Horrific event.
Horrific tactics.
Horrific casualties.
Horrific conditions.
Horrific shelling.
Horrific disregard for life.
These WWI soldiers who left the trenches to fight are some of the bravest people in history. I find it hard, from the privacy of my computer terminal in a temperature controlled room without rats and roaches, to judge any of these people harshly.
Thing is when you see so much death, and knowing most of the leaders 20 years later fought in it, mass deaths really wasn’t a big deal to them.
Hitler cited the Armenian Genocide, when talking about his plans for the Jews, it wasn’t a big deal to him.
"Peace to them all. A worse fate awaited any of them than the most vindictive fag among us could have wished. Ypres and the Some are up most of them. They were happy while their good days lasted."