Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 12:38:05 -0500
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Eleven eleven
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

from the Capclave Fan GoHs:

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006970.html#006970

I had a great uncle who went to Canada so he could fight the Boche.  I
recall seeing photographs from the war he took, of "Black Jack" Pershing
standing on a box addressing toops...

And there's this:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/11/vanishing.vets.ap/index.html

After Confiction in 1990 I went to Verdun.  It's still scarred from the
war... the German plan was to "bleed France white."

"The attack finally began at 07:15 on 21 February, Crown Prince Wilhelm
opening the battle with 1,400 guns packed along the eight-mile front,
the guns well served by good nearby railway facilities.  100,000 shells
poured into Verdun every hour, Wilhelm's intention being to kill the
majority of the French defenders before the infantry even started their
advance into the fortress."
<http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/verdun.htm>

It's still dangerous to walk beyond the marked paths, there being
unexploded munitions.  "Many charges did not go off; even today farmers
of the Western Front unearth many tons of unexploded 'iron harvest'
each year." <http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/somme.htm>  Along with
this "iron harvest" there still human remains being found.

After Verdun, it was off to Normandy... but that's another day...

mjw