The 11th Hour Of The 11th Day

[PeterRS]

It's hard to believe that in a matter of hours in Europe the armistice following World War 1 will be officially marked. It's a time for remembrance - and yet sometimes I wonder remembering what? Unquestionably, the number of deaths and the tragedy of those who died in utterly horrible circumstances in the muddy trenches in Flanders, Ypres, Paschendale, the Somme and elsewhere in northeast France as competing armies fought for years over meters of ground. It was a war that wiped out almost a generation of young men, certainly from the UK. With many being first sons, it was to be one of the nails in the coffin of the entrenchant aristocracy.

Do we mourn today at the demise of the 19th century Age of Empire? The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire all collapsed. The British Empire was so weakened it too died after a second World War. There was a new world order with two immediate effects. That order was to see the rise of Hitler and the Nazis, a result partly of the crippling sanctions placed on Germany by the Versailles Peace Treaty - a result never considered back in 1919. Then there was the rise of Communism which was to consume politics in Europe and the USA for nearly three-quarters of a century.

But then that war in 1914 caught so many unawares. The hotchpotch of allliances formed earlier in the century was encourged by a Britain determined to maintain the balance of power thought to make Europe stronger. Yet within many countries there were simmering tensions that required resolution. The waning Austro-Hungary hated the Serbs; an ascendant Russia was determined to support them. Above all, everyone feared the rise of Germany under the Kaiser - the eldest grandchild of Britain's Queen Victoria.

Austro-Hungary was a total mess. The last vestige of the 1,000 year-old Holy Roman Empire, its one-time alliance between hundreds of individual cities and small states had been reduced to one betwen Austria and Hungary. Like many Empires it was rotting from within. Its parliament operated in 12 languages without the aid of official interpreters. Its Imperial family was totally dysfunctional. Emperor Franz Joseph (1848-1916) was a determined reactionary who treated his children very strictly. In 1853 he had survived an assassination attempt on his own life. His wife Elizabeth was introverted, increasingly emotionally distant from her husband and travelled away from Vienna as often as possible to get away from the Emperor and their children.

In this far-from-loving home, the couple's surviving son the Crown Prince Rudolf was a psychological mess. In 1889 in what has become known as the Mayerling incident, 30-year old Rudolf and his 17-year old mistress fled to the family's hunting lodge where it seems (but historians are divided on this) they committed suicide. This all but destoyed Elizabeth who then increased her travels and determination to get away from the Court. She was assassinated in Geneva in 1898.

With their other son dying in 1896, Franz Ferdinand's nephew immediately became heir presumptive and Archduke. He was next in line for assassination - in Sarajevo in 1914. Then the dominos fell into place as the alliances screamed accusations at each other before war quickly broke out. By the end, the new Europe was never the same.

As we remember the scale of carnage and destruction, I guess we should also remember the words of Graham Allison, the famed international relations scholar most renowned for his analysis of the Cuban missle Crisis. He made clear that for him, World War I’s most important lesson is that “despite the fact that there’s many reasons for believing that something . . . would make no sense, and therefore would be incredible, and therefore maybe even impossible, shit happens.”

What a dreadful epitaph for four years of misery on an unbelievable acale!

[traveller123]

One of my regrets in life is that I never took the time to talk to my Grand dad (who I was close to and saw every week) about his war time experiences as a Tommy in WW1. I believe he told the recruiting office he was 18 when in fact he was only 16.

It was the same with my Dad who during WW2 was a radio officer in the Merchant Navy sailing in convoys across the Atlantic and sailing to India, Egypt and no doubt many other countries

[PeterRS]

44 minutes ago, traveller123 said:

One of my regrets in life is that I never took the time to talk to my Grand dad (who I was close to and saw every week) about his war time experiences as a Tommy in WW1. I believe he told the recruiting office he was 18 when in fact he was only 16.

It was the same with my Dad who during WW2 was a radio officer in the Merchant Navy sailing in convoys across the Atlantic and sailing to India, Egypt and no doubt many other countries

I think many of us have similar regrets, although both my grandfathers had died before I was born. My father, a doctor, enlisted at the start of WWII. He was sent with the 340,000 or so to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939. He was doubly unfortunate in that he had just got married and was soon to learn that my older sister was on the way. Then, as the Germans advanced in 1940 and Churchill realised he had to evacuate the British troops from Dunkirk, a small detachment was sent west to the port city of St. Valery-en-Caux where it was believed they could be more quickly evacuated. But so much attention was placed on Dunkirk that more than 10,000 at St. Valery had to surrender. They were all captured.

My father then spent the next four years in prisoner-of-war camps, ending in one near Gdansk where he was liberated by the advancing Russians. Following his reunion with his wife and daughter, my brother and I eventually came along. But apart from a week-end reunion which he aways attended, we learned precious little about those four years. It was almost as though he did not want to talk about them. After his death in the 1970s, we assumed his memories died with him.

But after my brother retired, he became much more interested in family history. Over the years, he has talked with a handful of fellow prisoners-of-war and others associated with that war. He has now amassed a very large collection, part of which he has privately published and which will all eventually become part of a book. As a doctor, my father was duty bound not to escape, He had to look after his fellow prisoners. But he did help quite a number escape by, for example, placing cuts on tongues and telling his captors that the man suffered from epilepsy. He even helped those who had been circumcised appear uncircumcised! It is a fascinating story. The sad thing is that like @traveller123's father and grandfather most such often heroic tales have gone untold.

[Marc in Calif]

One of your very best topics, PeterRS! 

[vinapu]

21 hours ago, traveller123 said:

One of my regrets in life is that I never took the time to talk to my Grand dad

unfortunately that regret is almost universal, we all have it and heard from our parents and grandparents have the  same regrets and it is always too late to ask

[vinapu]

20 hours ago, PeterRS said:

The sad thing is that like @traveller123's father and grandfather most such often heroic tales have gone untold.

is sad but quite often people who went through extreme situations are reluctant to talk about them . I guess it their way of going forward without raising demons of the past.

My grandfather  , WW I veteran when asked one  by us granchildren why he doesn't want to tell us about the war cut us shortly " every guy with gun during war killed many people" and then we never asked again.  

[Keithambrose]

11 hours ago, vinapu said:

is sad but quite often people who went through extreme situations are reluctant to talk about them . I guess it their way of going forward without raising demons of the past.

My grandfather  , WW I veteran when asked one  by us granchildren why he doesn't want to tell us about the war cut us shortly " every guy with gun during war killed many people" and then we never asked again.  

I have Jewish relatives, who lost almost all of their family in the Holocaust. They never talked about it. Demons of the past is a good phrase.