Publisher: Shantou University Press
Publication time: July 1, 2021
It has been almost three-quarters of a century since the ceasefire of the "War to End All War" in November 1918, and the first edition of the book "The Price of Glory" was published 30 years ago. This book miraculously can still be reprinted. This book was written in a relatively peaceful and prosperous era. The Korean War had already ended 10 years before that.
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In this era of unprecedented prosperity, the world was led by Harold Macmillan and John F. Kennedy Kennedy In Europe, de Gaulle and Adenauer shook hands when signing a new contract, ending the cold and deadly hostile relationship between the two countries.
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The idea of another European war seems to belong to the distant, dark, and ignorant past.
Almost simultaneously, several British writers in their thirties who grew up during World War II began writing books about World War I. We use the arrogance of the later generations to accuse our predecessors of being too foolish to let such a disaster happen, and it happened almost by chance in this way.
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Scott Fitzgerald's Dick Diver, when revisiting the battlefield a few years after the Battle of Verdun, said: In our wise world, the Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun cannot be repeated. If war were to break out again, World War II had already shown that fighting with tanks, planes, and blitzkrieg was better than forcing thousands of soldiers to rush into the mud of no man's land and die.
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Yeah, our generation is wiser.
The two superpowers delicately maintain a balance of terror, and this "Mutually Assured Destruction" strategy was later abbreviated as MAD, literally meaning "crazy" (perhaps not that crazy). In this context, the battles of Verdun and Somme are still considered unimaginable.
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Perhaps when we are self righteous, we selectively ignore such an elusive truth,In fact, the Second World War was not won by tanks and planes, but by many Verdun style battles on the eastern line in places invisible to us in the West. In Stalingrad, under Leningrad, hundreds of thousands of Soviet and German soldiers died in the terrible war of attrition, just like the situation a quarter of a century ago.
Don't forget to share your experience!The fact is that a total war between two evenly matched modern industrial countries will inevitably result in corpses scattered everywhere.
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We learned from recently declassified archives in Havana and Moscow thatThe Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962During this period, the world was closer to the brink of a catastrophic nuclear war than we knew at the time, even more so than our wise leaders knew.
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The first edition of the book 'The Price of Glory' was published that month. If a nuclear war had occurred at that time, the number of deaths would have made the Battle of Verdun seem like a child's play.
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Since then, in addition to several short but undecided wars in the Middle East, we have also experienced the endless nightmare of the Vietnam War, which has greatly hit the morale of an entire generation of Americans, and the subsequent terrorist rule of Pol Pot in Cambodia, where the massacre was no less bloody and evil than the Battle of Verdun.
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We witnessed the seven-year war of attrition between Iran and Iraq, which was so similar to the Western Front. Then, just as we had won the Cold War, the Soviet Union disintegrated, and the terrifying balance of "mutually assured destruction" disappeared, Europe once again experienced an evil war that killed countless people, and it happened in the same Balkan region as the old Austro Hungarian Empire. What happened there in 1914 inevitably led the world all the way to Verdun.
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Have we ever learned a lesson?
The writing of 'The Price of Glory' began in the 1950s, when I wasYoung foreign journalists stationed in GermanyLiving inFranco German enmityIn the environment of the last trace of nostalgia, one could still feel its atmosphere very vividly at that time. In the world I grew up in, almost all evil originated from the Franco German feud, but now the relationship between the two countries has undergone a miraculous transformation, so I began to want to write a book (later developed into a trilogy) to track the changes in the relationship between the two countries over the past century. When I first visited the terrifying mountains near Verdun, I was left with emotions that were difficult to completely erase afterwards - I was attracted by war stories and complex historical consequences, admired the fearless courage shown by both sides at that time, and was also shocked by the huge losses and unimaginable stupidity.
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This book has had a profound impact on the author himself, and tears kept welling up in my eyes while writing. This is a well deserved anti war book.
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Thank God, in the past 30 years, readers have written letters to me from all corners of the world (strangely, the most letters have been sent from the United States). The letters contain strong reactions from readers who have been to the battlefield, old photos, memories of witnesses or their descendants, and sometimes touching poems. In the early stages, there will still be the reappearance of the ghosts of the Battle of Verdun - those who were thought to be ancient, such as Lieutenant Eugen Radtke, who was the first German officer to break into the "unbreakable" Fort Douaumont. In the 1960s, he only came to Paris for the first time from East Germany, which was also the first time in his 70 year life that he went to a place further west than Duisburg (he passed away shortly after).
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It's interesting that although there have been countless letters from readers over the years, there are hardly any letters that allow me to modify more than one line in each reprint. One of the modifications was due to the aging former lieutenant Kl é ber Dupuy, who was a hero in both World Wars and was likely the last French officer to block the last German attack on Verdun above Fort Souville on July 12, 1916. In his letter, he complained that in the French translation with some translation issues, I said he had hidden inside Suvelburg. I revised the writing without hesitation. Later on, we became pen pals. Besides, this book has hardly been revised since its publication. The statements in the book seem to withstand scrutiny.
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stayToday, various fortresses around Verdunamong,Troyes FortressFort Troyon has been sold (for only 100000 francs) and is now a mushroom farm; andWobaoThe mournful plaque nailed by the unnamed French mother on Fort Vaux - "Dedicated to my son, my eyes have never stopped crying since your eyes closed" - is now gone, destroyed. The pine forest that was once planted to cover up the scorched earth of the Dead Mountain has now been cut down and replaced with other trees.
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But I feel that as long as the French nation exists, the core of Verdun will always be there. In the wilderness, there are still almost forgotten historical relics hidden, just like what Shelley described in Ozymandias. Although they are dilapidated and collapsed, they still remember all the iconic stupidity, pride, and heroism of the war that we still call the "Great War" today.
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To this day, those ruins still claim lives every now and then, such as sometimes foolish tourists recklessly searching for war relics, or entering the ruins of an abandoned fortress and stepping on a still explosive shell. Cars of Germans keep coming
What do you think about this?Dumont CastleSearch for the place where their grandfather or great grandfather died in battle.
Since writing 'The Price of Glory', I have been to the battlefield of Verdun at least 6 times and have been impressed by its grandeur and desolation each time.
Don't forget to share your experience!Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the solemn and dignified Battle of Verdun in 1966At the ceremony, I stood a few feet next to General de Gaulle. He stood straight like a rifle bolt until the long sound and light show reached the day when Charles de Gaulle himself was injured and captured in the battle, and then turned around and left. Perhaps even this icy giant cannot bear such painful memories. Nearly 20 years later,
What do you think about this?Charles de GaulleThe successorFrancois Mitterrand President Fran ç ois Mitterrand also made a special trip to Verdun to shake hands and chat with German Chancellor Kohl on this brutal battlefield, putting an end to the long-standing enmity between France and Germany.
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I gave a speech to a guard infantry battalion during my recent visit to the battlefield. Although the Battle of Verdun dates back a long time, the young officers were quickly infected by the tragedy here, and the scene fell into silence. One of them said to me, 'Have you noticed that there are no birds here?' Before that, I thought I was the only person who strangely felt that extreme desolation.
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The most terrifying aspect of the Battle of Verdun was that, after the first three months, it seemed that the battle was no longer under human control, but rather controlled both sides of the conflict. A German once thought that the battle would never end:
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Until the last German and the last French jumped out of the trench with crutches and killed each other with knives
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Interestingly, Scott Fitzgerald referred to the Battle of Verdun as' a battle of love '. Among the simple and slaughtered infantry on both sides, a special sympathy has indeed formed, almost sublimated into love. But there is too much hatred between the high-level officials of both sides, allowing this battle to continue endlessly. In fact, if it were in a rational world, 1916 could have been the appropriate year to shake hands and make peace because both sides were exhausted. The brave old nobleman Lord Lansdowne once tried this, but was immediately called a traitor by the people of the time.
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In this era,The Balkan Peninsula Civil War is ragingThe long-standing enmity between England and Germany seems to have resurfaced, and we are acutely aware that today's world is still filled with such deep hatred, which is frightening.
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Will the Battle of Verdun repeat itself?
There were indeed moments during the Cold War when the West, if it wanted to survive, must be mentally prepared to burn its bridges and fight the Battle of Verdun again. As some people believe, the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 was such a historical juncture.
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The epitaph written by the world for the Battle of Verdun is unknown. What has remained in my mind for a long time is the words written by Jean Dutourd, a Frenchman. He condemned the spiritual inaction of his compatriots in 1940 and declared that "surrender is more costly than war, and you must make a choice between Verdun and Dahao." Maybe I've found that it's still the case today, but for human beings, such a choice is too terrible.
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Chapter 2: The Victorious of the Battle of Marne, Xiafei
Chapter 3: Fa Jin Han
Chapter 4 "Killing Fields" Operation
Chapter 5: Machines Waiting for Combat
Chapter 6: The First Day of War
Chapter 7: The Death of Colonel Delion
Chapter 8 Breakthrough
Chapter 9: Fort Dumont
The Decision of the 10th Child De Castelno
Chapter 11: Bedang
Chapter 12: In the face of danger, taking orders
Chapter 13: Adjusting Deployment
Chapter 14: Dead Man Mountain
Chapter 15: Expanding the Perspective
Chapter 16: Another World Behind Us
Chapter 17: Air Combat
Chapter 18: The Crown Prince
Chapter 19: The Three Chariots
Chapter 20 "May Cup"
Chapter 21: Warburg
Chapter 22: Dangerous Signals
Chapter 23: The Hidden Enemy
Chapter 24 Crisis
Chapter 25: Fajin Han Resigns
Chapter 26: Counterattack
Chapter 27: The New Leader
Chapter 28: After the War
1. The German Emperor visited the headquarters of the Crown Prince located in Strane. Behind the German Emperor is the Crown Prince, and to the left are Lieutenant General Schmidt von Knobersdorf and Prince Oscar
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2. General Erich von Falkenham
3. Lieutenant General Schmidt von Knobersdorf
4. General Xiafei (center) and De Castelno (left)
Colonel Drian was stationed at the command post in the forest of Cowley in January 1916
13. The Crown Prince inspects the soldiers of the 5th Army Group on the front line
15. French troops march on the "Holy Road"
16. German 210mm caliber howitzer
17. General Mangrang is in the command center
19. Scene inside Warburg, wounded and stretcher bearers at the emergency department
20. French promotional photos. The original title of The New York Times in 1916 was "This soldier, despite losing both legs, can still walk well with delicate prosthetics
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