DENNIS WOLF 03

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Hoşgeldin Hayalim... Gong Yoo

Derin bir nefes alıyorum ve artık yazmaya başlıyorum. Bu yazmaya başladığım ve sildiğim sanırım beşinci taslak. Dünden beri bunun için uğraşıyorum. Dün o kadar karmaşık duygular içindeydim ki yazdığım satırların anlamsızlığı beni bile şaşırttı. İşte o zaman anladımki bu kadar duygu yoğunlu içindeyken yazdıklarımdan hiçbir hayır gelmez.

Hoşgeldin Güneşim. Aslında biten bu hasretin beni çok mutlu etmesi gerekiyordu ancak sadece çok mutlu değilim ayrıca üzgünümde. Anladım ki bir kez daha senin askerde olman seni görememek anlamına gelsede diğer bir yandan kimseyle paylaşmama anlamına da geliyormuş ayrıca. Bunu da anladım teskere gününde hayranlarının karşısında onlara gülümserken. Adını mutluluk koyduğum bu his peki neden bu kadar hüzün verici oldu aynı zamanda çözemedim bir anda bu duyguyu. Sonradan düşündükçe anladım ve mecburen sindirdim.

Boşlukta hissediyorum şu anda kendimi. Sana dair, senin olan ve sana ait herşeyi sevdiğim gibi seni özlemeyi, sana hasret duymayı, yolunu beklemeyi ve günlerini saymayı da sevmişim aynı zamanda. Teker teker silinirken takvim yaprakları hayatımızdan inan bana şu son iki yıl giden, eksilen hiçbir güne üzülmedim. Çünkü eksilen her gün sana ulaşan, sana giden yoldu aynı zamanda benim için.

Neden diye soran birçok kişi var etrafımda. Neden? Neden? Neden? Nedenini bende bilmiyorum aslında bu sadece bir his. Soranlara merak edenlere tarif edemiyorum. Peki Kimdir? diyenlere de tarfi edemem seni. Daha önce hep söyledim hep söylüyorum. Seni anlatmaya, sana dair hislerimi tarif etmeye benim Türkçem yeterli değil. Yılmaz Erdoğan'ın bir şiirinde dediği gibi "Heybemde Sana Benzeyecek Kadar Güzel Bir Şey Yok". Ne kadar yazarsam yazayım içimde hep birşeylerin eksik kaldığına dair yada yeterince iyi tarif edemediğime dair o his hiç gitmiyor kaybolmuyor. Yeterince iyi yazamadığımdan değilmiş bu sonunda onu da anladım. İnsan kendisi için mükemmel olanı tarif edemiyormuş.

İçimde hiç pişmanlık yok şu hasret dolu günler bittiğinde. Hep elimden geleni değil elimden gelenin fazlasını yaptım. Belki bugünden sonra 'Senin İçin' daha fazla birşey yapamam. Sana bu uzak güzel ülkemden ulaşabileceğim yakınlaşabileceğim en son sınıra geldim. Sana bir mektup gönderdim. Adrese ulaştığından eminiz ama eline aldın mı alacakmısın bilmiyorum. Ama sadece ve sadece yaptıklarımızın sonuçlarının senin yaşadığın nefes aldığın o topraklarda olduğunu bilmek bile yeterli geliyor şu anda.

Güneşim dedim yazıma başlarken. Senin ışığın içimizi ısıtıyor sevgili Yoo. Sımsıcak sıcacık hissediyoruz, hissediyorum sana bakınca. Çok şey öğrendik askerliğin süresince. Beklemeyi, unutmamayı, sadakati, yılmamayı, sebepsiz sevmeyi, zamansız sevmeyi, mekansız sevmeyi. Ancak şu anda farkediyorum ki senin sayende öğrendiklerimiz henüz bitmemiş. Şimdi de öğreneceğimizi tecrübe edeceğimizi farkettiğim şey ise hala sevmeye devam etmek.

Ve satırlarımın sonuna gelirken aynı his yine yüreğime çöktü. Hissettiklerimi yeterince iyi tarif edemedim yine. Sana kavuşmanın mutluluğu, seni sevmenin mutluluğu, senden vazgeçmemenin mutluluğu sanırım bunları tarif edecek cümle henüz kimse tarafından ifade edilemedi. O zaman bu tarifsiz mutluluğu bana yaşattığın için çok teşekkürler. Dilerim 2010 yılında ve daha sonrasında birbirinden başarılı yapımlarda yer alırsın. Hayatta da aynı başarıyı yakalarsın umarım. Ve umarım bende bunları görebilirim, duyabilirim ve hissedebilirim.

Unutulmayacak, vazgeçilmeyecek ve silinmeyecek Gong Yoo dolu yıllar dileğince....

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Rare German WW1 pictures: Part 3

A German soldiers exposes himself as he throws a hand grenade towards an enemy trench.

QUOTES

"All through the war the great armament firms were supplied from the enemy countries. The French and the British sold war materials to the Germans through Switzerland, Holland and the Baltic neutrals, and the Germans supplied optical sights for the British Admiralty. The armament industry, which had helped stimulate the war, made millions out of it."

British historian C.J. Pennethorne Hughesz, 1935

German machinegunners in a flooded shell-hole during the Battle of Ypres.

QUOTES

"In war-time the word patriotism means suppression of truth."

S. Sassoon in 'Memoirs of an Infantry Officer'

CASUALTIES DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR (DEAD & KILLED)

Allied Powers

Russia 1,700,000
France 1,357,800
British Empire 908,371
Italy 650,000
United States 126,000
Japan 300
Romania 335,706
Serbia 45,000
Belgium 13,716
Greece 5,000
Portugal 7,222
Montenegro 3,000

Total 5,152,115

Central Powers

Germany 1,773,7000
Austria-Hungary 1,200,000
Turkey 325,000
Bulgaria 87,500

Total 3,386,200

Grand Total 8,538,315
Several allied countries, e.g. Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are not itemized. They are counted under the British Empire.
Canada: Enlisted 595,000. Served overseas 418,000. Killed in Action 35,666. Died of wounds 12,420. Died of disease 5,405. Wounded 155,799. Prisoners of War 3,575. Presumed dead 4,671. Missing 425. Deaths in Canada 2,221. Total Dead 60,383.
Australia: 416,809 Personnel enlisted (including the Australian Flying Corps). 331,781 of these people served overseas. Among them at least 400 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Total casualties: 215,585 (captured, missing, wounded or killed). Killed: 53,993. Wounded: 137,013 plus 16,496 gassed.
New Zealand: A total of 110,386 men and women served, 100,444 of these served overseas (in Samoa, Egypt, Turkey, Palestine, France, Belgium and Germany). Casualties: 58,526, of whom 18,166 died.

Hiding in a trench hole in the first line Germans assail the French garrison troops at Fort Vaux, near Verdun.

QUOTES


"There were many words that you could not stand to hear and finally only the names of places had dignity. Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene."


American novelist and WW1 veteran Ernest Hemingway, in 'A Farewell to Arms', 1929

Germans in a trench left behind by the French. It ran right through a French village!

QUOTES

"This is a war to end all wars."

American President Woodrow Wilson


"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, in a counter to Wilson's words

Germans in a trench

CHRISTMAS IN THE TRENCHES

"We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man's-land."

Frank Richards was a British soldier who experienced the "Christmas Truce". We join his story on Christmas morning 1914:

"On Christmas morning we stuck up a board with 'A Merry Christmas' on it. The enemy had stuck up a similar one. Platoons would sometimes go out for twenty-four hours' rest - it was a day at least out of the trench and relieved the monotony a bit - and my platoon had gone out in this way the night before, but a few of us stayed behind to see what would happen. Two of our men then threw their equipment off and jumped on the parapet with their hands above their heads. Two of the Germans done the same and commenced to walk up the river bank, our two men going to meet them. They met and shook hands and then we all got out of the trench.

Buffalo Bill [the Company Commander] rushed into the trench and endeavoured to prevent it, but he was too late: the whole of the Company were now out, and so were the Germans. He had to accept the situation, so soon he and the other company officers climbed out too. We and the Germans met in the middle of no-man's-land. Their officers was also now out. Our officers exchanged greetings with them. One of the German officers said that he wished he had a camera to take a snapshot, but they were not allowed to carry cameras. Neither were our officers.

We mucked in all day with one another. They were Saxons and some of them could speak English. By the look of them their trenches were in as bad a state as our own. One of their men, speaking in English, mentioned that he had worked in Brighton for some years and that he was fed up to the neck with this damned war and would be glad when it was all over. We told him that he wasn't the only one that was fed up with it. We did not allow them in our trench and they did not allow us in theirs.

The German Company-Commander asked Buffalo Bill if he would accept a couple of barrels of beer and assured him that they would not make his men drunk. They had plenty of it in the brewery. He accepted the offer with thanks and a couple of their men rolled the barrels over and we took them into our trench. The German officer sent one of his men back to the trench, who appeared shortly after carrying a tray with bottles and glasses on it. Officers of both sides clinked glasses and drunk one another's health. Buffalo Bill had presented them with a plum pudding just before. The officers came to an understanding that the unofficial truce would end at midnight. At dusk we went back to our respective trenches.

...The two barrels of beer were drunk, and the German officer was right: if it was possible for a man to have drunk the two barrels himself he would have bursted before he had got drunk. French beer was rotten stuff.

Just before midnight we all made it up not to commence firing before they did. At night there was always plenty of firing by both sides if there were no working parties or patrols out. Mr Richardson, a young officer who had just joined the Battalion and was now a platoon officer in my company wrote a poem during the night about the Briton and the Bosche meeting in no-man's-land on Christmas Day, which he read out to us. A few days later it was published in The Times or Morning Post, I believe.

During the whole of Boxing Day [the day after Christmas] we never fired a shot, and they the same, each side seemed to be waiting for the other to set the ball a-rolling. One of their men shouted across in English and inquired how we had enjoyed the beer. We shouted back and told him it was very weak but that we were very grateful for it. We were conversing off and on during the whole of the day.

We were relieved that evening at dusk by a battalion of another brigade. We were mighty surprised as we had heard no whisper of any relief during the day. We told the men who relieved us how we had spent the last couple of days with the enemy, and they told us that by what they had been told the whole of the British troops in the line, with one or two exceptions, had mucked in with the enemy. They had only been out of action themselves forty-eight hours after being twenty-eight days in the front-line trenches. They also told us that the French people had heard how we had spent Christmas Day and were saying all manner of nasty things about the British Army."

References:
This eyewitness account appears in Richards, Frank, Old Soldiers Never Die (1933); Keegan, John, The First World War (1999); Simkins, Peter, World War I, the Western Front (1991).

Source

After the Armistice German troops march through the Dutch province of Limburg back to Germany. The (neutral) Dutch government had given permission for this shortcut. This roused anger in Belgium and France.

QUOTES

"I saw them tie a soldier to a cartwheel with his arms outstretched as a punishment. I also knew of men who did themselves in. British soldiers weary of sitting in the trenches who cut their throats during leave. If order hadn't been maintained, they would have deserted. They were coerced. When you're in the army, you can't just do whatever you want."

Gaston Boudry, in the (Belgian) book 'Van den Grooten Oorlog'

Under an heavy artillery attack a German machine gun unit retreats. Last stages of the war

QUOTES

"Once lead this people into war, and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street."

-- American president Woodrow Wilson, on the evening before declaring war on Germany

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-- Rare German WW1 pictures: Part 1
-- Rare German WW1 pictures: Part 2

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Rare German WW1 pictures: Part 2

In the trenches rats were a big problem. They ate up both the corpses and the rations of soldiers.

German soldier moves through poison gas

GAS ATTACK 1916 (Eyewitnesstohistory)


Arthur Empey was an American living in New Jersey when war consumed Europe in 1914. Enraged by the sinking of the Lusitania and loss of the lives of American passengers, he expected to join an American army to combat the Germans. When America did not immediately declare war, Empey boarded a ship to England, enlisted in the British Army (a violation of our neutrality law, but no one seemd to mind) and was soon manning a trench on the front lines.


Emprey survived his experience and published his recollections in 1917. We join his story after he has been made a member of a machine gun crew and sits in a British trench peering towards German lines. Conditions are perfect for an enemy gas attack - a slight breeze blowing from the enemy's direction - and the warning has been passed along to be on the lookout:


"We had a new man at the periscope, on this afternoon in question; I was sitting on the fire step, cleaning my rifle, when he called out to me: 'There's a sort of greenish, yellow cloud rolling along the ground out in front, it's coming ---'


But I waited for no more, grabbing my bayonet, which was detached from the rifle, I gave the alarm by banging an empty shell case, which was hanging near the periscope. At the same instant, gongs started ringing down the trench, the signal for Tommy to don his respirator, or smoke helmet, as we call it.


Gas travels quietly, so you must not lose any time; you generally have about eighteen or twenty seconds in which to adjust your gas helmet.


A gas helmet is made of cloth, treated with chemicals. There are two windows, or glass eyes, in it, through which you can see. Inside there is a rubber-covered tube, which goes in the mouth. You breathe through your nose; the gas, passing through the cloth helmet, is neutralized by the action of the chemicals. The foul air is exhaled through the tube in the mouth, this tube being so constructed that it prevents the inhaling of the outside air or gas. One helmet is good for five hours of the strongest gas. Each Tommy carries two of them slung around his shoulder in a waterproof canvas bag. He must wear this bag at all times, even while sleeping. To change a defective helmet, you take out the new one, hold your breath, pull the old one off, placing the new one over your head, tucking in the loose ends under the collar of your tunic.


For a minute, pandemonium reigned in our trench, - Tommies adjusting their helmets, bombers running here and there, and men turning out of the dugouts with fixed bayonets, to man the fire step.


Reinforcements were pouring out of the communication trenches.


Our gun's crew was busy mounting the machine gun on the parapet and bringing up extra ammunition from the dugout.


German gas is heavier than air and soon fills the trenches and dugouts, where it has been known to lurk for two or three days, until the air is purified by means of large chemical sprayers. We had to work quickly, as Fritz generally follows the gas with an infantry attack. A company man on our right was too slow in getting on his helmet; he sank to the ground, clutching at his throat, and after a few spasmodic twistings, went West (died). It was horrible to see him die, but we were powerless to help him. In the corner of a traverse, a little, muddy cur dog, one of the company's pets, was lying dead, with his two paws over his nose.


It's the animals that suffer the most, the horses, mules, cattle, dogs, cats, and rats, they having no helmets to save them. Tommy does not sympathize with rats in a gas attack.


At times, gas has been known to travel, with dire results, fifteen miles behind the lines.


A gas, or smoke helmet, as it is called, at the best is a vile-smelling thing, and it is not long before one gets a violent headache from wearing it.


Our eighteen-pounders were bursting in No Man's Land, in an effort, by the artillery, to disperse the gas clouds.


The fire step was lined with crouching men, bayonets fixed, and bombs near at hand to repel the expected attack.


Our artillery had put a barrage of curtain fire on the German lines, to try and break up their attack and keep back reinforcements.


I trained my machine gun on their trench and its bullets were raking the parapet. Then over they came, bayonets glistening. In their respirators, which have a large snout in front, they looked like some horrible nightmare.


All along our trench, rifles and machine guns spoke, our shrapnel was bursting over their heads. They went down in heaps, but new ones took the place of the fallen. Nothing could stop that mad rush. The Germans reached our barbed wire, which had previously been demolished by their shells, then it was bomb against bomb, and the devil for all.


Suddenly, my head seemed to burst from a loud 'crack' in my ear. Then my head began to swim, throat got dry, and a heavy pressure on the lungs warned me that my helmet was leaking. Turning my gun over to No. 2, I changed helmets.


The trench started to wind like a snake, and sandbags appeared to be floating in the air. The noise was horrible; I sank onto the fire step, needles seemed to be pricking my flesh, then blackness.


I was awakened by one of my mates removing my smoke helmet. How delicious that cool, fresh air felt in my lungs.


A strong wind had arisen and dispersed the gas.


They told me that I had been 'out' for three hours; they thought I was dead.


The attack had been repulsed after a hard fight. Twice the Germans had gained a foothold in our trench, but had been driven out by counter- attacks. The trench was filled with their dead and ours. Through a periscope, I counted eighteen dead Germans in our wire; they were a ghastly sight in their horrible-looking respirators.


I examined my first smoke helmet, a bullet had gone through it on the left side, just grazing my ear, the gas had penetrated through the hole made in the cloth.


Out of our crew of six, we lost two killed and two wounded.


That night we buried all of the dead, excepting those in No Man's Land. In death there is not much distinction, friend and foe are treated alike.


After the wind had dispersed the gas, the R. A. M. C. got busy with their chemical sprayers, spraying out the dugouts and low parts of the trenches to dissipate any fumes of the German gas which may have been lurking in same."


References:
Empey, Arthur Guy, Over The Top (1917); Lloyd, Alan, The War In The Trenches (1976)

German bunkers. The Allies hated them. Shells made no impact on them. The man in the white coat is a doctor.

Wearing gas masks, German soldiers wade through a gas attack by the British.

Germans walk past an abandoned British tank at Verdun.

By 1917 the tide had changed. Incessant bombardment by the Allies shook up the German defences in the trenches.

QUOTES

I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of agression and conquest.

British Captain S. Sassoon, in "The Times", 30 July 1917

The German machine-gun made a big impact on the war.

German soldiers move forward with their machine gun

A German soldier dies in as an Allied shell hits the German gun position. Another German soldier had died before.

TRENCH WARFARE QUOTES

You were between the devil and the deep blue sea. If you go forward, you`ll likely be shot, if you go back you`ll be court-martialled and shot, so what the hell do you do? What can you do? You just go forward because that`s the only bloke you can take your knife in, that`s the bloke you are facing.

-- A British soldier

Germans huddle around their dead colleague.

WW1 QUOTES

For a young man who had a long and worthwile future awaiting him, it was not easy to expect death almost daily. However, after a while I got used to the idea of dying young. Strangely, it had a sort of soothing effect and prevented me from worrying too much. Because of this I gradually lost the terrible fear of being wounded or killed.

-- Reinhold Spengler, A German soldier

A German soldiers dresses a wounded British soldier

QUOTES

The whole earth is ploughed by the exploding shells and the holes are filled with water, and if you do not get killed by the shells you may drown in the craters. Broken wagons and dead horses are moved to the sides of the road, also many dead soldiers lie here. Wounded soldiers who died in the ambulance have been unloaded and their eyes stare at you. Sometimes an arm or leg is missing. Everybody is rushing, running, trying to escape almost certain death in this hail of enemy shells. Today I have seen the real face of war.

-- Hans Otto Schette, German soldier

These Germans are quite cheerful as they head for the front. Their aim was, as their superiors wanted it, to 'bleed the French to death'. Deployed in this war of attrition only a few of these soldiers returned alive. Summer 1915.

QUOTES

The enemy started to advance in mass down the railway cutting, about 800 yards off, and Maurice Dease fired his two machine-guns into them and absolutely mowed them down. I should judge without exaggeration that he killed at least 500 in two minutes. The whole cutting was full of bodies and this cheered us all up.

Lieutenant K. Tower, Royal Fusiliers, 1914

A surly German guards British POWS

QUOTES

A soldier (who had just returned from the Western Front) was so disordered while he was going down the stairs into the London tube station, he became suddenly aware of the crowds of people coming up, he looked haggardly about, and evidently mistaking the hollow space below for the trenches and the ascending crowd for Germans, fixed his bayonet and charged. But for the women constable on duty at the turn of the staircase, who was quick enough to divine his trouble and hang on to him with all her strength to prevent his forward advance, he would have wounded many and caused danger and panic.

British policewoman Mary Allen, in her autobiography

This guy has just made two Belgian girlfriends.

The German trenches were usually very well built. There were strong and they had loop-holes. The picture shows two soldiers throwing hand-grenades while two others take an aim at the enemy.

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-- Rare German WW1 pictures: Part 1
-- Rare German WW1 pictures: Part 3

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Rare First World War German pictures. Part 1

There are not many photos available of German soldiers during the First World war. This is because that country lost the Great War.

QUOTES

".. all this madness, all this rage, all this flaming death of our civilization and our hopes, has been brought about because a set of official gentlemen, living luxurious lives, mostly stupid, and all without imagination or heart, have chosen that it should occur rather than that any one of them should suffer some infinitesimal rebuff to his country`s pride."

-- British philosopher Bertrand Russell, 1914

"I look upon the People and the Nation as handed on to me as an responsibility conferred upon me by God, and I believe, as it is written in the Bible, that it is my duty to increase this heritage for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account. Whoever tries to interfere with my task I shall crush."

-- German Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1913

German soldiers on the Russian front. Yes! There was an Eastern Front during WW1 too! But the fighting was not so ferocious as in the next war. February 1915, just before the German winter-offensive started in heavy snowstorms

QUOTES

"In the account book of the Great War the page recording the Russian losses has been ripped out. The figures are unknown. Five millions, or eight? We ourselves know not. All we know is that, at times, fighting the Russians, we had to remove the piles of enemy bodies from before our trenches, so as to get a clear field of fire against new waves of assault."

German Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg, 1917

GERMANY'S SCHLIEFFEN PLAN

Germany had been preparing for war long before 1914. In fact, Germany had started drawing up a plan for war - the Schlieffen Plan - in 1897.

Germany's plan for war was the Schlieffen Plan. It took nine years to finalise, but it was based on the theory that Germany would be at war with France and Russia at the same time. It did not prepare for many of the events that occured in July and August 1914. It was based on the belief that, if the country went to war, Germany would be faced with a war on two fronts with France and Russia.

The plan assumed that France was weak and could be beaten quickly, and that Russia was much stronger, but would take longer to mobilise its army.

The plan began to go wrong on 30 July 1914, when Russia mobilised its army, but France did not. Germany was forced to invent a pretext to declare war on France (3 August 1914).

Things got worse when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914 because, in a Treaty of 1839, Britain had promised to defend Belgium.

* The plan was the work of the German army chief-of-staff Alfred von Schlieffen.
* It took nine years to devise - it was started in 1897, presented in 1905, and revised in 1906.
* The plan imagined a huge hammer-blow at Paris, using 90 per cent of the German army, swinging down through Belgium and northern France, to take out France in a quick, decisive campaign.
* It was a plan of attack - for Germany, mobilisation and war were the same thing.
* It was Germany's only plan for war.
* It did not plan for a situation where Germany was at war with Russia, but not with France. When the German chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg asked: "Is the Fatherland in danger?", the German general Moltke declared: "Yes".
* In the event, Russia took only ten days to mobilise, and Moltke was forced to send some troops to the eastern front, which weakened the main attack on Paris.
* When the German army asked permission to go through Belgium on 2 August 1914, the Belgians refused, so the German army had to fight its way through Belgium. This slowed it down and tired the soldiers.
* Britain's decision to uphold the 1839 Treaty with Belgium amazed the Germans. "For a scrap of paper, Great Britain is going to make war?" said the amazed Bethmann-Hollweg.
* In the event, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived to resist the Germans, and held them up at the Battle of Mons on 23 August 1914. With his army exhausted and many of his best forces killed, Moltke was defeated at the battle of the Marne on 6-10 September 1914. "Sir, we have lost the war," he told the Kaiser.

German soldiers march into Poland on bicycles.

QUOTES

There was no really good true war book during the entire four years of the war. The only true writing that came through during the war was in poetry. One reason for this is that poets are not arrested as quickly as prose writers.

Ernest Hemingway, in "Men at War"

The road to Paris is chock-a-bock with soldiers and fleeing civilians.

QUOTES

"At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess."

-- Philosopher Bertrand Russell, in 'In Praise of Idleness'

Germans lay down rules of occupation in Antwerp, Belgium. They were quite harsh.

GERMANS MOVE THROUGH BELGIUM (From Eyewitnesstohistory.com)

German juggernaut smashed its way into Belgium on August 5, initially targeting Belgium's line of defensive fortresses. The Belgian army was forced to retreat and by August 20 the Germans entered Brussels on its way to France. The Belgians elected not to defend the city and the Germans marched through unhindered.

Richard Harding Davis was an American newspaper reporter and witnessed the German army's march through the city. We join his account as he sits at a boulevard café waiting for the German arrival:

"The change came at ten in the morning. It was as though a wand had waved and from a fete-day on the Continent we had been wafted to London on a rainy Sunday. The boulevards fell suddenly empty. There was not a house that was not closely shuttered. Along the route by which we now knew the Germans were advancing, it was as though the plague stalked. That no one should fire from a window, that to the conquerors no one should offer insult, Burgomaster Max sent out as special constables men he trusted. Their badge of authority was a walking-stick and a piece of paper fluttering from a buttonhole. These, the police, and the servants and caretakers of the houses that lined the boulevards alone were visible.

At eleven o'clock, unobserved but by this official audience, down the Boulevard Waterloo came the advance-guard of the German army. It consisted of three men, a captain and two privates on bicycles. Their rifles were slung across their shoulders, they rode unwarily, with as little concern as the members of a touring-club out for a holiday. Behind them so close upon each other that to cross from one sidewalk to the other was not possible, came the Uhlans [cavalry], infantry, and the guns. For two hours I watched them, and then, bored with the monotony of it, returned to the hotel. After an hour, from beneath my window, I still could hear them; another hour and another went by. They still were passing.

Boredom gave way to wonder. The thing fascinated you, against your will, dragged you back to the sidewalk and held you there open-eyed. No longer was it regiments of men marching, but something uncanny, inhuman, a force of nature like a landslide, a tidal wave, or lava sweeping down a mountain. It was not of this earth, but mysterious, ghostlike. It carried all the mystery and menace of a fog rolling toward you across the sea.

The German army moved into Brussels as smoothly and as compactly as an Empire State express. There were no halts, no open places, no stragglers. For the gray automobiles and the gray motorcycles bearing messengers one side of the street always was kept clear; and so compact was the column, so rigid the vigilance of the file-closers, that at the rate of forty miles an hour a car could race the length of the column and need not stop - for never did a single horse or man once swerve from its course.

All through the night, like a tumult of a river when it races between the cliffs of a canyon, in my sleep I could hear the steady roar of the passing army. And when early in the morning I went to the window the chain of steel was still unbroken. It was like the torrent that swept down the Connemaugh Valley and destroyed Johnstown. This was a machine, endless, tireless, with the delicate organization of a watch and the brute power of a steam roller. And for three days and three nights through Brussels it roared and rumbled, a cataract of molten lead. The infantry marched singing, with their iron-shod boots beating out the time. They sang Fatherland, My Fatherland. Between each line of song they took three steps. At times 2000 men were singing together in absolute rhythm and beat. It was like blows from giant pile-drivers. When the melody gave way the silence was broken only by the stamp of iron-shod boots, and then again the song rose. When the singing ceased the bands played marches. They were followed by the rumble of the howitzers, the creaking of wheels and of chains clanking against the cobblestones, and the sharp, bell-like voices of the bugles.

More Uhlans followed, the hoofs of their magnificent horses ringing like thousands of steel hammers breaking stones in a road; and after them the giant siege-guns rumbling, growling, the mitrailleuses [machine guns] with drag-chains ringing, the field-pieces with creaking axles, complaining brakes, the grinding of the steel-rimmed wheels against the stones echoing and re-echoing from the house front. When at night for an instant the machine halted, the silence awoke you, as at sea you wake when the screw stops.

For three days and three nights the column of gray, with hundreds of thousands of bayonets and hundreds of thousands of lances, with gray transport wagons, gray ammunition carts, gray ambulances, gray cannon, like a river of steel, cut Brussels in two.

References:
Richard Harding Davis' account appears in: Downey, Fairfax, Richard Harding Davis: His Day (1933); Keegan, John, The First World War (1999).

German airplane goes to bomb Paris. These were feared objects.

QUOTES

"This war is really the greatest insanity in which white races have ever been engaged."

German Admiral von Tirpitz, in a letter to his wife, October 1914

When Paris did not fall, the disappointed Germans fell back. After the Battle of the Marne the Germans retreated to the river Aisne. It was here that the frontline stabilised and where the armies were going to dig in themselves. The trench warfare began.

QUOTES

"The wood of the walnut - Juglans regia L. - is reckoned among the finest there is. It is used for furniture and floors and, alas, it is also very suitable for making rifle-butts. During the First Worldwar many of the old walnut-forests in Europe were cut down for the production of these rifle-butts."

Dutch biologist Wouter de Herder, in a book on trees in Europe

The German soldiers look quite sullen here. He had reason to be. After weeks of long marches and numerous fights the German advance towards Paris came to a stand-still.

QUOTES

"Against the vast majority of my countrymen, even at this moment, in the name of humanity and civilization, I protest against our share in the destruction of Germany. A month ago Europe was a peaceful comity of nations; if an Englishman killed a German, he was hanged. Now, if an Englishman kills a German, or if a German kills an Englishman, he is a patriot, who has deserved well of his country. "

British philosopher Bertrand Russell, in a letter to the paper The Nation, 15 August, 1914

German soldiers in trenches in France. A German unit during the Battle of the Marne.
Near the river Marne the German invasion was brought to a stand. 1914.

QUOTES

"I didn't get much peace, but I heard in Norway that Russia might well become a huge market for tractors soon."

Henry Ford, when returning from his unofficial peace mission, December 24, 1915

Farewells as the soldiers go to the front.

QUOTES

"The old lady told me that all the girls in the village of Annezin prayed every night for the War to end, and for the English to go away - as soon as their money was spent. And that the clause about the money was always repeated in case God should miss it."

Robert Graves, in "Good-bye to all that"

German soldiers on their way to Paris, 1914

QUOTES

"Never had the machine-gunners such straightforward work to do nor done it so unceasingly. The men stood on the firestep, some even on the parapets, and fired exultantly into the mass of men advancing across the open grassland. As the entire field of fire was covered with the enemy's infantry the effect was devastating and they could be seen falling in hundreds."

German Regimental Diarist, after the Battle of Loos, September 1915
(in the Battle of Loos 8,246 British soldiers - out of nearly 10,000 - were killed or wounded in just three hours)

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The Basics: Walking for Fitness and Fun

Arkansan Jim Wilson had 300 pounds on his 5-foot-7-inch frame when he decided he wanted to walk a half marathon. He knew it would be a long journey: he couldn’t walk a mile without getting winded.

Still, his goal spurred him on. He started training in March 2001, and in September of that year he walked a scenic 13-mile loop in Red Rock Canyon, outside Las Vegas.

Along the way, he started feeling stronger and sleeping better. His self-esteem shot up, and he ate more healthfully. By the time he walked his five-hour half-marathon, he was down 50 pounds.

“The whole process [gave me] a major feeling of accomplishment,” says Wilson, a 53-year-old financial adviser.

You don’t have to walk 13 miles to reap the benefits of walking. In fact, it’s one of the best ways for a sedentary person to start an exercise program, says California health educator, fitness expert, and author Shirley Archer.

“There’s very low risk of injury with walking,” she says. “It’s comfortable, easy, and low-cost. All you need is a good pair of shoes.”

Besides that, she says, it can actually be enjoyable, which is half the battle when it comes to sticking to a fitness regime.

“Too many people think of exercise like medicine,” says Archer, the mind-body spokeswoman for IDEA Health and Fitness Association. “It’s not. It can be fun and the body will start to love it.”

A Step Toward Health and Happiness

Medically, the benefits of walking are undisputed, says Little Rock, Ark., orthopaedic surgeon John Yocum, MD. Cardiovascular exercise such as walking can reduce the risk of heart disease and improve heart function and muscle tone, as well as lower blood pressure, cholesterol, risk of stroke, and risk of injury, says Yocum.

In addition, he says, “improving strength around the joints can help with degenerative joint disease.”

But that’s not all. “The benefits are multiple,” he says, “not the least of which is the improved sense of well-being or happiness with the increased endorphin levels.”

Archer, who coaches many beginning exercisers, says they have a kind of “awakening” when they begin to work out. They begin to feel better, so they sleep better, manage stress better, and get more energy in the process, says Archer. As a result, their self-esteem improves.

Former Olympic marathon runner Julie Isphording, a walking/running coach, author, columnist and host of two health and fitness radio shows for National Public Radio in Cincinnati, says she sees it often in the walkers she trains.

“People start to change their attitude,” she says. “It really isn’t about the walk. It’s about something so much bigger; so much better. You can breathe deeper. You last longer in the day. You’re running up steps.”

When walkers enlist a partner, it’s even better, Isphording says.

“I recommend that people find a friend to do it with — meet at the mailbox,” she says. That helps walking to become a part of the day you look forward to, not dread.

“Walking turns into more of a play-out than a workout,” says Isphording.

“Social support is the most important factor when sticking to a program,” says Archer. “Get a partner — even a dog — because that will reinforce it. We don’t like to let other people down.”

Isphording also encourages beginning walkers to keep a journal to chart progress.

So when you step on the scale and say, “it’s not working,” she says, you can look back at how far you’ve come. “Maybe a month ago, you couldn’t walk a mile and now you’re walking three,” says Isphording.

In the journal, Isphording recommends you write everything down: the weather, how you felt that day, who you went with, and how far you walked.

Getting Started

Don’t skimp when it comes to footwear. Yocum advises all walkers to get a good pair of walking or running shoes with arch support and the proper cushioning to prevent injury, even when they’re just starting out.

“I’ve been in the Olympics and I can’t tell you that I bounced out of bed every morning to run.”

“Shoes are the only piece of equipment you need,” says Isphording, “so invest well. Whether you choose a walking shoe or running shoe,” she says, “go to a specialty store and have them fit you. Expect to spend between $80 and $100.”

And set a goal beyond weight loss and better health. “What about doing a walk for charity or a planning a walking trip in France?” Isphording asks. Create a goal that’s out of your current reach but attainable, she says, and that will help you stay focused.

Even if you follow all the tips to stay motivated, it isn’t always easy, say the experts.

Archer teaches her clients to accept the fact that they’re not always going to want to do it. “It’s normal to have variations in energy and to experience a little discomfort at times. It’s part of the process of conditioning your body. It doesn’t mean you’re backsliding, it’s just life.”

Isphording concurs.

“I’ve been in the Olympics and I can’t tell you that I bounced out of bed every morning to run,” says Isphording. “But those days [when it was harder to get motivated] were some of the most rewarding. You overcame doubts in yourself, you could meet the challenges of the day, and you got so much more out of it.”

When starting a walking program, experts advise starting slow, then working up to longer distances and more time on the road. Even if 10 minutes is all you can handle at first, it’s a start. Feel satisfied, keep gong, and try for 15 in a couple of days.

Progress at a pace you can handle. Isphording calls it the “talk test”: You should be able to talk while you walk.

“As the body starts to feel more comfortable,” adds Archer, “pick up the pace a bit more.”

Keeping It Safe

Keep in mind, Yocum says, that though very safe, walking may not be for everyone. He recommends that those with lower-extremity degenerative disease such as arthritis or cardiovascular disease see their doctors before starting any exercise program. Some arthritis symptoms may be aggravated by impact; in this case, you might want to walk on a soft surface like a track or decide to swim or use a stationary bike instead.

Recent studies from the CDC have indicated that even moderate exercise can provide tremendous benefits.

The experts interviewed by WebMD agree, saying that while working up to 45 to 60 minutes a day would be great, you’ll still benefit from doing 30 minutes or even 20. And they hope that once people get started walking, they won’t quit.

“We are naturally active creatures,” says Archer. “We were designed to move. It’s unnatural for us to sit and be sedentary. We need the muscular stimulation. We need the stimulation to the brain.

“The bottom line is technology has made our lives very sedentary. It’s not a character flaw,” she says, “it’s just that our environment is such that we don’t get enough activity in our daily life, so we have to think active — take the stairs instead of the elevator.”

[Via http://bestfitnessblog.wordpress.com]

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