1917

A Remembrance Day tale

Originally published on the website GATHER in 2006, then as a standalone short story and audiobook on Amazon in 2010. I share here, in remembrance of those who face the steel terror, both then and now.

Introduction

In the summer of 1914 the world erupted in what was at the time called The Great War. Machine guns, multi-ton bombs, poison gas, changed the face what war had been like for thousands of years. Rendered it a hell like nothing the world had ever seen. In a single battle, The Somme 1916, over a million soldiers were killed or wounded. By the time it ended four years and four months later more than sixteen million people lay dead, empires collapsed and national borders had been realigned. It was thought that after such inhumane cruelty and barbarity as was seen on the battlefields of France, Belgium, Turkey, and other lands spanning the globe, that the world had come its senses. That humanity had finally fought The War to End All Wars. A short generation later The War to End All…