Sunday, November 11, 2007

WWI Museum



Yeah I know. It's a big phallus with a sculpted sphinx-scrotum. But it's Veteran's Day! Get your mind out of the homo-gutter and try to look at the big picture!

This place is incredible. I attended the opening last year and posted about it here.

This time, I brought my camera.

One of the first things you see when entering the museum is the glass walkway above a field of poppys.



This is a crappy picture because of the reflections.

Here is a better picture of just a part of the poppy field beneath the glass floor.



Each individual poppy represents ONE THOUSAND (1000) soldiers killed during the war.

Thrity Seven Million (37,000,000,000) casualties on all sides between 1914 and 1918. Think about that for just a minute.

The thing that has always struck me about WWI is that it was the catastrophic clash between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

You had the first tanks



and you still had horse-drawn artillery



You had automatic weapons



but you also had swords



knives



and medieval clubs



and even armor



for brutal, hand-to-hand, inter-trench combat.

You had soldiers living and fighting for months or years in blood-soaked, disease-filled, muddy trenches








while aviators fought 15 and 30 minute fights in the sky only to land miles from the frontline and enjoy steaks and whiskey, retiring to soft matresses and French whores in "liberated" mansions.



You also had the first victims of Weapons of Mass Distruction with Mustard Gas.



This was the beginning of modern, 20th century warfare.

Visit the museum if you have the opportunity and the inclination.

Learn from the mistakes of history if you have the intellectual capacity to do so.

Change the future if you have power to make a difference.

Support our troops, but expose and expudiate the lies and hidden agendas that got them killed.

There is nothing good or glorious about war. It represents the failure of all other options.

Or at least, it used to.

8 comments:

Spyder said...

Great idea to go there today. We had other plans.

Dan said...

I wish I had gone, too. Great report. And thanks for the support at my blog.

SmedRock said...

Went the day it opened. Awesome display. The did a good job with the scope of the war, and also show items from the day to day life of your average G.I.

Satyavati devi dasi said...

Seems like in this country we don't know a whole lot about WWI. I don't remember learning a lot about it in school.

There's a song called Paschendale about a battle in WWI. It intrigued me so much that I had to go learn about it.

The whole thing was pretty amazing.

Trelvix said...

Great bit of journalism here (really). I need to get to your neck of the woods and see this place.

I spent Saturday in hospital chairs and returned Sunday to find that none of my neighbors cared enough to even fly their flag this weekend.

Thanks for doing the right thing on their behalf.

Anonymous said...

FYI and 2 years later, here's why you're an idiot.

"while aviators fought 15 and 30 minute fights in the sky only to land miles from the frontline and enjoy steaks and whiskey, retiring to soft matresses and French whores in "liberated" mansions."

The average lifespan of a combat pilot with the Royal Flying Corps was about 20 days.

I agree with you about Iraq, but people who make stupid asinine remarks without bothering to know what the hell they're talking about are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info!
You should read:
"All Quiet On The Western Front"
by, Erich Maria Remarque
Or listen to the audio book.

It's a heart rending tale of WWI as told by a young German soldier, but NOT at all about politics. It's a beautifully written story about an obscene, appalling deeply disturbing event in human history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front_(1930_film)

Other info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/198172.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/198172.stm

Unknown said...

i found this place looking up mustard gas for a friend who was unaware of it's use and power.My brother was born on veterans day and served 5 yrs.4 mn. in the core .i did not go in but all of my moms side was navy in every so called modern war except vietnam(time skipped us in that war)so i think what you have said about war being something that is used when all else fails is sound advice.My grandpa was always ashamed of what we did to nagasaki and hiroshima,but he wa a medic and later was a 33rd degree mason and a knight of columbus