= Сообщение: 11076 из 12497 ===================================== ENET.SYSOP = От : Ward Dossche 2:292/854 18 Nov 21 21:25:23 Кому : BjФrn Felten 18 Nov 21 21:25:23 Тема : Re: The richest people on this planet FGHI : area://ENET.SYSOP?msgid=2:292/854+190e291f На : area://ENET.SYSOP?msgid=2:203/2+61969cd4 = Кодировка сообщения определена как: ASCII ================================== ============================================================================== BF>WD> WW1 ended in 1919 ...
BF> I think that most people think that the war ended when the hostilities BF> ended and no more shots were supposed to be fired -- at armistice day, BF> not when a bunch of Very Important People signed some kind of worthless BF> agreement. YMMV...
I hear you, it doesn't change that the formal end of WW1 is the Treaty of Versailles.
Other than that, there were pockets were the fighting just kept going on. German armed forces in Africa only laid down their weapons Nov.25th. There continued to be loss of life in Russia as well.
Interesting to note is that the armistice had been agreed at 5am Nov.11th at 11u, for a duration of 36 days with possibility of renewal, but US general Pershing did not approve of the armistice and gave no instructions to suspend any new offensive action during the remaining hours until 11am. As a result there was fierce fighting up to 11am which was difficult to stop. On 11 November alone there were nearly 11,000 casualties, dead, missing and injured, exceeding those on D-Day in 1944. Over 3,500 of these were American. Pershing had to face a Congressional hearing to explain why there were so many deaths when the hour of the armistice was known in advance.
The last of the military died June 21st 1919 when British soldiers killed 7 German sailors (some sources mention 23). That day admiral Von Reuter who was the commanding officer of the interned German fleet ordered his fleet to scuttle and render them unusable as he feared boarding.
After the end of hostilities 9 German battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 7 light cruisers and 49 destroyers were sailed to Scapa Flow, the anchorage of the Royal Navy. They kept a skeleton German crew for maintenancem got fuel and food from the British until it was decided at Versailles what its fate was about to become.
Von Reuter early on adopted the plan to not hand over the fleet to the British and used the 7 months to have watertight bulkheads removed and make openings everywhere to enhance the free flow of water. When on June 21st 1919 the Royal Navy's home fleet left Scapa Flow for sea exercices, he gave the order.
The few British patrol boats nearby had no idea how to handle this situation and fired at a lifeboat with German sailors because they had no white flag. These 9 were the last victims of fighting in WW1.
This story is not that widely known, so for everyone interested, please use this link for a good read and photos...
