100 years today

[Jan]

At 11:00pm this evening the British Empire declared war on Germany.

I thank God that it will all be over by Christmas ... er ... perhaps not.

6 million will die over the next few years and another 20 million will be injured. There are no statistics for how many will be left homeless.

There will be so many horses left behind due to fears of infection that horse meat will become a staple diet of half the Continent.

 

[anjum]

T'was the war to end all wars....

Young Willy McBride springs to mind.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

My grandfather was wounded 20 times ! He fought in Egypt and he missed the troop ship back to UK due to getting drunk ! As punishment he was then sent to Gallipoli. Then it was off to France where he was badly wounded. All I remember of him was sitting in a chair not moving. Turns out he couldn't do much for himself.
My other grandfather was a regular soldier in artillery before WWI. He went right though the war without a scratch and came out still a private. He used to point out an old chap who lived near him saying he was a pilot during WWI. As I was bought up on stories of WWII pilots it meant nothing to me but now I know WWI pilots were only expected to survive just over a week.

 

[Shox Dr]

And have we learnt anything, I think not.

The priorities of War have changed, now it's used to boost failing economies.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I was shocked to hear that at the start of WW1 the French troops still wore red tunics with blue trousers and marched into battle in square formation with a drummer boy leading them! A snipers field day.

 

[rtcosic]

In my Family Tree I add the image of a Poppy to those who died in WWI and WWII

There are 34 Poppies in my tree.

 

[Shox Dr]

In my Family Tree I add the image of a Poppy to those who died in WWI and WWII

There are 34 Poppies in my tree.

I don't know whether to feel proud or sad for you.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

No deaths as far as I know for my family in combat, but my great grandad ran away to war at 15, had lost his leg by 17. Brave, brave man

 

[cumbriasteve]

I am a keen watcher of the world at war and similar on Sky tv, it is very strange, sad and sickening watching soldiers from all country's marching proudly to war, smiling and waving at those cheering them off.

The nightmare of the trenches they were heading to was beyond their imagination, even we who see it on film can not come close to ever knowing the true feeling of living in a wet freezing trench while a guy a few hundred yards away is trying to end your life.

The worst thing about it is that 99% of them did not want to be there, they did not want to kill another human and most never even knew why it was going on, they blindly followed the orders of those they thought had the answers.

The Christmas football match in no man's land spoke volumes about the stupidity of war, the English and the Germans had a game of football, swapped cigarettes, chocolate, drinks and food, sat together around fires and showed each other photo's of their families and then went back attempting to slaughter each other....sad beyond belief.

 

[mike os]

even as an ex serviceman I cannot comprehend the horror of the trenches, I am so glad I did not have to go there

 

[Tinbasherdan]

I have a book on the trenches somewhere, by all accounts the Xmas football match wasn't a one off, at time s the lines were so close soldiers could talk to the other side and would often pass things across , brass got wind and there was an order on both sides that anyone caught communicating with the enemy would be shot. Apparently us and the Germans would warn each other when a n officer was likely to be around and therefore there would be shooting

 

[nick952]

Don't forget the estimated 43,000 soldiers that survived the horrors of war, only to die of Flu whilst waiting to be repatreated in 1918:- https://virus.stanford.edu/uda/

 

[blenkie1]

If you get the chance go to Ypres in Belgium. You only get the scale of the carnage when you visit places like Tyne Cot. The battlefield tours are outstanding and Flanders Field museum in Ypres is one of the best I have been to. Walking out there is a huge wall full of photos of young men (most on motorcycles) that were taken before they went to the front and maybe never to return. The last post at the Menin gate was I can say a very emotional experience. I have seen it four times. The first time though after the last post was played and the minute silence was being observed a phone rang..........and he answered it!

 

[mike os]

If you get the chance go to Ypres in Belgium. You only get the scale of the carnage when you visit places like Tyne Cot. The battlefield tours are outstanding and Flanders Field museum in Ypres is one of the best I have been to. Walking out there is a huge wall full of photos of young men (most on motorcycles) that were taken before they went to the front and maybe never to return. The last post at the Menin gate was I can say a very emotional experience. I have seen it four times. The first time though after the last post was played and the minute silence was being observed a phone rang..........and he answered it!

take tissues

 

[Maker]

The worst thing about it is that 99% of them did not want to be there....

Well, the ones who completely refused to go were called Consciousness objectors and had to go to what is essentially a concentration camp in Scotland to break rocks.

Postcards like this went around to take the p*ss out of them. Back then they were seen as right pussies but nowadays people think they were brave for standing up against it.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Postcards like this went around to take the p*ss out of them. Back then they were seen as right pussies but nowadays people think they were brave for standing up against it.

True, emotional blackmail was widely used during the recruitment process, however if the whole population had been conscientious objectors most of us would not be here today and Great Britain would not exist, we only survived because even braver men and women fought and died in a war caused and run by the dictators and politicians who led from the rear.

Warfare today is too easy, it has not got the personal horrors of close combat, actually seeing the enemy you kill, it can be done by a joystick warrior thousands of miles away sitting in front of a screen operating a drone, or a gunship pilot 3 miles away firing a so called surgical strike, I am sure they would be different warriors if they then went and stood next to the innocent children that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As long as oil and religion exist then so will war, terrorism and slaughter, I always think if there was such a thing as visiting aliens they would look down at planet earth, shake their heads in utter disbelief and move on elsewhere.

 

[Jan]

For those who go to Belgium for their fags/baccy there are a couple of war cemeteries on the outskirts of Adinkerke. Walk back towards the slope from the roundabout and take the lane on the right before the tobacco Warehouse. It's on your left a couple of hundred metres along there. As you enter the gate the graves are in rows at right angles to you and contain the earthly remains of warriors from all across the Empire who fell in The Great War. If you then approach the left hand wall there are more graves at a right angle to these and - often several to a grave - contain the fallen German soldiers. The last two died almost exactly 1 year after the Armistice.

The second is actually in De Panne, just over the railway crossing. Drive back to the roundabout and go left rather right. Continue down towards the railway crossing and the war cemetery is a division of the general graveyard, behind the church on your left. This one is mostly devoted to WWII.

 

[norlander]

The worst thing about it is that 99% of them did not want to be there, they did not want to kill another human and most never even knew why it was going on, they blindly followed the orders of those they thought had the answers.

I am not sure, or cannot verify that comment, but as an ex professional soldier, I would say that, initially, they did want to be there, as there is a romantic element to marching off to war.Once you are there you may well change your view-but then its too late-you are in the system.
There is the volunteer conscript, then you have the -"well my country needs me" conscript and then the "I have no choice (and therefore somewhat unwilling) conscript"
Armed conflict/combat will still be here for a fair few generations yet. Its a job for professional soldiers, nobody should ever be conscripted in to the hell of war-ie plucked from their daily life into the bizarre world of shooting/grenading/bayonetting/ another bloke because your government does not agree with the other blokes government and cannot work the problem out over a curry and a few beers.
Terrorism is another issue-but again it should be left to pros to deal with.
And for the record, despite all the training, combat can still come as a shock to young pro soldiers. A good start would be to get Hollywood and computer game sellers to be banned from gloryfying war/combat.

As for all the techno remote control stuff-you cannot (yet) replace the infantry-some grunt still has to go out there, find the other bloke and take him down.The basics are still the same.