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Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

smithsonianmag.com

31–40 of 83 posts

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#32
post #13
post #3

I didn't find the audio on that page, but a link to it here: https://codatocoda.bandcamp.com/album/iwm-ww1-armistice-inte... I want to know if the birds were actually recorded at the end, or if it was added for dramatic presentation.

My first thought was that perhaps some of these last minute explosions were like celebratory gunfire[0]. But no, it seems that people were still desperately trying to kill each other knowing full well they only had hours, minutes or even seconds left to do so: "the cease-fire would not come into effect for a further six hours - at 11am ... the final day of WWI would produce nearly 11,000 casualties, more than those k…

How certain where they that the cease-fire would be successful?

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#33
post #13
post #3

I didn't find the audio on that page, but a link to it here: https://codatocoda.bandcamp.com/album/iwm-ww1-armistice-inte... I want to know if the birds were actually recorded at the end, or if it was added for dramatic presentation.

My first thought was that perhaps some of these last minute explosions were like celebratory gunfire[0]. But no, it seems that people were still desperately trying to kill each other knowing full well they only had hours, minutes or even seconds left to do so: "the cease-fire would not come into effect for a further six hours - at 11am ... the final day of WWI would produce nearly 11,000 casualties, more than those k…

Nothing better reflects the insanity of WW1 than 11/11/18. The sheer ridiculousness of needless slaughter to allow a few old men the vanity of stopping a war at 11 is the most WW1 thing ever.

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#34
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will post this at the risk of being downvoted because I am all but a pacifist and it is not a popular position. This is not surprising at all for two reasons. Despite what films will depict, people fighting on the front lines in a war do not generally begrudgingly respect each other. They hate eachother in a way most people probably cannot understand. Many would not pass up the opportunity to rid the world of what…

I’m not sure that’s true. Apparently very few shots are on target. People seem reluctant to just kill someone else. This “problem” has been ameliorated In recent times via increasingly distant and abstract warfare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killology#The_problem_of_non-_...

https://www.newsweek.com/myth-military-history-94505

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad is German :). Did your dad have a desire to kill VC after going home?

I sometime forget the international nature of the folks on this site. Rephrase that question but about his feelings toward Americans, Englishs or Russians. To answer your question, yes he did. He was racist amd embittered for many years. Sometime before I was born he began to soften that hate. He is different now but sometimes I still see it beneath the surface.

I have heard this hate only from people who fought the partisans in Yugoslavia. I can imagine Vietnam was a similar kind of war which is even more brutal and disturbing than regular warfare.

I have never heard any of them having ill will against the brits, French or Russians. They especially liked the Americans because they treated POWs and civilians by far the best.

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#37
post #12

So this book is a sidewalk strewn with junk, trash which I throw over my shoulders as I travel in time back to November eleventh, nineteen hundred and twenty-two. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the su…

"There was no fresh Basil and I got reprimanded for trying to put my Pringles on the end of the belt before a compatriot had finished bagging" GoldCD, "Dinners under Corona"

Not the place for this type of comment here, sorry.

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#38
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I have read a lot of history books which delve into diaries and correspondence of individuals fighting in front line situations. The respectful weighing of the other side's reasons for fighting is overwhelmed by a desire to kill them in graphic and brutal ways. This is a product of putting people under the pressure of fear of death for hours, days or weeks at a time, propagandizing the enemy as less than human an…

> I have read a lot of history books which delve into diaries and correspondence of individuals fighting in front line situations. The respectful weighing of the other side's reasons for fighting is overwhelmed by a desire to kill them in graphic and brutal ways. Odd. I've read a lot of war correspondence and history as well, being kind of addicted to that stuff on Youtube, and I haven't encountered the sort of overw…

I've never seen, "Full Metal Jacket" so I could not say.

To be very specific, I am talking only about combatants. I am not generally talking about the kind people that get interviewed for documentaries or whonwrite their own books. Leadership often has the luxury of cool detachment.

I think I did speak to generally in my OP and then bit down on the argument. I was answering the question of why some batteries continued to fire until amrasitice. It wasn't my intention to indicate this was primarily due to hate.

The truest answer is that they were ordered to. People follow those orders for a collection of reasons. The general obedience developed by being part of war machine is probably paramount.

I should reorder my points. Primarily that war machines like modern militaries and the conflicts they participate in create their own rationale. And you should never be surprised to find irrational violence in war because that rationale is not of your peacetime world.

Beyond those that are simply following orders there area many whom the propaganda and trauma of war has made enthusiastic about inflicting every last bit of punishment possible upon the enemy. You are correct that we cannot number these and it probably changes depending on the violence and desperation of the conflict. But I think they are more than we like to admit. And this is a further cause of seemingly irrational violence and particularly atrocities.

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometime forget the international nature of the folks on this site. Rephrase that question but about his feelings toward Americans, Englishs or Russians. To answer your question, yes he did. He was racist amd embittered for many years. Sometime before I was born he began to soften that hate. He is different now but sometimes I still see it beneath the surface.

I have heard this hate only from people who fought the partisans in Yugoslavia. I can imagine Vietnam was a similar kind of war which is even more brutal and disturbing than regular warfare. I have never heard any of them having ill will against the brits, French or Russians. They especially liked the Americans because they treated POWs and civilians by far the best.

I think I overgenerlized this specific point of my OP. Have a look at my response below. How much this is a factor probably depends a lot on the length and intensity of conflict, which is what you allude to here.

Re: Listen to the moment the guns fell silent ending World War I

#40
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure that’s true. Apparently very few shots are on target. People seem reluctant to just kill someone else. This “problem” has been ameliorated In recent times via increasingly distant and abstract warfare. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killology#The_problem_of_non-_...

And war is full of atrocities because people just cannot being themselves to do bad things to eachother? I am not making a basic argument for the goodness or lack thereof in people. Only that war changes the rationale and emotional stability of people. It makes the illogical or unthinkable into the next logical step.

Wars are opportunistically encouraged and joined by psychopaths, of course, though armies often don't want those people because they aren't mission oriented. When they rise in the ranks it can be terrible.

My point is that the majority of people don't "join the dark side"

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