Tazio Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 Incredible story from this week. The sheer percentages can't even be understood to people nowadays. link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incompetnce Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 The Somme - The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470 casualties, including 19,240 dead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_somme It's the sheer numbers that get me, and bear in mind, this was only the British casualties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Spackler Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 People were more trusting and believed collectively in causes more so then than now. I'm not at all convinced that given certain circumstances that streets of people would not act in the same way today however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Incredible story from this week. The sheer percentages can't even be understood to people nowadays. link Agreed mate. Particularly percentages like 10% of the population, 20% of the casualties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Debtor Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 It was indeed a war that changed society, at every level. I would say no such war could be fought today, except that Iran v Iraq was similar! The attitudes of the Taliban in Afghanistan is also along the same lines. The big difference being their lack of concern for human life was not shared by the generals of the Great War. Almost sixty British generals died during that conflict and while it was clear a war of attrition was inevitable it was not the war they wanted. (Actually only the French and Germans really wanted the war of course.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Bill Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Since the Boer War and the scramble for Africa, the public were coerced into backing the British Empire through anything from school education, the Boy Scouts, to the Crystal Palace exhibition, to Pears' Soap adverts to parades and statues. Subjects or citizens, a frenzy was whipped up in 1914 to attract or bully these men into fighting. WWI produced a shocking a amount of carnage, the most appalling bloodshed ever witnessed. These poor young lads were ordered only to walk through the barbed wire. I'm sure it was Harry Patch, or certainly one of the last survivors who said that in the end, the soldiers in the trenches were fighting for themselves, and for their friends either side of them. Their bravery to fight the enemy in such horrific conditions is almost uncomprehendable. They really did make the ultimate sacrifice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
micole Posted September 14, 2009 Share Posted September 14, 2009 Since the Boer War and the scramble for Africa, the public were coerced into backing the British Empire through anything from school education, the Boy Scouts, to the Crystal Palace exhibition, to Pears' Soap adverts to parades and statues. Subjects or citizens, a frenzy was whipped up in 1914 to attract or bully these men into fighting. WWI produced a shocking a amount of carnage, the most appalling bloodshed ever witnessed. These poor young lads were ordered only to walk through the barbed wire. I'm sure it was Harry Patch, or certainly one of the last survivors who said that in the end, the soldiers in the trenches were fighting for themselves, and for their friends either side of them. Their bravery to fight the enemy in such horrific conditions is almost uncomprehendable. They really did make the ultimate sacrifice. You are correct Harry Patch did say this, he also added that WW1 was all for nothing a complete waste of human life. It's always the honest Tommy that pays for the incompetence of generals & polititians:57: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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