First World War officially ends...Sunday

[steve58]

The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies.

 

Last reparations to be paid.

 

Edited September 28, 2010 by steve58

[Olham]

The Bordeauxred Baron: "Vott? It vas not over yet? Vy did not anybody tell me zatt??? Vere iss my Albatros?!?!"

 

Well, I did not know this was still being paid. Still for the 1. World War?

Shall we now start to pay for the 2. World War then?

[RAF_Louvert]

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This is really quite bizarre.

 

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[Von Paulus]

Odd, bizarre, etc.

[UK_Widowmaker]

Not surprising at all (imho)

 

The Brits only finished paying the Yanks off for equipment used in WW2 about 3 years ago!

 

The Germans started both World Wars....let 'em pay!

[Olham]

Well, I hope you Brits won't suffer from a giant hole in your annual budget after we have made the last payment now!

[RAF_Louvert]

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I'm sure glad we Yanks don't owe anyone any money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OK, I thought I could say that with a straight face, but no way.

 

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[UK_Widowmaker]

Well, I hope you Brits won't suffer from a giant hole in your annual budget after we have made the last payment now!

 

No worries there Olham...The hole is already massive!...and that's certainly NOT the fault of the Germans!!

[Von Paulus]

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I'm sure glad we Yanks don't owe anyone any money.

No. You're just being bought by the Chinese.So they say....

Edited September 28, 2010 by Von Paulus

[BirdDogICT]

No. You're just being bought by the Chinese.So they say....

Ouch! The truth hurts!!

[RAF_Louvert]

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Did you miss the part where I said I couldn't say that with a straight face?

 

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[Von Paulus]

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Did you miss the part where I said I couldn't say that with a straight face?

Don't worry. They are just buying everything that has some value.

I doubt that they would want to buy anything here in Portugal.

Anyway, the yellow menace exists, it's real. Only our leaders don't want to see that; besides they are already in the payroll from those who do business with them.

I've the feeling that one day we'll regret all of this... "laisser faire et lassez passez".

[Olham]

Well, perhaps it's all part of becoming the "Global Village" ?

Everyone has debts everywhere, no one can pay them, and so we all have to put our faces back into the dirt and work hard like medieval farmers.

It only needs "politician talk" to sell that as the biggest progress mankind could make - we're all pulling on the same rope together now!

[UK_Widowmaker]

I am actually being scammed by a Chinese guy at the moment (well, at least he's trying too)

 

But I am scamming the scammer!..hahahahahaha

[Olham]

Widowmaker, don't let him "take the butter from your bred", as we Germans say!

[JFM]

That news headline is so typically overblown to augment a minor story's perceived importance.

 

The official end of WW1 was not contingent upon the receipt of all monetary reparations. The ceasefire was on 11 November 1918 and the "official" end was when the Treaty of Versailles was signed 28 June 1919. There were other treaties, the last of which I believe was signed in 1923. Regardless, the official end of WW1 already occurred over nine decades ago, not this sunday.

 

Yeah, "World War One, 1914-2010."

[Von Paulus]

That news headline is so typically overblown to augment a minor story's perceived importance.

 

The official end of WW1 was not contingent upon the receipt of all monetary reparations. The ceasefire was on 11 November 1918 and the "official" end was when the Treaty of Versailles was signed 28 June 1919. There were other treaties, the last of which I believe was signed in 1923. Regardless, the official end of WW1 already occurred over nine decades ago, not this sunday.

True.

[Olham]

Thank you for clearing that, JFM - yeah, headlines... And I fell for it! Still know very little about WW1,

but I have ordered "Lions of July" now, which you recommended, von Paulus. I'll try to learn.

[Von Paulus]

Yes, that's an admirable book.

[themightysrc]

"Still know very little about WW1, but I have ordered "Lions of July" now, which you recommended"

 

Wotcha Olham,

 

I think that you should also invest in a copy of Hew Strachan's superb history - http://www.amazon.co...howViewpoints=1 - (hope this copies OK!). Strachan is probably the best British historian now alive, and he's not a revisionist; far from it, he is an absolutely peerless historian whose prose, as far as I'm concerned, is little short of brilliant. It's something like Tom Holland, but without any guesswork whatsoever. Buy his book, and I guarantee that you will not regret it, even if you have to read it in English, rather than translation.

Edited September 30, 2010 by themightysrc

[Olham]

Well, thank you for the tip - I ordered a copy; but to be honest, it's in German.

I might find it to disturbing, if I had to look up many words per page, and the translation is said to be very good.

[Von Paulus]

 

 

I think that you should also invest in a copy of Hew Strachan's superb history - http://www.amazon.co...howViewpoints=1 - (hope this copies OK!). Strachan is probably the best British historian now alive, and he's not a revisionist; far from it, he is an absolutely peerless historian whose prose, as far as I'm concerned, is little short of brilliant. It's something like Tom Holland, but without any guesswork whatsoever. Buy his book, and I guarantee that you will not regret it, even if you have to read it in English, rather than translation.

That book is one of the best one volume account of first world war. I agree with you mightysrc.

I think that I've already sent you, Olham, the documentary based on that book. Didn't I?

But I'd also recommend the one from John Keegan. IMHO, Keegan is probably the best military historian still alive.

Between the two I'd choose the Strachan one.

[Hasse Wind]

The fighting certainly did end in 1918, but we are still living under the shadow of the Great War. It brought about such huge and dramatic changes and almost completely wrecked the centuries old European world order. Just think about all the empires that collapsed immediately during or after the war, or were so badly weakened that they fell later, after the Second World War. All this was caused by the Great War. Rarely has a conflict had such a dramatic impact on world history as WW1 had (and still has). It's incredible that WW1 is almost completely a forgotten subject outside the academic circles. If people knew more about what happened during those four years, they would find it easier to understand the world we are now living in.