Word: verdun
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
World War I, the 20th Century's parent catastrophe, echoed faintly when Friedrich Wilhelm, the Hohenzollern crown prince of old Germany, and Henri Philippe Péetain, Marshal of France, died within four days. They had faced each other across the mass slaughter at Verdun; each, after his own fashion, had tried to make his deal with the mass brutality of Naziism that came after, and each died disgraced...
Jerry Thomas has been in the thick of Marine Corps battles in both wars: Verdun, Belleau Wood, Soissons, Meuse-Argonne; Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Bougainville. A competent desk man as well as a first-class fighter, he was recalled from the Pacific in 1944 to head the Corps' Plans & Policies Division in Washington. Old Leathernecks recall his quizzical understatement during the fight for Guadalcanal : "We want to give them [the Japs] a sense of futility...
...treason, come to live in Spain and enjoy "the hospitality of our wonderful Mediterranean climate, where, until passions die down, he could spend the last years of his life, loved and respected." In Paris, a few World War I veterans, celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Verdun, remembered their old hero, set up a chant of "Set Pétain free" before police could silence them...
...strive to erect a wall of security for the free world," he said. He recalled the courage of free men in another day-the French at Verdun in 1916, the Italians at Vittorio Veneto,* the British in 1940 "when they stood alone against Hitler." For Americans he recalled Valley Forge. "Indeed, if each of us now proves himself worthy of his countrymen fighting and dying in Korea, then success is sure . . . "Each of us must do his part. We cannot delay while we suspiciously scrutinize the sacrifices made by our neighbors, and through a weasling logic seek some...
...armored spearheads reached the Seine at Melun. The Seine crossings were savagely contested; Walker directed one himself, under fire on the riverbank. Within days, the XX Corps lanced through the battleground that had been dismally fought over for years in World War I-Reims, Epernay, Chateau-Thierry, Verdun. Walker pushed on across the Meuse, but with the enemy in rout, Patton ordered him to "sit down" 40 miles short of Metz. The Third Army, which needed 450,000 gallons of automotive fuel a day, was almost...