The Guns of Passchendaele

Even though I am a few days behind, I am saddened to report the death of the last British World War I veteran Harry Patch. There still remains at least one American veteran of the war, Frank Buckles, who is 108. Patch fought in the trenches of the war, including the battle of Passchendaele at Ypres. Most of us these days have little knowledge of the "Great War", but we should take this opportunity to learn about the formative period of the 20th Century, which effects our world today.
World War I, or the Great War, was fought between 1914 and 1918. It ended on November 11, 1918, which is called Veteran's Day in the United States. In Great Britain it is called Remembrance Day. This national holiday is the first of the many ways that this period has changed our lives. Most of us continue to celebrate Veterans Day, usually by watching parades and visiting veterans' graves. We remember those who fought for our freedoms and died for us, even those who had yet to be born. I often visit my grandfather's and grandmother's graves on Veteran's Day, both veterans of World War II, buried next to each other in a small town in North Central Iowa. They met during the war, married in Caen, France and remained married for nearly fifty years until breast cancer took her shortly after I had been born. Especially on that day, I think of the stories of the war that my grandfather had told me, and the times that I had spent with him when he was alive. Even though one day is never enough, it is vitally important that we recognize the sacrifices that some make for our country. In our own time, each of us in our mid-twenties knows a veteran who is or has recently served. We may know someone who has died. Veteran's Day was the beginning of this drive to support our veterans, as veterans of previous wars were often forgotten.
World War I's political ramifications continue to reverberate throughout the world. First, this is the war that made the Middle East into what it is today. The Ottoman Empire fell, and the victorious Allies carved up the corpse. The modern nations of Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Israel were all birthed here. Great Britain and France occupied various areas of the old empire, and the borders were drawn. Each nation gained independence in the interwar years or shortly following the Second World War, but it was World War I that created them. It was the Jews and their ideas of Zionism which led them to migrate to Palestine and reclaim their ancient home under the safety of the British troops who occupied the area.
The war changed Europe as well. New nations arose, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Hungary. The old Austrian-Hungarian Empire was no more, and the ancient nation of Poland, destroyed nearly 150 years earlier, returned. The Russian Empire collapsed in civil war, resulting in the Soviet Union. The German Empire was replaced with the Weimar Republic. France regained its provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. The blame for the war was placed singularly on the shoulders of Germany, which is often credited with the impetus for the Second World War. Germany was forced to pay reparations, creating a system would has credibility is causing a world wide depression in the 1930's when their economy collapsed and the global flow of money stopped. Communism had found a home in the world, with the founding of the Soviet Union. This, almost above any other event, had more ripples throughout the world as the Communists began their long campaign to remake and conquer the world. With a secure base in the Soviet Union, communist groups sprung up throughout the world, and nation after nation fell to the Communist advance starting with Mongolia in 1924. The evils of Communism have been well documented, and its cancer still effects our lives.
World War I also was the death of glory. Prior to the war, war was seen as glorious and gentlemanly. In the trenches of the Somme and the mud of Passchendaele, war's inhumanity was laid bare for all to see. The death of so many millions for a few inches of land, often lost the next day, showed the futileness of glory, as the bullets of the Maxim cared not who they hit. The poison gas killed both scoundrels and gentleman, and how high was your birth could not save you from drowning in the mud. It was called the war to end all wars, a hopeful title, but alas one that will never come true. An entire generation died in the trenches, weakening the superpowers of Europe permanently. Britain and France became casualty adverse, never wanting the bloodletting to occur again. Their holds on their colonies became weaker. Germany suffered this after the Second World War. Long the constant battleground, the pieces were set in motion to end war in Europe.
Young men to this day still believe in the glory of war, but they are the only ones. I have heard stories from my friends who have seen it with their own eyes. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to war in all situations, at all costs. Sometimes it is the only option, but it must be chosen knowing full well the costs of it. We learned of shell shock, trenchfoot, and the suicide of returning veterans. We saw entire populations geared up to fight the first modern war, with industrialization and war bonds.
Yet with all of these things, there are still more changes. The spread of the airplane, the first man made object in space, advances in chemistry and medicine all came from the war. The United States took its first steps towards the superpower that it is today. Democracy had found its champion. In the blood of the war, the old order of the world started to die, and freedom from the shackles of tyranny began here. We began to have a sense of ourselves as one people, united in the League of Nations, where perhaps diplomacy can save lives. War as the primary tool of statecraft became a faux pas. Even though this idea still has troubles, its birth was out of the horrors of the war.
Harry Patch was one of the last who saw these horrors firsthand. His death is a loss of this unique perspective. He fought at Passchendaele, wounded by a German artillery shell that claimed the lives of three of his friends. Passchendaele was infamous for its mud, as 1917 was a very wet year and many drowned in the mud during the incessant attacks against the German defenses around the village in Belgium. Even though by the end of the battle the Allies had captured Passendaele, the cost of more than 500000 Allied lives and 300000 Germans made it a hollow strategic victory. We need to remember these things. It is often said that people who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It would be a sad day if we forgot the guns of Passchendaele and Harry Patch.