# The Great War



## Worldweaver (Jul 26, 2014)

July 28, 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of Austria-Hungary's declaration of War against Serbia.

World War 1 Killed in Action*
Germany- 1,773,700
Russia- 1,700,000
France- 1,357,800
Austria/Hungary- 1,200,000
British- 908,371
Italy- 650,000
Turkey- 325,000
United States- 116,516

*PBS.org death count 

Obviously many other nations were involved in the Great War, and many others that perished. 

As I get older I grow more and more interested in the conflict and those who served, I'm truly in awe of what these men endured.  

"Because it's 'Tommy this' and 'Tommy that', and 'Tommy go away'...but it's 'thank you Mr. Atkins' when the band begins to play".  
-RK


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## pardus (Jul 27, 2014)

The First World War is a fascinating conflict to me. The start of modern conventional warfare as we know it today.

This is the best documentary series I have seen on WWI to date... a great watch!


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## pardus (Jul 27, 2014)




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## Worldweaver (Jul 27, 2014)

...and there goes the rest of my Saturday night, along with my Scotch. 

Cheers.


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## pardus (Aug 4, 2014)

100 years ago today, Britain declared war on Germany and entered "The War To End All Wars".

I find the take in this doco on the treaty of Versailles and the treatment of Germany post war to be quite fascinating.


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## Worldweaver (Aug 4, 2014)

Now if Dan would just get off his ass and release the new hardcore history podcast.


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## RackMaster (Aug 4, 2014)

No offence but we're used to being forgotten by now , since we were officially still Brits at the time.  But many key events during WW1 were responsible for the actions and lives of Canadians.  Just Vimy Ridge alone should be enough but the use of Canadians (And ANZACS) as Shock Troops, spearheading the advance and especially during The Hundred Days.



> *Key Canadian Events*
> 
> *4 August 1914: Canada at War*
> When Britain went to war on 4 August, all colonies and dominions of the British Empire, like Canada and Newfoundland, were automatically at war.
> ...


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## pardus (Aug 4, 2014)




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## pardus (Aug 5, 2014)

A doco on the work JPAC is doing.

RIP PVT Lupo


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## Brill (Aug 5, 2014)

@pardus , I assumed you would find this interesting.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28642846

The image of British war minister Lord Kitchener's index finger unsettlingly aimed at the viewer remains immediately recognisable 100 years after its design. Still regularly copied in advertising, it has also served as a satirical motif in the media and inspired military recruitment campaigns across the globe.

Most people assume this image owes its fame to a government recruiting campaign during World War One


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## pardus (Aug 5, 2014)

lindy said:


> @pardus , I assumed you would find this interesting.
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28642846
> 
> ...



Interesting indeed. I did not know Kitchener was killed in 1916 on a ship.


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## Grunt (Aug 5, 2014)

I have always loved history...and I love it even more now that I am older. With that said, I have never really studied World War One or found myself that interested in that particular war...UNTIL NOW.

This thread has actually made me want to know more about that war and put some time into studying it.

Awesome thread!!!


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## pardus (Aug 30, 2014)

* The Somme Secret Tunnel Wars *

*



*


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## Gunz (Sep 2, 2014)

.


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## LimaOscarSierraTango (Sep 3, 2014)

Saw a link to this album on Imgur that had a few pics from WWI that were colorized.  They came out pretty darn good.

http://imgur.com/a/QLv8V

The site that did the colorization is http://www.icoloureditforyou.com/ in case any of you had some B&W photos you wanted colorized.


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## Coyote (Sep 3, 2014)

Awesome pics.


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## Gunz (Sep 4, 2014)

Nothing like color to bring it to life.


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## Brill (Oct 27, 2014)

@pardus and @Freefalling , have you nuts discovered this link regarding the online courses?

http://www.bbc.com/ww1


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## pardus (Oct 27, 2014)

lindy said:


> @pardus and @Freefalling , have you nuts discovered this link regarding the online courses?
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/ww1



Thank you mate!


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## pardus (Nov 8, 2014)

The title is ridiculous but some cool photos.


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## pardus (Nov 8, 2014)




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## pardus (Nov 12, 2014)

*World War I: Battle of Hamel*

A very interesting battle towards the end of WWI, a truly modern combined arms operation, led by a great leader.
Very cool to see fresh American troops involved (despite Pershing being a dickhead) and their bond with the Aussie troops . 




*The leader of the Battle of Hamel: General Sir John Monash*



> the true role of infantry was not to expend itself upon heroic physical effort, not to wither away under merciless machine-gun fire, not to impale itself on hostile bayonets, but on the contrary, to advance under the maximum possible protection of the maximum possible array of mechanical resources, in the form of guns, machine-guns, tanks, mortars and aeroplanes; to advance with as little impediment as possible; to be relieved as far as possible of the obligation to fight their way forward.


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## Gunz (Nov 17, 2014)

A color photographic tour of WW1 battlefields, trenches, etc., 100 years later. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/century/


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## pardus (Dec 8, 2014)

100 years ago on this day, 8 DEC 1914, *The Battle of the Falkland Islands.*

Historians have referred to the Battle of the Falkland Islands as the most decisive naval battle of World War I. It gave the Allies a huge, much-needed surge of confidence on the seas, especially important because other areas of the war—the Western Front, Gallipoli—were not proceeding as hoped. The battle also represents one of the last important instances of old-style naval warfare, between ships and sailors and their guns alone, without the aid or interference of airplanes, submarines, or underwater minefields.



This 10.5cm shell was fired from the German light cruiser SMS Leipzig at the British armoured cruiser HMS Cornwall during the battle.


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## Dame (Dec 9, 2014)

*One hundred years ago on Christmas Eve...*
Very interesting article about the Christmas Truce. There are so many stories out there of how it happened and who was responsible. This article rang true to me because it didn't claim any one story; it claimed them all. It made the whole thing so much more real and true to human nature IMHO. Happy Christmas everyone.


> *December 24, 1914: The Christmas Truce*
> ...Most wars throughout history are often more about the agendas of the state’s leaders than the soldiers on the field actually inherently feeling any real malice towards those they are asked to try to kill or otherwise defeat.  Few events in history illustrate this as well as a remarkable episode that took place during WWI when, despite the orders of their commanding officers and leaders, the soldiers threw aside their weapons, got out of the trenches and had a make-shift Christmas party with those that just hours before they’d been trying to kill.  This momentous event has become known as _The Christmas Truce._




http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2012/12/december-24-1914-the-christmas-truce/


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## Dame (Dec 25, 2014)

*Soldiers in Afghanistan play soccer in memory of WW1 truce*
http://news.yahoo.com/soldiers-afghanistan-play-soccer-memory-ww1-truce-134151440--sow.html
 


> A hundred years later, on a military base halfway around the world, the soccer match took place between concrete blast walls in a country where Britain and Germany have spent over a decade in a coalition fighting against the Taliban insurgency.
> 
> Those playing in the Afghan capital Kabul said they hoped it would send a message of hope to enemy combatants in the country ravaged by decades of conflict.


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## Red Flag 1 (Dec 25, 2014)

Ocoka One said:


> A color photographic tour of WW1 battlefields, trenches, etc., 100 years later.
> 
> http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/century/



A captivating photo gallery, well worth the time it takes to go through them.


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## pardus (Feb 11, 2015)

Aerial Photography in WWI.

The destruction is amazing in it's magnitude. The Passchendaele photos are breathtaking.


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## pardus (Apr 27, 2015)

*The Necessary War - Max Hastings*


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## RackMaster (Apr 28, 2015)

Been watching this series for a few weeks now, probably one of the best documentaries on Canada's contribution to the war.



> The Great War Tour - Norm Christie
> http://docstudio.tvo.org/story/great-war-tour
> 
> *About the Doc Series*
> ...



These are all the videos I could find on YouTube.


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## pardus (Apr 28, 2015)

I should be getting college credits for all this! lol

If I win the lottery I'm going to Uni to study Military history.


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## AWP (Jul 3, 2015)

Yet another series on how the battlefields look today:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/...rst-World-War-100-years-on.html?frame=3101618


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## pardus (Jun 28, 2016)

I found this very interesting and a bit sad. We owe them so much.


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## Dame (Jun 28, 2016)

Oh my goodness. 110! Rest in peace soldier. You more than earned it.


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## pardus (Jun 29, 2016)

What a shitty way to fight a war...


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## Brill (Jul 1, 2016)

Stills about Somme from BBC.

In pictures: Battle of the Somme - BBC News


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## RackMaster (Jul 1, 2016)

This is a big day in Canada and specifically Newfoundland, they were still a sovereign state during The Great War.  They had tremendous losses during the Battle of Beaumont-Hamel.


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## pardus (Jul 1, 2016)

Great audio of a Soldier who went over the top during the Somme.

Pte Will Marshall on 'going over the top' at the Somme - BBC News


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## Ooh-Rah (Jul 1, 2016)

pardus said:


> Great audio of a Soldier who went over the top during the Somme.
> 
> Pte Will Marshall on 'going over the top' at the Somme - BBC News



It was 100 years ago today.  Just 100 years ago.

Battle of the Somme, 57,000+ British injured or dead on the first day, July 1, 1916

British losses total for the battle : 481,000+

German losses : est. 465,000+

For those a little rusty on WW1 history, the US didn't declare war with Germany until April 6, 1917. We weren't there yet.


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## pardus (Oct 13, 2016)

I've just seen a doco on the battle of the Somme (The Somme 1916, presented by Peter Barton). Released this year on the 100th anniversary of the battle.
The difference in this story was that the presenter has studied German war records on the battle and used those to give a much fuller picture of the battle and how it was conducted.

Some fascinating points came out.
The German intel reports state that British shells had at a minimum 40% failure rate to explode, and that figure went up to 90%!
The British executed 284 Soldiers for various crimes during the war, the Germans just 18!
The British often used brutal interrogation methods whereas the Germans had a deliberate policy of good treatment of POWs.

All in all and excellent documentary and well worth watching.

ETA: As this has been brought up in past posts, artillery was responsible for 70-75% (one of the other, I forget which one) of casualties during WWI. 
A fact that I'm personally fascinated with. 
The more I learn about this war, the more it interests me,


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## TLDR20 (Oct 13, 2016)

I am currently listening to Hardcore History on WW1. Holy shit.


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## CQB (Oct 13, 2016)

The one lesson to learn from August 1914 is not to overreact to terrorism.


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## pardus (Oct 17, 2016)

CQB said:


> The one lesson to learn from August 1914 is not to overreact to terrorism.



Sobering to think that a half arsed 19 yr old assassin, was the trigger for the deaths of tens of millions, the reshaping of half the world, countless changes and problems that we are dealing with now and will for the foreseeable future.


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## TLDR20 (Oct 17, 2016)

pardus said:


> Sobering to think that a half arsed 19 yr old assassin, was the trigger for the deaths of tens of millions, the reshaping of half the world, countless changes and problems that we are dealing with now and will for the foreseeable future.



The war was bound to happen eventually.


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## pardus (Oct 17, 2016)

TLDR20 said:


> The war was bound to happen eventually.



Yeah, he was just the trigger. He'd have a cult conspiracy following today.


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## CQB (Oct 18, 2016)

pardus said:


> Sobering to think that a half arsed 19 yr old assassin, was the trigger for the deaths of tens of millions, the reshaping of half the world, countless changes and problems that we are dealing with now and will for the foreseeable future.



The Balkans War was really the start but is largely overlooked and it didn't really finish until well after 1918. I heard a notable historian talking about the origins and comparing it to WW2, where the origins were obvious. So what I find fascinating is this historian (female, knowledgeable, can't recall her name) is that with the origins of The Great War is that for all that has been written on the subject, they are all correct because the origins were so complex. The Arch Dukes driver takes a different route to avoid trouble and drives into it...so prosaic really and chaos was the result.


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## pardus (Mar 1, 2017)




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## pardus (Mar 1, 2017)




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## pardus (Mar 1, 2017)




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## pardus (Mar 1, 2017)




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## pardus (Mar 1, 2017)

The scale of this war amazes me.


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## pardus (Mar 1, 2017)




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## pardus (Nov 12, 2017)

Probably better posted in 364 days, but we can never be reminded enough...

863 Commonwealth troops died on the last day of this war, which ended at 11am... Think about that. Now add the American, French, German  etc... casualties on top of that, when the commanders on all sides well knew that the war was going to end in a few short hours...


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## AWP (Feb 25, 2018)

I don't have the words or snark except to say this looks great and I want a copy when it is finished.


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## Gunz (Feb 25, 2018)

Wow. Peter Jackson restores WW1.


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## AWP (Aug 21, 2018)

I'm really looking forward to this.

Peter Jackson's World War I Documentary Lands a Title and a Premiere Date



> Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson now has a title for his upcoming World War I documentary: They Shall Not Grow Old. In his announcement trailer for the film back in January, Jackson revealed the project, a documentary of the lives of soldiers fighting in World War I brought to life using archival historical footage restored to near high-definition standards, complete with hand-colorized updates.


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## Scarecrow (Nov 16, 2018)

I just came across this on Facebook. This is a battalion of the Cameron Highlanders in 1914 before being deployed to the frontline and a photo of what was left of them after they returned in 1918 after the Armistice. Incredible generation of men.


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## Kraut783 (Nov 16, 2018)

Holy.....that is powerful


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## 4859 (Nov 16, 2018)

Damn. That's some serious survivor guilt right there.


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## DC (Nov 16, 2018)

I especially like to study the airwar. The technology and how it effected the fight. It’s all intriguing.


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## AWP (Nov 16, 2018)

The week before 11/11, the RAF here began wearing poppies on their uniforms.

Class, pure class. I wish we had that worldview.

The 94th Fighter Squadron still carries the Hat in the Ring from the WWI days. I ran into some VMFA-211 pilots. F-35's remembering the legacy of F-4F's on Wake Island...

History matters. We should honor our past. Props to the RAF and USMC for that lesson.


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## RackMaster (Nov 16, 2018)

AWP said:


> The week before 11/11, the RAF here began wearing poppies on their uniforms.
> 
> Class, pure class. I wish we had that worldview.
> 
> ...



I believe the poppy for week prior is a British Commonwealth tradition going back to Armistice Day (now Remembrance Day).  We actually wear it for 2 weeks in Canada.  I think the decline in wearing the poppy in the US might have more to do with the switch from Armistice Day to Veteran's Day. 



> Some of the 54 Commonwealth member states, such as Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia, observe the tradition of Remembrance Day on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Other nations observe a solemn day but at different dates. For example, ANZAC Day is observed in New Zealand on April 25. In South Africa, Poppy Day is marked on the Sunday that falls closest to November 11.
> Many nations that are not members of the Commonwealth also observe Remembrance Day on November 11, including France, Belgium and Poland.
> 
> 10 Quick Facts on...  Remembrance Day - Quick Facts - Educators - Information For - Remembrance - Veterans Affairs Canada



In which countries do people wear poppies?

Remembrance poppy - Wikipedia


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## Soulezoo (Mar 14, 2019)

WWI was an altogether different type of horror for the average soldier.  My grandfather fought at Meuse Argonne and Ypres. Wounded at the latter. Not sure how to turn the photo the right way. I didn't take it that way.


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## AWP (Jun 10, 2019)

_They Shall Not Grow Old_ is insane. If you have a weak stomach, don't bother with the film. Jackson left nothing out, all of it in color. With that said, it is a bloody amazing film and should be required viewing for Officers and NCOs.


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## R.Caerbannog (Jun 10, 2019)

AWP said:


> _They Shall Not Grow Old_ is insane. If you have a weak stomach, don't bother with the film. Jackson left nothing out, all of it in color. With that said, it is a bloody amazing film and should be required viewing for Officers and NCOs.


Amazon has it on sale for 9-10 bucks for anyone on the fence.


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## Gunz (Jun 10, 2019)

One of my most prized books


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