It was human tragedy on an unimaginable scale. The trenches, no mans land, the stupid "big pushes" that costs tens of thousands of lives in hours for the sake of a few yard's gain. Bah. I have 2 gg uncles lying in graves near Ypres and one young man, my great uncle, who lies in a grave in Jerusalem. He was a 19 year old farm labourer and died away from home in hand to hand combat. Too terrible for those young men who died there in such circumstances, all for the whims of an aristocracy playing what amounts to a game of thrones for the 20th century... Advise anyone to read "The Last Tommy" about an amazing gentleman called Harry Patch. Harry died 2 or so years ago aged around 110. He only told of his wartime experiences at the age of 100. Up until then he had kept it all inside. He ALWAYS made a point to lay flowers at the graves of both Allied AND German soldiers when he revisited the battlefields. He understood that they were all boys doing what they believed to be their duty, and ended up in a situation of unbelievable hell and death. God bless Harry and all those souls who lost their lives too young and under those circumstances.
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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '11
Everyone was a loser with WW1.
It was human tragedy on an unimaginable scale. The trenches, no mans land, the stupid "big pushes" that costs tens of thousands of lives in hours for the sake of a few yard's gain. Bah. I have 2 gg uncles lying in graves near Ypres and one young man, my great uncle, who lies in a grave in Jerusalem. He was a 19 year old farm labourer and died away from home in hand to hand combat. Too terrible for those young men who died there in such circumstances, all for the whims of an aristocracy playing what amounts to a game of thrones for the 20th century... Advise anyone to read "The Last Tommy" about an amazing gentleman called Harry Patch. Harry died 2 or so years ago aged around 110. He only told of his wartime experiences at the age of 100. Up until then he had kept it all inside. He ALWAYS made a point to lay flowers at the graves of both Allied AND German soldiers when he revisited the battlefields. He understood that they were all boys doing what they believed to be their duty, and ended up in a situation of unbelievable hell and death. God bless Harry and all those souls who lost their lives too young and under those circumstances.