All What's You Should Know

'Goodbye, Old Man': Painting depicting a British soldier comforting his dying horse on a road, 1916. . This painting by Italian artist Fortunino Matania was commissioned by the Blue Cross animal charity fund in 1916 to raise money for horses on active service in the British Army during the First World War. . Approximately 8 million horses were killed in the First World War, transporting guns, ammunition, resources and troops - dying to artillery strikes and exhaustion most of the time. A minority of horses were also killed as cavalry horses, charging into enemy barbed wire, rifle- and machine-gun fire. . For this deeply moving painting, I'll recite the poem "The Silent Volunteers" by British Lieutenant Leonard Fleming:  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀  "NO less, real heroes than the men who died, Are you who helped the frenzied ranks to win; Galloping heroes - silently - side by side,  Models of discipline. .  You, too, had pals from whom you had to part, Pals rather young to f...

Skull of a German soldier at Verdun nicknamed 'The Crown Prince', serving as a point of reference for French soldiers at nighttime, 1916. The following is the diary entry of 21-year-old Danish-German soldier I.J.I Bergholt, reporting on the conditions of the German frontlines at Le Mort Homme and Côte 304 at Verdun in May 1917. Translated by myself:    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "The following is the diary entry of 21-year-old Danish-German soldier I.J.I Bergholt, reporting on the conditions of the German frontlines at Le Mort Homme (Dead Man's Hill) and Côte 304 (Hill 304) at Verdun in May 1917. Translated by myself:  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ "Zum Schlachthof des deutschen Kronprinzen, Hohe 304" (Towards the slaughterhouse of the German Crown Prince, Hill 304). That was the inscription on a sign, which one morning had been placed at the entrance of a trench leading up to that hill. .  It was obviously removed immediately, but never before has an inscription been this close to the tru...