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878f3c1
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"As Wilson mourned his wife, German forces in Belgium entered quiet towns and villages, took civilian hostages, and executed them to discourage resistances. In the town of Dinant, German soldiers shot 612 men, women, and children. The American press called such atrocities acts of "frightfulness," the word then used to describe what later generations would call terrorism. On August 25, German forces bean an assault on the Belgian city of Louvain, the "Oxford of Belgium," a university town that was home to an important library. Three days of shelling and murder left 209 civilians dead, 1,100 buildings incinerated, and the library destroyed, along with its 230,000 books, priceless manuscripts, and artifacts. The assault was deemed an affront to just to Belgium but to the world. Wilson, a past president of Princeton University, "felt deeply the destruction of Louvain," according to his friend, Colonel House; the president feared "the war would throw the world back three or four centuries."
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world-war-1
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Erik Larson |
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0855b5c
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At the beginning of the war...I had to look in on the War Office, and in a room I found a fellow...What do you think he was doing...what the hell do you think he was doing? He was devising the ceremonial for the disbanding of a Kitchener battalion. You can't say we were not prepared in one matter at least.... Well, the end of the show was to be: the adjutant would stand the battalion at ease; the band would play Land of Hope and Glory, and then the adjutant would say: There will be no more parades.... Don't you see how symbolical it was--the band playing Land of Hope and Glory, and then the adjutant saying: There will be no more parades?...For there won't. There won't, there damn well won't. No more Hope, no more Glory, no more parades for you and me any more. Nor for the country...nor for the world, I dare say... None... Gone... Napoo finny! No...more...parades!
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tragedy
passing-of-time
world-war-1
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Ford Madox Ford |