Interesting; I can see something like that being used on certain occasions, it makes more sense than a machine gun being part of the school's equipment.
The frequency of relatively minor wars with the odd more major one was really what I was thinking of. At that time, it would be pretty much expected that there would be some sort of war somewhere, so a comment on the lines of if there is another war seems anachronistic. Obviously, no one expected the meat grinder which was the First World War, and certainly a civilian would not expect such a thing. It is not true, though, that no one expected a general European war. There had been incidents which might have provoked one, but Germany pulled back from pushing things to actual war, and the tension between those prepared to pledge military support to Belgium in the case of a German invasion and those who wanted no part of a European war was a major fault line in the Liberal government. War was in the air in those years. (It is interesting that in those days there was a school of thought that modern technology made war so costly for the combatants that it effectively made war war impossible between industrialised nations: correct premiss, faulty conclusion. This was not really a popular view in Germany, of course.)
I did think Matron's attitude (blaming the army for the loss of her husband) more than a bit clichéd; it would have been interesting if they had had her blame the enemy, or merely accepting it as something that happens to soldiers. (It is one of the clichés which really irritates me; the other is the one where the spouse of someone with a very demanding and important job cannot accept that their partner has to devote a lot of time to it.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-29 11:59 am (UTC)The frequency of relatively minor wars with the odd more major one was really what I was thinking of. At that time, it would be pretty much expected that there would be some sort of war somewhere, so a comment on the lines of seems anachronistic. Obviously, no one expected the meat grinder which was the First World War, and certainly a civilian would not expect such a thing. It is not true, though, that no one expected a general European war. There had been incidents which might have provoked one, but Germany pulled back from pushing things to actual war, and the tension between those prepared to pledge military support to Belgium in the case of a German invasion and those who wanted no part of a European war was a major fault line in the Liberal government. War was in the air in those years. (It is interesting that in those days there was a school of thought that modern technology made war so costly for the combatants that it effectively made war war impossible between industrialised nations: correct premiss, faulty conclusion. This was not really a popular view in Germany, of course.)
I did think Matron's attitude (blaming the army for the loss of her husband) more than a bit clichéd; it would have been interesting if they had had her blame the enemy, or merely accepting it as something that happens to soldiers. (It is one of the clichés which really irritates me; the other is the one where the spouse of someone with a very demanding and important job cannot accept that their partner has to devote a lot of time to it.)