POI #5: Bombardment of 1918 Paris

Location of Bombardment Plaque

Description of Bombardment Plaque

On 15 Rue de Choiseul, Paris there is a plaque across from a little café named Brasson that commemorates the bombing that happened in Paris January 1918. The plaque is reasonable small and blends into the enormous building on the street. So, the plaque is not well-known and not a lot of information about the specific plaque. But, it is one of many other plaques that commemorate January 1918 bombardment in Paris. Also, it is on a lively street with cars and people relaxing at a café. There are chards from the building gone because of the shells impacting Paris during the bombardment. This plaque is supposed to represent the bombardment of January 1918 and the damage it caused on the city. The Germans created heavy damage to the city of Paris that it changed. For instance, the Germans would have used artillery like the Big Bertha or the Paris Gun to bomb Paris. A total number of 320 to 367 shells were fired out of the Germans artillery at a maximum rate of around 20 per day. [1] Overall, this plaque is supposed to recognize the struggles the Persians went through in 1918 with the bombardment and the troops on the frontline. This bombing was special because Paris was behind the line of French soldiers and was home to many of these soldiers. But, the bombing from the Paris Gun can still reach them even from that distance caused a lot of fear in the citizens of Paris. [2] In the end, many lives were on the line in Paris because of the bombs and this would change the city of Paris and the residence even once the war was finished.

Dombrowski, Nicole A.Women and War in the twentieth Century: Enlisted with or without Consent, (Routledge: 2004), 56.

Life in Paris, (Sydney Morning Herald: 1918), 4. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15770876

Marcadet, Elisabeth. "Paris During WWI", Discover walks blog, 2015, https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/paris-during-wwi/

Nieuwint, Joris."The German Paris Gun- Super Gun of WWI", War History Online, 2015, http://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/the-paris-gun.htm

"Paris hit by shells from New German Gun", History, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paris-hit-by-shells-from-new-german-gun

In fact, when the Germans used the gun named Big Berthas, it was the first time a long-ranged canon was used during war time. But, there was one gun the Germans used that tormented the Persians. The Germans had a gun named the Paris Gun that was specifically used to bomb Paris For instance, in March of 1918, a shell was shot from the Paris Gun and exploded on Saint Gervais church in the 4^th district and killed 88 people.[3] As a result, the Paris gun sent the city of Paris, who survived many earlier attempts of bombardment from their enemies, into a hazy state. This led to unimaginable situation among the citizens of Paris once they realized they were being bombed. By the end of that day, most of the shelling that happened in Paris killed 16 people and wounded 29 more. The bombing by German soldiers would continue between March and August of 1918 in four separate phases. In total, there would be somewhere of 260 Parisian casualties that was caused by the German's Paris Gun. [4] In addition, the Persians casualties number is low because overtime the citizens avoided gathering in large groups during shelling periods. As a result, this lowered the amount of people killed or wounded during the shelling of Paris and made the Paris Gun seem less terrifying.

So, the child would have witness the bombardment on 15 Rue de Choiseul. Children were much more independent during wartime because the father would be out on the frontlines and the Mother working in a factory. As a result, the child would roam Paris whenever the child feels like it. Unfortunately, the child would be in the middle of a bombardment which many children experienced in Paris in 1918. For instance, a month after the bombing in Paris, a London newspaper wrote about the tragedy that happened in France. "And late Wednesday night that illusion was dissolved both for ourselves and for the Parisians by an enemy air-raid of exceeding violence, wherein successive squadrons of neroplanes attacked the city late at night under a bright moon, killing 49 and wounding 203, among whom were many women and children". [5]

[1] Joris Nieuwint, "The German Paris Gun- Super Gun of WWI", War History Online, 2015, http://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/the-paris...

[2] Nicole A. Dombrowski, Women and War in the twentieth Century: Enlisted with or without Consent, (Routledge: 2004), 56.

[3] Elisabeth Marcadet, "Paris During WWI", Discover walks blog, 2015, https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/paris-during-wwi/

[4] "Paris hit by shells from New German Gun", History, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paris-hit-by-shells-from-new-german-gun

[5] Life in Paris, (Sydney Morning Herald: 1918), 4.

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