knight2:
Peridot well done for starting a very worthy thread, to those who turned it into a hitching thread YOU DISGUST ME YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES
^^^^^^^ DITTO THIS ^^^^^^^^
Thank you knight
The OP did refer to informative documentaries.In which case 37 days is as good as it gets.To the point where it could almost have been guided in the making by the ghosts of all those who fell as a message and a warning of ironically what was a war caused by a stupid European alliance with Russia creating needless aggression towards Germany.To now a stupid European alliance creating needless aggression towards Russia.Both with predictable catastrophic consequences.On that note they’d want us to learn from their loss not glorify it.
If you haven’t watched it, go on BBC i player and find the 3 part series ‘‘WW1 The Last Tommies’’ which is a three part program broadcast last week on BBC4.
You may find some smoke getting in your eyes.
Juddian:
If you haven’t watched it, go on BBC i player and find the 3 part series ‘‘WW1 The Last Tommies’’ which is a three part program broadcast last week on BBC4.
You may find some smoke getting in your eyes.
Not seen it Juddian but will, but I have been watching some very moving footage on French TV about the Poilus ( Frances equivalent of the Tommies ) very sad stories
Germany’s action on the western front was always at best going to be a defensive war of attrition in the unbelievable event that France and Britain decided to go to war against Germany in alliance with Russia.
OK…in that case why was the Western Front located in Belgium and Northern France?
If the German action was defensive, then why did they spend the entire war either conquering territory or defending conquered territory, including nearly all of Belgium.
There is a logic there, I’ll grant you…the same sort of logic as a drunk bloke in a pub thumping a stranger for ‘looking at him funny’.
Poor old Belgium…all its fault for being between Germany and France. Stupid Belgian people should have put their country somewhere else, eh?
I’m beginning to understand why you support Brexit.
GasGas:
I see President 'Donald ‘heel spurs’ Trump skipped the ceremony to commemorate his nation’s WWI fallen in France because it was raining.
“LEST WE GET WET”
More like a veiled message to France that he rightly views US involvement in WW1 as a mistake and the French should have been left to sort out their own problems.You know like calling a truce with Germany in 1917 when France’s so called ally Russia rightly had the sense to abandon the stupid war thereby removing France’s reason for going to war with Germany at the start.
GasGas: Germany’s action on the western front was always at best going to be a defensive war of attrition in the unbelievable event that France and Britain decided to go to war against Germany in alliance with Russia.
OK…in that case why was the Western Front located in Belgium and Northern France?
If the German action was defensive, then why did they spend the entire war either conquering territory or defending conquered territory, including nearly all of Belgium.
There is a logic there, I’ll grant you…the same sort of logic as a drunk bloke in a pub thumping a stranger for ‘looking at him funny’.
Poor old Belgium…all its fault for being between Germany and France. Stupid Belgian people should have put their country somewhere else, eh?
I’m beginning to understand why you support Brexit.
The best form of defence being attack and taking out the enemy’s command and control ( government ) and production base in its homeland being an accepted tactic of war including the allies in WW2.As I said Belgian neutrality was obviously unviable in the case of French aggression towards Germany.Which leaves the question if Germany’s actions weren’t defensive how do you explain Germany’s original reversal and cancellation of its westward invasion,when it thought that it had a guarantee of French neutrality,in the war with Russia.Everything which happened next on the western front being the result of France not being willing to declare that and stay well out of it and Churchill backing it using the pretext of Belgium.When he’d already made his intention to back France clear before hostilities even started.
I watched about 4 hours of ‘WW1 in colour’ on ch 5 on Sunday and the reasons for the war vary greatly from some of the less knowledgeable but self proclaimed experts on all things on Trucknet …
raymundo:
I watched about 4 hours of ‘WW1 in colour’ on ch 5 on Sunday and the reasons for the war vary greatly from some of the less knowledgeable but self proclaimed experts on all things on Trucknet …
If not the aggression of a dodgy alliance of France and Russia,warmongering by Churchill and his fan club v the all too real and justified ‘reservations’ of the cabinet.Against the fact that Germany didn’t want war on the western front and was only acting defensively.Proven by the reversal and cancellation of its opening of a western front,given credible reason to believe that France would choose neutrality over its Russian alliance,then what were the opposing ‘reasons’ ?.
It’s clear from this that Britain had decided to go to war ‘before’ Germany invaded Belgium.The reality was actually a foregone conclusion in support of France conveniently using the excuse of the defence of the French Channel Ports under the terms of the Anglo French Naval Agreement,during the 2nd/3rd August.At that point Germany having actually ‘withdrawn’ its forces as of 1st August and cancelled the opening of a western front on the basis of a percieved guarantee of French neutrality.Obviously then followed by the invasion of Belgium as part of a panic move to head off both French and Brit aggression.
raymundo:
I watched about 4 hours of ‘WW1 in colour’ on ch 5 on Sunday and the reasons for the war vary greatly from some of the less knowledgeable but self proclaimed experts on all things on Trucknet …
If you mean the one where they enhanced the old black and white footage into near perfect colour film where actors lipread and dubbed the voices, it was as if it was filmed yesterday…unbelievable.
Well worth watching if anybody hasn’t seen it.
More impact as it came from a modern perpective, well worth watching on catch up or whatever.
Let them all Rest In Peace regardless of the side on the battle line they were.Ive much respect for the ordinary British soldier at ww1, for the British Empire(read government)…not so much.
When you think about it, politicians f**k up everything, not the soldiers in the trenches.
I’m glad that today I can live and work with Brits, instead of killing each other for someone’s political ambitions as our ancestors had to do in ww1.
And let’s not forget:“one man hero are another man’s villain”.
The vast majority of those killed and horribly wounded, on all sides were working class bods, ordinary blokes like us.
Doesn’t matter of they were German or French or Russian or British or from any country, they were there because bloody politicians or half arsed royalty who wanted to have their way, each and every one of them doing their duty as they saw it and deserve respect, enemy or comrade.
If the politicians declared war, and it meant that the whole political class of that country had to fight it out to the death with the political class of the country they want to make an enemy of, then there would be no wars.
But its easy to sit back and send hundreds thousands millions of good people, far better in most cases than the rag tag who sent them, to their deaths.
I’ve given up watching any remembrance services from the Cenotaph, to see those bloody traitors who have given our country away daring to lay wreaths in memory of the good men and women who gave their lives to defend what they were told was right…well the hypocrisy is too much to witness.
