98 years on...

98 years after the guns fell silent on the Western Front I find myself thinking of the 3500 US troops killed or wounded on that morning despite the fact that the generals knew that the armistice had been signed at 5am. The assaults on German positions continued right up to the designated 11am end to hostilities. Later, Congressman Fuller asked "Black Jack" Pershing if American lives had been "needlessly wasted" that morning.
Up at Compiegne, the German delegation had been startled by Foch's intransigence. His Gallic shrug and level stare was the response of a man who had seen his country bleeding to death over the course of the 4 years. "Tell these gentlemen that I have no proposals to make" he said, and waved them away.
No proposals, perhaps - but plenty of demands. German troops were to leave France, Belgium and Luxembourg. They were also to return Alsace Lorraine to France - that old wound had barely dried since the Franco Prussian War nearly 40 years back. France and its Allies were out to ensure that Germany would never be in a position to cause trouble again.
But as every History student knows, the severity of the peace treaty at Versailles did much to guarantee that there would be future conflict. It provided fertile soil for the growth of the Nazi Party in the succeeding decades, and the bitter crop was harvested in the self same railway carriage in Compiegne in 1940.
Those History students will be asking some big questions today.
They will see that we descended into World War in 1914 and 1939 because the world order was unstable, and it was challenged by ultra nationalists. Vast economic forces, barely understood at the time, caused tensions inside countries, and beyond their borders. These were exploited by political chancers who had little real understanding of the demons that they were unleashing on the world.
So - big questions...

On this day

On February 29th, 1916 - two entirely unrelated events. Hardly noted at the time, the first event was one of those unheeded warnings that lead on to ultimate disaster, the second so small scale that it would have been noticed by a handful of colleagues and perhaps a proud mum.

Firstly - on this day a hundred years ago, Hollweg, the German Chancellor, warned the Kaiser that pursuing a policy of unrestricted UBoat warfare would run the risk of dragging the US into the conflict. Thirteen months later, Woodrow Wilson stood before the US Congress to ask for their support, and Hollweg was proved right. War, as Wilson put it, had been "thrust upon the United States". For many months the greatest economic power in the world had resisted the call to get involved "over here", but the U Boat campaign was a disastrous misjudgement. Despite the defeat of Russia later in 1917, and the consequent freeing of a million troops that could bolster their numbers on the Western Front, the tide was turning against Germany. Pretty soon, in a war of attrition, the generals knew that the fresh faced "Doughboys" streaming into Europe would tip the balance.

The second event that occurred exactly a hundred years ago today - a keen soldier was promoted to the rank of Corporal. His name - Benito Mussolini. Like his future ally Adolf Hitler, so much of his thinking was forged by the conflict. I find myself wondering what on earth the comrades of both men made of their elevation to power in the 1930's, and of the fact that they were, despite these experiences, so determined to take their countries back to the battlefield.