Considering the war began 98 years ago, it's surprising it took this long, but it's still a sad milestone to note that the last surviving serving veteran of the First World War, Florence Green, died on Saturday at the ripe age of 110.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/08/last-wwi-survivor-a-woman-dies-at-110
Green wasn't a soldier - in fact, she worked as a waitress and signed up only 2 months before the end of the war - but she still provided important morale boosts for the soldiers, and just the symbolism of knowing no one is left who remembers serving in the Great War for however long (and only a few people remember living through it in any event) is quite profound. I'm reminded of the old saying "those who can't remember the past are doomed to repeat it". I've met enough WWI veterans in my years as a journalist - I once interviewed one of the last survivors of Vimy Ridge here in Calgary; he was on his honeymoon at the age of 99! - to know that, while today's warfare is terrible, make no mistake, the soldiers on both sides in WWI endured a true hell on earth. No drones or real tanks, and of course there was the trenches and the gas. Just guns, grenades, bayonets, and human cannon fodder. And remember - it was triggered by a lone nut assassinating some archduke in Sarajevo. You don't need to invade Poland to spark a world war.
One of the most striking film or TV representations of what WWI meant for a lot of people comes from the closing minutes of Blackadder Goes Forth. Anyone who has seen it knows what I'm talking about. And if you don't know and happen to be watching the show for the first time haven't reached the end yet - major spoiler in the next link so don't click it unless you want to. Sitcom be damned, this was powerful stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DGa9xHGB0c
Alex
PS. A quick statistic. We make a big deal out of the fact about 4,000 Americans have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Terrible loss, of course. But look at the death toll for events like the Battle of Ypres (210,000), Gallipoli (more than 500,000), Battle of Verdun (close to A MILLION dead according to one estimate). Battle of the Somme - 1.2 million dead. Both sides included, of course. But still - be thankful the individual deaths in the current wars remain low enough to each register as a news story, rather than names to fill a phone book. We really never want to go there again. Lest we forget, indeed.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/08/last-wwi-survivor-a-woman-dies-at-110
Green wasn't a soldier - in fact, she worked as a waitress and signed up only 2 months before the end of the war - but she still provided important morale boosts for the soldiers, and just the symbolism of knowing no one is left who remembers serving in the Great War for however long (and only a few people remember living through it in any event) is quite profound. I'm reminded of the old saying "those who can't remember the past are doomed to repeat it". I've met enough WWI veterans in my years as a journalist - I once interviewed one of the last survivors of Vimy Ridge here in Calgary; he was on his honeymoon at the age of 99! - to know that, while today's warfare is terrible, make no mistake, the soldiers on both sides in WWI endured a true hell on earth. No drones or real tanks, and of course there was the trenches and the gas. Just guns, grenades, bayonets, and human cannon fodder. And remember - it was triggered by a lone nut assassinating some archduke in Sarajevo. You don't need to invade Poland to spark a world war.
One of the most striking film or TV representations of what WWI meant for a lot of people comes from the closing minutes of Blackadder Goes Forth. Anyone who has seen it knows what I'm talking about. And if you don't know and happen to be watching the show for the first time haven't reached the end yet - major spoiler in the next link so don't click it unless you want to. Sitcom be damned, this was powerful stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DGa9xHGB0c
Alex
PS. A quick statistic. We make a big deal out of the fact about 4,000 Americans have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Terrible loss, of course. But look at the death toll for events like the Battle of Ypres (210,000), Gallipoli (more than 500,000), Battle of Verdun (close to A MILLION dead according to one estimate). Battle of the Somme - 1.2 million dead. Both sides included, of course. But still - be thankful the individual deaths in the current wars remain low enough to each register as a news story, rather than names to fill a phone book. We really never want to go there again. Lest we forget, indeed.
