Petersburg to foment a revolution to interfere with the Tsar's assistance to the Allied Powers.
ReplyDeleteWe're looking forward to the story! It was the end of an Age and the beginning of the current one which is, I suspect, on its way out.
It does feel like the current age is winding down, but to what? Aye, that's the question.
DeleteI'm confused, badly! Just when did WWII begin?
Deletewas it on November 30, 1939 when Russia invaded Finland?
was it on March 12, 1938 whenGermany annexed Austria?
was it on October 1, 1938 when Germany annexed the Sudetenland?
or was it on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland?
or was it some other time? just when did the armament manufacturers throw the "ON" switch: the late 20s? which families in which countries became very wealthy (or wealthier) as a result (state-owned industry my bloomin' red arse)
September 1st is when it became a global war, China and Japan had been fighting even longer.
DeleteMy absolute best teacher of history was in jr high. To say she was passionate is a woeful understatement. She insisted upon factual evidence - as much as could be known - and the student becoming researchers digging for truth.
ReplyDeleteA glimpse into the source of her passion was revealed when the subject became the Pacific island campaign in WWII. She was near hysterical because her brother and two uncles had cashed in on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, and Iwo Jima. Don't you dare forget!
55+ years on and I haven't forgotten.
You have to be passionate about history to teach it. Sounds like you had one of the best.
DeleteHey Old AFSarge,
ReplyDeleteIt takes a special person to teach history, many years ago, I had thought of being a history teacher but being along the vein of Richard Mulligan's character in "Teachers" who would wear period pieces and talk like they did back then, but I after a while figured that I would get in trouble because I don't "do" P.C. History. You would be good at it, if they allowed it to be actually taught rather then be revised.
Yeah, it would be a challenge to do it correctly in this PC world.
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