The Great War

[pardus]

 

[pardus]

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.

 

[Gunz]

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

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

 

[pardus]

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.

 

[Dame]

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/

 

[Dame]

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.

 

[Red Flag 1]

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.

 

[pardus]

Aerial Photography in WWI.

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

 

[pardus]

The Necessary War - Max Hastings

 

[RackMaster]

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

Military historian Norm Christie hosts a new documentary series, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Great War. In this unique series, Norm Christie takes audiences on a pilgrimage to significant Great War sites – some famous, others almost totally unknown. He discovers and tells the stories of Canadian men and women whose skills and courage turned Canada into a force on the world stage.

About the Episodes

ARTHUR CURRIE: MASTER OF WAR:

General Sir Arthur Currie led the Canadian Corps to a series of spectacular victories hastening the end of the Great War. Norm Christie retraces Currie’s rise from amateur soldier to the most successful Allied general. He asks why Currie was feted throughout Europe and the Empire yet maligned by enemies and forgotten at home.

THE MISSING:

Few Canadians know that 20,000 Canadian soldiers killed in the Great War are still missing. Some lie in unnamed graves others vanished on battlefields in France and Belgium. Norm Christie reveals why so many men disappeared. He solves a 90 year old mystery finding 44 men lost at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
SACRED PLACES:

Norm Christie takes us to the Western Front battlefields - where ‘the real war is in the cemeteries’ – to discover how these faraway, exquisitely designed and little visited burial grounds, with their thousands of Canadian dead, are truly our ‘sacred places’.

THE VIMY PILGRIMAGE:

Norm Christie reveals the extraordinary story of the largest peacetime armada in Canadian history – the spectacular 1936 Vimy Pilgrimage to Europe - to honor the 60,000 dead of the Great War - and to unveil Canada's magnificent war memorial at Vimy Ridge.

About Norm Christie

Norm Christie is the author of the For King & Empire book series and host of several popular and critically acclaimed series, including For King and Empire, For King and Country, Lost Battlefields, In Korea with Norm Christie and Battlefield Mysteries.
Norm spent six years with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in England (1990-1993) and in France (1993-1996), including three years as Chief Records Officer.
A metallurgical engineer by trade, Christie has combined his varied background and 30 years of research to produce a unique view into the First World War.
Since 1996 he has written 20 books on the Canadian Military History experience in two World Wars.

These are all the videos I could find on YouTube.

 

[pardus]

I should be getting college credits for all this! lol

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

 

[AWP]

Yet another series on how the battlefields look today:

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

 

[pardus]

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

 

[Dame]

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

 

[pardus]

What a shitty way to fight a war...

 

[Brill]

Stills about Somme from BBC.

In pictures: Battle of the Somme - BBC News

 

[RackMaster]

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.

 

[pardus]

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

 

[Ooh-Rah]

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.

 

[pardus]

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,