I need people who know history in the following topics:
Note: bold = he definitely fought in
i know a fair amount about ww2. i took a holocaust history class in high school, and my teacher was awesome, so i never really forgot. what do you need to know?
I'm working on writing the backstory for a character that's 1,050 years old. I know for sure that he participated in the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and both World Wars…. I need to know what life on the front-lines was like, battles, etc…. He's French, but does eventually move to the States (if that helps at all).
hmm. i'm honestly not sure if i can help with specifics in what it was like on the front lines since, ya know, i wasn't really there, but i can help maybe narrow it down a bit?
in general, ww1 was mostly trench warfare where life was absolutely terrible. i'm sure you've heard at least a little bit about it, but i'm talking constant fear of being bombed or shot, horribly cramped and unsanitary living conditions, and a terribly high risk of developing diseases such as trench foot because of said conditions.
ww2 kinda started out similar, but germany was like aw hell nah and just blasted through all that crap with a war tactic known as blitzkrieg.
although, before i get into anymore, i'm gonna need to know what you mean by "front lines", including where and when. you said your character is french, so am i right to assume he was in france during this time? because france as a whole was conquered pretty darn easily by the axis early on, and depending on his whereabouts and the time period, things will vary.
Just gonna paste what I typed for ya in the Venting chat, my guy
WW1 often gets brushed under the rug, but it was horrific. Read "All Quiet on the Western Front", and then make a decision on that war. Because that war and that book were horrific. The men in the trenches were often fighting in the same trench their best friends had died in. Bodies couldn't be buried because of the shelling, so they were left in the trenches to rot and stink. Disease was rampant on both sides. Men couldn't stand upright without getting shot. The shells rained down almost twenty four seven, and if you tried to leave, tried to make the noise stop, you could be shot by your own commanders for "cowardice". The noise alone drove men insane, "battle-mad". Many couldn't handle fireworks after the war, because those sounds brought their minds right back to the trenches. They couldn't readjust to civilian life because they had spent so long in those trenches, fighting for their lives every second of every day, always terrified that the other side was going to make an end of it in the night. In the battle of the Somme, the British dug tunnels beneath the German lines, planted explosives, and created the biggest man-made crater ever at that point in history. Can you imagine being one of those workers, waiting for the tunnel to fall on your head? In addition, when those men charged the other trench, it wasn't a run. It was too far and too muddy and too pitted and cratered to run. They walked. They walked, while being mown down by machine guns and shells, and by the time they reached the other side, many died in the barbed wire without ever having reached the other trench. If you made it back to your own trench, you may be the only man in your company left, because all the others died. And the shelling? Never, ever, ever stopped. Night or day, it continued on. Sometimes they were duds and they didn't even explode. Sometimes they exploded too soon, killing the men firing it. The gas? Chlorine gas, in the beginning. You breathe it in, and you start coughing up pieces of your lungs. You lose your vision, because it destroys your eyes. And you're still choking, dying on pieces of your own lungs, unable to breathe, unable to see, and still the shelling goes on. If you somehow made it to a medic, and then to a field hospital, guess what? There's nothing they can do. You will most likely die a long, agonizing death, coughing up your lungs in a field hospital, far from home. Or, you survive, and then you go home. But you're blind. Your breathing is never, ever the same again. And you have PTSD now. You will likely never adjust to civilian life.
War is not something that should be done for glory, for Honor. War is something that sometimes is necessary and is always, always painful. World War One is often labeled "the forgotten war", but it's soldiers fought, arguably, a far more horrific battle than any other in history
thank you for coming to my Tedtalk
Yeah…. I know/knew most of this. The last time I actually studied these topics was way back in 04-05 with brief brush-ups between then and 09-10…. Just needed a reminder….
Ah sorry ;-; i just get really…upset about it when people take this too lightly. My apologies if I have offended you, Sy
Unnecessary apology is gracefully acknowledged and accepted…. 😊
My 25 year-old self needs reminders on things that I know that I know…. I'm basically the "old man" out of everyone I've came across here on nb. 😂
Ha alright 🙂
Ah, yeah makes sense. Eris is older than you, but other than that…yeah, you kinda are an old man lol
Ah sorry ;-; i just get really…upset about it when people take this too lightly. My apologies if I have offended you, Sy
I second this, I'm a bit of a History fanatic, and I get rather upset when war especially The World War's are either taken lightly or glorified. I didn't mean to offend.
That being said I can give you a run down on pretty much all of those topics if you give me a moment to finish taking my Chemistry Final. If you want I can give you a rundown of key battles and individuals for each of them along with the cultural impacts where applicable.
Ah sorry ;-; i just get really…upset about it when people take this too lightly. My apologies if I have offended you, Sy
I second this, I'm a bit of a History fanatic, and I get rather upset when war especially The World War's are either taken lightly or glorified. I didn't mean to offend.
That being said I can give you a run down on pretty much all of those topics if you give me a moment to finish taking my Chemistry Final. If you want I can give you a rundown of key battles and individuals for each of them along with the cultural impacts where applicable.
Your apology is also accepted, and that would be extremely appreciated!
I low-key want someone he fought alongside of to be like "you look just like so-and-so"; I like moments like that for some reason….
Eris is older than you, but other than that…yeah, you kinda are an old man lol
That actually depends on when their birthday is; mine is in 3 months and a week.
Eris is older than you, but other than that…yeah, you kinda are an old man lol
That actually depends on when their birthday is; mine is in 3 months and a week.
Hers is in December
ZAIN’S STORY
I have lived a long life; too long some would say, and I’d have to agree with them on that part. How long have I lived for? I’ve seen the starts and ends of wars; the birth of a nation, and many fantastical things come to fruition that many people now take for granted. I was born in Paris, France on a wonderfully warm spring day on the 20th of May in the year 965.
I’m the first born child of Mathias and Lorraine Delecrux. They were just like any other married parental couple. They were kind, compassionate, everything that a child’s parents should be. My father, he was a hardworking man; he did whatever it took to provide for our family. My mother was always so loving and caring. She doted on me every moment of her life. When I was 3, I gained a sister named Adalinde.
Life was good back then. My parents were so loving and caring to me and my sister. My father was successful in his job; bringing home what was, at that time, needed for a family to thrive, and my beautiful mother cherished us every day of her life.
There were, of course, difficult times growing up in France. Food was unusually hard to come by, illnesses swept the land, and there were often wars that broke out. Feudalism was also a big part of life in France, which was the cause of most of the wars at the time.
From the moment that Adalinde was born I knew that I loved her. She looked so fragile in her crib with her dark auburn hair, and great big blue eyes; as she grew older her eyes became light green. For years we lived in our little farm house. Though life was often difficult, it was also enjoyable.
(Obviously still a work in progress, but it is a good start!)
French history: From 925 and onward
So starting in 925 We have a very useless king who does nothing andI don't know much about him but basically useless, not much power all of the power is in the Dikes, Princes and in the Clergy.
The Norman conquest, 1066- When King Edward of England died with out out an heir This Noble named Harold was made king, but there were two other major competitors for the throne, One being our French Boy William,Duke of Normandy, And a dude from the Norway area that we don't really care about for the purposes of this. Harold get's his army nice and ready for William when Norway dude attacks so Harold marches his army up the coast to fight him in a little something called The Battle of Stanford Bridge. The English won that battle but were slaughtered and our boy William took the opportunity to attack at the Battle of Hastings. William now has the throne and is the King of England, why is this an issue? William is technically a citizen of France and as such is supposed to be under The French King's rule. Are you sensing conflict, because you should be.
"We hate England" begins- Now We have these Norman Technically French dudes of England who really want to rule France to because half an Island isn't enough. So the English start taking over France like it's no big deal, because really it isn't. France isn't super unified because the Dukes and Princes have more power than the king. No strong central Government, No strong central Army. So by the time we get to 1191 France finally get's it's Government together and we see a real war happen between England's King Richard The Lion heart, and Frances Philip II. Than Richard Dies in 1199 so our boy Philip takes the opportunity to Gain back most of France except this little stretch along the coast line. There's basically constant bickering and skirmishes but most conflict dies down a bit. Then we move on to a thing called
The Hundred Year's War- This started in 1337, when French King Charles IV goes and dies with out any heirs so the legal heir French throne just so happens to be our boy King Edward The third. Now the French were not going to stand for this and England wanted that crown so they fought a really long bloody battle that's very confusing. During this war we also had this thing called the Black Death pop out of Asia and cover France and well, all of Europe. Basically it was really bloody and what the English lacked in number's they made up with strategy and training. They invented this little something called The Long Bow which gave them a huge advantage (Seriously huge that one weapon made an enormous difference) Now a big misconception is that this war was continues, it wasn't. they were technically at war but there could have been years of no battles every now and then because War be expensive and if you can't pay for it you ain't haven any battles. France went through a bit of a civil war during this time (You will soon see that this is a bit of a hobby for the french) Because their King, King John II, Got Captured durring one of the battles and England wanted a whole lot of money for him, but France doesn't have that kind of money because War breaks the Bank. So Now Kingless they had a civil war for a while. Than in 1360 they signed a treaty had a bit of peace and ended the first part of the war known as The Edwardian Phase. The treaty gave England a solid third of France in return Edward dropped his claim to the French throne and lowered King John II's ransom. France didn't ever pay for their King back anf he died in England.
Phase two of this war began 9 year's latter in 1369 when King Charles V Called The Black Prince, Aka the heir to England's throne, To Paris for a little chit chat and The Prince said No, hence Conflict. The French did a lot better this time and by 1376 they got back most of the land they Gave to the English. This phase of the War is called The Caroline Phase. After this both of those king died pretty young and than the French one died again and then we had two Child kings rules at the same time while at war. Aka A political disaster. These king's managed to lose most of their power to their nobles The French one because he was a bit crazy, and the English one because he was a wee bab. France descended into Civil war (Again) Fighting doesn't resume until King Henry V decides he want's a chunk of France and France says no. The French are still in a civil war by the way, we've also entered the 1400's.
Now things get even more confusing in 1419 The French heir to the throne has a the Duke of Burgundy assassinated. Now this dude's son's, Philip, is like fine, if you gon be like that I want the English to win. So you have French who support the Duke of Burgundy and by proxy, the English, and then we have this treaty that says Henry is the official Heir to Frances throne and the Actual French heir, Charles, is tossed to the side. Now Two sudden king deaths later you have an Infant English King Henry IV trying to get crowned in France but the French Rebels say heck no.
Then we meet this young teenage woman you might of heard of, Joan of Arc ANd she start's hearing these voices's telling her to go lead the throw away heir of France, Charles's army. So she does and defeat's the English, get's our boy Charles VII Crowned King.Then those Burgundy people who don't like Charles kidnap her and send her to the English and she get's burned at the stake.
Back to The War, The Pope stepped in and said, It's time to stop, and both sides said no. But France did decide to stop fighting it's self so that's nice. This made France a whole heck ton stronger and they won back lot's of land. In 1444 The Truce of Tours was signed and it was supposed to last until 1450, but the English couldn't wait that one so they attacked in 1449. The French said, heck to the naw and drove the English off of the mainland entirely and in 1453 The Fighting ended, with France as France and England as England. That' the end of that war.
Colonization- France goes over to America sees a nice hunk of Juicy land and takes it, but they're actually semi nice to the Native American's. they basically said "Hey you trade with us, we won't kill you and we'll keep those pesky English people from invading your land". I think it's really sad that the french lost the 7 year's war because it lead to such a big loss of culture and the destruction of the Native American's. This is 1530's ish. (Sorry I'm going into less detail now Hundred year war's do that to a person)
30 Year's War- France just keeps fighting people, so they Fought with over religion for a while I don't feel like typing that out after the last war. But I'll give you a much shorter rundown. Basically, Protestants caused a whole heck of an uproar. lot's of fighting one of the bloodiest war's like ever. So France was a Catholic country but the people they really didn't like sided with the Pope so they fought against the Holy Roman empire. Than Spain got involved and started invading France so they fought of the Spain (Spain was doing their whole Spanish inquisition if I'm not wrong. Fact check me on that one, well Fact check me on all of this because you should always have more than one source). The Spanish were really doing some damage, But the French managed to push them back, Most likely due to civil unrest in Spain. Then King Louis XIII dies and left his five year old son on the throne (remember him he's important when we talk about that French Revolution) Needless to say we have a bit of a power struggle going on in France now, while they are fighting Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.I don't remember exactly how this one ended I think the Austrian's got involved and Spain had a lot of issues in a lot of places so they couldn't keep fighting. Th holy Roman empire ran out of Allies to fight for them so they said "Fine you can have your religious freedom or whatever" To the Protestant's.
(Slightly unrelated note, Spain's history is like really cool)
France Get's wealthy- So because of their whole monopoly over the majority of North America thing France get's a lot of money and this is when we see all of those famous Louis's. We get Versailles out of this we get the whole "France = High fashion" out of this, and they stay rich and powerful and very big aristocratic power until That whole Five year old on the throne thing, they go on a downward spiral until that Revolution it's famous for.
I will Get to The French and Indian war aka, the seven year's war in the next post. And I will go into the French Revolution after the American Revolution. For now I hope this is enough. I appologize in advance for any Typo's Spelling mistakes and such this is really long and I didn't really go back to fix stuff. I have to go study some American History now because I have an AP test on it tomorrow.
This is awesome. Thanks Rels! Yeah, go study for test; I'm positive that you'll do great on it!
After my test I can work on getting you the rest of those time frames. But for now Test.
Quick question do you want all of the 7 year's war, like all over the world fighting in India, America Europe, and Africa. Or do you want to focus on the more widely known part of the seven year's war which is just the American part.
Hmmm…. I guess the latter would be fine.
What was that? you want to fuel my extra ness and here about the entire thing? Got it.
….. The word 'latter' refers to the American portion…. But if you really want to, go right ahead and do the entire thing.
….. The word 'latter' refers to the American portion…. But if you really want to, go right ahead and do the entire thing.
I know I just want to be extra, It was sacrcasm, sorta.
I know about WWI and WWII
Ooohhh, I completely forgot about this, oops. Sy do you still want those write ups.
Yeah, I do! I too forgot about this what with everything that's happened since May 16th!!!
Once again, much appreciated!