1918 combat recording

[markj]

No, this isn't "Civil War," but it may be the first known "combat recording":

http://www.artsjournal.com/aboutlastnight/2008/11/tt_the_eleventh_day_of_the_ele.html

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[BobbyHughes]

Re: 1918 combat recording

Now thats almost spooky... brings back memories of my days in a Firing Battery's FDC though.. amazing how little things change in the long run.

[Spinster]

Re: 1918 combat recording

"His purpose in doing so was to preserve the sounds of war before the coming armistice caused them to vanish forever from the face of the earth."

Would that this would have been so.

I managed to find a Buddy Poppy today--not in what once was the usual way, for that avenue seems to be no more, but by digging in my own attic. This time, I will not put it away.

Others have never put that Great War away. In my Mother-in-Law's dainty little foyer, with its marble floor, graceful mahogony table, and delicate little crystal figurines, leading into a formal living room that is all polished wood, heavy brocade, and good silver, sits one lone piece that does not match all the others.

On that polished table is a dented and pitted helmet, in the style that we know simply as "Doughboy"--the style worn in the Great War. Like the man who made the recording above, the owner of that helmet also took in a lungfull of mustard gas, and died of its effects some good while later.

Under that helmet is a bundle of letters. We cannot read them now. Not yet. They are still too fresh to her.

[Pat.Lewis]

Re: 1918 combat recording

Fantastic -- and I mean fantastic in the sense of fantasy, an experience wholly outside of my reality -- to think that those odd little arching whines are gas shells being hurled towards fellow human beings. Such an odd sound for death.

[BobRoeder]

Re: 1918 combat recording

Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on March 18, 1893. He was on the Continent teaching until he visited a hospital for the wounded and then decided, in September, 1915, to return to England and enlist. "I came out in order to help these boys-- directly by leading them as well as an officer can; indirectly, by watching their sufferings that I may speak of them as well as a pleader can. I have done the first" (October, 1918).

Owen was injured in March 1917 and sent home; he was fit for duty in August, 1918, and returned to the front. November 4, just seven days before the Armistice, he was caught in a German machine gun attack and killed. He was twenty-five when he died.

The bells were ringing on November 11, 1918, in Shrewsbury to celebrate the Armistice when the doorbell rang at his parent's home, bringing them the telegram telling them their son was dead.

Every Veteran's Day (orig. Armistice Day) I make it a point to remember my maternal grandfather who came to America as an immigrant and returned to Europe (specifically France) with the AEF. I also make a point of specifiaclly remembering the Mr. Owen who spoke so strongly for the soldiers of his war, and by extension, all wars.

[Sgt. Bill]

Re: 1918 combat recording

Mark,
Thanks for posting that. I am also a WW1 Reenactor and have read many accounts of the gas bombardments but could never imagine the sounds of the shells sounding like that.
My Great Granduncle served in the artillery with the 32nd Inf Division in France, I guess now I have a better understanding of some of the experiances he tried to discribe to the family.
During my time in the navy I heard the ships 5inch guns fire a variety of shells and none of them even sounded remotely like these. What an eye opener.

William L. Maddox

[J. Donaldson]

Re: 1918 combat recording

I purchased this on iTunes and played it for my students this semester. It's on the album "Oh! It's a Lovely War (Volume 1)". Nice little advertisement for war bonds at the end of it.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: 1918 combat recording

Hallo!

Moderator hat on..

Historically intresting and fascinating, but, alas, outside of AC Forum rules on post 1865 topics...

Curt
1914-1918 Himself