Remembrance Sunday..

[dandydan]

Then you're an absolute fool..

So kamikaze pilots asside can you back up your mawkish point of view?

 

[steken1]

Firstly they had no choice. Secondly are you seriously suggesting a major proportion of the poorly educated foot soldiers had notions of true democracy? For a start it barely existed in England before either war so what would have been their point of reference? Life for the working class 100 years ago was terrible. Political grandees were marching them into a foreign land on the back of a [Poor language removed] packet calculation (1st World War).

The soldiers that died in both world wars faced untold horrors. Their memory should be cherished and respected of course. But don't retrospectively make them out as intellectual freedom fighters.

You don't need to be an intellectual to notice people not coming home.

And yes I do think they had a notion of democracy. More importantly a notion of pride in their country that has long since vanished for many.

 

[Charlie Sweet]

Then you're an absolute fool..

First world war soldiers would certainly have had a reasonably positive view of coming home. Certainly initially. Why wouldn't they? Previous wars didn't carry that type of attrition rate.

 

[steken1]

So kamikaze pilots asside can you back up your mawkish point of view?

Clue is in the word Millions, which you used..

 

[roydo]

F a g packet = poor language?!?

Blame the Merican filter mate.

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

I'd say pretty much every one of them expected to come back otherwise they would have stayed at home.

You utter cretin

 

[dandydan]

Clue is in the word Millions, which you used..

Getting me and Charlie mixed up here.

 

[Caolam]

I think it is time to start and scale down the remembrance ceremonies.

 

[dandydan]

You utter cretin

I can just imagine a recruiting office in 1914

"Right son sign here and you're in the army and we can guarantee you'll be bleeding out from a stomach wound in a shell hole before Christmas"

" I do it for me king an country I does! Gawd save the king"

 

[Foot Long Hot Dog]

I can just imagine a recruiting office in 1914

"Right son sign here and you're in the army and we can guarantee you'll be bleeding out from a stomach wound in a shell hole before Christmas"

" I do it for me king an country I does! Gawd save the king"

You're an imbecile lad.

Do you think the thousands and thousands dying in action somehow escaped the notice of the population over the course of a 5 year conflict.

They knew their odds on returning were low, they went anyway.

Your disrespect to their memory on this of all days makes my stomach churn. Disgusting

 

[dandydan]

You're an imbecile lad.

Do you think the thousands and thousands dying in action somehow escaped the notice of the population over the course of a 5 year conflict.

They knew their odds on returning were low, they went anyway.

Your disrespect to their memory on this of all days makes my stomach churn. Disgusting

Black adder goes forth was not a documentary. there was no mass of lumpen proles resigned to death serving king and country.

 

[dholliday]

Firstly they had no choice. Secondly are you seriously suggesting a major proportion of the poorly educated foot soldiers had notions of true democracy? For a start it barely existed in England before either war so what would have been their point of reference? Life for the working class 100 years ago was terrible. Political grandees were marching them into a foreign land on the back of a [Poor language removed] packet calculation (1st World War).

The soldiers that died in both world wars faced untold horrors. Their memory should be cherished and respected of course. But don't retrospectively make them out as intellectual freedom fighters.

aye...precisely why we should remember them. I don't hold much truck with "they died for our freedom", has that emotive-propaganda quality to it. But they certainly died an unenviable death...millions of them...fighting obscenely stupid battles which most of them hadn't the faintest clue about. I had family on both sides of the war, not all made it through alive. 20 years later there was another war anyway so what did they even fight for?

We should remember them, as we should remember those who fell in the 2nd War, as we should remember how we've kept Europe & Britain relatively conflict-free for 70 years...for we don't ever want such a thing to happen again.

 

[Charlie Sweet]

You're an imbecile lad.

They knew their odds on returning were low, they went any way

A lot of them went because they were conscripted. By definition the others had little choice either way.

They went because they had to. The fact their lives at home were largely poor and bereft of education made that process a lot easier.

Human beings don't really change. It's often said that the youth of today wouldn't have stepped up for war the way great grandads did. I disagree with that completely.

100 years ago poor working class kids weren't allowed to say No. They didn't have a comfortable society to fall back on. They didn't have XBoxes and the Internet. Working class folk generally didn't have a voice. For that reason I don't think necessarily those poor souls were more heroic than men today. Just their choices were very limited.

I think it's actually a disservice to call them heroes fighting for freedom. That suits the establishment view then and now. They were poor bastards sent out to be slaughtered. The fact they came back in 1918 to a society still set up to subjugate the poor says it all. Christ it took another world war to deliver the NHS and proper housing.

 

[toffeejack]

Beautiful service as always, regularly makes me teary eyed even though i have no family which fought in either war. Their sacrifice will never ever be forgotten nor should it be allowed to. I will remember them until my dying breath.

lest we forget

 

[steken1]

First world war soldiers would certainly have had a reasonably positive view of coming home. Certainly initially. Why wouldn't they? Previous wars didn't carry that type of attrition rate.

A lot of them went because they were conscripted. By definition the others had little choice either way.

They went because they had to. The fact their lives at home were largely poor and bereft of education made that process a lot easier.

Human beings don't really change. It's often said that the youth of today wouldn't have stepped up for war the way great grandads did. I disagree with that completely.

100 years ago poor working class kids weren't allowed to say No. They didn't have a comfortable society to fall back on. They didn't have XBoxes and the Internet. Working class folk generally didn't have a voice. For that reason I don't think necessarily those poor souls were more heroic than men today. Just their choices were very limited.

I think it's actually a disservice to call them heroes fighting for freedom. That suits the establishment view then and now. They were poor bastards sent out to be slaughtered. The fact they came back in 1918 to a society still set up to subjugate the poor says it all. Christ it took another world war to deliver the NHS and proper housing.

You seem fixated on one conflict alone? Not sure why?