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Why do you collect the WWI era?


rustbucket
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Bonjour.

 

When a region where, at some time in the villages, there were more Americans than French you live ...

 

post-241-0-93513200-1388920678.jpg

 

post-241-0-68101000-1388920778.jpg

 

post-241-0-41511700-1388920850.jpg

 

We finished as:

 

post-241-0-60766100-1388921009.jpg

 

 

 

Cordialement. Solcarlus.

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Socarlus,

Very interesting, I'm now reading Squandered Victory: The American First Army at St. Mihiel, by James H. Hallas. Of course, Montsec played a part in that offensive.

Pete

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Bonjour.

 

The montsec was a good vantage point and fortified.

But the area where occurred the hardest fighting is the area of the "Bel Air" farm north of Pont à Mousson for the 82th Inf. div

What excites me for this period, on the one hand the history of the region and secondly, the organization and equipment of the army "U.S.".

In 1944, our region experienced again the passage of troops "U.S.". Subsequently, many bases "U.S." NATO ...

I do not know the work cited and ... I do not speak English!

 

solcarlus.

 

German central office at the foot of Montsec:

 

post-241-0-04436500-1389005313.jpg

 

post-241-0-20039700-1389005232.jpg

 

post-241-0-83971800-1389005369.jpg

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Garandomatic

Amazing. I love seeing the remnants of the Great War today. To impress on my students how terrible technology had made the war, I always show them a bit of ground around Douamont with Google Earth because the land is still cratered and torn with zig-zagging trenches still visible from satellite imagery.

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I live in Belgium and my home town (and many others) was leveled by German artillery in 1914.

Plus I live at about an hour drive from the Ypres area, one of the bloodiest battlefields of WWI.

Need I say more? ;)

 

Erwin

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Every town/village in my country has a memorial to the fallen of the Great War because every community was affected. An entire generation of young British men were lost between 1914-18....704,800 KIA. The memorials, in their various forms, are an ever present reminder of their sacrifice.

 

Anglesey,%20Llangefni,%20County%20School

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Additional plaques naming the fallen of 1939-45 are usually added to, or alongside each WW1 memorial ( the language on this example is Welsh)

 

Anglesey,%20Holyhead%20War%20Memorial%20

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ColdWarRules

cache_11971990.jpg?t=1375988952

 

 

I've always admired the way the British honored their fallen and their veterans. WW1 British militaria fascinates me, unfortunately its expensive :(

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ColdWarRules

Also I'd like to add that the style of warfare and the way it looked just fascinates me greatly. The engineering of the trenches and the dugouts and innovative things each area of trenches had is just amazing (I'm actually going to college for Engineering :D). I also think the strategy of counter attacking trenches that have been taken is also interesting along with how to secure trenches, etc. Plus the war is really old, its a fact older things are cooler ;)

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  • 4 months later...

I find WW1 interesting for a number of reasons. I have at least one great uncle who served in the US Army during WW1. My grandfather gave me his panoramic unit photo from 1918. I need more research on my uncle. Family lore has it that his unit was training for the 1919 great offensive, but the war ended before he was shipped to Europe.

 

WW1 was the first air war. Being an Air Force veteran, there is natural appeal there. I am looking at my US ace Douglas Campbell signed print as I type this. He had 6 victories, his signature providing a link to the living man.

 

Finally as a former munitions officer, I have a real fun time collecting and studying things that go bang or boom! Lots of that in WW1. ;)

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willysmb44

I took a basic engineering course in the 90s, in College. The teacher asked early on what the largest construction site in human history was. Everyone else mentioned the Panama Canal, Highway system, dams, big stuff like that.

I raised my hand and said, "It was the Western Front in WW1. It was countless miles wide and went all the way North-South through all of Europe. You could have probably dropped hundreds of Panama Canals inside that area, and every bit of it was done by hand."

The teacher, who apparently had a totally different answer originally, changed the subject. The next time the class met, I got to that class first and he said while he was familiar with the trenches in WW1, it never occured to him how I described it. He never told me what his answer was going to be. But whatever it was, he said my example was much larger in scope.

War film fans often talk about how there should be a Great War epic movie. I agree, but I can't think that even Hollywood could communicated the sheer size of the horror. 'War Horse' did an admirable job but even that film just didn't get the point to the degree the public needs it hammered home.

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BelligerentBlue

I like it because as a Marine Corps veteran, it's where my unit first got their start.

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Not really sure but, WWI has more of an allure to me. Maybe it's because it was the first war that the U.S. used a steel helmet or maybe it's the cool mixture of man and machine that was so prevalent in WWI. So, i don't have an answer but, I just like it and it speaks to me.

I started collecting WWII back in the 70's and still have a large amount of WWII items however, 90% of my acquisitions in the last 5 years have been WWI. I've also been drawn to WWI AFS items.

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Garandomatic

Not really sure but, WWI has more of an allure to me. Maybe it's because it was the first war that the U.S. used a steel helmet or maybe it's the cool mixture of man and machine that was so prevalent in WWI. So, i don't have an answer but, I just like it and it speaks to me.

 

 

 

Exactly. There were still cowboys around for WWI. Just an amazing mix, right between two eras.

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  • 2 weeks later...
P-40Warhawk

"Why World War 1?" Because we can use all kinds of collector-isms like tunic. (ducking to avoid the helmets and old 1917 wine bottles being thrown in my direction!) :D

 

 

Because I haven't found a nice Civil War uniform that meets my requirements (real and named for starters!) or my budget, that's why! WWI is what I started to collect in lieu of Civil War when I entered this hobby. I became interested in WWI for a number of reasons, but I think the thing that really motivated me to collect was a combined appreciation of the past and love of history, especially family history. Researching and reading about my relatives that served in WWI was the focal point through which I collected.

 

I don't buy a uniform because it looks nice or is decked out in medals and insignia, I buy it for the history if it meets the conditions I have set up for adding items to the collection. So maybe that makes me different but so what? There is nothing wrong with patched uniforms and in truth that is where you will find most of the named enlisted uniforms (unless they were stripped in the last 90 years) from WWI. But that's the catch since I collect with a strict focus I turn down things that do not fit my interests. Namely almost anything with a discharge stripe and SSI. Not because I dislike them but because I try to only collect 1917-1918 items, though I do occasionally make exceptions if I feel a connection to a particular piece. Due to my narrow interest pickings are slim at best.

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  • 4 weeks later...

After a short period of collecting WWII field gear, I soon found myself drawn to the lineage of haversacks, cartridge belts and the typical accessories in Heavy Marching Order rigs. Now I have most of what I want for WWI, and even some pre-WWI and am fighting the urge to assemble a set from the Spanish American War. WWI was never that interesting to me, that is, until I acquired some pieces of its history. So, for me, it started with an interest in the evolution of the field gear.

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  • 1 month later...
Infantry Grunt

I am slowly being more and more drawn to WWI, even though I collect WWII garb! There is something about the landscape of WWI that really sums up war for me... whereas most other wars are fought in green forests, what fields, patches of trees, but WWI is just all out hell. It's not like I like the scenery but I feel like it is the definition of hell on earth.

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As most others here said, I appreciate WWI for the new meets old. Cavalry charges getting gunned down by MGs, soldiers going over the top, knowing they will probably not live to get to that trench 30 ft away, knowing they will probably get gassed if they stay in theirs. Very fascinating! I don't have any WWI gear yet, but have been looking into it for a while.

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gunbunnyB/3/75FA

ditto, i have multiple reasons why i am interested in wwI, i am amazed that cavalry would have the guts to go at MG's, new advances in artillery, the last really good looking field uniforms, and the minor fact that my granddad played a tiny part in the war.( he was the reason i went artillery,lol).still wish i could find a picture of him.

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Cool uniforms .....

 

This photo was taken in Dendermonde where they had a commemoration.

For six days, about 85 people and many horses and dogs marched from Halen to Dendermonde to remember the retreat of the Belgian Army in 1914.

We were NOT defeated (that was in 1940) but we retreated to the Yser River where we fought for 4 miserable years in one of the worst sectors of the WWI Western Front.

 

Erwin

post-157-0-63593900-1408884116.jpg

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There was even a replica of a machinegun car Minerva and a dog-drawn chart with a machinegun on it.

But since it is not US-related, this is all I will post.

I just wanted to let you all know that WWI was not only trenches and artillery.

 

Erwin

 

 

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