The Great War
The year is 1918. For four years Europe has been locked in the throes of the Great War, the most devastating conflict in history. Technical innovations in artillery, air power, chemical warfare, and automatic weapons have changed the face of battle. When industrial mass production, universal conscription, and staunch adherence to Napoleonic Era military theory were added to the mix, they created the Western Front: a Hell on Earth where literally millions of soldiers have fed the war's hunger for blood.
Far more died on the fields of the of the Western Front than men: a world was ending. The scale of this new War, and its barbarity, are staggering: at the battle of the Somme, which raged from July to November 1916, the British lost 60,000 soldiers in the first day, and total casualties for the offensive ran over a million men. As historian A.J.P. Taylor put it, "The war ceased ti have a purpose and went on for its own sake, as a contest in endurance."
The arrogant optimism that had inflamed the West following the industrial revolution, the idea that progress, technology, and enlightenment had raised Man (white man in particular) to the mastery of the world and a state of new divinity is dead, gassed and shelled into oblivion. The cream of Europe's youth learned first hand just how far civilization could fall.
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive
By 1918, the Allied and Central Powers are still locked in a stalemate in Northeastern France, both sides having long since floundered in a quagmire of trench warfare. The armies of Europe loom on the brink of collapse. A new force has come, however, which will at long last break the deadlock, exhaust the German war machine, and end the war. The Americans have arrived.
In early September, General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing's army had scored a resounding success in Southern France at St. Mihiel, and Pershing hope to follow it up with a daring offensive into the Argonne forest along the Meuse River, an offensive which might crack the Hindenburg Line. The last great American offensive of the war, the Meuse-Argonne, began on September 26. The 77th infantry division was ordered into the Argonne, where it immediately took heavy losses and stalled, gaining only five miles in six days of heavy fighting.
Fighting in the woods was nightmarish: as one soldier recalled: "I found myself... adrift in a blind world of whiteness and noise, groping over something like the surface of the moon... the ground rose into bare pinnacles... or descended into bottomless chasms, half-filled with rusty tangles of wire. It seemed to go on forever."
The terrain was not the worst of it. On October 2nd, Pershing, worried that a stalled drive might cause the French to split up the American army, ordered the 77th, pinned down and exhausted by its push in the Argonne, to advance, even though their left flank was no longer secure. The division moved out, and two of its battalions, commanded by Major Charles Whittlesey and Captain George McMurtry, found a place in history as the famous "Lost Battalion".
The Lost Battalion (You)
Whittlesey moved out under protest, and soon met stiff resistance. He found that he was cut off and completely surrounded. For five days, the two battalions endured enemy shelling, friendly shelling, the elements, stavation and devastating German assaults. Of the 600 or so men Whittlesey led into the forest, 190 limped out October 7th. You players are part of this luckless outfit, sent out in search of two missing companies, only to go missing yourselves, lost in enemy territory. The enemy, however, is the least of your troubles...
The Soldier's Lot
A soldier's kit was carried with them at all times and could weigh anywhere between 50-80 pounds depending on the season and even more after rain and mud get to it. "Imagine yourself in the pitch dark, after two or three days of wet, cold, and sleeplessness, staggering down a trench, knee-deep in mud, carrying various burdens that almost equal your own body weight." Fatigue proved just as deadly an enemy as the Germans.
Generally an average soldier spend about 100-110 days in the front line or support trenches per year, 120 days in reserve (a day's march from the front), and 165ish days at rest, on leave, in the hospital, or on the march. Allied divisions were shuffled up and down the Western Front regularly resulting in long periods in which a unit would be on the move.
Time spent in the front line trench and reserve trenches was divided into "tours" of one to thirteen days during calm periods, but during battle a unit could stay on the front line for up to fifty days. The tours on the front were the most grueling parts of the soldier's life. Time in the trenches was spent watching the enemy lines, filling in mortar craters, working hard labor moving supplies, or repairing and digging new trenches. There was very little time for sleep and death was always one mistake away.
Unlike Vietnam which has tours of duty, soldiers in the Great War - once they had volunteered or been conscripted - were in it until the end, with the exception of a potential once a year leave.
Setting & Background Information
Setting
The Great War
The year is 1918. For four years Europe has been locked in the throes of the Great War, the most devastating conflict in history. Technical innovations in artillery, air power, chemical warfare, and automatic weapons have changed the face of battle. When industrial mass production, universal conscription, and staunch adherence to Napoleonic Era military theory were added to the mix, they created the Western Front: a Hell on Earth where literally millions of soldiers have fed the war's hunger for blood. Far more died on the fields of the Western Front than men: a world was ending. The scale of this new War, and its barbarity, are staggering; at the battle of the Somme, which raged from July to November 1916, the British lost 60,000 soldiers in the first day, and total casualties for the offensive ran over a million men. As historian A.J.P. Taylor put it, "The war ceased to have a purpose and went on for its own sake, as a contest of endurance."
The arrogant optimism that had inflamed the West following the industrial revolution, the idea that progress, technology, and enlightenment had raised Man (white man in particular) to the mastery of the world and a state of near divinity is dead, gassed and shelled into oblivion. The cream of Europe's youth learned first hand just how far civilization could fall.
The Great War
The year is 1918. For four years Europe has been locked in the throes of the Great War, the most devastating conflict in history. Technical innovations in artillery, air power, chemical warfare, and automatic weapons have changed the face of battle. When industrial mass production, universal conscription, and staunch adherence to Napoleonic Era military theory were added to the mix, they created the Western Front: a Hell on Earth where literally millions of soldiers have fed the war's hunger for blood. Far more died on the fields of the Western Front than men: a world was ending. The scale of this new War, and its barbarity, are staggering; at the battle of the Somme, which raged from July to November 1916, the British lost 60,000 soldiers in the first day, and total casualties for the offensive ran over a million men. As historian A.J.P. Taylor put it, "The war ceased to have a purpose and went on for its own sake, as a contest of endurance."
The arrogant optimism that had inflamed the West following the industrial revolution, the idea that progress, technology, and enlightenment had raised Man (white man in particular) to the mastery of the world and a state of near divinity is dead, gassed and shelled into oblivion. The cream of Europe's youth learned first hand just how far civilization could fall.
Moderator: CrackheadC.
-
- Keeper
- Posts: 644
- Registered for: 12 years
- 12
- Contact:
Jump to
- Play@YSDC Site News & Guidelines
- ↳ Site Announcements
- ↳ Site Guidelines
- Game Recruitment
- ↳ Welcome Room
- ↳ Players Looking For Games
- ↳ Existing Games Looking For Players
- ↳ ... I'm Thinking Of Running A Game
- ↳ Non Play@YSDC Game Needs Players
- ↳ The Brotherhood of Death
- ↳ Episode 1
- ↳ Episode 2
- ↳ Episode 3
- ↳ Leagues of Adventure
- ↳ The Eyes of a Stranger
- ↳ The Burnt Man
- ↳ The Masterwork of Nicholas Forby
- ↳ Signs Writ in Scarlet
- ↳ Shadows Over Scotland
- ↳ OOC Chat
- ↳ The Rat's Haunting
- ↳ Find Him, Please (Trail of Cthulhu)
- ↳ Escape from Innsmouth
- ↳ Arkham
- ↳ Innsmouth
- ↳ The Esoteric Order Raid
- ↳ The Marsh Mansion
- ↳ Y’ha-nthlei
- ↳ Forbidden Journey: An Adventure in China
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ The Haunting
- ↳ A Star on the Shore
- ↳ Edge of Darkness
- ↳ The Madman
- ↳ Dead Man Stomp
- ↳ Hockomock Hounds
- ↳ The Chapochaug Tunnel Haunting
- ↳ Dead Light (7th Edition)
- ↳ A Little Knowledge
- ↳ Paper Chase
- ↳ The Sign of Virgo
- ↳ Mr Corbitt - 7th Edition
- ↳ Hollow Earth Expedition: Miracle Stone of the Amazon
- ↳ Hollow Earth Expedition II: Frozen City of Terror
- ↳ Home Front Mythos
- ↳ The Horror in the Blackout
- ↳ Episode 1
- ↳ Episode 2
- ↳ Episode 3
- ↳ Episode 4
- ↳ The Glendale Spirits
- ↳ The Shadow Over Dunwich
- ↳ Episode 1
- ↳ Episode 2
- ↳ Episode 3
- ↳ Episode 4
- ↳ Episode 5
- ↳ Servants of Chaos
- ↳ Ash
- ↳ Chapter One
- ↳ Chapter Two
- ↳ Chapter Three
- ↳ Sukakpak
- ↳ Roots
- ↳ Delta Green: Khali Gati
- ↳ The Ninth Planet
- ↳ Episode 1
- ↳ Episode 2
- ↳ Episode 3
- ↳ Episode 4
- ↳ The Memory of the World
- ↳ Titanic Horror
- ↳ Achtung! Cthulhu - Fate
- ↳ The Provost of Eton's Inheritance
- ↳ Conan: Adventures in the Hyperborean Age
- ↳ Traveller- Horror on Planet Xotli
- ↳ A Cool and Lonely Courage
- Dark Ages (Games)
- ↳ Mare Balticum
- Gaslight (Games)
- ↳ The Dreaming Spires
- Classic Era (Games)
- ↳ Eternal Lies (Trail of Cthulhu)
- ↳ Investigator Notebooks
- ↳ Prof. Christopher Fontana
- ↳ Dr. Holly Chastain
- ↳ Ian Morin
- ↳ Father Cecil Flanagan
- ↳ Clarence Lanalor
- ↳ Dead Men Walking
- ↳ Masks of Nyarlathotep (7th Edition)
- ↳ Prologue and Pre-game threads
- ↳ Servants of the Lake
- ↳ Doors to Darkness
- ↳ King of Chicago II - Shanghai Bullets
- ↳ The Arkham Evil (Coc 7th)
- ↳ Devon Cthulhu 1920
- ↳ The Condemned
- ↳ Fear Forgotten
- ↳ Horror on the Orient Express (Trail of Cthulhu)
- ↳ The Horror on the Glen
- ↳ Beyond the Mountains of Madness
- Pulp Cthulhu (Games)
- ↳ The Two-Headed Serpent
- Modern Era (Games)
- ↳ Watch the World Burn
- ↳ Chapter 1 - The Girl With Fire in Her Eyes
- ↳ On the Precipice
- ↳ Hell in Texas
- ↳ Zombie Apocalypse Reanimated
- ↳ Chapter 1 - The Beginning of the End
- ↳ Chapter 2 - The Quick and the Undead
- ↳ Muppet Cthulhu: The Show Must Go On!
- ↳ Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home
- ↳ The Lower Deep (Cthulhu Dark)
- ↳ The Dare
- ↳ Rivers of London
- ↳ The Pipeline
- ↳ Unland
- Delta Green (Games)
- ↳ Delta Green- Cell P
- ↳ Delta Green: S-Cell
- ↳ Lover in the Ice
- ↳ Joint Task Force - Special Operations
- ↳ Delta Green- Stranger Things
- Other Eras & Settings (Games)
- ↳ The Last Train Home (Trail of Cthulhu)
- ↳ The Railway Station
- ↳ Mysterious Train
- ↳ Expedition into the Border Kingdom
- ↳ The Titan Incident
- ↳ The Masque of Nyarlathotep
- ↳ Episode 1
- ↳ Episode 2
- ↳ Dead Men Walking: A Maple Hill Prison Horror Story
- ↳ Character Creation and Management
- ↳ In-Game Forums [Actual Play]
- ↳ Out-of-Game Forums
- One-Shot Theatre
- ↳ Eldritch Horror
- ↳ Episode 1 - Forsaken Lore
- ↳ Epsiode 2 - Mountains of Madness
- ↳ Episode 3 - Strange Remnants
- ↳ Image Bank
- ↳ Arkham Horror
- ↳ Episode 1 - The Rise of Yog-Sothoth
- ↳ Episode 2 - The Dunwich Horror
- ↳ Episode 3 - The Lurker at the Threshold
- ↳ Episode 4 - The Shadow Over Innsmouth
- ↳ Episode 5 - Kingsport Horror
- ↳ The Dunwich Legacy
- ↳ The Night of the Zealot & Carnival of Horrors
- The Library of Celano
- ↳ Interview with a Keeper
- ↳ Help on posting
- ↳ Terrible Tales, Horrible Revelations and Dreams of Dark Days (Fan Fiction)
- ↳ Cthulhu Mythos Fiction Contest
- ↳ Entrants to the 2008 Contest
- ↳ Collaborative Scenario Writing
- ↳ Holden's Story
- ↳ Testing Stuff
- ↳ The Tomb
- ↳ Helluland
- ↳ Chapter 1 : Blood and Snow : Steel and Ice.
- ↳ Chapter 2 : V-day!!
- ↳ Chapter 3: When I See An Elephant Fly!
- ↳ Chapter 4 : Spirit and Scramasax
- ↳ Chapter 5: The Good The Bad and the Eskimo
- ↳ The End of John Company
- ↳ Bad Company
- ↳ The Dark Continent
- ↳ The Night of the Jackals
- ↳ Previous Chapters
- ↳ General Information
- ↳ The Dead White World
- ↳ The Condemned
- ↳ Gomez's Masks of Nyarlathotep Game
- ↳ Horror On The Orient Express
- ↳ From Beyond
- ↳ The Aquitania (Canceled)
- ↳ In a Different Light
- ↳ Spawn of Azathoth
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ The Condemned
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ Death in Luxor
- ↳ The Dance In The Blood (ToC)
- ↳ The Game
- ↳ Characters
- ↳ OOC Chat
- ↳ Posting Conventions, Pre-Game Questions, Etc.
- ↳ The Primer
- ↳ The Wind in the Cage
- ↳ Dead Light (7th Edition)
- ↳ A Conspiracy of Broken Minds
- ↳ Introduction
- ↳ Cast
- ↳ New York
- ↳ Los Angeles
- ↳ African destinations
- ↳ Worldwide Postal Services
- ↳ A Dream of Japan
- ↳ Quatermass's Masks of Nyarlathotep
- ↳ Job's Beyond the Mountains of Madness
- ↳ Reference
- ↳ Archive - Completed Chapters
- ↳ Vengeance From Beyond
- ↳ TREMULUS - 'The Strangeness of Hezekiah Mason'
- ↳ Walker in the Wastes
- ↳ Masks of Nyarlathotep
- ↳ Pre-game
- ↳ General Information
- ↳ Prologue - New York, June 1924
- ↳ Chapter 1 - New York, January 1925
- ↳ Horror on the Orient Express
- ↳ The Curse of Nineveh
- ↳ The Haunting (Redux)
- ↳ Raiko's Masks of Nyarlathotep Game
- ↳ Previous Chapters
- ↳ Pre-Game Chatter
- ↳ Chapter One
- ↳ Private Threads(Ch 1)
- ↳ General Information
- ↳ Locked IC Threads (Ch2)
- ↳ Campaign Clues
- ↳ The Bosworth House
- ↳ Harlem Unbound
- ↳ Berlin: The Wicked City
- ↳ Terror Australis
- ↳ Storm Clouds
- ↳ The Pit of Lokheri
- ↳ Fortune and Glory - Archive
- ↳ Grant's Military Bookshop (A Bookhounds of London Game)
- ↳ Assault on the Mountains of Madness
- ↳ In media res
- ↳ Archives
- ↳ The Siege - Assault on Precinct 9
- ↳ 465 : 19.375
- ↳ Props
- ↳ Berlin Chapter
- ↳ Equipment
- ↳ Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky
- ↳ Other Places
- ↳ Vertical Run
- ↳ Vertical Run - in motion
- ↳ Old Arrivals [about to close]
- ↳ Going in
- ↳ Green Box Blues (Canceled)
- ↳ Operation Dark Margin
- ↳ Space Oddity
- ↳ Prologue
- ↳ Chapter 1
- ↳ Cold Dead Hand
- ↳ Trail to Kadath
- ↳ An unusual delivery
- ↳ Antarctica 1983
- ↳ Emerald Hammer
- ↳ The Loopers
- ↳ Rules for Tales From The Loop RPG
- ↳ Actual Play of "The Four Seasons"
- ↳ Cold Dead Hand
- ↳ Zombie Apocalypse
- ↳ Chapter 3 - Over, Under, and Through
- ↳ Chapter 4 - The Longest Day
- ↳ Chapter 5 - Dead of Night
- ↳ Chapter 6 - Dead by Dawn
- ↳ Chapter 7 - The Morning After
- ↳ Forget Me Not - CoC 7th Ed. Modern Era
- ↳ - The Network - NYC
- ↳ Fahrenheit 32
- ↳ Groovy Ghastly Affair
- ↳ Groovy Ghastly Affair: Dark Shadows (1967 timeline)
- ↳ Jailbreak (File not found 404)
- ↳ Pandora's Box
- ↳ Chapter 1
- ↳ Chapter 2
- ↳ The Journey
- ↳ Machine Tractor Station Kharkov-37
- ↳ In the Silence Between Stars
- ↳ Dark Heresy
- ↳ The Lands of Always Winter
- ↳ Rune Quest - Campaigns
- ↳ [Unknown Armies] Bill in Three Persons
- ↳ Paranoia
- ↳ War of the Dead
- ↳ Archive
- ↳ Welcome to Silent Hill.
- ↳ Earlier Chapters
- ↳ Misery Orphanage, 1941
- ↳ The Last Express
- ↳ Private Car
- ↳ Agatha First Class Sleeping Car 1 to 9
- ↳ Yennifer Second Class Sleeping Car A to I
- ↳ Jeanette Second Class Sleeping Car
- ↳ Social Cars
- ↳ Staff Cars
- ↳ Platforms
- ↳ Sheets, Clues, Things
- ↳ Keeper Stuff!
- ↳ Fallen Lives Hospital
- ↳ No Man's Land
- ↳ Twelve Hours - End Time
- ↳ Escape from the UK
- ↳ Misc.(Characters, background and etc...)
- ↳ The Train to Hell - A Grim Prairie Tale
- ↳ The Priory
- ↳ Mind The Gap
- ↳ War, war never changes....
- ↳ Background
- ↳ Players' Den
- ↳ The Yangtze Campaign
- ↳ The Anchorage Campaign
- ↳ The Well of Sacrifice
- ↳ Paris: City of Tears
- ↳ Ghastly Affair
- ↳ Ghastly Affair: Dark Shadows (1795 timeline)
- ↳ The Triad of Games
- ↳ Götterdämmerung - Sub Rosa
- ↳ 1928 - The Second Cycle
- ↳ Blade Runner - Tears in rain
- ↳ Survivor: SIBERIA
- ↳ Off-Topic-Lounge
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest