Da Hawg Frog Blog

The effects of World War I were devastating to the French. Only one other allied country, Russia, lost more lives in that conflict. 1,397,800 French soldiers died, 4,266,000 were wounded, an estimated 300,000 French civilians perished and a total 1,697,800 all together were killed. That is out of a population of only 39 million people. Russia had a population of 158.9 million and lost a total of 3,311,000. The catastrophic losses would haunt the French for decades.

According to William Shirer in The Collapse of the Third Republic six in ten men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight died or were permanently maimed. By time the second World War rolled around the majority of the male population in France was in their teens. There was little career military leadership left in France at that time and they suffered the consequences. Today when people talk about the French and surrender they should remember this.

Lazare Ponticelli, the last French survivor died at the age of 110. His life was very interesting and he did not talk much about his military service during WWI, or WWII. He was originally from Italy and migrated to France as a youth. When the war came around he volunteered and served in the French Foreign Legion. Later he would also serve in the same war with the Italian Army.

Lazare Ponticelli, who was born in Italy but chose to fight for France and was a French citizen for most of the past century, died at his home in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicetre, the national veterans’ office said.

Ponticelli decided to fight for France, because it had taken him in.

“It was my way of saying ‘Thank you,’ ” he said in a 2005 interview with the newspaper Le Monde.

Ponticelli joined the Foreign Legion during the war and served in the Argonne region of forest, rivers and lakes in northeast France, digging burial pits and trenches.

“At the beginning, we barely knew how to fight and had hardly any ammunition. Every time that one of us died, we fell silent and waited for our turn,” he said in the 2005 interview.

He also recalled running into no man’s land to save a wounded comrade stuck in barbed wire.

“He was shouting, ‘Come and get me, I’ve severed a leg.’ The stretcher-bearers didn’t dare go out. I couldn’t bear it any longer,” he said.

When Italy entered the war in 1915, Ponticelli was called up to fight with an Italian Alpine regiment. He tried to hide, but was found and sent to fight the Austrian army. (Source: CNN)

Lazare was always a modest man and didn’t want a big deal made out of his passing.
The last German veteran died on New Year’s Day. It wasn’t until nearly three weeks later that anyone realized they had lost their last survivor. The attitude in Germany was different. They had lost two great European wars and didn’t embrace their veterans with the same esteem the Allies held theirs.
With Lazare’s passing we should all remember our own last surviving warrior from WWI, Frank Buckles of West Virginia. Earlier this year John Landis died, leaving only Buckles to tell the tale. With these gentleman’s passing a true voice of history also passes.
Rest in Peace Lazare Ponticelli.