Verdun, France - American Military Cemetery

[lodeu]

A sacred place, touching the heart of everyone approaching it.

[chopped50ford]

Just seeing this makes my heart cry out for these men who gave the ultimate sacrifice for Freedom. The direction of our nation and its current administration only tarnish's thier memories and the real freedom's they fought for. I salute these soldiers and "Thank You"

[billybobrustupid]

If we were fighting for freedom..why were the germans, french, british, russians fighting for?? What started ww1? Were the british fighting for freedom in the middle east against the turks? Explain this idea of ww1 s fight for freedom to me..I havent ever been quite able to understand the many sides to this war. thjaks

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

@billybobrustupid

That question requires a highly comprehensive reple; every nation involved argued they were fighting for freedom in some sense of the word. Although Germany initiated the Western Front by invading Belgium; thus forcing Britain and France to act on treaty there were many other issues as well such as the British-German naval race; for their part Germany felt 'left out' in the colonial race and was somewhat envious of France and especially Britain. But all the reasons are cont.

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

complex and varied; Europe imploded because of interconnected politics and territory. French-German rivalries were particularly personal. To understand the complex and varied options more I would recommended the 1964 documentary 'The Great War' or the 1969 satire 'Oh, What a Lovely War!"'

One thing I would say is that every country attempted to moralise their policies as justified in the face of tyranny; in every town and village in the United Kingdom for instance a war memorial displays the

[WORLD8NSH5KNIGHT1]

names of local men who died on the front. The United Kingdom alone (not including the thousands of men from our Empire) lost an estimated 900,000 killed or missing and several million more wounded. WW1 utterly shattered Europe and indeed had a deep imp;act opn many other countries as well. In Britain for example in one day; 1st July 1916 at the Somme Offensive we lost 60,000 killed, wounded or missing; the Somme and Paschendaele particularly had a very deep impact on the British psyche.

[gruijt]

I was there last week, it's unbelievable.

[ManlnCognito]

becuase they are jewish

[angrycrank101]

Why did some of the gravestones have stars on top? What do they mean?

[chopped50ford]

They were probably Jewish.

[90th90]

jewish soldiers had a Stat istead of a Kross ;)