SOUNDINGS
World War 1, Quote #7.
From “Why Nations Go To War” by John G. Stoessinger, published 1982
“Finally, one is struck with the overwhelming mediocrity of the personalities involved. The character of each of the leaders, diplomats, or generals was badly flawed by arrogance, stupidity, carelessness, or weakness. There was a pervasive tendency to place the preservation of one’s ego before the preservation of peace…. It was not fate or Providence that made these men fail so miserably. It was their own evasion of responsibility. As a result of their weakness a generation of Europe’s young men was destroyed…. Of all the cruelties that people have inflicted on one another, the most terrible has always been brought by the weak against the weak.”
World War 1, Quote #6
The World Remade by G.J. Meyer:
"France had suffered as much as any country and more than most, the [First World] war having taken nearly 3.5% of her population, one of every four men between the ages of eighteen and thirty. But a dozen other nations were similarly bereaved. From Portugal to the Russian steppe, men were learning to live without a limb or all their limbs. And learning to live with the compulsive twitching and trembling that were among the mysterious symptoms of shell shock, a new kind of affliction the name of which reflected ignorance of its cause."
World War 1, Quote #5
World War 1, Quote #4
From "My Fellow Soldiers" by Andrew Carroll:
"General Charles Summerall...told MacArthur directly: 'Get me Châtillon or a list of five thousand casualties.'
'If this brigade does not capture Châtillon you can publish a list of the entire brigade with the brigade's commander at the top,' MacArthur replied.
World War 1, Quote #3:
"From other shell holes from the darkness on all sides came the groans and wails of wounded men; faint, long, sobbing moans of agony, and despairing shrieks. It was horribly obvious that dozens of men with serious wounds must have crawled for safety into new shell holes, and now the water was rising about them, and, powerless to move, they were slowly drowning.”
Edwin Vaughan, a British Officer, as told in John Keegan’s, "The First World War"