British war posters from The Great War were quite poor.
As graphic art, they were deplorable. As political documents, they were crude if not outrageous in the sentiments they expressed. Nothing comparable was produced in France, Germany or Russia for the duration of the war.
Well into World War I, Britain had a serious problem encouraging able-bodied men to join the armed forces. Once again, Britain was alone in this regard. The same problem was not experienced in France, Germany or Russia.
Only the imposition of a draft was to ease Britain’s manpower problems—and Britain waited until the war was well underway before implementing a draft. The government delayed a draft as long as feasible because it believed the populace might reject such a mechanism—and the government feared outright insurrection.
The role of zeppelins in World War I was not unduly prominent. There were several zeppelin bombing raids on London, but the raids carried more psychological impact than prospect of significant damage.
The money Germany spent on its zeppelin force far outweighed the monetary damage caused by German raids on London. The ratio has been adjudged to be at least two-to-one, and perhaps as high as four-to-one—the very opposite of what such a ratio should have been.
The zeppelin campaign was a complete waste of German resources, as the Germans themselves came to realize long before the war had run its course.
From The Amphisbaena Whisperer (Twitter), Sunday, 12/09/12:
ReplyDeleteCLEVELAND: Conductor William Eddins was trapped for four hours in a patron elevator in Severance Hall today, his 48th birthday. He is scheduled to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra in a special program surrounding a Charlie Chaplin film. Sources say that many readily available implements were used to dislodge the subomphalosian circumference of Mr. Eddens, tools that included seven plunger handles, all of which broke during the successful rescue.
I hope, at the conclusion of the rescue operation, that rescuers did not flush Eddins into Lake Erie by mistake!
ReplyDeleteCan you believe that Eddins is unaware that the Minnesota Orchestra, like all major orchestras, commissions an annual outside audit, and has done so for decades?
On October 22, Eddins wrote that it was time for the Minnesota Orchestra to initiate annual audits, to be conducted by an outside accounting firm. Eddins said he could not understand why the Minnesota Orchestra was resisting such a move and why the organization had not commissioned such audits in the past. Eddins added—incomprehensibly—that accounting firms would be willing to conduct such audits for free (audits of this nature now routinely cost more than a quarter of a million dollars, sometimes several times that figure).
No one bothered to correct Eddins on his idiotic—and breathtaking—misstatements of fact. Doesn’t say much for his readership, does it?
It is frightening to think there are people as stupid as Eddins out there.
When you have a chance, check out the weblog of Randol Schoenberg, grandson of the composer. He threw everything but the kitchen sink at Eddins a couple of times earlier this year, pointing out over and over how unintelligent and how ignorant Eddins was.
My niece turned four years old today. I think you remember when she was born.