European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 10, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A Wei photo of soldiers charging across an argon of Battlefield. R by Dontate stall writer Happy it riot who re w tiled in a if Buttles lying on  before Lite  ofcotl.,. Ten weeks later the Frenchman who wrote that Lay dead tin .1  Battlefield one of an estimated 9, thai Condi Jon.  War  Happy Thuy were remains open to question. It was supposed to ii he we to end wars. Ii shark d. If nut happily at least in such a glorious  if misconception us be clouded with naive in romantic notion of warfare As la make serious students Lajer laugh in grim so unified disbelief. But there  precious Little laughter  rim Man on a sunny aus isl morning in 1914, when eight germans in splendid helmets carrying lances and pistols. Cantered Cockly up tin horseback and slew a French sentry near the Border town of Belfort. Until the War evolved into civilization s most hideous Slaughter Mere than37 million military dead wounded missing and made prisoner by some estimates More than 12,300,000 civilian casualties. Rive week s before lie fuse had been lit by he assassination of the austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand .11 Sarajevo Yugoslavia. Suddenly nations began Lleni Ritj up against each other across the world like Tunis doomsday football scrimmage. There was Thunder on Tho Lull madness on the right before it Ivas Over 20 countries Oil six continents had tumbled and been dragged into the bloodied pit the work had Ever seen. -. -. Nowhere was the Battle More ferociously fought than tilt1 Shell churned Blond lapping no Man s find on the Western front in Europe where whole armies  toy soldiers tossed in a Niue pile and ills last Battles of the War would be settled. In the first Days generals trolled around in the open on while horses disdaining the use of steel . Plumed helmets were All the rage observers saw sabers ind White gloves and even a Sportive air to the Early proceedings there were rows upon rows of Hel Ellesy infantrymen in red pantaloons. Cavalrymen lances poised charged Forward suicidally on pretty steeds then As if passing through some Cane Lime Warp they. Found la is Elva s careening Inlo solid sheets of machine gun fire and being mowed Down Row upon crashing Row not even knowing whal was killing them the jaws of Nio Dern warfare opened and seized them All. The new tools of destruction were soon everywhere Anil were employed with daring and courage if hoi great imagination As millions of men bulled at filth like two  wrestlers in massive futile Back and Forth shoving a. Mile of agony Forward a mile of agony Back. The generals got off their horses and put on hard helmets so did the troops. They looked to the sky at something called the air plane shriek ing Down Over them. They listened with ears on the a Irth to Tun aplers 100 feel below planting so Many tons of. Explosives that whole villages and hilltops would Rock flame and disappear. They dug endless trenches fastened on Gas masks fixed bayonets. Ahead of them was no Man s land twisted with  wire rattling with machine gun. Firl clanked Over by crude Bill frightening tanks and hissing and misting Wilh Poison Gas thousands of artillery pieces some so monstrous Ibey were mounted on rail cars swept the Earth in steel mining barrages thai Well on for hours. Two thousand guns would focus on one tiny Are i ind a Tunilo it into smoking oblivion and then blow up thu oblivion mud rain Snow and Slop turned Ilie brightly clothed diet Tanacs and romantics of War into grim Broson sliced Over spectres existing in ankle to hip deep muck in Long snaking lines of trenches that Werp subject to Hun Vercius Day and night bombardment. The trenches of the Western front interlaced for hundreds of Miles front line in Encl s and All kinds of Back up trenches. Rats rampant in the trenches. Feasting on corpses on the Battlefield seemed Al limes As menacing As he enemy., the shelling and the mud were epic. After torrents of rain ii British inhabitant of no Man s land said water poured into trenches  became Imp passable for troops. Wounded men falling into Shell holes were in danger of drowning. Guns Sank rifles caked and would nol fire,--.,". My  while said another shells arc streaming Over our Heads throwing up great geysers of mud All around us. There is a cry for help. Men Are buried. We dig them out again. Ten minutes later hey arc All blown up and burled again. The liquid mud from ground shells was going up in duds and coming. Down in rain.". Ii was t any belter for the Gernns the whole. Place is mod said an artillerymen churned up to a depth of 15 feel or More. The Earth trembles and shakes like Jelly we Crouch Between mountains of  up to our Knees in Walcer and we fire and fire while All around us shells upon shells plunge into themire shatter our emplacement Root up Rees Flallen the House behind us. The barrel is red Hbl the cases Are still burning hot when we Lake them out of the Breech. And still the Only order is Firel fire fire " Over the top1 became the Battle cry of the Lime a whistle would blow there would be a rolling a Tillury barrage creeping Forward just ahead of the troops and Over the top they Well bayonets gleaming Slraight up in a slow Almansi Wiki Den Soldier , nto Greal Pell Mell shouling Ruelius into minefields Inlo flamethrowers hanging up in barbed wire germans French British and finally the americans who came to he front its eager is Barking Lail wagging puppies All of then charging. They went Over As one Mart Oledn relish accounts of the  in i he sin me River in 191 a where 1,2uu,u j men fell numbers were shot before Illey  the lop of the parapet encouraged by a spot of rum Oiler brits thu Fred this Way to Eler Bilyl and they quickly of Nupuf t. German machine guns so fled up sweeping the fluid and brits began in fall Row upon Row Lii Hur they magic Illo the enemy Trench line 300 Yard away and fought bayonets clashing Hind to inn or they staggered backward to their own trenches to path their wounded and count their dead until Hie re Al grand Chirigo. We Well across the ground in swarms oho said. I could a see men strewn All Over  swept Down by the accursed machine gun fire. Shell after Shell crashed in the Middle of them leaving  Kaps Bui Oiler men quickly filled them up passing through i hts smoke and Over the bodies of their comrades. German wounded were everywhere and our dead were heaped on top of a Atli other in places they were three to four deep., Shull holes were full of wounded. You might bit taking Loii i i n one minute and the next he was dead at your feet and soon blown to pieces i had gone Over the top Happy and Chou Raul with thousands of uthes and Here i was tumbling Back into our trenches  in Ihu firelight observers could see running soldiers picked up thrown Down and buried alive in the heaving to Arlo one could see old dead rising up from tie ground As though trying to shake hands with the new dead who look their places in the yawning craters. Hands feel Rifle barrels skulls tree limbs and in exploder shells would appear through the waving Earth before being swallowed up again. Alone stage the French whose Only strategy for a Long bloody time was hat of Blind mystical Elan ardor guts of Al ways attack Esprit no matter How Many died were losing 15,000 men a Day. After a. Half million casualties they became More selective in the ways Thuy co milled suicide. Except for several German offensives iwo of which carried them cause to Paris most of the rest of the War was waged in near stalemate in Trench warfare along the Western front that swallowed up a whole generation of Young men and then the germans finally exhausted i heir allies finished called it a. War. On nov 11,1918, 70 year ago lire guns slapped firing it was Over. The War to end wars was indeed Over. Fus 21 years later the world would be doing it All Over again even More hideously november 10, 1998 Lori pit  13