Fliegermorde - German Atrocities against Allied Airmen

[Bruce Tuncks]

A good summary in wikipedia  but I don't think her extra sources for " The Guns of August" were properly explained. Generals like Joffre told the truth to their wives but it has taken 100 years for those letters to become available to researchers.

I have an interest in that my grandfather was in france and was one of those "undisciplined Australian soldiers". I reckon he would have been killed by the poms. Luckily Breaker Morant had caused the Australian government to prohibit the poms killing australians, with the result that no australians died by their own side. A lot of pom soldiers did though, although I reckon the French were the worst at this.

 

As for the end in 1918, it was 3 things which stopped the poms from enjoying the war... the russian revolution, the german naval mutiny and the french mutiny. The pommy aristocracy correctly decided that life would never be the same if their own conscript army did anything but obey orders, but here were their main allies plus their enemy in varying degrees of disobedience.

 

Edited February 4, 2021 by Bruce Tuncks

[willedoo]

It was a horrible war. I had two Great Uncles fight in it. One, my Grandfather's brother, went over as a Light Horse reinforcement in 1916, fought in the Middle East and came home in one piece. The other, my Grandmother's brother, was a single 38 year old farmer when he joined up. He also went over in 1916 and was sent to the Somme in an infantry battalion. He was killed by a shell in his first battle in one of the assaults on Mouquet Farm. After nine years went by he was found and identified and buried in the Australian war cemetary at Flers.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I agree williedoo. It was a horrible war and so unnecessary. It marked the end of christendom and the pom's place as a superpower and it was all over nothing.

There was a demented old Austro-hungarian emperor who was hell-bent on attacking Serbia after his son was assassinated, but so what.

He should have been left alone to rant, but instead everybody went to war. The serb's only ace was their alliance with Russia, and the Austrians were mates with the Germans and this is how it began.

Just why Australia was busting to be in it is something for the psychologists to uncover. Yes I know we were a sort-of part of England, but in South Australia, the population was about 50% ethnic German.

During the war, some south Australian place names were changed by stay-at-home patriots.

Kaiser Stuhl became Mount Kitchener, after the nasty man who introduced the concentration camp to the modern world.

 

[Old Koreelah]

12 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

...Just why Australia was busting to be in it is something for the psychologists to uncover. Yes I know we were a sort-of part of England, but in South Australia, the population was about 50% ethnic German.

During the war, some south Australian place names were changed by stay-at-home patriots.

Kaiser Stuhl became Mount Kitchener, after the nasty man who introduced the concentration camp to the modern world.

If we mistreat one generation their children might make war on us.

 

Fathers of my schoolmates fought in Crete and got an interesting history lesson after being captured. Among the German guards was a young bloke who abused them in a perfect Australian accent. When they asked him why he’d joined Hitler’s army he described the abuse and humiliation suffered by his family (second generation German immigrants) in the Barossa during WWI. He became totally disillusioned with the nation of his birth.