Showing posts with label World War One. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World War One. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet On the Western Front).

 


He fell in October, 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front, that the army report confined itself to the single sentence: All quiet on the Western Front.

He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. Turning him over one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.

The last two paragraphs of All Quiet On The Western Front

I've never reviewed All Quiet on the Western Front, even though I'd long ago seen the prior two versions.  I just saw the newest, German made, production of the book, which in Germany was released under the novel's German title, Im Westen nichts Neues, which literally translates as "in the West nothing new".*

All Quiet On The Western Front has a reputation as being the greatest anti-war novel ever written.  I'm sorry to say that I haven't actually read it, which I'll have to do.  Indeed, the recent German made version of the novel sort of compels me to do so.

The novel was first adapted to film in 1930 in an American version, which is a great film in its own right.

It was later adopted to a television in 1979, in another version that is very well regarded.  In 2022 this German version was released and shown on Netflix.  My original intent was to review just that version, but you really can't.  You have to review all three.

The best of the three is frankly the first one, although it does suffer from being a film that, due to cinematography, and due to pacing, hasn't aged as well as it should have.  It's hard not to watch the 1930 version and not, at least at first, appreciate that you are watching an old film.  

Still, this version sets the story at well, and perhaps with more than a degree of unintended irony in that the film came before the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1932, and therefore the early scene of enthusiastic school boys being eager for the war were ominous, retrospectively.  It's a gritty, good protrayal.

The 1979 television version is good as well, but frankly I just couldn't quite get around Richard Thomas in the role of the main protagonist, Paul Bäumer.  Lew Ayres was better in that role.  For that matter, Ernest Borgnine, who almost always turned in a good performance, did in the 1979 version as well, but he's just way too old for the German NCO Stanislaus Katczinsky he portrays.  For that matter, Louis Robert Wolheim really was as well, at age 50, but he carries the role off better, even though he was within a year of his own death at the time.

Anyhow, Thomas was so whiny, in a way, in The Waltons that I just can't get around that in this film, which really isn't his fault.  I just can't see him going from a green, naive recruit to a hardened combat veteran.

Which takes us to the new production.

This is the first German production of the film, and it shows it.  The production values in the film are absolutely excellent.  the material details are superb and. . . . the plot massively departs from the novel.

And for that reason, frankly, it suffers.  

This film really carries the post World War Two German guilt/excuse into a World War One work that was a novel.  It doesn't, therefore, really get Remarque's warning about militarism across, so much as it portrays average Germans as victims of the Great War and future victims of the Second World War.  The death of Katczinsky, which is a completely pointless combat death in the novel and first two films, is a weird murder by a French child in this version.  

And the ending of this movie departs massively from the novel and looses the point of it.  The protagonist dies on a quiet day, like thousands of soldiers did.  In the new German version he died in a  massive late war German assault at the end of the war.  That's completely different.  

For that matter, that's a major departure from actual history and it ties in, just a tad, to the Stabbed In the Back myth. The Germans had an ongoing revolution at home and the Frontsoldaten were collapsing. You couldn't have ordered them into an attack in late 1918 no matter how hard you tried.

So, the first version is the best.  I don't think I could get through the second again, and the third version is worth watching, once.

*This review was started in October, 2022.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

Thursday, Feburary 7, 1924. De la Huerta retreats and the M1911A1 is born.

Adolfo de la Huerta and his staff withdrew by boat to Mérida, Yucatán, after federal troops recaptured Veracruz.

Crowd going to the National Cathedral, under construction, where President Wilson had been laid to rest.

Italy recognized the Soviet Union.

Around this time, Colt began to ship what is called the "Colt Transition Model 1911", which were actually the first of the M1911A1s.


The Colt M1911 is a John Browning designed semi-automatic pistol that can legitimately be regarded s the greatest handgun ever made, although there are, or perhaps more accurately were, a few other contenders.  Other than the mostly John Browning Designed Hi Power, none of the other contenders remain in service somewhere however and the M1911 has by far the longest period of service.

Adopted by the U.S. on March 29, 1911, in 1923 the handgun received some minor modifications, the most significant of which is a curved spring housing which changed the profile of the grip.  The trigger was also shortened.  In 1924 the modified design started to ship, this month, from Colt.  The M1911A1 designation came in 1926.  

Large quantities of M1911s were made in World War One, and even larger quantities of M1911A1s were made during World War Two. So many were in fact made that no new orders were placed for M1911s through the rest of its primary service life, up to when the M9 Beretta 9mm handgun was ordered to replace it.

MEU(SOC) pistol.

The M9 actually failed to completely replace the M1911A1, although it nearly did so.  Some small quantities of M1911A1s that had been issued to officers remained in ongoing use.  In addition, the pistol never ceased being used by special troops, who favored it over the 9mm M9 due to its larger .45ACP cartridge.  The Marines nearly immediately resisted the change and adopted a reworked and custom-built M1911, with flat spring housing, as the MEU(SOC) pistol for close combat, taking in quantities of M9s at the same time.

Female Marine firing M45A1.

During the war in Afghanistan, the M1911 started to reappear in force, being rebuilt by service armorers and with some small numbers being once again purchased for special forces.  In 2012 the Marine Corps began to acquire modernized M1911s, with the flat spring housing, which were ultimately adopted as the Marine Corps service pistol with the designation M45. Theoretically, these passed out of service in 2022, but it's frankly unlikely that they fully did.  The pistol almost certain remains in use to some degree by the US.

The pistol, given all of this, has an incredibly long service life, likely the longest of any US weapon.  And the M1911 itself has rebounded in popularity and is as popular as a civilian handgun as ever, perhaps more popular than ever.  As a police weapon, it was used by the FBI for decades, and also in various cartridge chamberings by law enforcement agencies.  No handgun rivals it.

Related Threads:

Monday, January 29, 2024

Tuesday, February 29, 1924. Air assisted victory.

Secretary of the Navy Fall was so struck by the Teapot Dome Scandal, which took place, of course, on the Naval Petroleum Reserve, that he had fallen ill.


Mexican Federal forces took Esperanza in Puebla in a hard fought battle.

The counter-attack featured strafing runs by Mexican-born American pilot, Ralph O'Neill.


O'Neill had distinguished service with the US Army as a pilot in World War One and held three Distinguished Service Cross citations.  He lived until 1980, dying at age 83 in California.

Monday, January 8, 2024

Saturday, January 8, 1944. P-80 takes flight, Wilson takes command.

Bomb being loaded on carrier, January 8, 1944.
Today in World War II History—January 8, 1944: First flight of US Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star jet fighter at Muroc Army Air Base, CA, but it won’t be ready for combat until the war is over.

Sarah Sundin.

Yesterday we reported on the P59.  As can be seen from her entry above, already a much better jet fighter was coming up. 


1,715 of the fighters would be produced in various versions before production was ceased, the design having been eclipsed, in 1950.  It would see action in the Korean War, although there were better jet fighter designs already in service.  It would be phased out of US service in 1959, by which time it was very obsolete.

Wilson, left, with Sir Oliver Lease.

She also reports that Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson officially replaced Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean.

Jumbo Wilson, as he was nicknamed, was a British career soldier who as 63 years old at the time.  He had seen combat service before World War Two in the Boer War and the Great War.  He'd live until 1964, dying at age 83.

The Red Army took Kirovohrad, Ukraine.  In night operations, the Red Army's 67th Tank Brigade hit the headquarters of the German 47th Panzer Corps. The raid featured tank riders.

The Italian Social Republic put the 19 members of the Fascist Grand Council, six of whom were in their custody, on trail for voting to remove Mussolini.  Five of the six in custody would be found guilty and executed on January 11.

I can't help but note how authoritarian losers like to put those who voted against them on trial. . . a warning for voters this fall on what could happen with a Trump return.

The U-426 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by a RAAF Short Sunderland.  The U-757 was sunk in the North Atlantic by the HMS Bayntun and the Canadian corvette Camrose.

The U.S. Navy bombarded Japanese installations on Shortland Island in the Solomons.

Royal Navy Radio receiving room, Algeria, January 8, 1944.

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Monday, December 27, 1943. Seizing the railroads, again.



People like to imagine that World War Two was a period in which the whole country simply pulled together for the war effort, and we put our differences behind us.

Well, to some extent, but not as much as imagined.

On this day in 1943 President Roosevelt seized the nation's railroads by executive order in advance of a strike scheduled for December 30.  The Army took control of the rail lines.

This had last happened on December 26, 1917, for the same reason.

The Battle of the Pimple commenced on New Guinea between the Japanese and the advancing Australians.

Allied advances stopped at Monte Cassino.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 271943  The USS Casper, a Tacoma Class frigate, launched.


The Americans extended their beachhead at Cape Gloucester with the Japanese offering little resistance.

The German blockade runner Alsterufer was sunk by Allied aircraft in the Bay of Biscay.

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Wednesdsay, September 26, 1923. Extreme right wing coup attempt. . .


 in 1923.

In a way, it's nice to know that political extremists have attempted to subvert democracy under cover of political legitimacy before.  It makes today's headlines less wacky.

Bulgarian troops attacked Ferdinand and Boychinovtsi to put down a rebellion.

German Chancellor Gustav Stresemann suspended seven articles of the German constitution and declared a state of emergency over the upset caused by the abandonment of German passive resistance n the Ruhr.

Lothar Witzke, German intelligence agent who was apprehended and sentenced to prison by the US in 1918, was pardoned by President Coolidge and deported.

Monday, July 24, 2023

Tuesday, July 24, 1923. Natrona County Floods. The end of World War One?


 Flooding was ravaging Natrona County, Wyoming.

The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in Switzerland.  It was the last treaty relating to World War One.

The Hague Academy of International Law was inaugurated.



Thursday, June 22, 2023

Rudyard Kipling. Epitaths of the Great War. The Wonder

the wonder 

Body and Spirit I surrendered whole 

To harsh Instructors—and received a soul . . . 

If mortal man could change me through and through 

From all I was—what may The God not do?

Monday, June 19, 2023

Tuesday, June 19, 1923. the Little Old Log Cabin.

 

John Carson

"Fiddlin" John Carson recorded "The Little Old Log Cabin" in the Lane in what is now inaccurately regarded as the first "country" music recording.  The flipside was "The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster's Going To Crow."

It was "country", but not in the country pop or modern C&W understanding, but rather in the "Hill Billy" music understanding of the word. That type of music, often highly evolved, is still within the "country" genre, but much, indeed most, of modern C&W music is as much related to pop music than anything else.

Carson would record off and on until 1935.  He died in 1949 at age 81, spending his final years as an elevator operator.

The US and the UK came to an agreement on the UK's war debt.

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Epitaphs of the War. Rudyard Kipling. Ex-clerk

Pity not!    The Army gave 

Freedom to a timid slave: 

In which Freedom did he find 

Strength of body, will, and mind: 

By which strength he came to prove 

Mirth, Companionship, and Love: 

For which Love to Death he went: 

In which Death he lies content.

Monday, June 5, 2023

Sunday, June 4, 2023

Friday, June 4, 1943. Giraud takes command.

Henri Giraud was appointed Commander In Chief of the Free French Forces.

Giraud was a career French Army officer, as we would of course expect, who had entered the army in 1900.  He was serving with the Zouave's in North Africa when World War One broke out and was badly wounded leading a Zouave charge earlier in the war, resulting in his capture by the Germans after he'd been left for dead.  He'd escaped German captivity posing as s circus roustabout after his recovery.

He was captured by the Germans a second time in May 1940, and escaped again in November 1942, as we discussed here:

Saturday, November 7, 1942. Giraud escapes France.

The British submarine Seraph smuggled French general Henri Giraud out of France.


Giraud was an opponent of the Vichy regime and had escaped German captivity, for Switzerland, back in April.  Vichy tried to lure him back, but he demurred.

While all in anticipation of Torch, the submarine took Giraud to Gibraltar, where he remained until November 9.  Relationships between the Free French officers were always highly complicated and tense, in part because their legitimacy was really legally questionable, which their organization, supported by the Allies, reflected. The Allies always tried to split the difference between outright firebrand rebels, like DeGaulle, and those who still held some ties to Vichy as the legal government.  Those in a position in between, like Giraud, were in an odd spot.

He received Allied support as the leader of the Free French following the assassination of Admiral Darlan. At the time, the Allies were trying to balance the personalities in the French leadership which varied from DeGaulle, who had gone into rebellion against Vichy from the onset, to individuals like Darlan who had not been sympathetic with the Nazis but who were unwilling, at first, to rebel against the established legal government.  Giroud appeared to be a good compromise between the two.  In that, he may have been misread.  An early sign of that was when Gen. Eisenhower asked him to take command of French troops in North Africa during Operation Torch, and he declined at first as he felt his honor demanded command of Torch itself, although he soon relented.

As it was, French forces in North Africa refused to recognize Giraud and instead continued to follow the orders of Admiral Darlan.  Darlan was accordingly recognized by the Allies as the head of French forces in North Africa, in spite of his association with Vichy.  Giraud's position was thereafter under Darlan.  Upon Darlan's assassination, Giraud's overall leadership of the French forces was forced through by the Allies.

Giraud had not been, however, a perfect choice, as he wished to retain French racial laws and he had made comments sympathetic to the accomplishments of Nazi Germany.  He'd ultimately fell when he acted independently of the Allies in sending French ships to help French resistance movements in Corsica in September without informing the Allies.  At this point, it was learned that he was maintaining an independent intelligence service.  This led to his wartime retirement.  

He served in the Assembly after the war, and died in 1949 at age 70.

Argentina's government fell in a coup d'etate which removed Ramon Castillo, who had maintained a strict neutrality position over World War Two, in favor of Gen. Arturo Rawson, who yielded nearly immediately to Gen. Pedro Ramirez, who continued the neutrality policy.  As this might demonstrate, the coup and Argentine politics were in a highly confused state, and would remain that way for many years.  Its military was clearly a danger, however, to civilian leadership of the country.

Belle and Kermit Roosevelt.

Kermit Roosevelt, serving as a Major in the U.S. Army, but also suffering from years of illness and alcoholism, committed suicide in Alaska.  He was 52 years old.

Adventuresome, like his father, but subject to alcoholism like his uncle.  He served in the British and American armies during World War One.  He'd accompanied his father on the legendary River of Doubt expedition in South America before the war, an event which contributed to Theodore Roosevelt's late in life declining health.  Like his father, Kermit Roosevelt nearly died during the expedition and also like his father, a branch of the river was named for him.

He served a second hitch in the British Army early in World War Two, participating in the Battle of Narvik.  He resumed heavy drinking after an injury in that battle, which he had previously given up, and was plagued by liver problems that was compounded by malaria. He was subsequently medically discharged from British service.  His drinking was so bad that Archie Roosevelt sought to place him in a sanitarium for a year upon his return, and he agreed to a four-month stay.  He took a commission in the U.S. Army as a major at that time and was stationed at Ft. Richardson, Alaska.

Epitaphs of the War by Rudyard Kipling

  “equality of sacrifice” 

A. “I was a Have.”   B. “I was a ‘have-not.’” 

    (Together). “What hast thou given which I gave not?” 

Friday, June 2, 2023

Saturday, June 2, 1923. Criqui v. Kilbane

Eugène Criqui knocked out Johnny Kilbane in the sixth round at the Polo Grounds in New York City to take the World Featherweight Title.  Babe Ruth, who had hurried over from a Yankee's game, was in attendance.

Cirqui.

Cirqui had been a professional boxer since 1910, although his career was interrupted by World War One during which he was shot in the jaw by a German sniper.  His jaw had been reconstructed with wire, the bone of a goat and silver.

He died at age 83 in 1977.

Kilbane.

Kilbane was from Ohio and from a classically difficult childhood.  He'd been boxing since 1907.  He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War One and retired shortly after losing this fight.  He died at age 68 in 1957.

The Kaufman Act passed, requiring the electrification of all New York City railroads by the beginning of 1926.

The Federal Government wasn't taking New York's no to Prohibition lightly.




Monday, May 29, 2023

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. XLVIII. Put your nastiness away and have a beer, Steamboat and Red Wing, Repeating history, Dog whistles.

I went to the Black Tooth Brewery in Casper's beer reveal, for their new UW themed beer.  I wasn't really interested in going but my wife was, so my wife, daughter and her boyfriend all went.


Secretary of State Chuck Gray was there.

The can has an old style state license plate theme, and therefore it would need cooperation from UW anyway, which owns the trademark for the symbol and jealously guards it.  That requires the cooperation of the Secretary of State's office.  This is being done as a "partnership" with UW, so there's no doubt that it would have come.  One of the employees of the SoS's office was thanked by UW, and to his credit, Secretary Gray thanked the woman as well.

But Gray, who has spent a lot of time touring the state and showing up at political events, just couldn't help but go negative and throw in some nasty line about how we aren't "woke" in Wyoming and referencing Budweiser.

The reaction of the crowd was muted at best. This was a Wyoming beer crowd, not a populist far right gathering, and chances are a lot of the people in the audience were either apolitical or old style Wyoming conservatives.  Gray seemed to get the message right away and finished his talk, or whatever it was.

I'm really sick of this behavior.  Gray boosted lies as a candidate, and now he runs around trying to pour gasoline on politics and ignite fires when he doesn't need to. Wyoming's politicians never used to do this, and they certainly didn't do it while in office.

What must it be like to have to be angry all the time?

For that matter, what must it be like to wear brand-new Wranglers, a style of jeans designed for people with cowboy bodies, and brand-new thick soled cowboy boots, the type that cowboys don't wear.

Why did people vote for Gray?  It's really a mystery.  That he's campaigning for the Governor's office right now should be evident to everyone.  Wyomingites would really have to be suckers to vote for Gray for that office, but then, they were suckers when they put him in his current office.

But beyond that, what kind of personality do you have to have in order to show up at everything with some right wing screed?  Can't anyone just enjoy their day without having to be fed a spoonful of BS?

And at what point does putting on a wrathful show convert your personality to fully wrathful?  I know one lawyer who puts on such an act all the time that I think he's truly lost his real personality.  At some point, that would occur.

Gray referred to the famous rodeo horse in his speech, Steamboat.  That's frustrating but inevitable, particularly as his speech, which short, was rambling, much like a speech by a high schooler whose concluded that he's too smart to prepare a speech.  Gray rambled on, something about Steamboat and World War One.

Steamboat was never used by the Wyoming Army National Guard in reality, or as a symbol. That's Red Wing.

That horse on the license plate, everyone knows its Steamboat. Right?

This is never going to get straightened out, but frankly I have a hard time imagining Gray caring, just like I don't think he's going to be flanking any calves while wearing those boots and jeans at branding.

On politics, here's an episode of Jimmy Akin's mysterious world really worth listening to.

The Knights of the Golden Circle (Secret Society, Civil War, John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln, Confederate Gold, Rebels, Slavery) – Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World

It's fascinating history, but beyond that, if you can't see the parallels between today's far right populists and the Knights, you just aren't trying.

The only weekend show that's downloaded for me so far has been Meet The Press, and I didn't listen to it.  The theme was the Supreme Court.

"The Supreme Court is corrupt!" is to the American political left what "Trump won the election" is to the populist far right, and they're both based on the exact same thing, a contempt for democracy.  The far right wants the election to have been stolen, as that would mean it's not a permanent political minority, and we're never going back to wherever they think we were.  The left wants the Court to be corrupt as it might get to boot a couple members off and the country would return to the good old days when the Court decided things rather than state legislatures.

In the case of the Court, the entire claim is based on something that's true, but just is.  Positions of power and wealth attract each other.  You might not like it, but that's the way the world actually works.  That doesn't make it illegal, and it doesn't mean that terrible things are going on behind closed doors.

Last prior edition

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Friday, May 11, 1923. Speed, home runs and volleys

USS Richmond, May 11, 1923.  This was during a pre commissioning speed trial.  The ship would be commissioned in July.  Ordered during World War One, the Richmond would serve through World War Two and be stricken in 1946.

A Major League baseball record that would stand until 1966 was set when the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Phillis hit a combined ten home runs.  The Phillies won 20 to 14.

The Hardings took in a tennis match.