The Somme remembrance 1st July

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British Commanders continuously fucked it up
They didn't so much 'fuck it up' as were too stubborn to not use outdated tactics sending people to a turkey shoot in the hope they'd get medals or promoted. The Russians did similar in the eastern front in WW2 when they launched the offensive.
 
They didn't so much 'fuck it up' as were too stubborn to not use outdated tactics sending people to a turkey shoot in the hope they'd get medals or promoted. The Russians did similar in the eastern front in WW2 when they launched the offensive.

Sounds like a fuck up to me.
I know it's a different battle, but I still can't get through the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth.

I've been to the battlefields and the sight of all those tombstones will stay with me for the rest of my days
 
Sounds like a fuck up to me.
I know it's a different battle, but I still can't get through the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth.

I've been to the battlefields and the sight of all those tombstones will stay with me for the rest of my days
It's a fantastic bit of television and ironically it was written into a comedy. It's haunting and you can still feel the silence of the ending to this day. It's absolutely staggering and heartbreaking to think these men were continually sent over the top to a certain bloodbath.
 
take a moment to think about all them people that were led to the deaths as they went over the top at Somme.

Anyone(stupid question really as bound to be) in here have any stories of family members being there?

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

Absolutely. been reading pretty much wall to wall books on Verdun and The Somme this year. Tomorrow is such an important day to remember . I wish I was at Lochnagar Crater at 7:30 tomorrow morning for the ceremony then onto Thiepval. Unfortunately couldn`t make it but I will be at Verdun later in the summer.

Tomorrow I`ll go up to the Cathedral and go to look at the DLI section

Four family, my fathers uncles and cousins, sadly two of them still there one commemorated on the Loos memorial and another buried at Achicourt. The really sad thing for me is myself and my son are the only family members who have stood by their plaque or grave, If only.

If ever the chances arises go over and pay your respects and learn more about our fallen townsmen, visit the cemetery's and memorials there are hundreds on the Western front but especially go to the Menin Gate at 8pm any night, if you are not moved by the ceremony you are not human.

An excellent post. My great Uncle came back from Ypres but had been gassed, shot and hot by shrapnel in 1915 and taken prisoner. He returned home and lived until the late `70`s and I remember him telling me stories when I was a kid. Me and my son went out to Ypres a couple of years ago and went up to Boetleer`s Farm where he was wounded and many of his mates died and laid a poppy for them.
 
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take a moment to think about all them people that were led to the deaths as they went over the top at Somme.

Anyone(stupid question really as bound to be) in here have any stories of family members being there?

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

the youngsters whinging about democracy should be educated about this.

Been remembered in Washington tonight, think it's something like 370 knitted poppies hung from fatfield bridge...to represent those soldiers who died from Washington and I think Penshaw etc.

i was their to watch them hang them up the other day, looks fantastic

it's 2016 knitted poppies

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/our-r...iversary-of-the-battle-of-the-somme-1-7978889
 
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I always think of them on cold nights.

Out, under the stars in old fabrics that soaked water and froze. That's before the shelling, sniping and going over the top.

I've read some good WW1 books but enjoyed Forgotten Voices the most as it was the soldiers themselves (as well as some on the home front) talking.

Should also spare a thought for the German soldiers as well. These were generally conscripts or sold a patriotic lie like out lads, who also didn't really want to be there. They died in their numbers as well in a more or less pointless conflict.

Has the human race on the whole learnt to value life more in the 100 year intervening period since???
 
It's been getting to me recently. Every time it's on the news I choke a bit and I'm the last person to ever show emotion.
It's getting to me because it dawned on me two years ago (the 100 year anniversary when I was just about to turn 18) that 100 years ago this would have been me. It would have been me and so many of my friends. It's so so unfair that those lads were sent there for a cause that could have largely been avoided on our 'front', it was Churchill and Grey who largely harried parliament into war on a pretext less stable than a one we'd ignored 30 years before.
If those lads had been born 100 years on they may have even been on here, we are that interchangeable. So desperately sad, and even those who survived were ruined either physically or mentally or both. Vile, vile war that pitched normal lads from Britain and our allies against normal lads from Germany and their allies. They were exactly the same, just as we are now but were forced to brutally murder each other in the most appalling ways.
So deeply unfair and so sad, and led to round 2 just twenty years on. Never again in Europe, hopefully.
 
It's been getting to me recently. Every time it's on the news I choke a bit and I'm the last person to ever show emotion.
It's getting to me because it dawned on me two years ago (the 100 year anniversary when I was just about to turn 18) that 100 years ago this would have been me. It would have been me and so many of my friends. It's so so unfair that those lads were sent there for a cause that could have largely been avoided on our 'front', it was Churchill and Grey who largely harried parliament into war on a pretext less stable than a one we'd ignored 30 years before.
If those lads had been born 100 years on they may have even been on here, we are that interchangeable. So desperately sad, and even those who survived were ruined either physically or mentally or both. Vile, vile war that pitched normal lads from Britain and our allies against normal lads from Germany and their allies. They were exactly the same, just as we are now but were forced to brutally murder each other in the most appalling ways.
So deeply unfair and so sad, and led to round 2 just twenty years on. Never again in Europe, hopefully.

Good post mate, we're very lucky to have be born during this period. I'm 20 and it's terrifying to think 100 years ago that could have certainly been us being sent to our deaths.

Amazing men.
 
Good post mate, we're very lucky to have be born during this period. I'm 20 and it's terrifying to think 100 years ago that could have certainly been us being sent to our deaths.

Amazing men.
Absolutely mate, tomorrow at 7.36 (I think) part of the DLI went forward, also some Northumberland Fusiliers too I think. Like you said, could have been us. Truly awful stuff.
 
Absolutely mate, tomorrow at 7.36 (I think) part of the DLI went forward, also some Northumberland Fusiliers too I think. Like you said, could have been us. Truly awful stuff.

It's just mental to think lads even years younger were heading off to war. I was still very much a kid at 18 tbh, only now am I feeling more grown up haha. However, the idea of going to such a large scale war is incomprehensible.
 
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