
First Battle of the Marne – Entente forces counter attack - domnuprofesor
https://en.historylapse.org/first-battle-of-the-marne
======
rossdavidh
Lots of very interesting content, especially the images, and for some stupid
reason they decided to reinvent a way to display images and text together on a
website. As a result I stopped reading after having clicked on a text box in
order to be able to read it all (otherwise some of it was lost below the
window I had to view it in), and then there was no back button to return to
where I was at.

Great content. Could have been very well served up by even (perhaps
especially) a static web page. Reinventing how web pages work makes it not
worth the effort, and I leave.

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parktheredcar
I actually like the fresh approach to telling a story they're experimenting
with, but they do have some bugs. Specifically that pop-over dialog you're
talking about - if you set the window to half-size, a close button appears
that apparently is getting lost in the responsive layout breakpoints. Pressing
Escape will also close it.

If the site owner ends up visiting - please consider using some form of
javascript routing or html5 history tied in to any full-page repaints to allow
for backing out and using native browser functionality! Interesting page that
I'll be checking back to later at any rate.

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domnuprofesor
I am the founder of History Lapse. I have fixed the bugs, now the
modal/gallery that pops up has the "close" icon visible. I'm working daily on
adding new content and improving the layout presentation. Regarding the "fresh
approach to telling the story" here is our whitepaper that explains why
History Lapse could be a great tool:
[https://en.historylapse.org/whitepaper](https://en.historylapse.org/whitepaper)

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maxxxxx
It always bothers me when war is told from the perspective of the generals who
lived in splendor while they were sending thousands and ten thousands of
soldiers into certain death and have them live in misery in the trenches.

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JetSetWilly
That's a bit of a stereotypical view not backed up by history. Generals didn't
really "live in splendor". Generals visited the front line every day and were
if anything more involved in the business end of the war than generals today
would be. Many of them (more than 200 British generals) were killed or
captured in action!

More generally, the officer class had a higher casualty rate than the troops,
at least in the British army.

On top of that, they strategised a whole new type of industrial war for which
they hadn't been trained or prepared, and they weren't any more or less
enthusiastic about the war then the troops they led or the society they came
from.

And it is particularly odd thing to say if you consider it from the
perspective of, say, French generals. Their country was being invaded by a
militaristic neighbour, but according to your formulation generals are
callously squandering men and material for a pointless cause - except from the
point of view of the people involved it was anything but pointless, the future
of their country was at stake.

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maxxxxx
Read a little about history of WW1. Especially the French generals ignored new
developments in warfare like camouflage clothing or steel helmets. They sent
probably hundreds of thousands of soldiers into death out of sheer arrogance.
And yes, they lived in splendor. They liked to set up their headquarters in
castles and other luxury properties. They didn't live in trenches or
underground while artillery was falling on them. They ate well while their
infantry almost starved and had no water.

I am German and I am aware of the crimes the Germans committed during WW1 and
WW2. I just object to the tendency of making generals virtuous heroes while
nobody talks about the foot soldiers. The German generals were callous
assholes and so were most of the other generals.

~~~
Svip
You say that as if generals decides war all on their own. Generals generally
don't decide when to go to war, civilian leadership usually does.

While the Military School thinking prevailing at the time definitely did not
consider the lessons learnt from the American Civil War relevant, this was
also a political issue. While generals still thought of war as a series of set
piece battles, politicians also thought of it this way, feeling it unnecessary
to provide their armies with 'unnecessary equipment' like camouflage.

A lot of generals during WW1 thought in the Franco-Prussian War, so most of
them had been foot soldiers themselves in the past. They knew the horror, but
they didn't understand the effectiveness of the machine guns. Well, until,
essentially, it was too late.

Are they innocent? No. Did they send hundreds of thousands into their death
out of arrogance? Probably more out of ignorance and political pressure.

If you look at the deadliest battles of WW1, they come later in the war. And
they come after politicians demand action, rather than just entrenched
warfare.

All I am saying; don't let politicians off the hook. They likely share more of
the blame than the generals.

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maxxxxx
Top generals are politicians.

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24gttghh
I find the lack of maps to be a huge disappointment, but the photography and
other content seems quite good and well organized.

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domnuprofesor
History Lapse is a start-up with no financial support other than my income on
my full-time job. I think I have a great idea on how to implement the map
concept on History Lapse but at the moment I am stuck in my current
predicament.

~~~
24gttghh
When I say maps, I simply mean having something like this:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Battle_o...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Battle_of_the_Marne_-
_Map.jpg)

In place of one of the photographs you have now. Does that not jive with the
way your site is organized?

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jbscpa
The link is broken.

But, after a google search I got to the website.

Great Site!!.

I am trying to add to my knowledge of WWI.

The site's tagline is "the most natural and easiest way of learning history"

And indeed it does seem natural and easy.

~~~
danesparza
Sidenote:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzf9aHZmCAM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzf9aHZmCAM)
is a great WWI documentary.

Also, If you like Dan Carlin, his WWI podcast series is amazing:
[https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-
history-50-bluepr...](https://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-
history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/)

~~~
thrower123
The Great War youtube channel is a good follow. Although perhaps was, they
were doing week by week of 100 years ago, so I don't know if there'll be new
content...

[https://m.youtube.com/user/TheGreatWar/featured](https://m.youtube.com/user/TheGreatWar/featured)

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forinti
[https://en.historylapse.org/first-battle-of-the-
marne](https://en.historylapse.org/first-battle-of-the-marne)

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tcopeland
Martin Crevald has a book on the USMC reading list ([https://grc-
usmcu.libguides.com/usmc-reading-list/intermedia...](https://grc-
usmcu.libguides.com/usmc-reading-list/intermediate-level-enlisted)) "The
Changing Face of War: Combat from the Marne to Iraq". Interesting that he uses
that battle as one of the fenceposts.

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avn2109
The link should be [https://en.historylapse.org/first-battle-of-the-
marne](https://en.historylapse.org/first-battle-of-the-marne) cc: @dang

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paulddraper
I wish there were a better way than this of correcting bad posts.

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dang
There is: email hn@ycombinator.com. We don't see most of the posts where
people are trying to contact us in comments, simply because there are far too
many comments to read. I noticed the GP randomly. We do, however, read all the
emails.

~~~
avn2109
Oh I assumed you had a parser written that notified you when your name gets
mentioned, or something like that.

