@ABWorsham:
The spark that ignited the First World War was fired today a hundred years ago today.
Who was your favorite WWI commander? Favorite WWI ship? Battle? WWI infantry weapon? Favorite plane?
Commander: D’Espery, the dashing chap that he was. Aggressive, had a damn good head on his shoulders. His successful showing during the crucial month of August, and his war winning offensive in Macedonia are often over looked.
Follow ups: Joffre, Foch, Mangin (only army level commander that went over the top with his men, even if he was a hard SOB). Oh, and Yudenich, the brilliant Russian general whose success against the Ottomans is overlooked by just about everyone.
Ship: Gonna have to agree with the Goeben for the reasons mentioned earlier.
Battle: The Russian offensive into Galicia at the start of the war. Absolutely destroyed the Hapsburg armies to the point of no return a few months into the war. Made Tannenberg look like childs play in terms of men captured. The Hapsburg army would fight on for four more years, but would never recover from the blows.
Also, Verdun, because it’s Verdun.
Also, honorable mention to Jutland. If I could pick one moment to go back in history, it would be to watch the Battle of Jutland.
Favorite weapon: The tank good chap, in all it’s wonderful landship forms. Though I have a particular soft spot for French Saint-Chamond tanks.
Favorite plane: The SPAD S.XII flown by (probably) the best ace of the war, Rene Fonck. Why this plane in particular you might ask? Because it had a hand loaded 37mm canon mounted in the propeller, that he used to shot down 11 German planes with. That’s why.