New footage of World War I shows war-torn battlefields

bbc ^ | 11/4/10 | bbc

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. War-torn is an understatement.

[Sparky1776]

Here he is again, I believe just outside London: Interesting point about the boots!

[centurion316]

More confirmation. The horse is definitely not a cavalry mount, but a draft animal as would have been used by the ASC to pull wagons. I have a gray Morgan-Percheron cross who is the spitting image of this horse.

[naturalized]

Best part was the cameraman’s daughter, who had only seen her father in pictures, and never smiling, as he was in the video. What a gracious gift to her one true Father.

[ken5050]

You can literally walk and or bicycle along several hundred miles of the trench lines...it’s an amazing experience..when I did it, years ago, and saw Verdun and the Somme sites, and read more about the sheer magnitude of the casualties..I was able, for the first time, to understand, though not excuse, Chamberlain’s mindset, and that of many other Brits, who opted, falsely, for “peace at any price”..

[Amntn]

Bump for later.

[2001convSVT]

Mine too, well said. Remembrance day is this Thursday.

[dfwgator]

Motorhead
1916

16 years old when I went to war,
To fight for a land fit for heroes,
God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
Chasing my days down to zero,
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,
And I never did get any older,
But I knew at the time that a year in the line,
Is a long enough life for a soldier,
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names,
And we added two years to our ages,
Eager for life and ahead of the game,
Ready for history’s pages,
And we brawled and we fought and we whored ‘til we stood,
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder,
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun,
And that’s what you are when you’re soldiers,

I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
And I fell by his side, and that’s how we died,
Clinging like kids to each other,
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
And I wept as his body grew colder,
And I called for my mother and she never came,
Though it wasn’t my fault and I wasn’t to blame,
The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
And now there’s nobody remembers our names,
And that’s how it is for a soldier.

Sixteen years old
when I went to the war
To fight for a land fit for heroes
God on my side
and a gun in my hand
Chasing my days down to zero

And I marched, and I fought
And I bled, and I died
And I never did get any older
But I knew at the time
That a year in the line
Was a long enough life for a soldier

We all volunteered
And we wrote down our names
And we added two years to our ages
Eager for life
And ahead of the game
Ready for history’s pages

And we brawled, and we fought
And we hoped to be stuped
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder
At thirst for the Hun
We were food for the gun
And that’s what you are when you’re soldiers

I heard my friend cry
As he sank to his knees
Coughing blood as he screemed for his mother
And I fell by his side
And that’s how we died
Clinging like kids to each other

And I lay in the mud, and the guts and the blood
And I wept as his body grew colder
And I called for my mother, but she never came
Though it wasn’t my fault, and I wasn’t to blame
The day not half over, and ten thousand slain
And now there’s nobody remembers our names
And that’s how it is
For each soldier

Sixteen years old
when I went to the war
To fight for a land fit for heroes
God on my side
and a gun in my hand
Chasing my days down to zero
And I marched, and I fought
And I bled, and I died
And I never did get any older
But I knew at the time
That a year in the line
Was a long enough life for a soldier
We all volunteered
And we wrote down our names
And we added two years to our ages
Eager for life
And ahead of the game
Ready for history’s pages
And we brawled, and we fought
And we hoped to be stuped
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder
At thirst for the Hun
We were food for the gun
And that’s what you are when you’re soldiers
I heard my friend cry
As he sank to his knees
Coughing blood as he screemed for his mother
And I fell by his side
And that’s how we died
Clinging like kids to each other
And I lay in the mud, and the guts and the blood
And I wept as his body grew colder
And I called for my mother, but she never came
Though it wasn’t my fault, and I wasn’t to blame
The day not half over, and ten thousand slain
And now there’s nobody remembers our names
And that’s how it is
For each soldier

[Little Ray]

Not really.
Some of the battlefields of WWI looked like the surface of the moon - only muddy. Its truly a horror. You need to look at the progression of aerial photographs of Fort Douaumont at Verdun - it goes from a pentagonal concrete fortress to a moonscape as artillery slowly erases it.

[Lee'sGhost]

“Europe never recovered from that war. “

Germany did. Sort of.

[CrazyIvan]

Crazy Ivan have you been to the verdun area ?
I've came across a bit info on the Internet that said the Zone rouge (zone red )will have to stay off limits for 700 years before its safe to people to come back

No, never been there. Seeing Europe is on the someday list.
I do not remember reading the 700 year estimate, but the
book explains the dynamics that push the shells upward thro
the soil. The larger they are the deeper they went and the
slower they are coming to the surface. As they age they also
become less stable. It's always nice to have something to
look forward to!

As to the horrors of WWII, I refer to it as the war that
coined the phrase “corpse rat.”

[Charlespg]

As to the horrors of WWII, I refer to it as the war that coined the phrase “corpse rat.”

I remember reading about that ,the dammed things grew to as big as cats

I'm really surprised that there was not a major outbreak of Bubonic Plague on the front