andigger Posted 11 November , 2004 Share Posted 11 November , 2004 This just popped up on yahoo and thought I'd share. Andy At 106, French veteran remembers life in World War I trenches http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...versary_veteran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbie Posted 11 November , 2004 Share Posted 11 November , 2004 This is great, thanks mate. Ferdinand Gilson looks pretty good for his age, (106)too. Spent 6 months in the trenches on the WF. Robbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaunr68 Posted 11 November , 2004 Share Posted 11 November , 2004 This is great, thanks mate. Ferdinand Gilson looks pretty good for his age, (106)too. Spent 6 months in the trenches on the WF. Robbie "But happily, there was wine -- seven to nine liters a day for the strongest." And he is 106 years old, there is hope for us yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healdav Posted 12 November , 2004 Share Posted 12 November , 2004 On a lighter vein a friend of mine told me that when he first went to France just after WW2 he saw posters around saying, 'not more than five per day' and showing a wine bottle. He assumed it was five glass. He was astound when someone told him that it was five litres! That was considered to be cutting back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burlington Posted 12 November , 2004 Share Posted 12 November , 2004 On a lighter vein a friend of mine told me that when he first went to France just after WW2 he saw posters around saying, 'not more than five per day' and showing a wine bottle. He assumed it was five glass. He was astound when someone told him that it was five litres! That was considered to be cutting back. I must tell my wife! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedley Malloch Posted 9 January , 2006 Share Posted 9 January , 2006 Just to bring Ferdinand Gilson back up again ... . As one of the last surviving poilus, 107-year old Ferdinand Gilson is rapidly emerging as the French Harry Patch. Honoured by politicians, fêted by his village and interviewed by the national press he has been sharing his memories with the French public. He joined up in 1917 in the infantry, and later served as part of an artillery crew on a 75mm cannon. Twice gassed, he fought at Mount Kemmel in Belgium, on the Somme and in l’Aisne. Some of his most vivid memories of trench life focus on the cuisine. He is reported as saying, “The meat was so bad that we had to hold our noses as we ate it. Sometimes we had to eat it at night so we didn’t see the maggots.. At least we had wine. Two litres a day for the youngsters and seven litres a day for the old hands.” During WW2 he was active in the Resistance helping to hide airmen and forging papers for young Frenchmen to help them escape force labour. But even after two wars and an occupation he bears no ill-will to his former foes. “As soldiers the only Germans we ever saw were prisoners. They were just poor lads like us who fought the best they could. We never thought about what we did. We just had a job to do. That’s war.” So previous reports of only 5 litres a day wine ration look to be a little on the low side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 9 January , 2006 Share Posted 9 January , 2006 Hedley - thanks for the update. Very interesting as I dont think there is enough in the British language "library" about the Poilus (but there is only one Harry Patch)!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert Posted 9 January , 2006 Share Posted 9 January , 2006 Very interesting. I don't know about others, but wouldn't 5 LITRES of wine A DAY render a trooper fairly useless? Obviously not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Essexboy68 Posted 9 January , 2006 Share Posted 9 January , 2006 Folks Great to hear from other countries' veterans, M. Gilson certainly sounds like quite a character (although I will also agree that there is only Harry Patch). Purely in the name of "science", I would be quite willing to take part in an experiment to discover whether it is possible to consume 5 litres of cheap red wine a day & remain compus mentus......... I understand that the French Foreign Legion (if not the whole of the French armed forces) are still issued with a daily wine ration. Cheers (hic!) Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gporta Posted 9 January , 2006 Share Posted 9 January , 2006 I don't know about others, but wouldn't 5 LITRES of wine A DAY render a trooper fairly useless? Obviously not! My guess is that it was used as a form of personal "central heating" (as cigarettes would do in another way) Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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