Charge of the Light Horse Brigade

[Frederick Skelly]

The developments in artillery were in many ways more significant. Something like 60% of the casualties on the western front were from artillery.

For years, I could not understand why the Douaumont Ossuary was created. Link. It seemed so medieval, even perverse to me. It is literally a building full of "the jumbled bones of 130,000 WWI soldiers. The windows of the ossuary peer in on pile after pile of bones, which you can walk amongst."

And then I learned about the artillery barrages that Nick describes above. Their bodies were blasted into pieces. Then another barrage later would blast the pieces into fragments. Many times, there were not enough identifiable remains to bury. This was the best they could do - gather up the random fragments and entomb them - 14 years afterward.

As I've mentioned here before, France lost an entire generation. For years afterward, elderly women would give up their seat on a bus or train to a male who was of that generation. There were so few left they did it as a sign of their appreciation and respect.

Fred

[Sorry for the soapbox. All war is terrible. This one just gets to me every time.]

[Wayne Lomman]

This year there seems to be an endless series of ceremonies remembering the losses in all conflict but especially WW1. There are Australian war cemeteries in so many countries.

This morning on the radio they were discussing new archaeological sites found along the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea. My uncle was a veteran of that Australian campaign that successfully defended our northern approaches. He would never speak in detail about it. All he would day was that both sides were following orders. He never held a grudge and actively participated in fostering Japanese-Australian relationships for many years of his life. Cheers to all.

[William Adams]

There's actually a very touching mention of one aspect of that sacrifice in the Lost Arts Press book, Grandpa's Workshop

https://lostartpress.com/products/grandpas-workshop

[Frederick Skelly]

There's actually a very touching mention of one aspect of that sacrifice in the Lost Arts Press book, Grandpa's Workshop

https://lostartpress.com/products/grandpas-workshop

Looks like a great story, but $29 for 48 pages is a tad to much.

[William Adams]

48 over-size full colour pages of excellent quality acid-free paper w/ sewn signatures and a nice hardcover, printed and bound in the U.S. --- it's a book which you can share w/ your children, and look forward to reading to your grand-children, or even great-grand-children. Bought a copy as a present for a cousin's children, and will be buying a second in my next order to set aside w/ my childrens' old books (they're 17 and 22) for when there are grand-children (hopefully no time soon).

But what can I say, I have a hard time passing up anything which starts off by presenting the Ship of Theseus paradox.

Highly recommended.