A Word on Words; 3037; Winston Groom

no means no don johnson you know once again welcome to a word on words i guess it's great daddy back winston groom my old friend and you'd better known by the name of forrest gump of the validity of the well you were on this program a forest on long long long time ago that's true that's true and now that you've been back many times i am last time we were at war with ourselves you came with a book on the civil war that's correct and this term you don't and war war warmest on in flanders it or i didn't know how to pronounce eager for all my days and i never knew that while a pr yes i know is you just how to sit and that was

what i felt so comfortable it may be difficult to read the get go either there it was in a michelin guide talk about discovering where ideas for books come from and this one come from this one and what i was probably fifteen or sixteen years old going to my grandparents for a sunday dinner and in the library and when you go to the world food from local elders will be sure yet that guitar shop relationship totally blew out shortly after of the antiwar war one that night in nineteen forty western front by then you know i love it and you're going to be traveling world war during their family or people bought mortara have classic books only really serves

discovers that the grandfather had been a moral and he would do over again probably nineteen twenty one ever maybe twenty one and what was that if people in french and then french but he had bought this little book and the bush about classics that and they were very very world on a phone or spike and when i looked at the kid because i didn't really know we used to hear of the war too and so i thought the un maybe the book's explain to open about innocence finishes its intrigue me because that it was a war on the magnitude of factly know what we've had before is a military cantonment you know just slaughter a slaughter of human life i had

no idea that no idea until i read this book i mean the british and the french oh one side the germans only over the belgians all the signs of the route french and they threw our human bodies it was a no warfare for new century and nobody would've drained it would turn out like i think everybody believes and beginning of the war when the germans march and belgium that this war was going to be over in a couple months there will be casualties nobody dreamed of the stalemate on the western front the horrible results nineteen fourteen to nineteen eighty or what's the total number of deaths or taking both saw well nobody really knows i think man that you cite point four may not add those nowhere but those are just built there's been able to really get less talk about let's talk about why it was

all of such great are running for that i thought at one point about the germans in reducing these gigantic howitzers as drug also about the reduction for the first of chemical warfare poison gets bummed those was only on with what it what about the other side of it seemed to be that the leaders of these countries simply had no regard for human life no people but the but i was i was ripped early all by your descriptions of the conditions that made a horrible or vulnerable but this information will one reason is because the magnitude of just so many people and such a quiznos the conditions of the bowel for the trench warfare where after the war movement had ended only three months into the war there was nowhere to

move everybody billion we don't hold what products and with the modern firepower the high explosives which were not really known until fairly recently and the potential still think is in the horses in the field fire you know miles and miles well in previous wars we had beige we shouldn't feel please line of sight you'd see the target here wadley know and a lot of millions and millions of shells or so that when you're in that french electrician english build loyal to the shadows of all the trench oh a solution to constant alarm to tell and then it because the first tam they really used machine guns and huge numbers and so tightly to poke your head out of the trench wisdom roy that

he needed and of course they have snipers and they had grenades in the head and also in a band that had been at some point you talk about the trenches running with blood and libya are you what you had the air those and that the un this fight and belgian plans that you have about all of the fall the hedberg on them friends in the us to do it in six months the fighting and belgian flanders listed for four years to really continues that you are quiet what they call a quiet day there would be too if they have four major attacks in which you had on egypt of the man climbing to one over the top climbing our treasures attacking the

enemy and slowly but with the modern always at the head of the shin john's wife or fire you really didn't if you didn't stand much of a chance for that really the odds were always that the fifty if you were a soldier on the western front that you'd be shot before you know when our children to be shocked when we got into there's less outbreak of violence which kosovo was a centerpiece though new stories at the time and commentator john thompson this is where we're war once again and you know when you're little bit about assassination archduke ferdinand and a little bit about that and the young fanatic who kill

this andy as a result a lab says assassination small outbreak that leads to a great conflagration with with all the great powers on one side of the audience and the british of the french or the canadians and russians yeah the italian job the russians on the other side you know germany and austria and bulgaria and turkey needs now there are there are some phenomenal anecdotes in this book the thing that jumps off the page at you is that queen victoria's players she still know he's starring ryan all these are going to know freud her grandchildren june well sure

judging them from germany to willow and co authored may not believe when schoenberg so most of the wherewithal to all cousins cards a new queen victoria end and it was a german that the big the past of such coburn which was victoria's lineage they were german cars here and so that's the and that the british were so in america with the joint fight rogue wave of mentioned it is that during the war the king king of england changes lineage what you're the winter sun of such filibusters with suspicion and absolutely it had some germans of that and then you know the other thing about the rebels are russia and the kaiser cousins college of an icky and

willie and in no time mickey and willie are a bloodbath and it a journalist well the kurds are really it it's hard to really lay blame people that are you know for use in his much a short is his base was judge paul says he became a true of the motor and the portions who very fierce in germany are various actions you were burglars than optical effects but she cautions were absolutes roche's military people and wilhelm overwhelm simply became a tool that with less stability little as rivals british and as you point out that move raises heightened fear for sure would only heighten fear but i think that

there are some people that muscle forum that's the split that the enormous tax that because you had to put on his johnson's the bill is huge maybe a factory almost what has driven an order he had to lease plan the country in order to work on just the ones of those tax will with a male so the cousins that's one for the formal aspect of it but another another fascinating point and you pick it up as you go to a book there is one woman is maria quotation here and when you total surprise our readers and toe and we said this he rides from the distance the strains of song re share

years coming closer and closer and closer the leading from company to company and adjusted death plunged to busy end into our ranks the song we still stews we passed it along which one bird flew in a world that was laid off private of a privately built such radically mccorkle and never rose above court but he was there and plans it can it really those people are currently with the us that it will award one late as possible you really strange history for you the artist the legend of the us which was a problem for him emotionally then well it was a job his comrades i regard him as a crank it would spend a lot of his time making political diatribes and so why

is mitchell really want to give them regular drinking fat woman who was very good soldiers really don't want to cross a few wells and eighty one but he was a fanatical toward the end and you can see when he went back you wanted but the drought too great and that lead them to form really the first hand baby and right dispersion of the jews from russia wall which is an amusing to look this up he complained that the jews were fighting for germany and they were all shopkeepers and buy clothes and so forth that no evidence that all support the less likely of boynton shows is for them and in proportion to their numbers the water

wells but it worth the it he became very martial where his marshall before free for all then only eight only other side you have this a gentleman soldier from looking for the british comes over i guess you'd say with a major way got their opponent growing body on a promise to be a general and he was in every sense the word the son of bub that bind by the senate even upscale winston churchill it all inside church only other right there a deeper strength churchill was and almost at the tube if you look at the us or professionally in almost a contractual sort of crime blimp he came with

two now you've wanted to send a blend in the jason and because it's all about other elements is usually it's when the options there were brave and he begins by going on his wife through a senate labored thing or blankets and we play that thing for me by the way to start our viewers were talking to winston groom old friend creator of forrest gump but his new book stalin flanders tells in a very telling way of vital part of our history and part two orphaned forgotten out there was a third leader on the western front not they're all involved in this battle or harry truman as you point out the board your officer jury of your own to expand

and on the western front in france you know that is this of their support in which you talk about the bill clinton here this is happening on their ground they have forty thousand troops forty thousand soldiers to go initially appears to have met him but the german notion more more what sort of formality and then for live through they got three million people coming in there the british invasion and finally the canadians come into it the french are in very early in the leadership is not a game was low profile villain calculated looks at the jones who were there were on the same interesting mix of people were there was and but what fascinated me is that

you look at ever been called on a big impression but they make it's the conflict because after night came back clean early nineteen seventies i was short and very real danger within the wall because of the pledge to hold the whole planet is going to do it for some odd reason the drumming of fat adapted but the british command knew that they had to the team will have fled the war there was an amazingly interesting conflict between the british prime minister david lloyd george and the british command and exemplified the journal's and other surveys rene plays a vital role in that although it was a commander from the somme on that actually before bows was the general in chief of the

many decisions that there was after the war what i guess you would call religious the histories one came out beginning in the nineteen twenties a lot of books and then in the twenties or the several generals complain about well they found out the water users bush was floored then again maybe thirties there were answers to this a little more recriminations but the thing that struck me about it that after a look that is isn't after all but it was the right one or two yeah lord george and some of the french wanted to not prosecute war the western front but a defensive posture and those of welsh world

trying to look away and over a badly executed i'm a man died there are useless and lately dread and a belief that injection much and haiti and the british actor man former believed that i candidly that's where the germans biking turkey of the war there's no you do anything out two to three million what's your home with jobs and when wacha collapse in nineteen seventy though the october revolution of the socialist so you do it with very effective and suddenly you realize and allied no longer a will be an hour that's right and that the it was a much better not bad enough but it was that the freed two million germans from a russian plot the terminal where armaments alleged unfair and

indeed when they did this they launched early gen lute gotten and burton were the two german main commanders and a lot of huge attack and writing it that almost lost or will push alice fordham but no sir john french was so was an effective leader for the british was you know a boy it was about opening to look for the journal of i think four to name names are alike him as a personality research and he wasn't it wasn't terribly inventive do they look like multi and i think that what happened will fall to nine is a bp had a stowaway on his hands and didn't know where we get out of it is then he decided to let the bash the french that bird on

and in his statement was we won't believe the french army dropped turned out that was not political years and after that huge lead instrument when you talk about that being their church or being there being there on the western front it opens the door of the most ruthless or two our forces will lead the men who were there worldwide the eisenhower was there but often those macarthur was there i mean that moderate leadership american forces and more war to we're right there no more from george c marshall was there in a real sense of this or warned planted the seeds for inevitably going up that's how much of that had to do with wilson's and effective leadership

from nineteen eighteen oh absolutely and then destroyed by then but it does in a while he was in effect it was a bitter with their positions as he had sworn is like fried roosevelt for that one boy for the european war he was elected on that basis that it became apparent though with this making it was a ten year by the germans to approve a fashionable use precious water and atlantic service and it became apparent that the germans we're not you know respect any mention any of them the public opinion began to turn in flavor the americans and in flavor that welcome in america brooklyn bridge aren't flavor of if not all out war at least one us play really was and so indeed they did is the moment

although probably was the thing that really i really insulated i won't go into that but for political life but what happened was that germans were ambassadors dragged promised mexico recovery of new mexico and texas and arizona in exchange for them the warrior instinct keep us earlier piano and americans very angry oh but they used to think that that struck me about the war is pecked head the treaty of versailles went over had they'd done something different that victorious i was with my brother had here a war to win like not because possible germany back at that about the japan were tried on their own and are your job of mergers bottom shelves in italy would need to go but germany was so impoverished thought at the end of that war

and they tell us demanded huge revelations emerge doesn't want that will woodrow wilson ward has her fourteen points and that would have a mano things up the league of nations the americans though all we are the countryside this that after the war the american the senate refused to say that treaty there are more beer poured in the new world order of that nature and if we'd had that we might not like i set the book with fluids some anecdotes that are rich and we've only got about a minute left but there was one story that you can tell the man is in its several pages long book that has to do with that christmas yeah in the early winter of nineteen forty in belgium flanders

live close to set these people had been the germans and the british had been at war with each other hammer and tong for months and much of themselves would they had on christmas morning the british looked at the charges and so little christmas trees in the german lines and so when the germans their christmas carols when the germans came out of the trenches that animal a moment they all exchanged gifts are saying charles i played soccer about all the skies should be dead people everywhere there in obama but it was while most extraordinary events i think of the war and they were really all over or none of the legal issues are high command from the un ordered defreitas and then we go back to the trenches and i often wonder what would happen if only disagree that there was such a wonderful store by swarthmore we've been talking with some room about his new book a storm in flanders like all of you for watching thank you winston for

coming back and johnson and oliver word on words keep reading singing the once again welcome to world words

i guess i'm so ebay have my old friend david halberstam but the standards firehouse firehouse ms haddad edu the islands all have a heavy here but i tell you a firehouse very are attacked suu is where david the idea for this book come from will and weather service's fire houses a book about this firehouse where we live in manhattan on the west side and on we live and sixty seventh about three on the west side and three blocks away there is a farce and on that day in september september eleventh they set out to reduce an engine what they call a truck or a letter thirteen men and all twelve were killed on the whole engine forty and latitudes where thirty five thirty five track what were they when you write about it a ladder to thirty five that they say virtually thirty five drop by the right back on their young sen clinton and probably killed in that apocalyptic