Ww1 Myths Debunked......

[ToraToraTora]

some interesting stuff here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25776836

[mikey4444]

Very interesting reading. I wonder how many times these old chestnuts are going to be brought out by people this year. I shall save the article under my favourites, just in case !

[emmie]

the commemorations will be for 4 years, not just for the outbreak of WW1, as to some of the myths, some were debunked years ago. The Lions and donkeys was a good thread on here not more than a few weeks back, many contributions, mine included.

[Davethedog]

"politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder". Harry Patch

I'll take the word of a man who was there, rather than a clinical look back "100" yeas later

[emmie]

i remember seeing Harry Patch on the tv, his accounts were harrowing, he was right, but if you look at the records, many top brass, including Royalty, upper classes lost their sons to this war, it was supposed to be the war to end all wars, it obviously didn't.

[jomifl]

An interesting WW2 myth is the failed German invasion at Shingle Street in Suffolk. The papers relating to the incident won't be accessible to the public until 2021. Almost nobody knows what really happened.

[mikey4444]

jomifi...found this ::

http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/dont_miss/codename/bodies_on_the_beach1.shtml

[jomifl]

Mikey, I've seen that that one, what is intriguing about it is that it seems to be a myth invented by 'black ops.' to discourge the Germans from even considering the idea. It is implied that so many Germans were killed that they had to be dumped in a quarry in North Wales. There is a suspicion that it was a chemical warfare experiment that went wrong and did not involve any Germans.

[emmie]

i am not convinced it is a myth.

[youngmafbog]

Yes, some interesting stuff and uncomfortable reading for lefties.

//I'll take the word of a man who was there, rather than a clinical look back "100" yeas later //

And the word of the other 7 million count for nothing? If you read the article correctly you will see the point some had it good others had it terrible so it really depends on where you were and events that were not controllable.

[emmie]

it was never as depicted in the films, unless you look at real footage, and even that was sometimes staged, the film makers on the front line would ask the tommies to go over the top, shoot the footage, then the tommies would go back to the trenches, and then do the real thing when the command to go came, where all hell broke loose. Some horrible but fascinating facts about WW1 can be read, but not if you have a weak stomach. The reason it stays in the mind because of it's seeming large scale slaughter, 60 thousand wounded and dead on the first day of the Somme, beggars belief.

[stewey]

Point #8 mentions "the UK and her allies convincingly won". Surprisingly, or perhaps not, there is no mention of the fact that the entrance of the US into the war tipped the balance in favour of the British Empire and her European allies.

[emmie]

the Americans knew they couldn't keep out indefinitely, same for WW2.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/america_and_world_war_one.htm

[sandyRoe]

That 19th Century butchery in China, the Taiping Rebellion, which I'd never heard of, must have seen the streets running with blood. 20-30 million dead is hard to believe.

[jomifl]

Stewey, From the Wiki article(link below) it seems as if the US had more of a morale effect than making any signifnificant military gains, since their military tactics were ineffective.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_in_World_War_I

[emmie]

see the statistics on those killed in Russia WW2, and by Stalin, the figures are mind boggling.

[emmie]

,many of the American tactics cost many Americans their lives in WW1, one general who's name escapes me for the moment was so gung ho he made Patton look like a pussy cat.

[Davethedog]

youngmafbog never let a righty be disagreed with you become a "lefty" PMSL

[jomifl]

Sandy, between 22 and 28 million Russians were killed in WW2.

[stewey]

Jomifl, whether it was morale, military effectiveness, or a combination of both, the American involvement was highly positive.

[emmie]

basically what i was pointing at, war and a despot are heady mixtures for getting the populace slaughtered