A thread for history buffs: Eddie Rickenbacker remembered

BTW, great thread, Buck.

 

Baseball and World War I? Buck is definitely my kindred spirit. The two subjects I have the largest amount of books about.

I think Buck and I should have some sort of combined baseball/WWI Jeopardy throw down. I will stun him with Ken Williams '22 power season with the Browns and conquer him with the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front.

 

Shock and awe, my man.

Shock like the teuffel hunden at Belleau Wood.
Awe like the White Sox overcoming a 3 games to 0 deficit in the 1912 City Series against the Cubs.

 

I WILL BLEED THE BUCK WHITE!

 

Excellent thread.

My one WWI factoid contribution, which I don't even know if it is true although I read it in a history book, was that the last soldier to die in the war minutes before the armistice became official was a British soldier who had been demoted from a high rank. The British soldier felt disgraced and decided to charge the German line on his own accord. Even the Germans were trying to wave him back, but they finally had to shoot him to defend themselves.

 

I love WWI stuff.

And I am shocked we're discussing Great War aviators and no Canadian has chimed in with Billy Bishop. Unless they're all the kind who think he fabricated most of his kills.

 

I had a history professor in college who was talking about WWI in a class once. He said he had visited the French Army academy (their version of West Point; I have no idea what the proper name is) and on one wall in the main building they had the names of all of the officers from various graduating classes who had died in the different wars. For 1914, it just read "Class of 1914".
Pretty chilling stuff.

 

Saint-Cyr. Both de Gaulle and Petain were alumni. And yes, chilling indeed.

Joseph Persico wrote a fascinating book based solely on Armistice Day: Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour. According to Persico, there were over 10,000 casualties on the morning of November 11, 1918 -- comparable to the Allied losses on D-Day. One of the dead was Private Henry Gunther, 313th Infantry (Baltimore's Own), A.E.F.:

Fortunately for the pseudo family, my grandfather's name doesn't appear on that casualty list. The 1st Infantry was in reserve following their dash on Sedan the week before, but he wrote his sister that they were still "within plain sound of the big guns when they stopped firing."

 

That was an outstanding book, Pseudo. One of the best I've read about WW I.

Bubbler, Buck, run -- don't walk -- to your nearest bookstore and get this tome. It's a great addition to any WW I library.

 

That might have been the book I read. It had been a long time ago, so the details in my head were a little fuzzy. Thanks for clearing it up.

 

Baron, Persico's book came out in 2004 but his notes cite a Baltimore Sun article from 1969, so there's a chance it's been published elsewhere.

Birdscribe, that book and Keegan's are my top two, with an honorable mention to Edwin Hoyt's fascinating study of Lettow and the German East Africa campaign. I also have to admit to enjoying Jeff Shaara's historical fiction, including his WWI effort, To The Last Man. Returning to the original idea of the thread, Shaara spends a good deal of time writing about the 'flyboys'...