No Man's Land
It is hard to believe that WW1 and WW2 were only separated by two decades, spanning a major global economic disaster. Such was what I grew up into when vicariously experiencing WW1, the conclusion of which had barely spared my father from being shipped over to the trenches as a junior officer.
My own encounter with the brutal former war followed from a job as a teen aide and driver to the chaplain to the two princes -- the Rev. P.B. ("Tubby") Clayton who had formed an on-going organization, Toc H -
http://www.worldwar1.com/sftoch.htm
from the site of the behind the lines religious sanctuary during the grim extended trench warfare in Belgium which had seen the slaughter of what came to be denominated the "lost generation" -
http://www.aftermathww1.com/lostgen.asp
Tubby was quite a character by the time I encountered him in 1952. Had I not been a teen ready to adjust to any and all driving conditions -- left side of the road in Britain and right on the Continent, we might not have survived. Tubby would characteristically shout suddenly "turn left" while pointing to the right across my driver's line of vision. I learned to follow his pointing rather than verbal commands.
The most graphic part of our trips together was a return to Belgium and the remnants of the trenches where many thousands of young men had pointlessly lost their lives trying to drive through the no man's land separating the embedded trenches with massive loss of lives at each ventured attack. What I remember most vividly are the miles that we traversed through gently rolling fields posted with endless rows of white crosses designating the graves of the young who had lost their lives there.
The term, triage, was invented to explain the practices carried out with each pointless assault by one side or another -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage
A barrage of shells would be directed at the enemy trenches. Then at a selected moment thousands (led by junior officers who were prime targets for their enemies) would burst out of their trenches into no man's land -- a sea of mud and deadly bacteria. At a critical moment the attacking force would be obliged to halt its barrage to avoid hitting its own and the opposite side would open up with its own barrage of deadly machine gun and canon fire. Thousands would be wounded in a few moments. Those able to walk would march back to field hospitals. Those hit only in legs would be carried back on stretchers. Those gut shot would be given a canister of water and left to die -- few would have survived the infections anyway.
A few of the trenches had been maintained for tourists' edification and one could virtually hear the canon fire in one's imagination -- with the endless waves of graves to punctuate the imagination.
The tour with Tubby did not deter me from the sense of duty that carried me later into officer's training, but it graphically made me aware how pointless such games of war actually are. The end result of WW1 was the rise of Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese in the Far East. What a waste of courageous lives.
Needless to say the madness now in the Middle East rings the same bells. Only those who have not experienced wars -- a generation spared its evils -- can engage in such pointless horrors yet once again. And the supposed spaces dividing enemies there hark back to deadly precedents.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
My own encounter with the brutal former war followed from a job as a teen aide and driver to the chaplain to the two princes -- the Rev. P.B. ("Tubby") Clayton who had formed an on-going organization, Toc H -
http://www.worldwar1.com/sftoch.htm
from the site of the behind the lines religious sanctuary during the grim extended trench warfare in Belgium which had seen the slaughter of what came to be denominated the "lost generation" -
http://www.aftermathww1.com/lostgen.asp
Tubby was quite a character by the time I encountered him in 1952. Had I not been a teen ready to adjust to any and all driving conditions -- left side of the road in Britain and right on the Continent, we might not have survived. Tubby would characteristically shout suddenly "turn left" while pointing to the right across my driver's line of vision. I learned to follow his pointing rather than verbal commands.
The most graphic part of our trips together was a return to Belgium and the remnants of the trenches where many thousands of young men had pointlessly lost their lives trying to drive through the no man's land separating the embedded trenches with massive loss of lives at each ventured attack. What I remember most vividly are the miles that we traversed through gently rolling fields posted with endless rows of white crosses designating the graves of the young who had lost their lives there.
The term, triage, was invented to explain the practices carried out with each pointless assault by one side or another -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triage
A barrage of shells would be directed at the enemy trenches. Then at a selected moment thousands (led by junior officers who were prime targets for their enemies) would burst out of their trenches into no man's land -- a sea of mud and deadly bacteria. At a critical moment the attacking force would be obliged to halt its barrage to avoid hitting its own and the opposite side would open up with its own barrage of deadly machine gun and canon fire. Thousands would be wounded in a few moments. Those able to walk would march back to field hospitals. Those hit only in legs would be carried back on stretchers. Those gut shot would be given a canister of water and left to die -- few would have survived the infections anyway.
A few of the trenches had been maintained for tourists' edification and one could virtually hear the canon fire in one's imagination -- with the endless waves of graves to punctuate the imagination.
The tour with Tubby did not deter me from the sense of duty that carried me later into officer's training, but it graphically made me aware how pointless such games of war actually are. The end result of WW1 was the rise of Hitler, Mussolini and the Japanese in the Far East. What a waste of courageous lives.
Needless to say the madness now in the Middle East rings the same bells. Only those who have not experienced wars -- a generation spared its evils -- can engage in such pointless horrors yet once again. And the supposed spaces dividing enemies there hark back to deadly precedents.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 3:19 PM
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