Lay Me Low-The Reality of WWI

[theseeker 0]

Words cannot begin to express......Go here

[Bullethead 12]

Aufwiedersehen ins Massengrab

Wir sehen uns wieder ins Massengrab

 

I drink to all their shades. :drink: Anybody who was in that mess deserves Valhalla. I'm twitchy enough from my own little war, and I play poker with the last handful of WW2 vets, many of whom had it worse than I did. But none of us can imagine how WW1 vets dealt with it.

[hood 2]

Aufwiedersehen ins Massengrab

Wir sehen uns wieder ins Massengrab

 

I drink to all their shades. :drink: Anybody who was in that mess deserves Valhalla. I'm twitchy enough from my own little war, and I play poker with the last handful of WW2 vets, many of whom had it worse than I did. But none of us can imagine how WW1 vets dealt with it.

 

I doubt there is such a thing as a little war, Bullethead.If some buggar is shooting at you, it's a big one as far as I'm concerned

[RAF_Louvert 101]

Seeker, it was a horrific war and we should not forget that. And as Hood says, there are no little wars...they were and are all horrific. Yet we seem to refight the same wars over and over. Here is another poignant piece of Great War related music that brings that message home:

 

 

"The Green Fields of France", (written by Eric Bogle, 1976)

 

 

And I too raise my glass with Bullethead and drink to them all. Let us never forget those souls who have suffered and died for "The Cause", regardless of which side or cause. We are all, in the end, children of God.

 

Salute!

 

Lou

Edited March 31, 2009 by RAF_Louvert

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I always Like Gandalph's saying in Lord of the Rings.

 

"It is the curse of men, that they forget"

 

How True!

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Awww.... My 10 yr old Son started to cry watching that.

 

And so he should!..as should we all!

 

thanks for posting!

[CaptSopwith 23]

Wow... quite a song, and quite a moving video to go with it.

 

Let us never forget those who fell in Flanders Fields, and elsewhere.

[Bullethead 12]

Best described as the cavalry charge of the 1800's, met the mechanized Death of the machine gun of the 1900's, no furthter explination needed.

 

Actually, I think there is need for more explanation. We here in the West are fixated on the Western Front's trenches, Verdun, the Somme, Paschenndale, Meuse-Argonne, etc. But on the Eastern Front, it was completely different. Over there, they really had a war of maneuver with the front moving hundreds of kilometers at a time, despite attacks facing the same MGs and arty as in the West. Cavalry was actually quite useful, and indeed essential. I guess it was a question of the density of troops on the ground.

 

Anyway, I just say this to show that WW1 generals weren't completely wrong-headed; what they did at the outset COULD work under the right conditions. And where it didn't work, they kept trying hard to invent new ways of doing business. Poison gas, tanks, and innovative uses of arty, MGs, smoke, and aircraft to aid the attackers, not to mention the changes in infantry tactics, the invention of the LMG, the SMG, the flamethrower, etc. Most of these things are still used today, so their innovations weren't too shabby, either. It was the great misfortune of the WW1 generation to be there when all this had to be done trial-and-error, with the error being paid for in unimaginable amounts of blood and suffering.

[purolator 0]

Awww.... My 10 yr old Son started to cry watching that.

 

And so he should!..as should we all!

 

thanks for posting!

 

Darn it, I'm old enough to be called mature and I am deeply touched by it.

 

Greetings from 'Hunland'... yes, horrible times. I remember my great-grandfather, who served under the Kaiser, but we didn't speak about WW1, as I was nine years old when he passed away. Telling memories of not one, but two wars, were not just on.

 

These images should remind us what it really means for anyone, regardless which side of no man's land you are.

 

Luckily nowadays I can sit in Britain and sip a pint of ale without getting arrested and it's likewise for you when you come to Germany. I have friends in Scotland for years and just the chance of having to shoot at them makes me sick