Questions
1. Who are you writing to?
2. What is the condition of the weather?
3. How is the supplies?
4. Where are you writing from?
5. What are you doing at the time of writing the letters?
Letter
‘Army City' Garnett, Kansas August 6, 1917
My Dearest Mary,
We are in the Army now. I am sitting inside our little old tent listening to the gentle patter of the raindrops on the canvas. It began raining here this morning and it is still at it. No drill today, so I will have time to write a letter or two. We got into the city all O.K., marched up to the armory and had dinner. They have mess in the armory. We have to march back and forth to eat. Eats are pretty good so far as they have some women helping with the cooking.
Set up camp in the afternoon. Shoemaker has been Acting Corporal in our squad. We got the tent up all right under the direction of one of the old heads who has seen service on the border. Some equipment was issued in the afternoon. As my name is down well in the list, I have not received anything yet in my own name.
Corporal Hilton is staying in town so he let me have his stuff. Got pack, gun, poncho, and numerous other things I don't know what are used for. Slept on the ground last night in a tent with just an even dozen in it. Some of the fellows are staying in town at hotels, rooming houses, and private houses. Taken altogether, things are in rather poor shape as yet, but I suppose it takes a little time to get around. A few of the bunch act like a bunch of bums instead of soldiers, but they will get that taken out of them when they get to a real camp.
They got Parker Melliush for kitchen duty the first thing. Walter Anthony was stuck for guard duty last night. It must be fine walking up and down in front of a row of tents watching the other fellows sleep. One thing they did do, everybody had to quiet down at ten-thirty last night. We had a good entertainment before lights out. (We had a light, too, as some of the bunch got hold of a lantern.) A fellow in our squad by the name of Donald gets off some pretty good comedy -- original stuff, too. He is a rather rough nut, but not as bad as some of this crowd.
There was some crowd at the station yesterday, wasn't there? I think I shook hands with everybody in town three or four times. Not a very pleasant task under the circumstances, either. Well, I got so much company in here that I can't think straight. This is rather a poor excuse of a letter, but I will write again soon.
With best of love to my own little girl,
Lloyd S.
This is a letter home from one of the soldiers going to the front line. At the top are some questions that I would ask the soldier if I had the chance, they are simple questions easily answered.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Self Reflection
I believe that this project was really good, it was interesting and I learned an in depth of the goings on during WWI on the front line for both the Allies and the Germans.
What I really like about this project is that I can create the project to fit my opinion about war, and that it is easily changed and viewed, so that when I want to look at what I have done I just click a button.
My work is a visual project with many pictures and detailed descriptions, this reflects my learning because when I learn, I like it to be simple and easy to understand, just like my project.
When I read this book I learned about myself that I am a free-thinker, I do not follow blindly a country or anyone else, I always question everything and try to have an open mind. In the end Paul starts to question the reasons of the war and who it could possibly benefit, because it certainly did not benefit the soldiers, instead it destroyed them for society. What he realized was that the only reason for war was so the few in power could gain more power, that while all his friends were dying around him the politicians were vying for power.
I learned from this and other books that war is useless except for those in power to gain more power, that when they did so they threw away the lives of the people who had no idea why they were fighting. Life is hard; and life is even harder for those with no power, for they are pawns to be used by those with power, as it has always been.
What I really like about this project is that I can create the project to fit my opinion about war, and that it is easily changed and viewed, so that when I want to look at what I have done I just click a button.
My work is a visual project with many pictures and detailed descriptions, this reflects my learning because when I learn, I like it to be simple and easy to understand, just like my project.
When I read this book I learned about myself that I am a free-thinker, I do not follow blindly a country or anyone else, I always question everything and try to have an open mind. In the end Paul starts to question the reasons of the war and who it could possibly benefit, because it certainly did not benefit the soldiers, instead it destroyed them for society. What he realized was that the only reason for war was so the few in power could gain more power, that while all his friends were dying around him the politicians were vying for power.
I learned from this and other books that war is useless except for those in power to gain more power, that when they did so they threw away the lives of the people who had no idea why they were fighting. Life is hard; and life is even harder for those with no power, for they are pawns to be used by those with power, as it has always been.
Writing Extension- Political Cartoon
This picture depicts a old man holding a sign saying no war with Syria and Iran, and no war so America can have world control. This relates to Paul because he starts to realize that the only ones who benefit from war are those who are behind it (the politicians).
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Writing Extension- War Poem
Nefarus War by Li Po
Last year we fought by the head-stream of the So-Kan,
This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road.
We have washed our armor in the waves of the Chiao-chi lake,
We have pastured our horses on Tien-shan's snowy slopes.
The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home.
Our three armies are worn and grown old.
The barbarian does man-slaughter for plowing;
On his yellow sand-plains nothing has been seen but blanched skulls and bones.
Where the Chin emperor built the walls against the Tartars,
There the defenders of Han are burning beacon fires.
The beacon fires burn and never go out.
There is no end to war!--
In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.
Oh, nefarious war! I see why arms
Were so seldom used by the benign sovereigns.
This poem is similar to how Paul feels due to the fact that the author finds war to be wasteful except for the killing of men.
Last year we fought by the head-stream of the So-Kan,
This year we are fighting on the Tsung-ho road.
We have washed our armor in the waves of the Chiao-chi lake,
We have pastured our horses on Tien-shan's snowy slopes.
The long, long war goes on ten thousand miles from home.
Our three armies are worn and grown old.
The barbarian does man-slaughter for plowing;
On his yellow sand-plains nothing has been seen but blanched skulls and bones.
Where the Chin emperor built the walls against the Tartars,
There the defenders of Han are burning beacon fires.
The beacon fires burn and never go out.
There is no end to war!--
In the battlefield men grapple each other and die;
The horses of the vanquished utter lamentable cries to heaven,
While ravens and kites peck at human entrails,
Carry them up in their flight, and hang them on the branches of dead trees.
So, men are scattered and smeared over the desert grass,
And the generals have accomplished nothing.
Oh, nefarious war! I see why arms
Were so seldom used by the benign sovereigns.
This poem is similar to how Paul feels due to the fact that the author finds war to be wasteful except for the killing of men.
Writing Extension- Letter Home
Dear Mother,
```I hope that you have been felling better, I wish you to know that all is well here, me and my friends are having extreme fun, right now Kropp is as always argueing with Kat, Kat himself has come up with a rhyme, "Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay. And the war would be over and done in a day." It can get annoying due to the fact that Kat cannot sing worth a lick. But I wished to write to you and let you know that things are all right here. Plese dont send any more food here to me for I know that things are very scarse there and we have plenty of food here. Tell sis and dad that I love them and that I will see them soon.
With lots of love, Paul
```I hope that you have been felling better, I wish you to know that all is well here, me and my friends are having extreme fun, right now Kropp is as always argueing with Kat, Kat himself has come up with a rhyme, "Give 'em all the same grub and all the same pay. And the war would be over and done in a day." It can get annoying due to the fact that Kat cannot sing worth a lick. But I wished to write to you and let you know that things are all right here. Plese dont send any more food here to me for I know that things are very scarse there and we have plenty of food here. Tell sis and dad that I love them and that I will see them soon.
With lots of love, Paul
Battle Orders- Pal Battalion
The Pal battalions were battalions formed of people near each other, instead of just accepting the recruits into the main army the people of towns and schools were formed as one battalion, ensuring that they were all friends. There was a success in the fact that many joined but when there was heavy loses of a battalion there were heavy loses of a certain area. Due to this the pal battalions were dropped.
Battle Field Orders- Hellen Burry
Helen Burrey was an army nurse for the Americans, one of the first to volunteer to go over to the western front. In her diaries, Helen writes about her experiences on the trains as a nurse during her time of the war.
Battle Orders- The Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The Causes of WWI were complex and included many factors, including the conflicts and antagonisms of the four decades leading up to the war. The immediate origins of the war lay in the decisions taken by statesmen and generals during the July crisis of 1914, the spark for which was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian irredentist. The crisis did not however exist in a void; it came at the end of a long series of diplomatic clashes between the Great Powers in the decade prior to 1914 which had left tensions high almost to breaking point.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Battle Orders- The Schlieffen Plan
The Schlieffen Plan was created by Schlieffen to defeat both the French and the Soviets simultaneously on two different fronts. The plan was to have an all out offense directed at the French to which they could quickly overwhelm them and then turn to the USSR before they could garner troops. It was a brilliant plan that closely resembles the the tactics of Hannibal. Many believe that if the original plan had been followed then the war would have turned out differently. At Helmuth Von Moltke' rise to power as the German chief of staff. Moltke decided that the Schlieffen plan was inadequate and tactless and so changed the plan to lessen the great hammerhead of troops directed at the western front, causing the troops to not be strong enough for an easy victory. Which resulted in the German's failure in the war.
Battle Field Orders- The Red Baron
World War I was a bloody war, fought in muddy trenches and overwhelmed with slaughter. Yet a few soldiers escaped this anonymous end - fighter pilots. They volunteered to fly when just going up in an airplane seemed heroic. However, most fighter pilots achieved only a few victories before they too were shot down.
Yet, there was one man, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, who liked to fly in a blazing red airplane and shot down plane after plane. His achievements made him both a hero and a propaganda tool. With 80 credited victories, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron," defied the odds and became a legend in the air.
Von Richthofen was killed just after 11 a.m. on 21 April 1918, while flying over Morlancourt Ridge, near the Somme River. While pursuing a Canadian pilot Richthofen was hit by a single .303 bullet that caused such severe damage to his heart and lungs resulting in his speedy death. Before dying he managed to make a hasty but controlled landing in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector controlled by the Australian Imperial Force.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen
Battle Field Orders- Chemical Warfare
During the WWI, there was a major military innovation. Chemicals were a part of that innovation. The gases ranged from disabling chemicals, such as; tear gas, mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene. Chemical warfare was a major component of the Great war; although the death rate was about 4% compared to combat deaths it was still the most feared way to die by the soldiers. Due to the widespread use of chemical warfare, and of the ability to create counter measures, its overall effectiveness was diminished
Battle Field Orders-No Mans Land
no mans land is the area of land between two enemy trenches that neither side wishes to openly move on or take control of due to fear of being attacked by the enemy in the process.
Battle Feild Orders- WWI Weapons
In WWI there were many weapons deployed that had never been used before, these weapons changed war itself; how war came about and how it was fought.
One of them is the flamethrower or the German name(Flammenwerferapparate). It was not until 1911 that the German army accepted the flamethrower, creating a specialist regiment of twelve companies equipped with them. It was a fearsome and destructive weapon but it had its drawbacks; it was cumbersome and difficult to operate, and it was only effective at very close range, not common in the trenches in WWI. But it was still used throughout the war.
The Tank: in WWI the first tanks were used by the British, of the allies only the British used the tanks and the Germans created only 15 of them by the end of the war. there are many advantages to having a tank, you can cross all trenches no matter the defense. This affected how war is waged because it eliminated the need for trenches and trench warfare.
The Machine Gun: the machine was a terrible weapon, it could spray a field with bullets in seconds and earned a fearsome reputation. During the time of WWI many new inventions never seen before came about, for example; the machine gun mounted on an airplane (the airplane took on a new meaning and use after that), and many smaller lighter automatic weapons were also invented.
The Sub: the sub was an effective and deadly way to kill ships; the German subs (U-boats) at the beginning of the war destroyed multiple ships without warning and continued to do so until politic interfered, had the US not put pressure on Germany, Germany probably would have won the war due to the allies having no reinforcements and supplies. The sub changed the way of naval combat forever, due to their effectiveness they were by WWII being created in all major countries.
Three major roles were defined for aircraft during the First World War: reconnaissance, bombing and fighting. Airplanes were used first for aerial scouts—spying on the enemy from the air and learning their secrets. At first the scouts ignored their enemy numbers, then began shooting at them with rifles and eventually with machine guns. Soon they began dropping hand grenades from their planes. Promptly an aircraft was designed for each need: reconnaissance planes some armed for defense; fighter planes, exclusively designed for shooting down other planes; and bombers carried more immense loads of explosives. Much of what we know and learn today about war birds came from the fundamental experiences of the pilots of the First World War.
3" Mortar: the mortar gun was essentially a bomber, it was pointed at a 45 degree angle and could fire 22 rounds a minute, the bombs were extremely destructive and effective and so therefore they were widely used and many newer and better creations came from it changing warfare once again. Because they were so effective they were added onto tanks, planes, and put in trenches (lighter models).
One of them is the flamethrower or the German name(Flammenwerferapparate). It was not until 1911 that the German army accepted the flamethrower, creating a specialist regiment of twelve companies equipped with them. It was a fearsome and destructive weapon but it had its drawbacks; it was cumbersome and difficult to operate, and it was only effective at very close range, not common in the trenches in WWI. But it was still used throughout the war.
The Tank: in WWI the first tanks were used by the British, of the allies only the British used the tanks and the Germans created only 15 of them by the end of the war. there are many advantages to having a tank, you can cross all trenches no matter the defense. This affected how war is waged because it eliminated the need for trenches and trench warfare.
The Machine Gun: the machine was a terrible weapon, it could spray a field with bullets in seconds and earned a fearsome reputation. During the time of WWI many new inventions never seen before came about, for example; the machine gun mounted on an airplane (the airplane took on a new meaning and use after that), and many smaller lighter automatic weapons were also invented.
The Sub: the sub was an effective and deadly way to kill ships; the German subs (U-boats) at the beginning of the war destroyed multiple ships without warning and continued to do so until politic interfered, had the US not put pressure on Germany, Germany probably would have won the war due to the allies having no reinforcements and supplies. The sub changed the way of naval combat forever, due to their effectiveness they were by WWII being created in all major countries.
Three major roles were defined for aircraft during the First World War: reconnaissance, bombing and fighting. Airplanes were used first for aerial scouts—spying on the enemy from the air and learning their secrets. At first the scouts ignored their enemy numbers, then began shooting at them with rifles and eventually with machine guns. Soon they began dropping hand grenades from their planes. Promptly an aircraft was designed for each need: reconnaissance planes some armed for defense; fighter planes, exclusively designed for shooting down other planes; and bombers carried more immense loads of explosives. Much of what we know and learn today about war birds came from the fundamental experiences of the pilots of the First World War.
3" Mortar: the mortar gun was essentially a bomber, it was pointed at a 45 degree angle and could fire 22 rounds a minute, the bombs were extremely destructive and effective and so therefore they were widely used and many newer and better creations came from it changing warfare once again. Because they were so effective they were added onto tanks, planes, and put in trenches (lighter models).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
