steinrokkan posted:

Pretty much nobody attacked just because of honor or whatever as the movie depicted

Peter Hart: The Last Battle posted:

There was a wide variety of reactions to the possibility of peace. Many craved it, but a few still seemed to want to have their fill of killing before it was all over. Perhaps this was more common in the artillery, where they killed their opponents at a distance, over the horizon and not up close and personal, as was so often the case for the infantry.

A Bosche prisoner I spoke to yesterday told me that they all expected the war to be over in seven days. What we must do is bomb Berlin and all big towns in Germany both day and night. That will bring them to their senses quicker than anything. Meantime we will have a glorious time smashing him up – some of the finest times of my life. It’s glorious to be in at the death – so to speak.
_{Second Lieutenant Charles Bennett, 162nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery, 33rd Division}

Peter Hart: The Last Battle posted:

THE WAR WAS WON, but the final moments were tense as the clock ticked down slowly to 11.00 on Monday 11 November. On the Meuse front, in accordance with the uncompromising views of General Pershing, the Americans had ordered a far more aggressive approach to operations in the last few hours. However, Major General William Wright of 89th Division was greatly worried at the thought of risking unnecessary casualties by launching a questionable crossing of the Meuse, especially amidst the rumours that the Armistice might be close. The Meuse had already been crossed and large bridgeheads previously established owing to the efforts of the 5th and 32nd Divisions. There seemed to be no military need for additional bridgeheads. However, orders were orders. Wright did at least try his best to reduce the potential for mass casualties.

Received notice that the 90th Division was coming up the Meuse on the right; they crossed yesterday in the vicinity of Ville Franche. This relieves the situation very materially, and I think that the plans for the crossing at Pouilly and vicinity should be cut out and the entire division should cross at Stenay and exploit northward in liaison with the Ninetieth. The more I think the plan over the better it seems to me. In the afternoon, General Summerall came in and I told him that I was apprehensive about this evening’s work, and that I recommended the postponement of the entire movement and the concentration of the division in the vicinity of Stenay with a view of crossing there and exploiting to the north and opening up the country for the 2nd Division to cross. He said he thought this plan was the best one also, but that he had received his orders to cross and he must do it. He left saying that he thought everything was well arranged and would go all right.4
_{Major General William Wright, Headquarters, 89th Division}

On the evening of 10 November, Wright began to hear news that the end of the war was very imminent. It was too late. The offensive would proceed as planned.

We got a radio flash to the effect that Germany had accepted the terms of an Armistice as laid down by General Foch. About this time I heard the guns of my attack commencing to fire. This news may be a Bosche trick. I have received no statement from higher authority to that effect as yet. This at 9.10 pm.5
_{Major General William Wright, Headquarters, 89th Division}

I consider the forcing of the crossing and the manoeuvre afterwards to have been very successful, and accomplished our purpose in the face of opposition with small losses. The entire division is crossed, or can be crossed, and we have taken our objectives. At 8.45 word was received that an Armistice had been signed and would take effect at 11 o’clock. I directed Colonel Lee to keep up the fighting until that time and that it would stop exactly at 11 o’clock and the men would dig in on the ground they occupied and that absolutely no communication with the Bosche under any circumstances or on any subject would be permitted, nor would there be any hilarity, or demonstration on the part of my troops.7
_{Major General William Wright, Headquarters, 89th Division}

Peter Hart: The Last Battle posted:

Several shells were bursting on the west bank by this time. One rickety footbridge had been erected, but it was considered that a second was required, to at least split the focus of any German machine-gun fire, and give the Marines at least some chance of crossing unscathed. When the second bridge was delayed and with daylight fast approaching, it was decided to abandon the crossing – much to the relief of almost everyone. They were not so fortunate at the 5th Marines’ crossing of the Meuse at Letanne which went ahead as planned.

We moved down a deep ravine towards the river. In this we halted and sheltered by a hillside we waited till our own artillery opened up. ‘Fritzy’ started to retaliate with shells and machine guns with it seems some success. Protected by a heavy mist and smoke screen the 2nd Engineers succeeded in putting a pontoon bridge across. Our company emerged from the ravine, crossed the bridge in single file. Because of the mist Heinie’s flare lights were of no avail and in spite of a sweeping machine-gun fire I got across. All night we marched along the river bank – now dropping behind the high bank as protection from a withering machine-gun fire then taking up the advance again until halted by a renewal of the fire. By daylight we halted, dug in, and tried to rest a little – our battalion had become separated and any German counter-attack was expected. After an hour’s sleep I was called out to stand watch at a position on our right flank where we had set up a German Maxim. While I was still on this post – carefully looking for some sign of Germans ahead, I noted that the artillery had ceased firing – not a gun was being fired. Everything had become quiet.9
_{Private Harold Strickler, 2/5th Marines, 4th Marine Brigade, 2nd Division}

This entirely pointless operation cost several casualties.

The Americans involved in such bouts of last-minute fighting were affected by a complex array of emotions. Many simply did not know how to respond in this strangest of circumstances. Vicious fighting would be replaced by peace at the stroke of 11 o’clock – an arbitrary moment in time that could mean life or death to individuals. Unquestionably, Major General William Haan of the 32nd Division was enthusiastic about committing his troops to squeeze in one last battle before peace.

Yesterday we pounded them all day, driving them back everywhere. But they fought like the very devil still – had a new Division in front of us and parts of two other Divisions, but we punched them. This morning we resumed the attack at 6.30 which we had stopped last night after dark. At 7 we received orders to stop the battle. That was some job, too. We got it stopped entirely at 10.45, just fifteen minutes before the Armistice went into effect. One of my chaplains was killed at 10.40. Hard luck!10
_{Major General William Haan, Headquarters, 32nd Division}

Despite the activities of the more bellicose American generals, there were quieter sectors on the front where many of the ‘Doughboys’ had time to think, to try and put in context their experiences.

Peter Hart, The Last Battle posted:

One more man at least was to die in the very last minute of the war. Private Henry Gunther of 1/313rd Regiment in the 79th Division was advancing with his company towards a pair of German machine guns in the village of Chaumont devant Damvillers. Ignoring explicit orders from his sergeant, Gunther made a solo bayonet charge. As he approached, the German soldiers, who seemed well aware of the time, were unwilling to fire and indeed shouted out and tried to wave him away – all to no avail. When Gunther15 started shooting he was cut down with a short burst of machine-gun fire. He was reputedly the last American soldier to die in action during the Great War.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

Speaking of fires, is there any risk of the coal slag heap being flammable?

quote:

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Prime Minister Viktor Orbán compared Hungary’s membership in the European Union to more than four decades of Soviet occupation of his country during a speech on Monday commemorating the anniversary of Hungary’s 1956 anti-Soviet revolution.

bad_fmr posted:

Russian MP Andrei Gurulyov says that Finland is being turned into a "second Ukraine" and claims that Finns increasingly have territorial claims on Petrozavodsk

jaete posted:

Translation, as always, is: some Russian decision makers would like to turn Finland into a second Ukraine, and they also have territorial claims on parts of Finland

The formerly Finnish areas which were lost to Stalin have been a part of Russia for about 80 years now, absolutely no one in the actual grown-up government on the Finnish side even thinks about reclaiming them back or whatever the hell

bad_fmr posted:

https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1716749509445746996

Russian MP Andrei Gurulyov says that Finland is being turned into a "second Ukraine" and claims that Finns increasingly have territorial claims on Petrozavodsk

jaete posted:

Translation, as always, is: some Russian decision makers would like to turn Finland into a second Ukraine, and they also have territorial claims on parts of Finland

The formerly Finnish areas which were lost to Stalin have been a part of Russia for about 80 years now, absolutely no one in the actual grown-up government on the Finnish side even thinks about reclaiming them back or whatever the hell

Dwesa posted:

....
deranged Cheeto Marge says Russia must take Odesa because she saw male thighs

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1716753995476185096

His Divine Shadow posted:

It's mostly because those areas have been mismanaged by russians for 80 years so even if we got them for free by the russians, it'd be a huge punch in the balls to have to deal with that expensive mess.

Just Another Lurker posted:

Did she go on pilgrimage to Dune recently?

Dwesa posted:

deranged Cheeto Marge says Russia must take Odesa because she saw male thighs

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1716753995476185096

Just Another Lurker posted:

Did she go on pilgrimage to Dune recently?

Jimlit posted:

lol she found her kink

CommieGIR posted:

She looks like a villainess from a Wes Anderson film.

Just Another Lurker posted:

Did she go on pilgrimage to Dune recently?

Toxic Mental posted:

Dwesa posted:

https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1716753995476185096

CommieGIR posted:

She looks like a villainess from a Wes Anderson film.

3D Megadoodoo posted:

They're afraid of cuckoos.

crispix posted:

lovely bang bang lovely lovely bang bang

Liquid Chicken posted:

She looks like a group of Oompa Loompas ran a train on her.

HonorableTB posted:

They lost how many thousands of men and how many hundreds of armored vehicles and how many aircraft did Russia lose to take a toxic industrial waste mountain?

No wonder putin had a heart attack

HonorableTB posted:

So he's been a corpse for at least 24 hours and theyre killing all his body doubles, right?

Dwesa posted:

Russians planted a flag on the slag heap and Ukrainians hit it with a drone

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1716915836164968824

I think the news of slag heap being taken were overstated by Russian sources, like always

HonorableTB posted:

So he's been a corpse for at least 24 hours and theyre killing all his body doubles, right?