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James H


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France's oldest WW1 veteran dies
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French World War I Veteran Cazenave Dies

World War I veteran Louis de Cazenave died Sunday at age 110, his son said, leaving just one known French survivor of the 1914-1918 conflict.

De Cazenave, who took part in the Battle of the Somme, died in his home in Brioude in central France, said his son, also named Louis de Cazenave.

"He died at his house, in his sleep, without suffering," the son said by telephone. He said his father was to be buried Tuesday in Brioude.

The last known French veteran of World War I known as "poilus," meaning hairy or tough is Lazare Ponticelli, also 110.

Born Oct. 16, 1897, de Cazenave was called up to fight in 1916 and served in different infantry regiments before joining an artillery unit in January 1918, according to a statement from the French president's office.

De Cazenave took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, in which more than a million soldiers died, and in the liberation of France from German forces, the statement said.

"His death is an occasion for all of us to think of the 1.4 million French who sacrificed their lives during this conflict, for the 4.5 million wounded, for the 8.5 million mobilized," President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement.

"This generation has only one remaining representative today."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7199127.stm



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Tim R


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Dieu accordent la paix et le repos éternels.pray.gif

Tim R

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Mario Wens


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James H wrote:

"This generation has only one remaining representative today."


Sadly, Lazare Ponticelli has now died too:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23597070/

An irrepairable link with the past has now been broken in France, as eventually happens to all historic events. The Great War gradually passes into a new phase where it has no living witnesses left, which will bring a greater detachment in analysing the events. This is not always a bad thing. Sometimes personal involvement stands in the way of clear analysis and greater distance in time sometimes leads to new insights. But with the passing of the last witnesses one thing becomes impossible: to ask about the things nobody ever took the trouble to ask about or write down. The  memories these old men had go with them, and only the bits that were recorded survive in some limited way...

Mario



-- Edited by Mario Wens at 13:30, 2008-03-14

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James H


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Reading up on M Ponticelli, I've just found this:

BERLIN: A German believed to have been the country's last World War I veteran has died at the age of 107, a death that almost went unnoticed in a nation that lost both world wars and doesn't track its remaining veterans.

He died on New Year's Day 2008, and it received hardly any coverage at the time.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/25/news/Obit-Last-German-Veteran.php

Wikipedia has been updated and there are more links here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_K%C3%A4stner_(WWI_veteran) Some of them do not make for very happy reading.

Whether Herr Kästner was a Prussian militarist at heart, I don't know. All I know is that if he was, he was a product of the society he grew up in, like the British and French imperialists, the Belgians who murdered millions in the Congo, and today's zealots of many kinds. Their actions cannot be excused, but they can be explained. They all thought they were right.

Mario, you are so right. It makes me unbearably sad to think of what that generation endured. At Langemarck I read the plaque in the chapel alongside a German, and we both had tears running down our faces. My partner and I cried our eyes out at the Menin Gate and Beaumont Hamel.

If it's any consolation, I did get my great-uncle to tell me about his time in the trenches, and wrote it all down. If Peter K agrees I'll offer it to him to put on the main site. I'd rather wait until the 22nd of this month, the 90th anniversary of his being captured at St. Quentin.

At least those of use who try to make a contribution to Landships aren't interested in re-fighting the First and Second World Wars. Sadly, there are some people who are.



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