It is at Verdun that military nightmares occurred, that are among the most heart-rending, and blameworthy as to the commands of both sides, among the horrors of war. Read a full account and the damning account of the commands, at "The Battle of Verdun: The Greatest Battle Ever." www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/battleverdun/index.htm#battle05.
Mutiny of 1917. Soldiers knew they had no chance against the German guns. The main campaign had stretched from February through December 1916, and still the survivors were ordered to return, with additional troops day after day and the deaths were horrendous.
And their commanders knew that. And the soldiers knew the commanders knew. No chance.
The men were not adequately equipped, there was unprecedented firepower, phosgene gas, heavy artillery, emerging flame thrower technologies, cave-ins, no plan other than the perpetual suicidal counterattack regardless of losses, see The Forts of Verdun by Robert E. Duchesno www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Base/3495/FVerdun1a. And communications sometimes only by carrier pigeon, those that rose above the explosions.
The rebellion. Finally, multiple divisions of soldiers revolted against orders to go to the front, against those guns, to be mowed down. Rebellion. See "The Anatomy of a Mutiny" at //givewings.com/writings/essays_on_war/mutiny. The 21st division refused to go into battle. Others also, some 20,000. Against the foddering. And just before the actual mutiny, there was a vast and unique form of unrest.
Hear the form of this revolt - There was "sheep-like bleating heard among regiments ... mingled with cries of 'Down With The War' and 'Down With The Incapable Leaders....' " See the givewings site. That cynical bleating of the troops under their incompetent leaders echoes still. There the commanders were, issuing orders under the circumstances of old-time training but new world guns, commanders unable to adjust, unable to see the war world in this new way, and the soldiers finally refused.
Then came the resounding "Baa-aa-aah," as they passed their officers, in the line moving forward, forced. The account goes on: "Men on leave waved red flags and sang revolutionary songs. They beat up military police and railwaymen, and uncoupled or derailed engines to prevent trains from leaving for the front." See the givewings site.
"The war had lost its legitimacy." See the givewings site. See also this next site for a good description, and don't be afraid of the "socialist" in the address if that goes against your grain. The word means different things in different countries and contexts - this is Great Britain (the UK). Venture for the information to //www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=3695. The information and facts look on point. And see how a victory in one area for some, turns out to be a victory in other areas for unintended groups as well. War lays many seeds, some unwanted and unforeseen, and deadly later.
Fodder.
See "Between Mutiny and Obedience: The Case of the French Infantry Division During World War I," Journal of Social History, by Jennifer Diane Keene 1996 at //findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2005/is_n2_v29/ai_17841825/pg_2.
Wilfred Owen, the British poet in WWI who died in 1918, on dying as cattle. This can be reproduced so long as the source is given, as we do at the end:
"Anthem for a Doomed Youth"
by Wilfred Owen 1893-1918
"What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
--Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds."
Find it at ://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets.html
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Dilemma for soldiers needed as fodder, to just stay in line. How to foster the continuing mindset that accepts that.
Question: Does it require ongoing isolation and inculcation, especially when it is no longer the very young and malleable who serve in the military. Can you come home and be a citizen, even testify or engage in discussions about things like underlying policy, when setting policy is not your job, and retain the ability to return to being a consumer soldier - follow the orders. Maybe that is why soldiers are given limited leaves: don't give them time to think. They might get out of role. And not go back. Or criticize. Keep them fodder. Does that isolation protect the commanders against analysis; or protect the mission by promoting cohesion. Like don't ask don't tell. What non-military interest is really being served.
Sources that do not call a spade a spade. Worldwide phenomenon. Spin.
If some French or some other sources are checked about the Mutiny of 1917, for example, you may find little reference, if any, to mutiny. You may find only a lapse in discipline idea; or, as in this side (also above), the detail about the panic and flight of the soldiers, but it does not use the revolting word. See "The Battle of Verdun: The Greatest Battle Ever." www.wereldoorlog1418.nl/battleverdun/index.htm#battle05. The section at Phase 5 in the wereldoorlog site is merely titled, The Crises in the French Defence. Mirrors are ugly for all of us in some way. Who is right?
Meet Mme. Berthe Girardot, and her elegantly understated, but profoundly moving, Memorial to the Unknown Soldiers - her son among them. Grief. Resignation. Pensiveness. The quiet "why." Those are lasting. Not glory.This is the memorial to unknown soldiers that was actually made by a mother whose son was never found. She also was an artist-sculptor: Mme. Berthe Girardot. See her tall, shrouded stone-woman, standing straight like the column she is, gazing out with a finger to her lips. Elsewhere on the grounds is the huge Ossuary holding unidentifiable remains of some 150,000 unknown soldiers. And her son. See post.
The caption on the postcard translates to something like this: the gesture of silence symbolizes the resignation of French Womanhood, attentive in affection. "Cette stele, par le geste du slience, symbolise la resignation de la Femme francaise atteinte dans ses affections." Unspeakable grief. Close enough in translation?
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