November 11

This was the original idea for Veterans Day................I want to thank all veterans (including my brother, my uncle and one of my cousins) for the sacrifices that they made in their lives. I also apologize to all veterans for the misguided leadership that continually puts our military in harms way not for the benefit of our country but for the corporate interests that they are sent to protect. Thank you again for all you do and may you and your families enjoy all the beauty and love that this world truly has to offer................PEACE...............Scott


1918 : World War I ends

At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of
1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning,
Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced
with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement
with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne,
France. The First World War left nine million soldiers
dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia,
Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing
nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least
five million civilians died from disease, starvation,
or exposure.

On June 28, 1914, in an event that is widely regarded
as sparking the outbreak of World War I, Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire,
was shot to death with his wife by Bosnian Serb
Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia. Ferdinand had
been inspecting his uncle's imperial armed forces in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, despite the threat of Serbian
nationalists who wanted these Austro-Hungarian
possessions to join newly independent Serbia.
Austria-Hungary blamed the Serbian government for the
attack and hoped to use the incident as justification
for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once
and for all. However, as Russia supported Serbia, an
Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until
its leaders received assurances from German leader
Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their
cause in the event of a Russian intervention.

On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia,
and the tenuous peace between Europe's great powers
collapsed. On July 29, Austro-Hungarian forces began
to shell the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and Russia,
Serbia's ally, ordered a troop mobilization against
Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to
mobilize on August 1. France and Germany declared war
against each other on August 3. After crossing through
neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on
the night of August 3-4, prompting Great Britain,
Belgium's ally, to declare war against Germany.

For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the
outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically
assumed that their country would be victorious within
months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most
prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its
military leaders had formatted a sophisticated
military strategy known as the "Schlieffen Plan,"
which envisioned the conquest of France through a
great arcing offensive through Belgium and into
northern France. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be
kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany
attacked France.

The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in
early September the French rallied and halted the
German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near
Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million
soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on
the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies
nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight.
On the western front--the battle line that stretched
across northern France and Belgium--the combatants
settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of
attrition.

In 1915, the Allies attempted to break the stalemate
with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had
joined the Central Powers in October 1914, but after
heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in
early 1916. The year 1916 saw great offensives by
Germany and Britain along the western front, but
neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the
east, Germany was more successful, and the
disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses,
spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in
1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized
power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating
peace with Germany. In 1918, the infusion of American
troops and resources into the western front finally
tipped the scale in the Allies' favor. Germany signed
an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11,
1918.

World War I was known as the "war to end all wars"
because of the great slaughter and destruction it
caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that
officially ended the conflict--the Treaty of
Versailles of 1919--forced punitive terms on Germany
that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for
World War II.

history.com/tdih.do