Octopodial Chrome

Now here is a treat: an audio recording of gas shells being fired by the British on 9 October 1918 outside Lille.

Today is Veteran’s Day, once known as Armistice Day to celebrate the armistice which ended the Great War. Ninety years ago today the shooting stopped, although it would be some time before the final peace treaty was signed. Almost a decade ago I had the privilege of going to Europe and touring many of the battlefields of the Western Front; it was a lot of fun and quite literally awesome. I think Philip Larkin’s MCMXIV expresses it pretty well: the world of 1914 was utterly different from the world of 1918. In a way, the Great War was the end of Western civilisation; we're just playing in the ruin our great-grandparents made of their patrimony.

In London today three surviving veterans laid wreaths; in America there is only one surviving veteran of the war. At least two of my great-grandfathers served in it; my dad’s dad’s father was an artillery officer and I believe my mom’s mom’s father was in the cavalry.