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Tremendous fortitude shown by WWI soldiers

by ROGER GREGORY / Contributing Writer
| February 5, 2025 1:00 AM

This is another Military Tale from World War I; this one is from France and shows the fortitude of the fighting men. 

It was Sept. 6, 1914, that some 980,000 French soldiers and 100,000 British soldiers were poised to attack the German line of 750,000 German soldiers between Verdun (my wife's hometown) and Paris. General Joffre, the French commander, had just had his troops reenforced with an additional 100,000 reservists. He appealed to the troops with this: "The salvation of our country was in their hands. Their would be no looking back. The sacred ground of France was to be held at whatever cost. Be killed on the spot rather than retreat. Any weakness would not be tolerated." 

One French general said that they would force the Germans to retreat and be in Germany in four weeks. Of course this didn't happen the battle went back and forth for four years until it was over in 1918. Then boundaries of countries had shifted again. 

For example, in the battle of 1870s between Germany and France, Germany took over Alsace-Loraine which bordered both countries. After World War I was over, France got it back. It is a region that we have visited several times, it is mostly German architecture and is great white wine country, of which I, of course, took part.

The war was started when Archduke Ferdinand of Austrian was killed in Serbia by an assassin. Prior to the war, it was the Austrian-Hungarian Empire which was huge; after the war, Austria became small to the country it is today. They lost the Hungary part and all of what is now northern Italy.