War!
War in the Air: Forward firing machine guns fitted to aircraft make their first appearance when a Frenchman takes his first “dogfight” victim over the Western Front. [Burg & Purcell].
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/fokker.htm
War in the Spring: A French soldier writes home to his mother:
“A sun that lays bare the lovely youth of the spring. The stream of the Meuse runs through this rich and comely village, which the echoes of the cannonade can reach only as a dull thud, thier meaning lost…today is all freshness and light. The great rich plain that is edged by the Meuse uplands has its distance invested in the tenderest silver tones…I finish this letter by the waterside, recalling with delight the joys I used to have in painting. Before me are the sparkling rays of spring.”
In five days from today, he will send his last letter.
[Letters of A Soldier, 194-1915]
onehundredyearsagotoday 