Last modified: 2018-06-28 by ivan sache
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In a series of extremely well documented books, the French
historian Pierre Miquel recently analyzed the course of the
operations on the French-German front from 1914 to 1918.
The lack of preparation and an obsolete tactic, aggravated by the
lack of clue of the generals and politicians, caused the sheer
butchery. The human loss for France only was 1,400,000, and 8,000,000
for the whole of Europe. Several French attacks had not the least
chance of success since the infantry troops were sent against the
German lines without any artillery preparation. Moreover, the
infantry lacked signal pennants, which were
used at that time to signal the conquered trenches and positions. The
soil and air observers, who were in a very unsufficent number and
badly equiped, could not indicate precisely the targets to the
artillery. In some cases, the artillery was misleadingly ordered to
shoot randomly or even on the French infantry.
Ivan Sache, 11 November 2002
The Franco-Czechoslovak Friendship's Monument, built in Darney (Lorraine, east of France), is a 32 m high steel spire, with three flags hoisted on smaller poles in foreground. The central flag is the French Tricolore,
whereas the flag on the right is the Czechoslovak (and current Czech) flag.
The monument is built near the site of the camp of the volunteers of
the Czechoslovak Legion during the First World War. The place is of
special significance for the Czechoslovak history: on 30 June 1918, the
French President Raymond Poincaré acknowledged in Darney the right of the Czechs and Slovaks to have their own state.
[Radio Praha]
Ivan Sache, 17 December 2004
