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femmeleatherface · 3 months ago

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Spooky Movie Marathon 2024: Week 5

Day 27: J'accuse ! (1919) - French version; unknown restoration info

Day 28: 13 Ghosts (1960) - 2D version :(

Day 29: Un monstre à Paris (2011) - English dub; loosely inspired by Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux

Day 30: The Werewolf (1956)

Day 31: The Tingler (1959)

BONUS! KIND OF! Day 32: Coraline (2009)

closing thoughts:

J'accuse ! (1919) - it is... so long... and because it's a silent epic i can't even work on something else while i watch because i need to pay attention to the intertitles so i know what the heck's happening. aghGHGh. but okay. it is an interesting film! there's early use of a moving camera, quick cuts, and montage editing, which is all really neat in a film history way. there was also a lot of location shooting, including in real ww1 battlefields and of the battle of saint-mihiel, which is both extremely impressive and extremely unsettling in a "how much of this is an unintentional snuff film" kind of way. and in terms of its unsettling aspect, it's far more of a romantic war drama than a horror film, but there's certainly horrific elements. i'd classify it in the vein of social horror akin to freaks (1932), where it's primarily a human interest social drama but when the characters are not permitted to pursue their own needs and desires due to larger societal issues, horror elements are drawn on toward the end to leave a final lasting terror in the audience for their own complicity in those issues. (let's call this "horrific social drama.") in freaks the larger issues are ableism and the eugenics movement, in j'accuse it's the devastating impact of ww1. this is scattered throughout in the film's hilarious repeated shot of the grim reaper and his dancing skeleton minions, then culminates in a proto-modern!zombie "return of the dead" sequence at the end. idk, i don't love it as entertainment since it's not really my thing, but it's interesting. also, random note, but i like how they handled françois's character... he was a scumbag abusive husband but got decent character development and felt like a fully-dimensional person. still a scumbag, but a well-realized one.

13 Ghosts (1960) - oh shit, new fave movie dropped. this movie is so fun!!!!! genuinely creepy but also with a goofy 3D gimmick that combined doesn't always work, but is presented with such classic william castle ballyhoo that i can't help but be charmed. i should be irked by the completely ridiculous ending where the (blissfully not annoying) kid watches a man who was about to kill him gets freaking MURDERED and is clearly traumatized by it and then the next day is just like "wow :) this house is great! i hope we never leave!!! :D," but i am too busy adding "watch this in the original illusion-o vision" to my cinematic bucket list.

Un monstre à Paris (2011) - felt kind of lousy and decided to go for something light. got exactly what i needed <3 this movie is really cute! the human characters are all either kind of boring or not very original, but francœur the monster has all of my heart, which combined is pretty standard for monster movies so i am okay with this. the music was also really good, and as poto-related media goes, i really love that the voice they picked for francœur is a very high, soft voice. not only does it make me feel great about MY voice, but if i remember the book correctly that's the voice erik has (or at least how i interpreted it) instead of the deeper "sexy" voice he tends to get given in adaptations. i've only ever seen/heard one erik with that kind of higher and gentler voice before, peter straker in the ken hill musical, so this was really exciting for me and i loved it a lot. that said, this movie SHOULD have been a 2D animated film oh my god. the concept art and storyboards they had in the end credits were SO gorgeous and i think would have really made the film pop much more than the pretty standard and unappealing 3D animation we got.

The Werewolf (1956): puts my grubby gay fingers all over the celluloid. this movie is a metaphor for being gay in the 1950s! you've got this average family man doomed by an encounter with two mad scientists who work and live together in a tooooootallllllyyyyy heterosexual way who then infect him with evil gay werewolf disease (that is related to nuclear stuff because it's the 50s and everything needs to be about nuclear stuff). he forgets his hetero identity and the wife and son he has waiting for him at home, promptly goes into a bar where a man asks him to buy him a drink and then attempts to rob him, leading to them lying on top of each other in an alley while a little old lady gawks and screams at the horrible sight of their entangled man legs. then mr. average family man kills the evil propositioning man and goes and kills more men, turning into an evil gay werewolf by his emotional reactions to them. he doesn't want his wife and son to see the monster he has become and avoids them, seeking solitude so he won't shame them and be tempted to murder by the sexy murderificness of men. and then of course in the end he dies by mob violence, forever doomed to never return to the non-lycanthropic heteronormative life he once knew. A+++++

The Tingler (1959) - my favorite vincent price and william castle movie ever... an underrated masterpiece of meta horror. i've seen this movie before, and ugh! everything about it is perfect to me. if ever anyone wants to understand me better they should watch this because it's got everything: vincent price, a goofy concept played completely straight, meta filmmaking, a really amazing partialized colorized sequence... this is a movie i need to see in a theater SO BAD, but only so long as the percepto gimmick is in place for peak experience.

Coraline (2009) - this was unplanned but we needed to endurance test a room over an extended period of time at work, and the best way to do that is by watching a movie, and this is what got picked! i had to step out to run and errand in the middle of it, so i didn't technically see all of it, but that's okay, i've seen it before. definitely need to see this one in theaters someday when i get the chance--just watching it on a large projector screen with all the lights off and blinds closed was great, the colors and stop motion really really really POP and are so gorgeous and UGH. i love it. this movie shows in theaters every year in the area where i live, but never at good times so i constantly miss it and then am all >:( because everyone i know keeps getting the chance to see it instead of me. someday, though! someday...

okay. phew. this was fun. i don't normally put this much thought and attention into all the things i watch, or watch movies back to back like this, and for good reason because it. is. exhausting. fun, but EXHAUSTING.

no more! i return now to my vegetative tv viewer state... at least until i do my pride movie marathon in june. but that's another story <3

concluding rankings, ratings, and lists (bonus extra sorting into needless categories for my personal amusement):

top tier masterpieces, faves or new faves

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) (duh)

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

The Tingler (1959)

Planet Terror (2007) was good! will definitely watch again

The VelociPastor (2018)

The House on Haunted Hill (1959)

13 Ghosts (1960)

The House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Coraline (2009)

The Black Cat (1934)

The Skeleton Key (2005)

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980)*

Son of Dracula (1943)* glad i saw it, might not watch it again (at least for a while)

Un monstre à Paris (2011)

Witchcraft (1964)

The Werewolf (1956)

Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920)

The Comedy of Terrors (1963)

Willy's Wonderland (2021)*

Lyle (2015)*

Return to House on Haunted Hill (2007)*

J'accuse ! (1919)* could have been better except for one thing...

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

White Settlers (2014)

The Mummy (1959)

Bijo to Ekitai-ningen (1958)

Prometheus (2012) eugh

The Creature with the Atom Brain (1955)

XX (2017)

Mary Reilly (1996)

Death Proof (2007)

Encounter with the Unknown (1972)

#screaming into the void #spooky movie marathon 2024 #my reviews #anyway now to go watch literally anything other than a horror movie. bye!

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westernfront2024 · 8 months ago

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Day 7 to Lunville

Yet another interesting day. The high point in and around St Mihiel salient. The Germans managed to hold a position in the woods above the town for 4 years. They were finally beaten in the fist battle of the war fought by 500,000 Americans in September 1918.

Going through the woods there are many signs of what happened over 100 years ago - trenches and bunkers. But the difference between the monuments to the fallen is stark. The German cemetery is hidden away in the forest . Each cross beats four names of Christian soldiers and each stone with a Star of David the names of four Jewish soldiers.

Meanwhile the American memorial at Montsec dominates the landscape.

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theworldatwar · 3 years ago

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An American gun crew fire a French 75mm gun at German positions during the Battle of St Mihiel, France - September 1918

The Battle of Saint-Mihiel was a major WW1 battle involving the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and 110,000 French troops under the command of General John J Pershing of the US against German positions.

American gunners had to use French artillery as there were no guns of American manufacture in France at that time. It was also the first time the terms H-Hour and D-Day were coined by the American soldiers.

#worldwar1 #ww1 #ww1photos #ww1 history #us army #1918 #dday #France #battle of at mihiel #history

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historicalfirearms · 6 years ago

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Tanks in Action

I came across a pair of sketches of US tanks and infantry in action by Captain George Harding. George Matthews Harding was a painter and illustrator who acted as an official US war artist during World War One. Harding had previously been a writer and illustrator with The Saturday Evening Post and Harper's Monthly.

The first sketch depicts a platoon of FT light tanks, armed with Hotchkiss machine guns, advancing near between Avocourt and Montfaucon, during the Battle of St. Mihiel. The sketch was submitted in September 1918, while the second shows troops following up another FT, armed with a 37mm cannon, during an attack near Esseu. The second sketch is undated.

The sketches are beautifully dynamic with crisp, accurate, detail in the foreground and an ethereal conveyance of the atmosphere of battle in the background. Harding was one of eight war artists sent with the American Expeditionary Force. During World War Two, he commissioned with the USMC and again acted as a war artist. He died in 1959, aged 77.

Sources:

Images: 1 2

The American Expeditionary Forces In Action: Drawings of Capt. George Harding V.S.R. Official Artist A.E.F., H.M Harding (1920) (source)

If you enjoy the content please consider supporting Historical Firearms through Patreon!

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autodidact-adventures · 7 years ago

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World War I (Part 73): The End of the War

It was obvious that Germany was going to lose the war in the west, but Ludendorff was incapable of seeing sense. He still believed that Germany could end the war in possession of part of Belgium, and France's Longwy-Briey Basin. On August 28th, Foch said, “The man could escape even now if he would make up his mind to leave behind his baggage.”

Britain was preparing for an offensive out of Arras. Foch was demanding that America contribute divisions to it, but Pershing refused – he wanted to concentrate his troops on his own sector of front, to achieve his own objectives. Foch was indignant at this.

Pétain worked out a solution, providing French support for the offensive that Pershing was preparing at St. Mihiel. This offensive had three goals – 1) drive the Germans out of the salient; 2) cut the railway line that ran laterally behind the salient; 3) threaten Longwy-Briey. It was to begin in five days' time – the Allies were in a rush, thinking for the first time that they might be able to finish the war before winter.

The Arras offensive (with Canadians in the lead) was successful, breaking through everywhere they attacked. Ludendorff was forced to order a pullback to the Hindenburg Line, giving up all they'd gained in 1918. But it was too late for an orderly retreat – during the fortnight-long withdrawal, the Germans lost 115,000 men, 470 guns, and stores that they had no way of replacing. And that was just on the British part of the front.

After four years of fighting, the Anzac & Canadian corps were so potent that Haig repeatedly used them as a battering ram to smash the German line with, and it was the case here as well. It was likely that they were the best divisions in the whole war (on either side). John Monash and Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Currie, his Canadian counterpart, were much of the reason for this.

Like Monash, Currie's background set him apart from almost all the other BEF generals. He'd grown up on a farm in British Columbia; he wanted to be a lawyer, but after his father's death he became a teacher. After that he went into insurance, and then into real-estate speculation.

At 21yrs old, he joined the Canadian Garrison Artillery (a “weekened-warrior operation” [?]) as a gunner. He was competent and amiable, and was commissioned at 25yrs old, promoted to Captain the next year, and at 33yrs old he became a Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding a regiment.

Medical problems kept him out of the Boer War, to his disappointment, and he was eager to fight when WW1 broke out. He was as well-qualified as a Canadian soldier could be at that time, and was put in command of one of the country's four brigades.

But he was struggling financially. Early in 1914 a real estate bubble had burst, leaving him in major debt. He borrowed regimental funds to avoid bankruptcy, and if it wasn't for the intervention of friends he might have been charged with embezzlement.

However, by the end of the war he had become one of the BEF's most respected commanders. In April 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, his brigade held off a German attack on the village of St. Julien, preventing the battle from turning into a disaster for the British. In 1916, his Canadian First Division showed its brilliance in capturing Vimy Ridge; this led General Henry Horne to declare it “the pride and wonder of the British army.”

In June 1917, the British selected Currie to become the first Canadian commander of the Canadian Corps. But back at home, people weren't happy – politicians complained that they'd hadn't been consulted, and proposed other candidates; they also urged Currie's creditors to demand payment in full. So Currie's promotion was changed to “temporary”, and seemed likely to be revoked. Even compared to Monash he was a fish out of water among the other generals – his son would later recall, “He had a tremendous command of profanity. He didn't swear without a cause. But boy, when he cut loose he could go for about a minute without repetition.”

Two of Currie's officers advanced him $6,000, and the great respect the Canadian troops had for him made it clear that removing him would spark protests. He was also knighted. At the end of August 1918, his troops had a record of never once failing to capture an objective, never being driven out of a position that they'd had the opportunity to consolidate, and never losing a gun.

At the beginning of September, the biggest problem for the Germans was the huge mass of American troops assembling near Verdun. Ludendorff knew they were going to attack, so he ordered the entire salient (518 square km, 21km deep) to be abandoned.

Pershing had originally planned for the offensive to begin on September 7th, but he was held up by difficulties in getting French artillery into position. He wanted to destroy the defenders as well as capture the salient, and he certainly had the resources to do so – a million American troops, 110,000 French troops, 3,000 artillery pieces, complete air superiority, and essentially unlimited ammunition.

The Battle of Saint-Mihiel began on September 12th with a 4hr-long barrage. When the infantry advanced, though, they found only a rear guard shielding the escape of eight German divisions. The Americans took the salient within a day, taking 15,000 prisoners and 450 guns.

Pershing and his staff immediately began preparing for another attack, this one in an area that was bordered by the Meuse's heights and the Argonne Forest, where the Germans were waiting with a 19km-deep defensive system nearly as formidable as the Hindenburg Line. But Pershing had 820,000 troops (600,000 of them being Americans), 4,000 guns, and enough shells for the guns to fire at their maximum rate until the barrels burned out. The staff had two weeks to get everything ready.

Everywhere else, things were falling apart for the Central Powers. Franchet d'Esperey's Army of the Orient were weakened by malaria and influenza, and when they attacked the strong Bulgarian & German entrenchments outside Salonika, the defenders held their ground for several days, making it seem that this attempt to break out of Salonika would end in failure as usual. But the Bulgarians were struggling with ammo & supply shortages, and their morale was low; they attempted a limited retreat that was intended to draw the Entente forces into an ambush.

It didn't work. D'Esperey's aircraft began to attack almost as soon as the Bulgarians were out of their defences, and the retreat turned into a rout. The Bulgarian troops were exhausted, and tired of a war that had accomplished nothing; they were unhappy with their king, who had made the decision to join the Central Powers. Now they abandoned the fight, leaving the way the Hungary's interior open to the Entente advance units.

German troops were sent to salvage the situation, but it wasn't possible. Later, Ludendorff would say of the situation, “We could not answer every single cry for help. We had to insist that Bulgaria must do something for herself, for otherwise we, too, were lost.”

Bulgaria asked for an armistice on September 25th, and it was granted five days later. The Turks had been defeated in Palestine by an Allied force commanded by the British General Edmund Allenby; they were in retreat towards Damascus (Syria), and couldn't do anything about Bulgaria unless they left Constantinople unprotected. The war in the Balkans was over.

Ludendorf & Hindenburg met in their headquarters on September 28th. They abandoned their illusions, and admitted that the Balkans were lost, and so was the war in general. A few days later, Hindenburg would write that they were forced to do so largely “as a result of the collapse of our Macedonian front,” and their consequent exposure to attack from the east.

Ludendorff had no options left, and he sent his army group commanders a message, stating that there would be no more withdrawals in the west. He was still determined that every position be held, and told his staff that “pneumonic plague” had broken out in the French army – he'd heard a rumour about it, and “clung to that news like a drowning man to a straw,” as he later put it. The rumour was nonsense.

At the Hindenburg Line, Britain & France were attacking, capturing thousands of Germans and hundreds of guns. In the Meuse-Argonne, the French were attacking on a 64km-wide front. Even the Entente armies were taking huge casualties – from August 28th to September 26th the British had 108,000 casualties; the Americans had 26,000 killed and 95,000 wounded in about the same period. But this was more bearable than earlier in the war, because the Allies had the hope that an end was in sight, and the Germans couldn't possibly stand up to all of this without eventually collapsing.

A British sergeant wrote home, “I have seen prisoners coming from the Battle of the Somme, Mons and Messines and along the road to Menin. Then they had an expression of hard defiance on their faces; their eyes were saying: 'You've had the better of me; but there are many others like me still to carry on the fight, and in the end we shall crush you.' Now their soldiers are no more than a pitiful crowd. Exhaustion of the spirit which always accompanies exhaustion of the body. They are marked with the sign of the defeated.'

The best of the remaining German units, continued to resist with intense determination – but it was quite obviously a lost cause. The Allies had 6 million troops in the west, but they didn't actually need to use all of them, thanks to their artillery & tank advantage, and the fact that Monash's tactics were now widely adopted. Nearly 40% of the French army (over a million men) were assigned to artillery. While they'd had only 300 medium & heavy guns in 1914, they now had nearly 6,000.

On September 28th & 29th, the Canadians finally broke through the Hindenburg Line. This was thanks in part to their firing of nearly 944,000 artillery rounds during those two days. In early October, 12,000 tonnes of munitions were being fired every 24hrs. France's 75mm light field guns were firing 280,000 rounds a day. The Germans on & near the front were living under a constant barrage.

The Allies were regularly breaking through the German line, and with increasing regularity – on October 5th, each of Haig's four armies did so at one or more points. But none of these successes turned into a rout. The hard core of the German army was low on food & ammo, and never able to get a day's rest, but they gave up ground reluctantly and continued to take a heavy toll on the enemy; they even managed to counterattack at critical junctures. In some places, the German line was manned only by officers with machine-guns. And still the line didn't dissolve. The number of Allied troops killed in combat was higher than the Germans.

An American Marine battalion that eventually succeeded in driving the Germans off a hill in Champagne lost almost 90% of its men (killed/wounded). This region had been reduced to “blackened, branchless stumps, upthrust through the churned earth...naked, leprous chalk...a wilderness of craters, large and small, wherein no yard of earth lay untouched.”

Heavy autumn rains, the difficulty of the terrain, and the strength of the remaining German infrastructure (especially along the eastern sector, where the Americans were) slowed the Allied advance. The size of the Allied force, while an advantage in attacking, was a disadvantage in other ways – it was extremely difficult to keep it supplied and in motion, and to deploy the guns & men. In fact, Pershing was forced to suspend his offensive in the Argonne for a week in order to get things sorted out.

Admiral Paul von Hintze had been appointed Foreign Minister on July 6th, after Kühlmann's forced resignation. In the aftermath of Salonika, he met with Ludendorff, who outlined the realities of the situation, as he'd done with Hindenburg. He told him that they needed an armistice immediately. This was sensible, but he also said that he thought a ceasefire could be secured within a few days; and he wanted an agreement that would allow their armies to pull back to the German border, rest the troops and build their defences, and later resume the fight if they chose to do so! Hintze was shocked at this, and the conversation became so heated that at one point, Ludendorff collapsed to the floor in one of his rages.

They did agree, however, to approach Woodrow Wilson about an armistice based on his Fourteen Points. Hintze's goal was to save Germany and the Hohenzollern dynasty, and he suggested that they carry out a “revolution from above”: to transform Germany's political system in a way that would demonstrate that Germany was now under progressive (even democratic) leadership, and that this change had been accomplished by the kaiser (rather than in spite of him).

The “revolution” wasn't really that, though – the most radical change was giving Reichstag representatives a place in the cabinet. Because it wasn't much of a change, it was possible for Ludendorff and the kaiser to agree to it – but the conservatives considered it a shocking violation of Prussian & Hohenzollern tradition. Chancellor Hertling, who wasn't even a Prussian, resigned the chancellorship rather than agree to it.

On September 27th, the kaiser signed a proclamation of parliamentary government, in an attempt to salvage something of his inheritance. One officer noted that he was a “broken and suddenly aged man.” Wilhelm knew that all of his ancestors (except for his father) would be horrified at his actions, but the German leaders knew that the situation was desperate.

(This change, in the end, led to the liberals & socialists in the Reichstag having to take part of the blame for the disaster that was unfolding.)

Hintze insisted that he also had to resign, to demonstrate that the kaiser's proclamation wasn't just empty words; the kaiser & Ludendorff failed to dissuade him.

On September 30th, Ludendorff sent a member of his staff (only a Major) to Berlin, with orders to inform the Reichstag of what was happening on the Western Front. But the truth contradicted so much of what the public & the Reichstag deputies had been led to believe, causing great damage to the government & military's credibility.

On October 3rd, Prince Max of Baden became the new Chancellor, and was given the job or arranging a peace. Max was “the one prominent royalist liberal in the empire,” and was capable, but in poor health. He was well-known within the German establishment for reformist sympathies, so his appointment would hopefully show the Allies that there was a new kind of government in Berlin; one that the democracies could come to terms with.

But things looked quite different to the Allies – Max was a relative of the kaiser, and a member of the Baden royal house. He seemed simply more of the same.

On the 3rd, Max signed a note that Hintze had drafted, addressed to Woodrow Wilson. It asked for an immediate armistice, and accepted the peace terms that Wilson's government had been issuing during that year.

Wilson replied promptly, and in almost friendly terms. He asked the Germans to confirm their acceptance of the Fourteen Points, and their willingness to withdraw from all occupied territory. The prince's government signalled their agreement.

It was by now the second week of October, and the Allied armies were briefly stymied on the Western Front. The Americans were finally clearing the Argonne (with Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur constantly exposing himself to enemy fire), but they had taken high casualties, and were facing even stronger defences further east.

Ludendorff, moving away from the sensible attitude he'd been showing, began to talk of line-shortening measures that could enable them to hold out through the coming winter, and wear the Allies down through attrition, in order to get better peace terms.

But this was not likely to happen – even the peace terms that they were hoping to get already weren't going to happen. Wilson was under pressure: after a year and a half of propaganda, the public had become almost hysterically anti-German. Congress members responded in ways that would increase their own popularity. The president had been severely criticized for not responding strictly enough to Germany's request. The midterm elections were scheduled for November 5th, and his party had only a thin majority over the Republicans in both Congress houses. The French and British, too, were pushing him to take a harder line.

On October 10th, the steamer RMS Leinster was sailing between Ireland and England's west coast, as usual. Not long before 10am, a U-boat fired two torpedoes into her hull, and she went down with nearly 450 people killed, including 135 women & children. One of those killed was Josephine Carr, a 19yr-old shorthand typist from Cork, the first member of the WRENS (Women's Royal Naval Service) to be killed on active service.

The result of this sinking was that all the Allies toughened their peace terms, including Wilson, who sent a new note to Berlin, in an entirely new tone. He demanded an end to the submarine warfare, and referred to the “arbitrary” power of Germany's military elite and the threat it posed to the world – and any armistice terms must be settled with the Allied commanders in the field, rather than with him or even the Allied governments acting together. This got him off the hook.

Hungary had declared itself an autonomous nation, separating itself from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Emperor Karl, desperate to try and save something from the wreckage, issued a manifesto that transformed the remains of the empire into a federation in which all members would have their own national councils (even nationalities as obscure as the Ruthenians).

But no-one paid any attention to this – all the pieces of the empire were going their own ways, and the remnants of his army were breaking up as well, with various non-Austrian units marching home. Now, the road to Central Europe lay open to the Army of the Orient. This included Romania, which Germany relied upon for oil.

On October 17th, the German Council of War gathered – the kaiser, Ludendorff, Hindenburg, and all the new government's leading officials. Ludendorff was completely irrational, insisting that they would hold out through the winter (actually, that very night he would find out that the British had made a new breakthrough and were advancing again).

He also threatened to resign if the other generals were even allowed to express their opinions, and demanded that the submarine campaign continue. The kaiser agreed, and only Prince Max disagreed. He threatened to resign himself if they didn't accept Wilson's terms to the last detail. It was impossible to let this happen, as they'd attached so much importance to the creation of a “liberal” government. So Ludendorff's power was now broken.

Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria was still commanding the northern German army group. He sent a warning to Prince Max that if they didn't soon get an armistice, they wouldn't be able to prevent their country from being invaded.

General Wilhelm Gröner had begun the war as head of the German railway system, and had held other important positions since then (and had been at odds with Ludendorff along the way). Now, he reported that at least 200,000 troops were missing, many of them having deserted. In fact, it could be as many as 1.5 million, as it was no longer possible to keep track.

During October, 133,000 French troops were killed, wounded or missing. But the Allies were still attacking, and the Germans were struggling more and more. They had no replacements and hardly any reserves; meanwhile, the Allies had so many troops that they were able to pull the Anzac Corps out of the line – they were near breaking point, and Monash couldn't keep his left hand from trembling, so he tended to keep it in his pocket.

On October 22nd, Admiral Franz von Hipper (new chief of the German High Seas Fleet) tried to execute Operation 19, in which his ships were to put to sea and fight the British & Americans in a final suicidal campaign. Three dreadnought crews at Kiel heard of this plan and mutinied, running red banners of revolution up their masts; the Kiel army garrison joined in, and the revolt quickly spread. Now the German fleet wasn't even a potential fighting force.

On October 23rd, Germany received a third note from Wilson: “If the Government of the United States must deal with the military masters and monarchical autocrats of Germany...it must demand not peace negotiations but surrender.”

Provoked by this, Ludendorff wrote a harsh message to the troops, and both he and Hindenburg signed it: “Our enemies merely pay lip service to the idea of a just peace in order to deceive us and break our resistance. For us soldiers Wilson's reply can therefore only constitute a challenge to continue resisting to the limit of our strength.”

Ludendorff then travelled from his headquarters to Berlin, with the intention of ending Prince Max's dialogue with Washington. But he arrived to find that his message had created a furor – the public (who were hungry for peace), a large part of the Reichstag, Prince Max himself, and even the military were indignant. The note had to be withdrawn, because so many of the field commanders had protested. This was yet another humiliation for Ludendorff, and some Reichstag members were demanding he be removed. Some were even saying that if peace was impossible with the kaiser on the throne, then the kaiser must go too.

News of new disasters was arriving every day, almost every hour. In Italy, an Allied force of 56 divisions (including 3 British & 2 French) were attacking northwards – the Italians were trying to seize as much territory as possible before the fighting ended. The Austrians revolted instead of resisting, with 500,000 of them surrendering. Their generals sent a delegation to Trieste to beg for an armistice. (This was the Battle of Vittorio Veneto.)

Now Ludendorff began talking about something he called “soldier's honour”, in which the entire German nation would be mustered for a final fight to the death. The deputy chancellor listened to Ludendorff's rant, and replied, “I am a plain ordinary citizen. All I can see is people who are starving.”

On October 26th, Ludendorff & Hindenburg met privately with the kaiser. Ludendorff coldly offered his resignation, aware that his position was untenable. Wilhelm offered to transfer him to a field command, but Ludendorff refused & asked to be relieved. Hindenburg also asked to be relived, but the kaiser told him curtly, “You will stay,” and Hindenburg bowed in acquiescence. Ludendorff would see Hindenburg's obedience as an unforgivable betrayal for the rest of his life.

When Ludendorff's decision was announced in Berlin's movie houses, audiences cheered. Ludendorff slipped away to Sweden, as it was too dangerous for him to stay in Germany.

On October 27th, Germany sent a fourth note to Wilson, giving in. It stated that Germany “looked forward to proposals for an armistice that would usher in a peace of justice as outlined by the President.” They were now accepting that Wilson would decide the peace terms, but assumed that they would correspond to the Fourteen Points. This would not be the case.

While Germany waited, Americans captured the French city of Sedan, and severed Germany's last north-south railway line in France. Turkey & Austria surrendered, and Bavaria began to explore a separate peace. Revolution broke out in nearly every provincial capital. A republic was declared in Munich, and on November 7th Ludwig III of Bavaria (the last King of Bavaria) & his family fled from the Residenz Palace in Munich, to the Schloss Anif (near Salzburg in Austria). And Crown Prince Rupprecht now no longer had a home to return to.

The commanders-in-chief of the Allied armies met on October 28th to decide on the armistice terms, and there was a lot of disagreement. Haig suggested that Germany should withdraw from Belgium & France, and surrender Alsace-Lorraine. Pétain went further, demanding that German withdraw east of the Rhine (even north of Alsace-Lorraine), and hand over large parts of Germany itself. Pershing's preferred terms were the strictest of all.

Britain & France were now wanting to end the war as soon as possible, before the Americans became so dominant that they were able to dictate the peace terms. These weren't irrational fears – they'd started when Wilson had begun communicating with Germany without even consulting the other Entente nations.

There were major issues dividing the Allies. Lloyd George & Wilson had very different ideas on how things such as post-war trade, freedom of the seas, and the German colonies should be decided. When Wilson's Fourteen Points were introduced into the discussion, the generals had to send out for a copy, because none of them really knew what they covered.

The kaiser was asked to abdicate on November 1st. He refused, and talked about leading the armies back to Germany to put down the revolt, which was spreading. General Gröner had replaced Ludendorff as quartermaster general; he asked the most senior generals on the Western Front if their troops would obey the kaiser & take part in suppressing the population. Gröner was a capable man, and after the war he would save Germany's fledgling democracy twice (and become an enemy of Hitler for doing so); he knew what the answer was likely to be, and he was right. One said yes, 23 said no, and 14 said possibly. Wilhelm was informed of this, and Hindenburg told him that his safety could no longer be assured. The kaiser abdicated, crossing the border into the Netherlands. where Queen Wilhelmina had agreed to accept him.

On November 8th, a German delegation arrived at Allied headquarters in Compiègne. It was headed by Matthias Erzberger, head of the Catholic Centre Party. Germany was facing civil war and was afraid of a Communist takeover, and the government had ordered Erzberger to accept whatever terms were offered.

Foch made it clear that there was to be no discussion of the terms, and then presented the conditions under which the Allies would agree to a 30-day armistice. The terms included Germany's withdrawal to east of the Rhine within a fortnight; their withdrawal to the eastern borders of August 1st, 1914; the repudiation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk; the surrender of all Germany's colonial possessions in Africa; and the handover of 5,000 artillery piece, 3,000 mortars, 30,000 machine guns, and 2,000 aircraft. Furthermore, the Allied naval blockade would continue. The delegation was given three days to decide whether or not to accept.

Eventually, however, a few minor adjustments were made, as the Allies were also worried about a Communist revolution in Germany. The number of machine guns to be surrendered was reduced, so that the German authorities could better restore order. Erzberger led his fellow delegates in signing the agreement; he would later be assassinated for his “betrayal” of the Fatherland.

The armistice went into effect at 11am on November 11th. Mangin disagreed strongly with the decisions: “We must go right into the heart of Germany. The armistice should be signed there. The Germans will not admit that they are beaten. You do not finish wars like this...It is a fatal error and France will pay for it!”

#book: a world undone #history #military history #ww1 #second battle of the somme #battle of saint-mihiel #meuse-argonne offensive #kiel mutiny #battle of vittorio veneto #ww1 armistice

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floridaboiler · 4 years ago

Photo

It's the kind of story that's so incredibly bizarre you wouldn't dare make it up.....

During the Great World War, Colonel Luke Lea (photo, left) - who had been a successful lawyer and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee - commanded the 114th Field Artillery Regiment through the battles at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne.

But when the war ended and Kaiser Wilhelm II (photo, center) escaped into The Netherlands, Lea was incensed, and he decided to take action....

Arranging a leave-of-absence for himself and a few trusted men (including good friend and future Major League Baseball executive/Hall of Famer Captain Leland "Larry" MacPhail - photo, right), Lea signed out a military-owned vehicle, donned civilian clothes, got fake travel papers, hid a stash of weapons in the car, and, on January 1, 1919, entered Belgium heading for the Dutch border.

Lea didn't tell the men where they were going or why.

Picking up an illicitly obtained Dutch transit letter, Lea and his men crossed illegally into The Netherlands, where Lea finally told them their mission: to kidnap Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern II, formerly Kaiser of Germany and King of Prussia, and take him to Paris to stand trial for war crimes.

That night, Lea's little personal army arrived at Castle of Amerongen - temporary residence of the Kaiser in exile - stormed inside, and confronted Count Bentinck, the Kaiser's host, demanding to see "Kaiser Billy".

Bentinck left the room angrily and spoke with the Kaiser, who refused to meet the Americans unless they had official standing.

While Bentinck was out of the room, MacPhail stole one of the Kaiser's valuable personalized, ornate ashtrays. That's important.

When Bentinck re-entered the room and told Lea that the Kaiser would not see him, the American Colonel began to think better of his plan, and he and his men withdrew, just barely avoiding arrest by the Dutch Army.

As they raced away back toward the Belgian border, MacPhail told Lea that he had "acquired" a souvenir. Lea responded that he had absolutely no desire to ever know what the heck MacPhail had done. Back at American headquarters, no one had any idea what had happened, and probably never would have had not the Kaiser lodged a formal complaint about the rude Americans who barged in and stole his belovèd ashtray. As Lea's commander began to unravel the whole sordid tale, his mind boggled at what to do. MacPhail never confessed to actually stealing the ashtray and claimed it was not in his possession at the time of his questioning.

The issue went all the way up the chain of command to General Pershing, who advised letters of reprimand for all involved, but no further action.

The seven conspirators all were sent back to the United States when their unit returned home, and before mustering out of the service, they posed together for the bottom photograph, in which they all look very much like a group of good ol' boys from Tennessee who violated countless military and international laws trying to kidnap a former emperor and ended up stealing his prized ashtray.

So what did happen to the Kaiser's ashtray? Larry MacPhail proudly kept it on his desk for his entire career in Major League Baseball.

Stories like this are the reason we all love obscure history so much, folks.

#WWI #WW1 #Truth or Fiction #World War 1 #world war i

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greatworldwar2 · 4 years ago

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• 82nd Airborne Division

The 82nd Airborne Division is an airborne infantry division of the United States Army established in 1917, shortly after the American entry into World War I. Specializing in parachute assault operations into denied areas.

The 82nd Division was first constituted as an infantry division on August 5th, 1917 during World War I in the National Army. It was organized and formally activated on August 25th, 1917 at Camp Gordon, Georgia. The division consisted entirely of newly conscripted soldiers. The citizens of Atlanta held a contest to give a nickname to the new division. Major General Eben Swift, the commanding general, chose "All American" to reflect the unique composition of the 82nd, as it had soldiers from all 48 states. It sailed to Europe to join the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), commanded by General John Pershing, on the Western Front. In early April, the division embarked from the ports in Boston, New York and Brooklyn to Liverpool, England, where the division fully assembled by mid-May 1918. During the first world war the Division participated in the St. Mihiel offensive, and Meuse-Argonne offensive. During the later campaign the division suffered 7,000 killed and wounded. A second 82nd soldier, Alvin C. York, received the Medal of Honor for his actions during this campaign. The division suffered 995 killed and 7,082 wounded, for a total of 8,077 casualties. Following the war's end, the division moved to training areas near Prauthoy, where it remained through February 1919. It returned to the United States in April and May, and was demobilized and deactivated at Camp Mills, New York, on May 27th. For the next 20 years the 82nd Division existed as a unit of the Organized Reserve. It was reconstituted in June 1921 establishing headquarters at Columbia, South Carolina, in January 1922.

The 82nd Division was redesignated on February 13th, 1942 during World War II, just two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war, as Division Headquarters, 82nd Division. It was recalled to active service on March 25th, 1942, and reorganized at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, under the command of Major General Omar Bradley. During this training period, the division brought together three officers who would ultimately steer the U.S. Army during the following two decades: Matthew Ridgway, James M. Gavin, and Maxwell D. Taylor. On August 15th, 1942, the 82nd Infantry Division, now commanded by Major General Ridgway, became the first airborne division in the history of the U.S. Army, and was redesignated as the 82nd Airborne Division. The division initially consisted of the 325th, 326th and 327th Infantry Regiments, and supporting units. The 327th was soon transferred to help form the 101st Airborne Division and was replaced by the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, leaving the division with two regiments of glider infantry and one of parachute infantry.

In February 1943 the division received another change when the 326th was transferred to the 13th Airborne Division, being replaced by the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, under James M. Gavin, then a colonel, who was later destined to command the division. In April 1943, after several months of tough training, its troopers deployed to the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, under the command of Major General Ridgway to take part in the campaign to invade Sicily. The division's first two combat operations were parachute assaults into Sicily on July 9th and Salerno on September 13th, 1943. The initial assault on Sicily, by the 505th Parachute Regimental Combat Team, under Colonel Gavin, was the first regimental-sized combat parachute assault conducted by the United States Army. Glider troopers of the 319th and 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalions and the 325th Glider Infantry Regiment (and the 3rd Battalion of the 504th PIR) instead arrived in Italy by landing craft at Maiori (319th) and Salerno (320th, 325th).

In January 1944, the 504th, commanded by Colonel Reuben Tucker, which was temporarily detached to fight at Anzio, adopted the nickname "Devils in Baggy Pants", taken from an entry in a German officer's diary. The 504th was replaced in the division by the inexperienced 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment, under the command of Colonel George V. Millet, Jr.. While the 504th was detached, the remainder of the 82nd Airborne Division moved to the United Kingdom in November 1943 to prepare for the liberation of Europe. With two combat drops under its belt, the 82nd Airborne Division was now ready for the most ambitious airborne operation of the war so far, as part of Operation Neptune, the Allied invasion of Normandy. The division conducted Mission Boston, part of the airborne assault phase of the Operation Overlord plan. In preparation for the operation, the division was significantly reorganized. To ease the integration of replacement troops, rest, and refitting following the fighting in Italy, the 504th PIR did not rejoin the division for the invasion. Two new parachute infantry regiments (PIRs), the 507th and the 508th, provided it, along with the veteran 505th, a three-parachute infantry regiment punch. The 325th was also reinforced by the addition of the 3rd Battalion of the 401st GIR, bringing it up to a strength of three battalions. On the 5th and 6th of June these paratroopers, parachute artillery elements, and the 319th and 320th, boarded hundreds of transport planes and gliders to begin history's largest airborne assault at the time (only Operation Market Garden later that year would be larger). During the June 6th assault, a 508th platoon leader, First Lieutenant Robert P. Mathias, would be the first U.S. Army officer killed by German fire on D-Day. On June 7th, after this first wave of attack, the 325th GIR would arrive by glider to provide a division reserve. In Normandy, the 82nd gained its first Medal of Honor of the war, belonging to Private First Class Charles N. DeGlopper of the 325th GIR. By the time the division was relieved, in early July, the 82nd had seen 33 days of severe combat and casualties had been heavy. Losses included 5,245 troopers killed, wounded, or missing, for a total of 46% casualties.

Following Normandy, the 82nd Airborne Division returned to England to rest and refit for future airborne operations. The 82nd became part of the newly organized XVIII Airborne Corps, which consisted of the 17th, 82nd, and 101st Airborne Divisions. Ridgway was given command of the corps but was not promoted to lieutenant general until 1945. His recommendation for succession as division commander was Brigadier General James M. Gavin, previously the 82nd's ADC. Ridgway's recommendation met with approval, and upon promotion Gavin became the youngest general since the Civil War to command a U.S. Army division. On August 2nd, 1944 the division became part of the First Allied Airborne Army. In September, the 82nd began planning for Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands. The operation called for three-plus airborne divisions to seize and hold key bridges and roads deep behind German lines. The 504th PIR, now back at full strength, was reassigned to the 82nd, while the 507th was assigned to the 17th Airborne Division, at the time training in England. On September 17th, the "All American" Division conducted its fourth (and final) combat jump of World War II. Fighting off German counterattacks, the division captured its objectives between Grave, and Nijmegen. The division failed to capture Nijmegen Bridge when the opportunity presented itself early in the battle. When the British XXX Corps arrived in Nijmegen, six hours ahead of schedule, they found themselves having to fight to take a bridge that should have already been in allied hands. In the afternoon of Wednesday September 20th, 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division conducted a successfully opposed river assault on the river crossing of the Waal river. The Market Garden salient was held in a defensive operation for several weeks until the 82nd was relieved by Canadian troops, and sent into reserve in France.

On December 16th, 1944, the Germans launched a surprise offensive through the Ardennes Forest, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. In SHAEF reserve, the 82nd was committed on the northern face of the bulge near Elsenborn Ridge. On December 20th, 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division was assigned to take Cheneux where they would force the Waffen SS Division Leibstandarte's Kampfgruppe Peiper into a fighting retreat. On December 22nd,1944, the 82nd Airborne faced counterattacks from three powerful Waffen SS divisions which included the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, and the 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen. The Waffen SS efforts to relieve Kampfgruppe Peiper failed due to the stubborn defense of the 82nd Airborne. On December 23rd, the German divisions attacked from the south and overran the 325th GIR holding the Baraque- Fraiture crossroads on the 82nd's southern flank, endangering the entire 82nd Airborne division. The 2nd SS Panzer's objective was to outflank the 82nd Airborne. It was not an attack designed to reach Peiper, but it was his last chance, nonetheless. If it did outflank the 82nd, it could have opened a corridor and reached the stranded yet still powerful Kampfgruppe. But the attack came too late. On December 24th, 1944, the 82nd Airborne Division with an official strength of 8,520 men was facing off against a vastly superior combined force of 43,000 men and over 1,200 armored fighting and artillery vehicles and pieces. Due to these circumstances, the 82nd Airborne Division was forced to withdrawal for the first time in its combat history. The Germans pursued their retreat with the 2nd and 9th SS Panzer Divisions. On January 3rd, 1945, the 82nd Airborne Division conducted a counterattack. On the first day's fighting the Division overran the 62nd Volksgrenadiers and the 9th SS Panzer's positions capturing 2,400 prisoners. The 82nd Airborne suffered high casualties in the process. The attached 551st Parachute Infantry Battalion was all but destroyed during these attacks. Of the 826 men who went into the Ardennes, only 110 came out. Having lost its charismatic leader Lt. Colonel Joerg, and almost all its men either wounded, killed, or frostbitten, the 551 was never reconstituted. The few soldiers who remained were later absorbed into units of the 82nd Airborne. For the 82nd Airborne Division the first part of the Battle of the Bulge had ended.

After helping to secure the Ruhr, the 82nd Airborne Division ended the war at Ludwigslust past the Elbe River, accepting the surrender of over 150,000 men of Lieutenant General Kurt von Tippelskirch's 21st Army. Following Germany's surrender, the 82nd Airborne Division entered Berlin for occupation duty, replacing the 2nd Armored Division in August 1945. In Berlin General George S. Patton was so impressed with the 82nd's honor guard he said, "In all my years in the Army and all the honor guards I have ever seen, the 82nd's honor guard is undoubtedly the best." Hence the "All-American" became also known as "America's Guard of Honor". During the war the 82nd Division suffered 9,073 total casualties with 1,619 being killed in action and 6,560 wounded.

The division returned to the United States on January 3rd, 1946 on the RMS Queen Mary. In New York City it led a big Victory Parade, January 12th, 1946. In 1957, the division implemented the pentomic organization (officially Reorganization of the Airborne Division (ROTAD)) in order to better prepare for tactical nuclear war in Europe. In April 1965, the "All-Americans" entered the civil war in the Dominican Republic. Spearheaded by the 3rd Brigade, the 82nd deployed in Operation Power Pack. The 82nd later participated in the Vietnam War, and was stationed to deal with riots in Detroit in the 1967 Detroit Riot. After 11 September attacks on the United States in 2001, the 82nd's 49th Public Affairs Detachment deployed to Afghanistan in October 2001 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom along with several individual 82nd soldiers who deployed to the Central Command area of responsibility to support combat operations. More recently, the 82nd Airborne has been conducting operations in Iraq, advising and assisting Iraqi Security Forces.

#second world war #world war 2 #world war ii #american history #american army #u.s infantry #infantry units #army airborne #airborne #82ndairborne #military history #ww2 #wwii #first world war

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