#ww1

harryhaller@diasp.eu

Hong Kong Daily Press 1918-12-19

BULGARIAN BRUTALITY.
PRISON CAMP HORRORS.
[FROM G. Ward Price.]

The Serbian prisoners-of-war camp on
the outskirts of Sofia is terrible evidence
of that hatred between Bulgarian and
Serbian, which runs like a poison through
the whole system of the Balkans. A mile
from Sofia, near the main road to

Radomir, is a muddy compound about
three acres in extent, surrounded by barb-
ed wire. In this pen are 103,000 Serbians
of all ages, together with 600 Greek civi-
lians, carried off from Sepres and Druina,
a smaller body of Russians, and a detach-
ment of French. The French were lodged
in a few whitewashed mud-huts which the
compound contains. The greater major-
ity of the Serbians have lain out in the
open day and night, in wind and rain,
summer and winter, many of them for
three whole years of captivity, They have
had no blankets or protection of any
kind, and at night pack their wretched
bodies close together for warmth like a
herd of animals. Their food is 1lb., of
dark bread a day. Their so-called soup,
which they were preparing while I was
there, is just a cauldron of hot water,
with a dozen maize-pods in it. For drink-
ing and washing water in this enclosure
there is a solitary trickle from one small
tap. Thirsty men wait two hours to get
near it.

Ten Serbians had died during the night
before I went there. In the morning the
Bulgarians put their bodies into a cart
and carried them away. An hour later
the same cart returned bringing the day's
bread ration. When a man can no longer
stand, his friends carry him into one of
the verminous little huts. There he lies
until he is dead, and next morning the
bread cart carries his carcase away.
Three fresh bodies were on the ground
when I reached the camp at ten o'clock,
and I was taken to see the little earth-
floored cabin which with grim irony is
called the "hospital.” There were five
Serbians in it -four just frames of skin
and bone. The fifth man lay stretched
on his back on the bare ground. His eyes
were glazed and fixed. his breath came in
quick spasms, and flies were crawling
over his face. He looked as if he had
but a few more hours of suffering to live.
“Does no one come to do anything for
these people? Have you never seen a
Bulgarian medical officer here?" I asked.
"Never," was the emphatic. reply of a
Serbian and a Greek prisoner who spoke
French.

It must be allowed to count in favour
of Serbia that all her Bulgarian prisoners
whom one has seen on the roads behind
the Serbian front were fit, as well fed as
the Allied troops themselves, and any-
thing at all but overworked. No sooner
was the misceable condition of these Ser-
bian prisoners known than the British
Army authorities took steps to do all they
could for the survivors. Doctors and
medical comforts are already in Sofia to
repair. as far as may be the terrible
scandal that lies at the very door of the
Bulgarian Governments. — Daily Tele-
graph.
https://archive.org/details/NPDP19181219/page/n4/mode/1up?view=theater
#tags#ww1 #serbia #bulgaria #camps #pows #cuttings #dailytelegraph #hongkongdailypress ">

harryhaller@diasp.eu

By gatecrashing the 1914 war, the UK got Germany's African colonies and good part of the Ottoman Empire.
The UK had lied.
Already in June 1914 the cabinet had agreed that they had no obligations whatsoever to Belgium.
As for the belgian king, the belgians suffered greatly, whereas the luxembourgers were far better off.
Was he forced into that decision?
#tags#history #uk #belgium #ww1 #luxembourg #congo #africa #ottoman #turkey #iraq #palestine ">

harryhaller@diasp.eu

War should not be understood under the traditional dichotomy of one righteous nation battling a degenerate opposing force. Rather, the evil is the impetus itself to go to war, and the good (a Platonic love for mankind, for beauty, and a decent moral life) is inherent in all the belligerents — they can resist the urge to engage in mass murder. Satan personifies evil, and he and Ballet Master Death use the players to demonstrate how easily people and nations can be misled by their virtues. — https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/vernon-lees-satan-the-waster-pacifism-and-the-avant-garde/
#war #play #ballet #vernonlee #ww1 #art

harryhaller@diasp.eu

I give my first impressions of him exactly as I entered them in my diary at the time: #trotsky #lenin #ussr #uk #germany #canada #halifax #lockhart #kerensky #ww1 #russianrevolution #brest #brest-litovsk #history ">

" February 15th, 1918. Had a two hours’ conversation with L.D.T. (Lev Davidovitch Trotsky).

He struck me as perfectly honest and sincere in his bitterness against the Germans.

He has a wonderfully quick mind and a rich, deep voice. With his broad chest, his huge forehead, surmounted by great masses of black, waving hair, his strong, fierce eyes, and his heavy protruding lips, he is the very incarnation of the revolutionary of the bourgeois caricatures.

He is neat about his dress. He wore a clean soft collar and his nails were carefully manicured.

I agree with Robins. If the Bosche bought Trotsky, he bought a lemon. His dignity has suffered an affront. He is full of belligerent fury against the Germans for the humiliation to which they have exposed him at Brest.

He strikes me as a man who would willingly die fighting for Russia provided there was a big enough audience to see him do it.”

Trotsky was angry with the Germans. At that moment he was not quite certain what the German reaction would be tohis famous declaration of “no peace and no war,” but he had a shrewd idea that it would be unpleasant.

Unfortunately, he was also full of bitterness against the English.

We had not handled Trotsky wisely.

At the time of the first revolution he was in exile in America.

He was then neither a Menshevik nor a Bolshevik.

He was what Lenin called a Trotskist — that is to say, an individualist and an
opportunist.

A revolutionary with the temperament of an artist and with undoubted physical courage, he had never been and never could be a good party man.

His conduct prior to the first revolution had incurred the severest condemnation by Lenin.
“Trotsky, as always,” wrote Lenin in 1915, “is, in principle, opposed to the Socialist Chauvinists, but in practice he is always in agreement with them.”

In the spring of 1917 Kerensky requested the British Government to facilitate Trotsky's return to Russia. Common sense seemed to indicate one of two courses: to refuse, on the grounds that Trotsky was a danger to the Allied cause; or to allow him to return unmolested.

As usual in our attitude towards Russia, we adopted disastrous half-measures. Trotsky was treated as a criminal. At Halifax, Nova Scotia, he was separated from his wife and children and interned in a prison camp at Amherst with German prisoners for four weeks.

His finger-prints were taken. Then, having roused his bitter hate, we allowed him to return to Russia.

I am giving Trotsky's own account of the incident. I learnt afterwards that it was substantially correct.

The outraged Trotsky came back to Russia, threw in his lot with the Bolsheviks, and relieved his injured feelings by writing a fiercely anti-British pamphlet entitled
“A Prisoner of the English.” Some trace of his resentment showed itself during our interview* I succeeded, however, in soothing him.

Memoirs Of A British Agent (1933)
by R. H. Bruce Lockhart

girlofthesea@diasporasocial.net

#art #german #ww1 #history

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. New York City
Portrait of a German Officer.
North Germany
1914
Artist. Marsden Hartley. American.

“This monumental painting is the centerpiece of a series that evokes the dynamism, pageantry, and danger of life in Berlin during World War I. The painting’s collagelike appearance, dramatic color, and emotional brushwork attest to Hartley’s skillful synthesis of Cubism and German Expressionism. Hartley’s composition is an abstract portrait of Karl von Freyburg, a Prussian lieutenant whom the artist loved and who died in the war. Von Freyburg is portrayed symbolically with the initials, “K.v.F.”; his regiment number, 4; his age at death, 24; and the Iron Cross that he received posthumously.”

danie10@squeet.me

The Great War: Western Front – A new and very realistic WW1 strategy game

Bild/Foto
This is hardly the first game to use history as its frame. But it’s clear that the team at developer Petroglyph Games took its setting seriously. “We wanted to create that authentic World War One experience,” says Chris Becker, The Great War’s lead designer, noting that Petroglyph worked with London’s Imperial War Museum to make their product as “plausible” as possible. This partnership can be glimpsed in the game’s canvas – and its smallest specifics. On a strategic level, players are encouraged to appreciate the attritional nature of trench warfare, each attack incrementally denting their army’s resources and national morale. Zoom in, and they’ll notice the buzzing of biplanes, and how every shell blasts soil up into the air.

The Great War: Western Front is the definitive (their claim) World War 1 strategy game from Petroglyph, the makers of Command & Conquer™ Remastered & Star Wars™: Empire at War. Play a deciding role in history with this real-time tactical experience as you take charge in the pivotal Western Front from 1914 to 1919.

Pick your faction and lead your forces to victory, by directing your armies in gritty real-time battles and by guiding high-level decisions in turn-based strategic gameplay. Dig detailed trenches, research new technologies such as poison gas and tanks, and make decisions that will have a profound and lasting effect on your success. Think like a Commander to either relive history – or redefine it.

As Theatre Commander, experience enthralling turn-based grand-strategy as you direct the deployment of forces, perform research and carefully consider how you disseminate your resources across the Western Front in a war won by inches. Alongside this, take up the mantle of Field Commander in dynamic real-time battles as you direct units to defeat your opponent, build trenches and perform direct assaults by sending your infantry over the top. Pick your battles and fight them your way to shape the course of history.

The video at https://youtu.be/DoZ3aKKpDvQ gives a pretty good overview of what to expect. What is clear, though, is you can play at the strategic level with some really great animations you can zoom into, but you can also play tactically by laying out trenches, defences, etc.

Although the reviews on Steam Games are mostly positive, there are some issues, especially with the AI. Some lengthy reviews give some detail on some shortcomings, so it is always worth reading through the reviews before buying. A couple of game reviews have also started appearing on YouTube, for example, this popular one at https://youtu.be/z0or9cqxp10.

See https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230404-the-great-war-the-ww1-video-game-thats-eerily-accurate
#Blog, #gaming, #strategy, #technology, #WW1

faab64@diasp.org

29 June 1916, women gun workers at the Dion munitions factory in France during World War I downed tools in protest at an increase in workload along with a cut in the piece rate pay. Around 4,000 women were employed at the plant, working 10.5 and 11 hour shifts. All 110 women in the gun shop took part in the strike. Initially their foreman was dismissive, telling them "The Dion factory never yields to a strike as a matter of principle… It has never yielded to men and it is even less likely to yield to women". Despite the company firing some of the workers, they kept up their strike for 11 days until a government arbitration panel – desperate to avoid disruption to arms production – ruled partially in favour of the workers. Although workloads were increased, the pay cuts were stopped and bosses agreed to rehire the sacked women. The following year, there were to be many more strikes of women munitions workers in the country.

#History #France #WW1

tpq1980@iviv.hu

Study, study, #study. The deception, mendacity & falsehoods go back to the mid 19th century.

#WW1, #WW2, #Communism, the #USA, the #French #Revolution, the #British #Empire, the #NAZIs, the #Bolsheviks, the #Cold #War, the #EU, #multiculturalism, #globalism, the #NSA, the #CIA, #GCHQ, #MI6, the five eyes, Central #Banking, global #plutocracy, #surveillance #capitalism, smart devices, #endocrine #manipulation, applied #psychology, social #engineering, #education systems, historical #narratives, #information control, faux #Hegelian dialectics, #propaganda, manufacturing #consent, #eugenics, #perception management, #secret societies, #blackmail honeypots, puppet #politicians, societal #control mechanisms, #psychosocial reality formation.

tpq1980@iviv.hu
digit@joindiaspora.com