Pipe Smoking in WW1

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cam9

Lurker
May 1, 2017
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0
Hello.
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this post, but I wanted to share an interesting documentary on WW1 on YouTube. To see what people went through is really something else, and makes you grateful for their sacrifice. I'm sharing this with the pipe community because there are a lot of scenes with soldiers smoking pipes. It's a 5 part series.
YouTube: Apocalypse World War 1 1 of 5

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO8uhme0o3Y

 
Jan 8, 2013
7,493
732
Ooh! I'm definitely going to take a look at that. Even without the pipes, I'm interested. You just don't see enough about WWI, although in my opinion it's very interesting. In that war you had such a mixture of a growing industrial and technological era with what came before... some of the photos from that time are just weird. Just to think... mounted cavalry on horseback riding alongside early tanks and automobiles while some of the earliest war planes flew overhead. Horses and dogs with their strange looking gas masks along with the men, just to name a few examples. Old tried and true battle strategy VS new strategies involving the rise of technology and war machines. So much to think about and imagine concerning WWI, but it seems to be a bit of history often overlooked.

 

cam9

Lurker
May 1, 2017
23
0
Pipe wise, I seem to remember more scenes with pipes in the later episodes, but Anthony, as you mentioned, even with out the pipes, it's interesting.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,494
26,846
Carmel Valley, CA
A bit of history: When it was fought, and for several decades after it was called "The Great War". The war to end all wars! Too bad it wasn't.

 
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jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,515
50,548
Here
Nice. Thanks!
jay-roger.jpg


 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,427
My wife's dad, who came late to fatherhood, was a WWI vet caught in gas attacks while serving as an Army cook. The sacrifice is indeed moving. The lack of adequate diplomacy to avoid the war is infuriating. There is a great anecdote about her dad, Charlie, and General Pershing during an inspection. Charlie was not a spit and polish soldier, so he was moved to the back of the ranks. But Pershing had the ranks about face and started with the men in the back, and sought out Charlie specifically as a fellow Missourian, and treated him cordially. Charlie had other adventures in the veterans hospitals where he spent time with the gas-related lung problems. He was driven around with a group of other vets by Bess Truman before she was first lady, and met Abbot and Costello when they toured the vets hospital. Both my father-in-laws were vets (Bill was in the Battle of the Bulge); my dad was a minesweeper skipper in the Pacific and his brother was a landing craft officer at Tarawa.

 

renfield

Lifer
Oct 16, 2011
4,188
30,968
Kansas
If you want to get a great perspective on WWI I strongly recommend Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast. 8 or so eye opening hours on the war and how it shaped the world forever afterwards.
The modern mind can barely grasp the notion of snuffing out tens of thousands of lives in a single afternoon with nothing more than bullets and artillery.

 

irishearl

Lifer
Aug 2, 2016
2,143
3,754
Kansas
Had a great uncle I never had a chance to know who served in a cavalry unit in WWI. He was a graduate of West Point, class of 1915-the 1 that Eisenhower and Omar Bradley were in. His first commission was serving alongside George Patton as part of Pershing's expeditionary force. I have his 1915 class annual with their photos. Don't know if he smoked a pipe but I do have his opium pipe. :D

 

jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,515
50,548
Here
I just finished the entire 5 hours.
Definitely worth your time.
The narrator starts out feeling a bit "hokey" but give it time. After the first 20 minutes, I had quadrupled my knowledge about the start of WW1.
jay-roger.jpg


 

seldom

Lifer
Mar 11, 2018
1,035
940
Thanks for sharing. I'll need to give this a try. Sunday marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. Here in Germany World War I seems to be ignored or else used as a reason for why World War II happened. I think this is is a tragic circumstance and that World War I ought to be understood as a hugely tragic war on it's own.
For the record I'm an American of mixed European ancestry whose family fought on the side of USA in these conflicts (my sir name comes from Dutch ancestors who settled in modern New York (New Amsterdam) in the 1630s). Nevertheless I've married a wonderful German woman and am raising bilingual sons who will be taught pride in both their American and German heritage.

 

briarbuck

Lifer
Nov 24, 2015
2,287
5,492
What a great story about Pershing. My step grandfather was on horseback in the cavalry in WWI as well. I have his 1911 peacekeeper in my bottom drawer.

 

ron123

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 28, 2015
541
984
Park Ridge, IL
MSO that's awesome that your father-in-law met Abbott and Costello...Hey Abbbbooootttttttt!!!!!!!!!!! Wish they showed them on TV more today...one of the greatest comedy teams.
I have a picture of my great uncle in the army barracks with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy during WWII...framed and on the wall.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,427
The North Carolina Museum of History has a great temporary exhibit on World War I, which I think goes through January (check their site). It is a full treatment, with simulated trenches with periscopes looking into no-man's-land, excellent video re-enactments, and expansive exhibits of weapons from both sides, uniforms, gear, maps, and photographs. Volunteer docents do excellent presentations to draw attention to aspects of the exhibit and hand around actual gear from the period. If you are in the area, or in driving distance, and interested, it is extremely well done. I expected a good job, and it exceeded expectations.

 

anantaandroscoggin

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 9, 2017
645
1,003
70
Greene, Maine, USA
My grand-dad was under "Blackjack" Pershing (per some documents we still have). I think (and I may have the numbers wrong) he was in Co. D of the 127th Infantry, as a Sergeant. I have his brass whistle, and a French-made spyglass he picked up from the battlefield at Chateau Thierry (sp?) and used for the rest of the war. He successfully resisted a promotion from Sgt. to Captain, but the French still awarded him the Croix de Guerre.
Years back, my mom did a lot of research into his military awards, and they are display (supposedly) at the Norway Public Library, in Norway, Maine.

 
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