|
GORDON GREB |
 |
|
MEMORIES
|
How the WWI Armistice
Retains Meaning Today
By GORDON GREB
of TheColumnists.com
November 11 is Veterans Day. But when I was a boy we called it Armistice Day for a very good reason. In the l920s and 30s, Armistice Day marked the end of World War One in 1918. Few call it “The Great War” anymore, because it became so terrible and horrific, leaving 29 million dead or wounded worldwide in four years--more than all wars of the previous century.
By the time of the “armistice”--ending
battlefield warfare on the 11th hour of the 11th day and the
11th month--that conflict had taken the lives of 10 million soldiers
and cost $337 billion. Fathers, uncles, teachers and neighbors
I knew rarely talked
about what they saw and did “over there.”
We kids experienced the
war at the movies--often written, directed and acted by war veterans
themselves. We were spellbound seeing “doughboys” going
“over the top” to be shot and killed in King Vidor’s
“The Big Parade.” In 1927, William Wellman
filmed aerial combat so realistically for his Oscar-winning "Wings"
that pilots died making the film. And Howard Hawks flew us in
the cockpits of fighter planes--Spads, Sopworth Camels and Fokker
D-7s--in his 1930 version of “The Dawn Patrol.”
 |
 |
| At left: Red Cross ambulance driver Clara Bow with Yankee pilots Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen in "Wings" (1927). At right: German soldiers Louis Wolheim, center, with Lew Ayres, left, and Ben Alexander, right, in the 1930 Oscar-winner "All Quiet on the Western Front," which showed the enemy's side of World War I from the combat soldier's point of view. |
When America entered the war in 1917, my father volunteered, served three years in France, and came home wearing sergeant’s stripes, his uniform decorated and unscathed. I still have it.
My father is now gone, buried in a military cemetery alongside my mother. And gone, too, are so many of his comrades, who could be forgotten today if not for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, dedicated Nov. 11, 1921, at Arlington National Cemetery. Soldiers of an honor guard were posted there 83 years ago and such soldiers still watch over that simple white marble tomb. The inscription reads: “Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God.”
Unknown, yes, but representing all the veterans of all our wars. And this Veterans Day--wherever I am--I‘ll stand, too, in silent memory--at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, just as my father, mother, and so many others did long long ago.
©2004 by Gordon Greb. The photo from "The Big Parade" is courtesy of MGM. The photo from "Wings" is courtesy Paramount and the photo from "All Quiet on the Western Front" is courtesy Universal.
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Gordon Greb. To send an
email, click here: talkback@thecolumnists.com
| Home | About Us | Archives | Talkback | Shopping Mall |