The Somme 1916

Emp_Fab

Thousands upon thousands of good men - many with families - mowed down for no other reason than the moronic thinking of the day that allowed the class system to take precedence over tactics or any kind of military planning whatsoever.  Put the upper and upper-middle classes into officer's posts who had no clue at all about how to run a war, so they just ordered thousands of men - cannon fodder - to just fucking walk.... WALK into a wall of German bullets and near certain death.  The sheer idiocy of it is unbelievable.

It boils my piss when you see Govt ministers getting in on the act of commemorating the dead....  it was the Govt (albeit previous incarnations of) who were ultimately responsible for the retarded policies that cost all those poor men their lives.

Heartfeltdawn

I watched Dan Snow's documentary on the Somme rather than the football. Astounding in every way. I've been researching Pathe and Movietone cricket films over the last month. It's like watching some fantasy world in action. Watching the Somme films was similar, seeing officers smoking pipes on horseback and then going to bodies in trenches is brutal. The reasons for going to war can be argued forever but the need to respect those who died on the orders of others is paramount.

RobDavies

Cheers @Clarky and @Heartfeltdawn - I was just about to ask if anyone knew of any good documentaries or films about WW1.

Jalapeno

Emp_Fab said:

It boils my piss when you see Govt ministers getting in on the act of commemorating the dead....  it was the Govt (albeit previous incarnations of) who were ultimately responsible for the retarded policies that cost all those poor men their lives.

The clueless Generals, who ignored intelligence, had far more to do with the carnage.

boogieman

I watched the Time Team program yesterday about some mad WW1 weapon invented by a disgruntled British scientist. It was a huge flamethrower that popped out of the ground and shot pressurised burning kerosene/diesel oil mix for hundreds of yards. It was designed to spray German troops in the trenches and burn them alive. The Royal Engineers made a modern day replica and tested it out. Dear god, it made me shudder just watching it. It was only used twice in anger before the Germans shelled it and destroyed it; a mercy really.