France's final WWI veteran dies

[Posteritatis]

Source: BBC News

France's last surviving veteran of World War One, Lazare Ponticelli, has died at the age of 110.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death on Wednesday, paying tribute to the last "poilu", as French WWI veterans were known.

"Today, I express the nation's deep emotion and infinite sadness," he said.

Mr Ponticelli, originally Italian, had lied about his age in order to join the French Foreign Legion in August 1914, aged 16, Mr Sarkozy said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7292109.stm

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There's someone who would have seen one hell of a lot.

[BeyondGeography]

1. I think we have only one left as well

That war permanently scarred France; they lost 1.4 million soldiers out of a population of 40 million. Only Russia suffered more, and they had four times the population.

[Posteritatis]

3. And that's not even counting wounded

Even by the standards of wars, that one was pretty damned insane.

[QUALAR]

4. OPERATIVE WORD

You are right, it was insanity. The British incompetence allowed 30,000 soldiers to be killed in one day charging the same German machine guns. And, if I remember correctly, the British soldiers were commanded by French officers. Also, the stupidity at Gallipoli, Turkey was a disaster. There was a fine line between stupidity and courage which was crossed repeatedly.

[harmonicon]

10. more than 30,000, I think

on a few occasions. I'm trying to think of the name of a book I read about this.... it doesn't really matter, because there are loads of them. Anyway, there was a certain General Haig, who was in charge of the British and French forces on the western front, and was a complete lunatic. He had elaborate plans about battles that all involved the cavalry. He had been trained as a cavalry officer and thought that was the way to win wars, even though it was outdated, and completely inappropriate to the situation. The man was also very skeptical of the new fangled tank.

[Thothmes]

16. The French

Lost over 450,000 men in the six month campaign around Verdun. A few months later, the enlisted men of the French Army mutinied. They tried to stop the useless slaughter of their comrades without any gain to show for the blood spilled.

[tabasco]

2. RIP, Soldier!

:patriot:

[QUALAR]

5. FRENCH HONOR

The French honor their war veterans with free medical for life. We allow ours to sleep under overpasses until someone complains, but they do get free cardboard.

[saigon68]

8. Yes so true

Freezing Homeless Veteran's are sleeping in Cardboard boxes tonight

While the Draft Dodging Chimpanzee and his side kick 5 Deferments Cheney Swill at the Public Trough.

[neverforget]

6. RIP and God Speed!

[CBHagman]

7. We shall not see his like again.

Somewhere Monsieur Ponticelli is having a drink with my grandpa.

Rest in peace, sir.

[QUALAR]

9. MY GRANDPA

Might be with them. He left the top of his skull in Belgium. If they're drinking, my grandpa probably made and served them moonshine. He was one of Tennessee's finest from Little Marrowbone Creek Holler.

[CBHagman]

17. Yeah, I like to think of the World War I vets...

...living in a well-deserved peace. Your grandfather must have been quite a guy!

[Aristus]

11. ATTENCION POUR M. PONTICELLI!

:patriot:

[pfitz59]

12. I met a WW I vet in 1989.

He was the oldest living US navy pilot. Built an airplane after meeting one of the Wright Brothers. Was still flying in 1989 at age 97 or so. Here's some links to WW I vets. BTW when I was a kid there were Spanish-American War vets still marching in our parade. (1960's)
http://firstworldwar.cloudworth.com/still-living-veterans-of-world-war-one.php
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/feb/06/frank-buckles-americas-last-living-world-war-i-vet/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I (OBE)

[slampoet]

13. Dulce et Decorum Est

WILFRED OWEN
Dulce et Decorum Est
- best known poem of the First World War

(with explanatory notes)




DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest3 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 hoots4
Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.

Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9 . . .
Dim, through the misty panes10 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,11 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 cud12
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest13
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.15

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

1 DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country

[bumblebee1]

14. It is an honor to fight and die for your country.

It's a greater honor to fight and live. Mr Ponticelli and my maternal grandfather are probably enjoying some drinks with the other WWI vets.

[alphafemale]

15. Green Fields of France

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntt3wy-L8Ok&feature=related