Guys, i was watching History's channel about it and it seems that even in the final 6 hours of the war,10944 casualties was incurred by all sides and 2938 dead suffered. Such a waste of fine men. The generals who ordered the attack to continue on the allied side might as well shoot the men themselves.
the movie the "big red one" the main character kills a man after the war is over, i agree it is a worthless loss of life.
Yes, for these men, their generals are every bit as responsible than the Germans who shot them.At least the Germans had no choice but to shoot back. For these men, they would never go home to be a loving husband and grow to be a pampering grandfather. And all for the vanities of men like Pershing.
Tragic - yes - but there will always be a last day of a war - the issue here is whether hostilities should have proceeded right up till the end when those in power had a fair idea that the end was close. However, if a period of truce (official or otherwise) had existed prior to the the end of the war then the deaths immediately prior to that truce would have been equally tragic. As for the tradgedy of death in war, many would argue that it makes no difference whether a death occurs on the first or last day of the war but the point here is that there may have been an oportunity to avoid loss of life at the end which wasn't taken.