Bandages and Baguettes, The Care and Feeding of the Great War Soldier

[MichaelS]

Thumb Dog thanks for posting. Too bad your parents saddled you with that name!!

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And thanks, guys. Below, find my progenitor and namesake.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[Tom Greensfelder]

Looking forward to seeing the series, Thumb Dog! Excellent work and information, per usual.

[MichaelS]

Originally Posted by Thumb Dog

Hi All,

And thanks, guys. Below, find my progenitor and namesake.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

Another good day for me --- I learned somethin' new!

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And thanks for the interest in the thread. To SCEtoAUX’s point, while I don’t remember the specific scene in, “All Quiet of the Western Front,” hunger in the German Army and on the German home front was quite real. I have heard historians discuss the failure of the government to keep enough able bodied men on the farms to raise enough food for the war effort. As the war went on, the men who were manning the farms were called to duty to man the front, exacerbating the problem. It should be noted that the blockade of the German ports by the Royal Navy also had a hand in the privation.

Hi Tom, glad you like the series so far. More to come. Finding appropriate photos for the backdrops is a challenge, but I’m happy with the results so far. I’ll post one next week.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[elliott]

When I was stationed at Fort Bragg, NC I was assigned to a unit that deployed for field training with XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters. Occasionally, the 1st Corps Support Command would deploy with us and that included the bakery. The standing joke was, when that occurred there was no need for camouflage nets and such since all the enemy had to do to find us was to follow their noses. The bread smelled marvelous and tasted even better!

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

As we get older, our peripheral vision narrows, and we don’t see the wider view of the world as we once did. History is much the same way. The more we retreat in time from the events from our past, we narrow the focus of our memory, and much of the wider view is lost.

To the modern eye, World War I was a conflict that took place in France and Belgium between the Germans in the east, and the French and British in the west. Some might even remember that the Germans were fighting a second-front war with the Russians as well. And there, the popular view of the conflict ends. But the war did in fact involve the entire world. Nations such as New Zealand, Greece, Algeria and Mexico all had their important parts to play, and the more we understand about the events of the Great War, the more we understand our world today.

Today’s diorama, “Un Hindou Camp,” Pellerin Série De Guerre No. 4, shows an Indian encampment somewhere in France. A detachment of Indian soldiers is preparing to march off behind a mounted British officer. Meanwhile, life in the camp goes on, with uniformed men patrolling the camp while others, most likely of a lower caste, tend to the cooking, cleaning and other aspects of life in military service.

Seeing members of the Indian Army fighting for the British in Europe may seem incongruous to many, but during the war, many soldiers from the world’s scattered colonies were taken into service. The French and British had been establishing colonies since the 16th century, so they, along with the Dutch, had colonized much of the riches of the world. Germany came late to the colonial game, as the Unification of Germany only occurred in January of 1871, and there were few colonial opportunities left to them. Namibia, Tanzania and Cameroon in southern Africa were their most important holdings. Both the Entente and Central Powers imported men from their far-flung colonies to fight and die in the never-ending war of attrition. This is how the all-volunteer Indian Army came to fight in Western Europe and beyond.

1.3 million Indian soldiers served in the war, with at least 74,000 killed and as many, if not more, wounded through injury and disease. Their heroic service was tied to a promise made by the British government that when the war was over, the Indian nation would be set on the path to self-rule. This was much the same promise made by the British to the Arabs through T.E. Lawrence. They were similar promises in that they were both cruelly broken. After the war, India and the Middle East saw not self-rule, but an even sterner hand on the lash. It would take yet another war for these peoples to be free of their colonial masters. For more information about the Indian Army in the Great War, the following BBC News report from July, 2015 will be of interest.

Why the Indian soldiers of WW1 were forgotten - BBC News

There is a memorial in New Delhi to the Indian soldiers who fought and died in the Great War. Built by the British in 1931, it is known as the India Gate. While a National War Memorial is set to be dedicated on India’s Independence Day this coming August 15th, it will honor only those soldiers who died after Indian independence in 1947. There is currently no Indian-built memorial to the brave soldiers who served and perished in the Great War.

May this small diorama serve in its own small way to remember those men who served so far from home, so long ago.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[MichaelS]

Thanks for your post TD. Like you, much of my modeling I do to help myself and others remember all the terrible wars fought in the past. Your posts especially bring the impact home of the human element of these mostly senseless conflicts.

[elliott]

Thank you for another enlightening post and mini history lesson Thumb Dog. Even when you bring up uncomfortable subjects, as sometimes happens, they are valuable nonetheless and always beneficial.

[Gil]

It's the baguette part.

Baguettes didn't arrive in Paris (and France) until 1923 - far later than the Great War. It wasn't until the Austrian bakers arrived with their steam ovens introducing the baguette to Paris that the item became popular in France. Maybe a batard, a boule or just plain Pain?...,

-Gil