A Soldier Explains What It Was Like in the World War I Trenches (1916) | Hacker News Reader

A Soldier Explains What It Was Like in the World War I Trenches (1916)

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133 pointsdiodorus41 comments

If anyone wants some haunting footage:

Berlin, Pre-War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-m9A8mY-U0 It's bizarre that Berlin once looked like this. It's OT, but here's how Berlin turned into what it is today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=592ZXOuG7yE

German side of the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CErUTpuDbd8&src_vid=B-m9A8mY...

More German: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPb_hJcno3g&src_vid=CErUTpuD...

German, with poison gas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8EJc7RAXDk&src_vid=CErUTpuD...

Multiside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP_0DkpFOKs

Another similar tragedy has been unfolding in Syria as we speak : http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/26/syria-heritage-...

The 11th century Umayyad mosque is mostly destroyed. The state of the Crusader castle Krak des Chevaliers (one of the finest examples in the world) is currently unknown : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26696113

People forget the rich heritage of Syria from various ages going back through the Crusades, the Islamic Golden age, all the way to Mesopotamia and the cradle of civilization. The destructiveness of modern technology is erasing it all in one fell swoop.

I was fortunate enough to go there as a tourist about a year before everything started getting blown up.

It was a beautiful place with some of the most amazing heritage anywhere in the world. It's really hard to do it justice with words, but there was something very magical about the place. I still consider it to be the best place I've ever been to.

Here are a few images I took while I was there. I have hundreds of photos, of places that probably no longer exist or are severely damaged.

There is a particularly memorable photo there (to me) of some kids who were running around a mosque in Aleppo.

Just behind the citadel in Aleppo was the souk which I think is also completely destroyed now. I remember having a conversation with a teenage boy there who was selling some soap (trying to rip me off!) that Aleppo was/is famous for.

http://imgur.com/a/gkqlj#0

>The destructiveness of modern technology is erasing it all in one fell swoop.

The destructiveness of global political, territorial and resource disputes endemic to the area is erasing it all again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh41Wxez9PE

Sorry. I should have been clearer. What I meant was that the effectiveness of modern weaponry, was destroying these monuments which have survived countless wars in the past.

> Berlin, Pre-War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-m9A8mY-U0

Some scenes are also from Munich. Around 3:00 you can see Odeonsplatz, for example. It pretty much looks the same today ;).

I always find early video like the first one kind of sad -- you know that everyone you see and most of their children are dead. It's doubly sad here in that most male children pictured here were of military age in 1914, and were likely cut down in the slaughter.

Don't worry a few of them grew up to join the NSDAP and do it all over again!

I was going to vote this comment down, but stopped myself and reconsidered. The thing is, it's actually true and is important context.

Sentiment is all well and good, but wars are started by people making a choice. They aren't natural disasters we have no control over or responsibility for.

You have to remember what kind of society Germany was. It was very disciplined and Japan-y. It's not that Germans were specially inclined to be Nazis, but they were specially inclined to follow crazy orders. It was the inheritance from Prussia. Japan was, of course, even worse. When you visit the two countries you can still notice it. Germany is mostly rid of it except an excruciating attention to detail, bureaucracy and status. Japan is more recognizably hierarchical and disciplined. Be wary of people who are patriotic and proud of following orders.

Oh yes, for sure. The reason I initially was going to vote the comment down was because I percieved it as casting blame, on children no less.

Even so, the comment is still basically true. Europe of that time was a very different place, where wanting to grow up to be a soldier and go and fight and kill fellow Europeans was a laudable ambition, not just in Germany. It doesn't make the loss of life any less tragic, but it's also important not to over-sentimentalise things because that can blind you to the stark realities.

I think all of Europe learned some valuable lessons from WW2. I hope Japan did too. Overall I'm very proud of my nation's role in history, as a Brit, but we perpetrated enough massacres and precipitated enough famines that it's tinged with a realisation that my heritage carries a fair few obligations with it as well.

At the WWI memorial they provide some insight into the prevailing mindset of that age. 40 years before WWII, Darwin published his famous work. It got applied to everything, including nations. The Chancellor of Germany was certain that war was normal competition between states, that only the fit would survive, and that Germany was thus destined to rule the world.

>they were specially inclined to follow crazy orders.

This sounds more like post-hoc justification for war. It isn't exactly novel to paint the enemy as "not like us" or as having that one trait that happens to make them a dangerous people.

Actually, that's the thing that worries me about the American "support the troops! Support the war!" warrior culture.

Anyway, you can go to Japan tomorrow and observe yourself. I've only been to Berlin, so I haven't noticed much of this in Germany (Berlin is very hippie-hipster), but I think you will have better luck observing the phenomenon in Bavaria, which is generally regarded as more old-fashioned, strict and conservative.

> They aren't natural disasters we have no control over or responsibility for.

I have an opposite point of view. There's something about human dynamics we're unable to control.

If you're into this sort of historical record, check out this free podcast: http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-bluepri...

My first thought on seeing the subject of WW1 trench warfare was to drop a link to the Hardcore History WW1 podcasts. They are excellent at getting across the sheer horror and enormity of WW1, something that was lost on me growing up in the US (we tend to focus on WW2). I suspect European listeners will be surprised by less, but for any American who doesn't know what I'm talking about if I mention Verdun or the Somme, I _highly_ recommend the podcasts. They are ~12 hours (so far) and riveting.

Exactly right about how U.S. education seems to put more emphasis on WWII than WWI. And then even within WWII you don't get the whole story. Carlin's "Ghosts of the Ostfront" series gave me an entirely new perspective on the side of the war the U.S. didn't fight. In many ways - certainly in terms of lives lost - it's an even more tragic story.

It's not just the USA. Here in Finland I was pretty much only taught how the war started and how it affected Finland (which gained independence from Russia in 1917, and then fought a civil war in 1918 with some involvement from Russia and Germany). My teacher openly told us that we don't need to know any details about ww1, since ww2 is much more important (although the teaching about that one also emphasized the Finnish wars (winter war, continuation war and Lapland war) more than the ww2 itself).

Every country focuses on teaching history relevant to itself. Before I married my wife, who is Chinese, I knew next to nothing about the wars of Japanese expansionism in east asia that lead up to WW2.

If you've ever wondered why europe has been so secular/atheistic for the last 100 years, in comparison to the rest of the word, the Somme is basically your answer.

Could you elaborate? To me it's not particularly obvious why a particular battle should change the religious landscape of a continent for a century to come.

I've recently started listening to Dan Carlin, specifically the Blueprint to Armageddon series about WWI, and I second this recommendation. Carlin's a wonderfully engaging storyteller, who helps you get into the mind of the soldiers, generals, and citizens affected by this awful world event while tying it all together to an overall narrative of events. A great listen.

Yeah Carlin's WW1 series has been outstanding. I really had no idea just how hellacious things were in the trenches during WW1. History lessons in school really didn't get across the shear terror of being shelled by gigantic artillery for hours and days on end.

I can also heartily recommend Dan Carlin's WWI episodes. I've learned a lot listening to them the last few weeks.

Love Dan Carlin's podcasts.

The thing I love the most about the first part of that WW1 series is the horror-movie sense of a moviegoer yelling out "don't open that door!" at a character on screen. You know what's coming, you know all the horror that will unfold, and you just have to watch/listen as bit by bit the machine of war starts up.

Carlin is really good. To the non-Americans out there, push past his movie trailer voice, it doesn't mean it's tosh, he is actually rather good.

I highly recommend "Storm of steel" by Ernst Jünger.

He has incredible descriptions of the terror felt at the trenches.

http://www.amazon.com/Storm-Steel-Penguin-Classics-J%C3%BCng...

I recently read Poetry of the First World War: an Anthology. There's a reason people make a big deal about the British poets.

http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-First-World-War-Anthology/dp/01...

Interesting, that's on the USMC reading list:

http://militaryprofessionalreadinglists.com/search?keywords=...

I'm in the middle of it, and am so glad to see this comment. I can't recommend it enough. Excellent.

> He added, with comical appreciation of the irony of his position, “We were glad to get out of the Dardanelles and be shipped to Saloniki.”

For some explanatory background on the two fronts this soldier fought on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macedonian_Front

For those interested in why there was fighting in the Dardanelles, read Guns of August by Barbera Tuchman. It covers the timeline from Serajevo to The Marne.

http://www.audible.com/pd/History/The-Guns-of-August-Audiobo...

This was a POW, in case that wasn't clear to anyone else

Another good reference is "Johny Got his Gun" by Dalton Trumbo. I read it when I was about 16. It gave me a new perspective on war.

Did not expect my country to be mentioned in there.

I did not expect Bulgaria to be mentioned in there as well. When reading the article's name one does not associate 'trenches' with battles in the Balkans.

The story shows how one soul ended up 3000 km away from his birthplace. Nowadays, after a hundred years after those events, one can travel on a flight between Dublin and Sofia in a few hours.

The point that I found interesting is that about mismanagement. The claim that the colonel did not prepare his troops, permitted them to stay without guidance in the tranches, without food or proper clothes. How the other side - in this case, Bulgarians - were more acutely aware of how to operate their guns. It rings true the disillusionment and disappointment when organisation or institution fails to organise its efforts.

Fantastic Read

It's an unsatisfying read, not enough background.

I can't imagine that your average American was so knowledgeable of Gallipoli that none was required.

The writer makes the soldier out to be simple and quaint but for me he's the more eccentric.

Actually, I take it back, Ferdinand Reyher, the author, has quite an interesting life story http://digital.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions.DisplayEADDoc....

An incredible account of WWI trench warfare - fascinating and extremely intimate - was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_of_Steel for those interested

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