ITT: History and excerpts that give you chills
As related by Peter Hart in The Great War:
We automatically mounted the machine gun for action. Then like animals we burrowed into the earth as if trying to find protection deep in its bosom. Something struck my back where I carried my gas mask, but I did not pay attention to it. A steel splinter broke the handle of my spade and another knocked the remains out of my hand. I kept digging with my bare hands, ducking my head every time a shell exploded nearby. A boy to my side was hit in the arm and cried out for help. I crawled over to him, ripped the sleeves of his coat and shirt open and started to bind the bleeding part. The gas was so thick now I could hardly discern what I was doing. My eyes began to water and I felt as if I would choke. I reached for my gas mask, pulled it out of its container – then noticed to my horror that a splinter had gone through it leaving a large hole. I had seen death thousands of times, stared it in the face, but never experienced the fear I felt then. Immediately I reverted to the primitive. I felt like an animal cornered by hunters. With the instinct of self-preservations uppermost, my eyes fell on the boy whose arm I had bandaged. Somehow he had managed to put the gas mask on his face with his one good arm. I leapt at him and in the next moment had ripped the gas mask from his face. With a feeble gesture he tried to wrench it from my grasp; then fell back exhausted. The last thing I saw before putting on the mask were his pleading eyes.
>Corporal Frederick Meisel, 371 Infantry Regiment, 43rd Ersatz Brigade, 10th Ersatz Division, German Army
Lord Jesus
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNfBdzpG6L4
I cri evertim ;_;
The War has some fucking bone-chilling stuff too
>>351175
>>351262
Imagine living with that for the rest of your life.
>>351175
...fuck man.
just one word:
Rzhev
>>351175
Christ dude...
>>351274
Jesus Christ man... Jesus Christ
>>351175
June 17, 1916
I do not want to die… the thought that I may never see you or our darling baby again turns my bowels to water.
My conscience is clear that I have always tried to make life a joy for you. But it is the thought that our babe may grow up without my knowing her and without her knowing me. I pray God I may do my duty for I know whatever that may entail you would not have it otherwise.
>Captain Charlie May was killed on the morning of July 1, 1916, leading his men into action on the first day of the Battle Of The Somme.
>He was 27 years old.
He is pictured here with his wife and child.
>>351274
>>351175
Damn WW1 was hellish. I couldn't live with that on my soul.
>>351175
holy fuck war is hell
>>352208
IIRC, it's a diary entry addressed to his wife. You might as well post the full quote:
". . . I must not allow myself to dwell on the personal - there is no room for it here. Also it is demoralising. But I do not want to die. Not that I mind it for myself. If it be that I am to go, I am ready. But the thought that I may never see you or our darling baby again turns my bowels to water. I cannot think of it with even the semblance of equanimity.
My one consolation is the happiness that has been ours. Also my conscience is clear that I have always tried to make life a joy for you. I know at least that if I go you will not want. That is something. But it is the thought that we may be cut off from each other which is so terrible and that our Babe may grow up without my knowing her and without her knowing me. It is difficult to face. And I know your life without me would be a dull blank. Yet you must never let it become wholly so. For to you will be left the greatest charge in all the world; the upbringing of our baby. God bless that child, she is the hope of life to me. My darling, au revoir. It may well be that you will only have to read these lines as ones of passing interest. On the other hand, they may well be my last message to you. If they are, know through all your life that I loved you and baby with all my heart and soul, that you two sweet things were just all the world to me.
I pray God I may do my duty, for I know, whatever that may entail, you would not have it otherwise."
I heard it in Dan Carlin's "Blueprint for Armageddon", I think episode 4, and saved it because it almost made me cry. He may not be an historian, but goddamn he's a great storyteller.
>>352859
That's also where I heard it, but I didn't know where to find the full quote and I got the excerpt from a news article about the book it was in. Apparently the guy who wrote it was an amateur poet.
Most Americans have no appreciation or understanding of the First World War
>>353212
That's quite an excerpt, care to give another?
>>353262
You are probably an oinking Ameripig who should be butchered and cured.
>>353288
It's okay to be jealous.
>>354279
>jealous
>america
you have are likely to elect a retard and for some reason you despise everything slightly beneficial to people
>>351175
>>351274
>>354531
>being this mad at America.
What happened to make you hate us this much?
>>354531
Show us on the doll where the US gave you the "bad touch."
>>353288
> /int/? On my /his/? It's more likely than you think.
>>354561
We like to be on the offensive in war so we generally strike first and it means we have to deal with civilian casualties.
>>354589
/int/ is better than /his/ anyway
>>351175
"In the face of these dangers to the Fatherland, I fail to eat during the day and to sleep at night. Tears roll down my cheeks and my heart bleeds as if it were being cut to shreds. I tremble with anger because I cannot eat our enemy's flesh, lie down in his skin, chew up his liver, and drink his blood. I would gladly surrender my life a thousand times on the field of battle if I could do these things." –Tran Hung Dao
And now, you remain calm when your emperor is humiliated; you remain indifferent when your country is threatened! You, officers, are forced to serve the barbarians and you feel no shame! You hear the music played for their ambassadors and you do not leap up in anger. No, you amuse yourselves at the cockfights, in gambling, in the possession of your gardens and rice fields, and in the tranquility of family life... if the enemy comes, will your cocks' spurs be able to pierce his armor? Will the ruses you use in your games of chance be of use in repulsing him? Will the love of your wives and children be of any use in the Army? Your money would neither suffice to buy the enemy's death, your alcohol to besot him, nor your music to deafen him.
All of us, you and I together, would then be taken prisoner... And not only would I lose my fief, but your property too would fall into enemy hands. It would not be my family alone that would be driven out, but your wives and children would also be reduced to slavery. It would not be only the graves of my ancestors that would be trampled under the invader's heel, but those of your ancestors would also be violated. I would be humiliated in this life and in a hundred others to come, and my name would be ignominiously tarnished. Your family's honor would also be sullied forever with the shame of your defeat. Tell me: Could you then indulge yourselves in pleasures?
- Speech to his General Staff prior to the Mongol Invasion of Vietnam
- Tran Hung Dao
>>351175
why would you make me feel this way?
>>351274
I'll never forget that theme. Probably best documentary series I've ever seen.
