American Army Veteran Reacts "Battle Of The Somme - WW1 Documentary" 

The saddest thing is that many of the new regiments were what were called "Pals" battalions. This meant that whole streets and areas joined the same battalion. People who were related or grew up together and went to the same schools. Unfotunately with the huge casualties in World War I that meant that whole streets and areas would see most of their menfolk not return after fighting in the a battle

Harry Patch, born 1898, was the last surviving British Soldier from WWI having fought at Passchendaele. He was also the last surviving soldier from WWI from any country. He passed in 2009 at the age of 111.

20,000 dead. Over 57,000 casualties in total on the British side. ( On the first day of the battle)....Lest We Forget!

Have you seen Peter Jackson's 'They Shall Never Grow Old'? It's an incredible look at WW1.

To American friends watching this: it is customary in British countries for people to stop work at 11am on this day, 11th November, to mark the moment when the guns fell silent at the moment of the armistice that ended the fighting in WW1. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It’s almost poetic.

Guys, my Grandad was a Gordon Highlander and fought at the battle of the somme, the second battle of the somme and other battles before he was taken POW and made into forced labour in a salt mine. He survived (just) and he did all that wearing a kilt. Hero

You missed him say 20,000 KILLED on the single day. Total casualties, both sides, came to about 1,000,000. The Somme was planned to help relieve the massive pressure the French were under at Verdun. Verdun last from Feb to Dec 1916 and cost the French 336,000 casualties, 143,000 KIA. The Commonwealth did get better at it, learning VERY hard lessons. Tanks were invented by the necessity. By 1918 it was a magnificent and highly professional Army - which we then threw away in peace time and had to do it all over again just over 20 years later. Places like the Somme made the British much more cautious to infantry losses - the US might hate Montgomery - but he was a veteran of this trench warfare, and it did affect him deeply.

Canada lost 24,000 men at the Battle of the Somme where we fought under the flag of the Union Jack.

My Grandfather survived this battle, he was trapped in no man’s land injured and fell into a bomb crater with barbed wire wrapped around his legs. He was there for around 18 hours before being rescued. His survival meant he was able to go home unlike many of his friends. My father was born in 1912 , two years before the start of the war and he could remember the day his daddy came home.He remembered hiding behind my Grandma because he didn’t recognise his own father.

I just want to say thanks for doing these reactions. There are not many people who do these lengthy reactions and you have done multiple, and the passion is real. Thanks for raising awareness, you are not only educating yourselves, but many others.

I am 75 and my dad was a sergeant in the Lancashire Fusiliars in WW1 and was at the Somme.

The British Army lost almost 20,000 KILLED on 1st July. There were about 60,000 casualties. Ther battle lasted till October.

My Grandad fought at the Somme. He died in the 50s off complications from the things he suffered in the great war. My Dad cared for him as he was bed ridden for his final year.

JRR Tolkien took part in, and survived, this battle. Look for 'the Dead Marshes' in the muddy cratered hell that was No Man's Land. As an aging Englishman, this war formed the distant backdrop to all life in England for it left a permanent mark on the history, geography, and psychology of a nation, and still does. Remembrance Day/ Armistice Day (the 11th of the 11th) is still a deeply felt commemoration of the end of the Great War. Over 100 years ago now .... Lest We Forget

my great grandfather was too old to join. He was an experienced soldier before the war. He volunteered as a stretcher bearer,unarmed and was shot and killed on the somme in the september. He is and always will be my hero!

My great grandfather's unit (The Hampshires) were facing the Saxons at Ploegsteert wood near Bailleul. Known to the Brits as 'Plug Street'. They got a message from the Saxons who were withdrawing from the line: 'Being replaced by Prussians. Give them hell.' Hey, we're all Angles and Saxons. 🙂

God bless ya both for respecting our fallen,I'm sure they would all feel the same

You guys should react to the film, They Shall Not Grow Old, a WW1 Documentary by Peter Jackson. What an amazing piece of cinematic brilliance.

My great uncle survived Gallipoli, landed in Anzac cove the first day, with the 16th battalion. He was wounded in a section attack, he was the only survivor and lay for 12 hours in no man’s land. but didn’t survive the Somme, died the 29th August aged 22 years old. Buried where he fell, his body was lost to counter artillery fire. Lest we forget.

You can now understand why WW1 casts a long dark shadow. Harold MacMillan who was Prime Minister after WW2 fought in WW1. He was at university when he went to fight, of the 30 students in his class only 2 survived the war.

My great grandfather lost his leg at the Somme, I still have his kilt with the patch over the hole where the German machine gun bullet took it off.

My grandfather fought at both the Somme and Gallipoli, he was one of the lucky ones, he passed away in 1976

My Grandfather went to Ypres in 1915 as a 17 yr old had a gun shot wound to his leg 1916 Battle of Bellewaard Ridge gun shot wound to his scalp 1916 Ypres gun shot wound to his calf 1917 High Wood battle of the Somme gun shot wound to his arm and gassed Survived and came home to have 4 sons , his brother in law was a sapper and his job was to collect the bodies and bring them back I knew both of them as a small child my grandad was a poorly man drinking bottles of milk of magnesium for his gassing issue, his brother in law was damaged in a different way , known now as PTSD . My grandad had 4 stripes on the sleeve of his uniform 1 for each wound , the photos of him look like a damaged version of my Dad , quite scary really Well done boys , I have 3 members of my immediate family that did Iraq 2 and 1 that has done 2 tours of Afghan, God bless them all that served

I know that the program was about specific people and units, at the battle of the somme, but one thing they missed was the mines the British had planted under parts of the German trenches, by tunnelling 'under' no mans land, and hollowing out large cavens and filling them with explosives. The tunnel war on the somme is something of interest.

Both my grandfathers were in WW1 and my father in WW2. Great uncle Samuel was lost at the Somme. His remains were never found. I have his bronze death plaque which was issued to the families of the lost. Unimaginable horror.

I've seen a lot of documentaries on WW1 over the years, they're so painful to watch. So very sad, heartbreaking 😢💔

My granddad was at the battle Somme with the artillery. He got gassed and buried alive. He survived it all and died in 1967 when I was 1 so I never met him. Would have loved to hear his story. I’m ex forces of 22 years. We all have things to say but don’t like talking about them outside any one who’s served.

This battle went on for months, on the 7th of july the 38th Welsh Division were ordered to take Mametze Wood, by the 12th it was taken but the 38th ceased to exist as a division with 4000 casualties and was withdrawn and did not enter the war again until july 1917.

My paternal grandfather served in this battle, he was in the Royal Engineers from the first day of the war to the last, and came home a mere shadow of a man with ill health. His mental unbalance and continuing distance from his family through his whole life left emotionally damaged children for three generations after, compounded by the death of some of my father's siblings in the second war. I am hoping that the generations recently born are finally free of the anger, sadness and grief that impeded the emotional development of pretty much my whole family before and after mine. I have the letters and mementos of the ones who didn't make it through, I still tear up a little when I read them. Such monumental stupidity.

That's was a perfect way to honour the fallen for me thank you I just felt I needed to comment you are beautiful souls many blessings ❤️

My great uncle died at the Somme, my great grandfather died at Passchendaele - without knowing my grandfather was born 😭

There's an incredibly deep TV series called "our world war" that was written entirely from the diaries of those who fought. It has 3 films following the stories of 3 different individuals and I highly recommend it

I was in the pub after one remembrance service with the coastguard when i seen an old guy sat by himself so i invited him to join us. Asking about his medals he said i won this etc etc then casually said i got this one in the Somme 😮

Thank you for doing this guys. You two are great, down to earth people. The best.

My grandad was blinded in this battle by gas. Never got to meet him as he died around 1960 before I was born. Poignant with Remembrance Day tomorrow 11th of the 11th

"Forward he cried from the rear and the front ranks died, the generals sat, and the lines on the map moved from side to side." Roger Waters, Pink Floyd. Excellent reaction👍👍

I had three great uncles in WWI. One of them spent over 2 years on the Western Front in France 1916-1918. Uncle Dave told me as a boy about the men going crazy from shell shock (the percussive effects of heavy artillery during sustained bombardments), the rats, the mud and filth. He said the best you could hope for was to "get a Blighty" - a wound that left you in one piece but disabled some part of you so you were unable to fight and got sent back to England for long-term care. He fought at the battle of the Somme with the New Zealand Division, which was deployed for the third assault on the German lines in September 1916. He fought on until a few weeks before the Armistice in 1918, when he was gassed in a German attack and got his "Blighty". The English doctors gave him 3 years to live - said his lungs would give out due to the effects of breathing mustard gas. He had the last laugh - he lived into his 90s and died in 1984.

My grandfather was born in 1900, he lied about his age and went to war at just 15 years old, i can't imagine what he went through at such a young age, he survived the war and passed away in his 80's, he lost brothers and friends in the war

So many great stories on this chat, everyone of them are total legends

A couple of bits of information. The writer of The Lord of The Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien fought in the Somme. He survived but lost all of his friends there. On the other side, a young man called Adolf Hitler fought for the germans. He did not lose all of his friends, but he did recieve a shrapnel injury to his left leg. Unfortunately, he did recover.

There was a war memorial in my old secondary school detailing former students lost in WWI & II. The school lost all of its male students at the Somme who were of fighting age, and the head teacher eventually committed suicide because of it.

My great grandfather was shot in the arm at the Somme, he recovered and was then shot in the right shoulder at La Bas. He survived and returned home to his wife and seven children. After he recuperated he went back to the coal mine and died in his 80's. Another great grandfather was mustard gassed during his time in the trenches, he died in 1937, his lungs were always affected. So proud of both of them.

And somewhere amongst all this on another line perhaps, Tolkien is somewhere getting his inspiration for a fellowship fighting against evil. No prizes for guessing where he got the idea. There's no fellowship quite like the bond between battle brothers facing their demise for nothing more than honour and friendship to their allies. You see these themes in his work. Whether it's the riders of Roharim answering the call, or Faramir riding out to what must seem like his inevitable death at the orders of his father and steward.

Guys masterfully handled as always. Have lived in awe of my Grandad who survived WW1 and later volunteered to rejoin before he could be considered too old for the draft for WW2 . He survived that too. RIP grandad Jack

I had an old aunt who had two brothers who fought in this battle. They survived but never spoke of their experiences. She also had a fiancé who came home on leave in 1917 when they got married. He returned to the front shortly afterwards and fought in the battle of Arras. He was in the London machine gun corps. He was killed about two months later. He had had no known grave. She never remarried and remained a spinster for the rest of her life. Using The Commonwealth War Graves Commission web-site, I managed to find out that his name was inscribed on the memorial at Arras. I only found this out a long time after she died. By way of remembrance, I’ve been there and located his name on the memorial (identified by the CWGC) and placed a small memorial cross and poppy. As they say, lest we forget.

Growing up in the 60s England in my rd alone were 5 widows who never remarried one man who lost a leg and one man who had been gassed and never stopped shaking till the day he died and a nurse who served in France.. The cencored stories she told me kept her awake at night for most of her life till she died in her 90s.

my great uncle was a coal miner. He was a reserved occupation because of this however when the Royal Engineers needed miners to dig tunnels under the frontline he was one of those that volunteered. He survived the war and returned to the coalfields where in the 1920s he died in a mine collapse

The Royal Newfoundland regiment took part in this battle. They attacked at Beaumont-Hamel. 780 men attacked,110 ten survived and only 68 were available for duty the next day.

You should view 'All the Kings Men' (2009) Another very touching WW1 drama. (With David Jason, aka Del Boy) in the lead role.

My grandfather,whom I never met,was one of the Old Contemptibles from 1914 .The British Expeditionary Force (As Emperor Wilhelm II called them). He survived that only to die several years after the end of the war from the effects of mustard gas.

My grandfather fought on the Somme in that war. Miraculously he survived. He married my grandmother on his return. Had he died on the Somme, I would not exist! It’s been an education reading his military papers and records during family tree research. Sadly he died 12 years before I was born, shortly after WW2. It’s certainly been different watching this with you guys rather than the comedy shows, but really appreciated your commentary on this. 👍

Was Documentaries like this that made me a history buff. It got me in to World War One reenacting and helped me learn about my Great-Great Uncle who was killed at the Somme.

My grandfather was gassed in WW1 and survived, lungs shot. When WW2 declared my mum found him crying Lest we forget

God bless my Great-grandfather and all the lads in the Irish Guards . Fought with his younger brother in that awful war. Enjoyed the video. Thank you both Gentleman

When i was working in the Somme area I stayed iny the town of Peronne. Due to French law we were only allowed to work 6 days so on the Sundays we visited graveyards and battle sites. We went to Deville Wood and the South African memorial museum, Theivpal, Royal Ulster memorial and many others. We went to Beaumont Hamel a Newfoundland battle site and memorial where we had a tour. There were graves of men and boys the youngest i saw being 17 years old, some of the graves had 2 to 3 men in them because by the time they could be retrieved they had decomposed into each other and they couldn't tell who was who so were buried together. Lots of graves simply read "Known unto God" as they couldn't be identified. At Theivpal which is enormous just massive there are the names of 60,000 men carved in to it. All around the Somme area are roadside war grave yards some with only 20 graves. The graves and memorials are immaculate the French have total and complete respect for these mens final resting place.

My husbands grandad was blinded by mustard gas at the Battle of the Somme he joined the Essex Regt at 16 he lied about his age… he got his sight back to a degree but he never got over what he saw he lived to his late 90’s a lovely kind gentle man

Most of the Volunteers joined at the outset from Aug 1914. Britain had a very Professional arguably the most Professional Army in the world but a small Army prior to 1914 as Britain's Army was Volunteer not conscript. Between 1914 and 1917 Britain asked for Volunteers to fill the ranks. In the early days 1914-16 the Army was almost swamped with Volunteers fro the UK and Ireland and across the Dominions and Empire. However it took time to train these men and they never would have the experience of the original small few Corps of Professional Troops sent to France in 1914. These chaps were partially trained from volunteer civilians full of vim and courage but very little experience! They often do wonders via their courage and enthusiasm but also suffer very heavy losses! 😞

You have to remember that this was also a tiny fraction of the battlefield. It didn’t even have the time to cover the months of tunnelling both sides took part in to try and reach behind the others lines. The British ended up getting their first and planted large mines under fortified German redoubts. These were detonated 10 minutes before 0 hour, and if I’m not mistaken, are considered to be the largest conventional explosive detonations of any war.

You'll be hard pushed to find any UK family not touched by WW1 (as well as WW2) if they track back. My own grandfather joined in 1915 (not sure if he joined, or was called up). But he never really recovered, having come from a quiet countryside background working as a farm labourer, to serve on the Western Front. After the war he suffered two breakdowns, but unlike today where he would have received help. In those days he was simply locked a way in a mental asylum for a large part of his life. As a foot note, for those who remember Dads Army. Both Private Fraser (John Laurie) and Private Godfrey (Arnold Ridley) were at the Battle of the Somme. John Laurie, I believe served right through to November, but Arnold Ridley was severely injured by a bayonet wound and also subsequently suffered blackouts, after a rifle but to the head. This was compensated for in the show when he needed to be excused, sit down etc.

I'll spare you the long intro, but basically I have relatives that served in WWI, WWII, Malaya, and then served myself. Early in my Army (British) career I was a senior recruit instructor, and part of the initial training programme included a battlefield tour in Belgium and France, which saw us visit places like the Ypres Memorial, the Menin gate, and numerous other sites, such as Commonwealth War Graves and remnants of the battlefields which still exist today and some of which have been preserved. There are many many accounts from WWI, at various parts of the war between 1914 and 1918, but one of the ones that sticks in my mind is that of the Pals Battalions. Recruiting regionally, friends, colleagues, neighbours, joined up with the promise that they could serve together. Many of these formations suffered heavy casualties, and this had significant consequences. One of the most notable examples was the Accrington Pals Battalion (Lancashire), who were in action on the first day of the battle of the Somme. Of the estimated 700 Accrington pals, 235 were killed and 350 wounded within the space of 20 minutes. The impact that had on Accrington was immense with so many families in such a small area losing Fathers, brothers, etc. Even now the population of Accrington is only about 35,000, so you can imagine the impact such losses had on the community over 100 years ago. Such was the impact that the model of the Pals Battalions ceased shortly afterwards, and many were disbanded or amalgamated to prevent such an impact on a town or area again.

A few years ago maybe 2015, an artist did an installation at the tower of london. It consisted of ceramic poppies, one for ever person from the UK and commonwealth. It filled the moat and was a very moving sight. There are videos it on RU-vid

I had to download the documentary to watch it again, thank you for reviewing this and sharing.

My great great uncle died on the first day of the Somme. His younger brother died on HMS Queen Mary at Jutland

A touching documentary. I enjoyed your discussion points too. it seems like you guys 'get it'.

Battles like the Somme taught the British and French some very hard lessons. One of which was the creeping barrage, because shelling the enemy for days then stopping and sending your troops straight into battle after it stopped did not work because as soon as it stopped the enemy came out of their trenches and were waiting - it was actually started as a tactic by the British after learning the lessons of the early part of the Somme battles. In some ways the US civil war was a forerunner of the World War I with both sides using musket gun tactics whilst using more modern rifles resulting in a huge number of casualties.

An excellent three-part series you should watch is The Last Tommy... Following the last handful of British WWI veterans who where still alive in the early 2000s. Particularly Harry Patch, who lived to be the very last veteran of the trenches when he died at 111 years old in 2009, and the last British man born in the 19th century.

I remember as a child, seeing a photograph of my very young looking grandfather in a kilt and military uniform, and asking him about "The War". He told me that soon after their eighteenth birthday he and some of his friends joined up. He did his basic training and was sent to a camp in England but before they were moved on to France, the armistice was signed. He recalled the disapointment that they felt at having missed out on the great adventure and it was only much later, after hearing the stories of older soldiers and seeing the phyisical and mental scars that many of the veterans had as well as discovering how many of their comrades did not come back, that he realised how lucky he had been at quite literly having "dodged a bullet" and his gratitude that he was too old to be conscripted by the time WWII came along.

I remember when this was aired on TV, its a drama documentary, but gives an interesting view from the individuals involved. The inventor of the most widely used pattern of machine gun was Hiram Maxim, born in Sangerville,Maine and lived the end of his life in Britain. What made this tragedy worse, was that the British regimental system meant that most men came from the same geographic area, so a disaster often meant that the area lost a lot of their young men, sometimes on the same day. My maternal great grandfather, and his two brothers, took part in this battle, in an attack on Mametz Wood on the 7th July 1916. The two brothers were both wounded, but by some miracle they all survived the war.👍🇬🇧

Rawlinson was indeed the planner (although Haig was overall commander) and learnt from the disaster of day 1. So much so that he was the architect of the Hundred Days in 1918, which led to Germany's surrender. Also, Haig did not want to attack in summer 1916 because his troops were not ready. But Britain was very much the junior partner and France really wanted pressure taken off Verdun - so Britain could hardly refuse. It was because Haig and Rawlinson didn't have complete confidence in the volunteers that so much reliance was put on the bombardment - so that the soldiers could walk across easily. But many reports that the wire hadn't been cut were ignored, and the bombardment was poor anyway. It took time to learn these lessons.

So to talk on some things this documentary skips over / forgets. 1. So something the documentary seems to mix up as do a lot of people looking at just the maps of the trench lines, they forget that the 3 trenches that are shown on map aren’t the actual trenches. The three bulky areas are the trench lines and each of these was made up of 3 lines of trenches themselves (the firing line, middle line and support/rear line). So when they said they were going to capture the 3 German lines, it’s not a far reaching as saying they were going for the third trench line all the way at the back, but actually was literally just the front one. 2. To answer why they didn’t immediately go afterwards was due to how artillery was conducted at that point. Artillery during WW1 didn’t have the same communications with the infantry as we have these days, it works on a schedule and the Britain troops did follow it. So if the bombardment was to hit the German trenches at 0800, it would do so, and if it was to move onto the second line at 0820 then it would and so on. Sadly this did mean that if troops got caught out due to timing it didn’t leave many exposed and unsupported in the attacks. But this was how it was and it was because of this battle mass improvements went into making the coordination of artillery and infantry such a priority that events like this wouldn’t happen again. 3. The attacks also didn’t immediately start because the British set of 19 underground mines across the entire German which obliterated hundreds at a time. These mine positions were not just done to destroy the Germans but also to give the attackers a nice area to get into and use as a fighting pit for cover and rally. 4. So the walking is an interesting one. Many people hear “they were ordered to walk” and think that the British generals were just being cocky, actually the order to “walk” was because the ground was so scattered with artillery craters and because the water from the previous rainy days had turned the landscape into a quite hazardous area to walk over. So if your a inexperienced British volunteer carrying dozens of ponds of equipment trying to run across a moon scape battlefield, your going to have thousands of accidents of men injuring themselves before they even get to the enemy lines. So it was advised to walk the majority of the distance to avoid this and to also preserve the energy of the common soldier. 4.5. The actual distance the men had to go the majority of the time wasn’t that far either. Like sometimes it was less than a football pitch to the other side. And that doesn’t include units who used saps or had been deployed out ahead of their own lines during the darkness to completely half the distance. 5. And why didn’t the general call it off? Again we’re talking a time heavily before radios and phones and easy communications - and while they had telephones the majority of these would get cut during bombardments or counter bombardments or even get nibbled on by fields rats and mice underground. So alot of the time communications still relied on people with a pen and paper. Even just to say how bad it was at the Somme, it took several days for high command to find out what happened at just single points of the line. Some they got almost immediately and others they were waiting close to three to four days before letters came through of the failure of the attack and the casualties.

If you walk past just about any cemetery in Britain there'll be a big cenotaph with a whole list of names of men who died in WW1. The one near my house has six listings with the last name "Willett". I suppose they might not have all been brothers but people did have a lot more kids back then so I guess it can't be ruled out. And if so, imagine that - being Mr. or Mrs. Willett and hearing about how six of your sons have died.

I believe the first day of the Somme was 60,000 casualties, roughly 20,000 killed 40,000 wounded

The Dead Marshes in Lord of the Rings were based on Tolkien's memory of No Man's Land in the rain.

My grandfather was a Lewis gunner in this war, wounded three times and gassed twice. He never, ever spoke of it, like most of the soldiers, and I only found out a little of his story after he died. I later toured the battlefields and cemeteries in Picardy and Belgium and the sheer numbers of it all just destroyed me, still does, even now. Remembrance Day, to me, forever means the First World War.

I could see that Spenser was affected but I was more concerned abut Daniel and how he felt. Thinking also of the British poets who wrote about the futility of war especially Wilfred Owen 'Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.' Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.- Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Notes: Latin phrase is from the Roman poet Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.” N/a Source: Poems (Viking Press, 1921)

My Great grandfather, and his son, my grandfather were both killed on the Somme. The people back in the UK had no idea how bad it was, even when the men came home they didn't talk about it.

My Grandad was on the Somme. His mental health never recovered. He would sink into silences and wouldn’t speak for months on end. He would’ve been diagnosed with PTSD today but back then you just had to get on with it. I have several other relatives whose remains lie on the Somme to this day. They were never found. The Somme was nothing more than slaughter. Lions led by idiots. There are some great documentaries on RU-vid- one called the Last Tommy and one called Game of Ghosts. Really sobering to hear the story from men who were actually there. I visited the WW1 battlefields and it was just the saddest thing.

My Great Grand Uncle George died in this terrible battle on the 16th October 1916 May he Rest in Peace along with the other heroes who saved our freedoms 🙏

The first industrial war. Small towns in Australia lost an entire generation to WW1. Thanks for being respectful. 👍

Hi,there. So pleased you are reviewing this great documentary. I had a great uncle who died on the Somme and a few years ago traced his military history and so i am greatly interested in this. I enjoy your content, such as the Fred Dibnah reviews. You are both very thoughtful and intelligent guys. I shall continue watching. Greetings from Bridlington, East Yorkshire, England.

Aircraft were originally used for reconnaissance, pilots even waved at enemy planes as they flew past. As tension grew they started obscene gestures which led to throwing stuff at them. This evolved to firing guns at each other which led to adding guns to planes and the birth of air combat.

My Father a medical student at Guys Hospital London volunteered for the 6th City of London Rifles Regiment in 1915. He fought on the Somme for 2 and half years and went through all the great Battles. He was decorated , and finally wounded out in 1918 with Gas burns phosgene and Mustard Gas.. He was brought back to England, and took 2 years to fully recover. He was always erratic for the rest of his life, and even volunteered for the WW2 ,but was turned down as he was 41. He had to be in it and became the Head of the West London Heavy Rescue in the blitz. What an awful time to be born. He did have 3 Sons though.

You should watch a ww1 documentary, I think its called, "the last platoon", recorded around 2006, this features half a dozen survivors of ww1 who are all aged between 98 & 104 , they tell it from their own experiences, with historical footage included, its incredibly touching & amazing they survived action & lived to be a hundred. One of the best ww1 documentary I've ever watched. It will unfortunately have you in tears, so kleenex on standby.

I'm 70 years old. I was told this story by my next door neighbour as a 15 year old in about 1968. Me and a pal were crossing no man's land. We heard the whine of a large shell coming our way. We dived into a nearby crater. The earth literally moved and everything went black. I awoke some time later and felt a burning sensation in my left arm. There was a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of it. I looked around for my friend and could not find him. I realised that the fine pink mist I was breathing in was all that was left of him. I was violently sick. I tried to stand up to get away from the pink mist and found that I had a large chunk of muscle missing from my thigh. I passed out again. I came to on a stretcher. I was never able to walk properly again, but I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. More than 50 years have passed but I still have nightmares about the pink mist.

A time of real men. On all sides. The greatest generation of men lost in a futile war

For context: First World War deaths: Britain -885,138 deaths, France - 1,397,800, Russia - 1,811,000, Italy - 651,000, Serbia -275,000, U.S.A 116,708, Germany, 1,700,000

Given the friendly fire incidents that still happens with today's technology I can't imagine the fear you'd get hearing artillery firing no matter what direction it comes from.

Boys and men, they never gave up. All gave some, some gave all, Lest We Forget ❤

My great grandfather said he often heard the cries of grown men weaping not for their wives but for their mothers.

My great-grandfather fought at the Somme. After the war, he was determined that his son (my grandfather) join the Army rather than go down the mines, because he still thought the military was the safer place to be (let that sink in). Ironically, in WW2 my grandfather was then sent to the Pacific front and captured by the Japanese...who promptly sent him to work down a mine as part of their harsh treatment of POWs.

Your comment at 1:07 about the tactics of not moving off until some minutes after the barrage has finished are spot on. After the battle the strategy of a creeping barrage was developed where the artillery would be firing just ahead of the advancing infantry. This was all pre-planned to the minute as communications relied on runners carrying messages between the frontline and the command post. 19,240 men died on that first day, with 40,000 casualties, this was the biggest one day loss in the history of the British army. My grandad was in the Middlesex regiment, he fought all the way through from 1914 to 1918, I was lucky to have known him when I was a young.

Blackadder Goes Forth, in my humble opinion is one of the greatest comedy series ever made. If you have watched the entire series then you know the ending, which was poignant, delivered with respect and consideration and hit the absolute mark in remembering those that paid the ultimate sacrifice. Today is Armistice Day, 11 November. WWI - Great Uncle, the Somme; Great Grandfather, Malta, Gallipoli, North Africa. WWII - Grandfather, D Day, Liberation of Belgium. Malaya - Father, during a career spanning 39 years. Kosovo War, Northern Ireland, Iraq - Me. Edit - I have recently received from my Aunt, letters and postcards sent from my Great Grandmother to her husband and son, that have been kept in the family for more than 100 years. I continue to research the history of my family to make sure that it is preserved.

So sad many died .Please let there be peace.🇬🇧

Worth knowing that both Tolkien and Hitler were at that battle, too. Both lost all their friends. Tolkien went home and completed his epic fantasy works. Hitler dedicated his life to gaining total control of most of Europe.

According to many documentary studies of the first world war. Officers waited too long after the shelling to order the charge over the top to assault on the Germans in the trenches. Germans would go out from their positions during shelling to try take cover and re engaged their positions when the shelling stopped. The shelling did cause significant losses on both sides. But what did the most damage was when troops charged over the top when the enamy has already re-engaged in their positions. The timing was damming for the troops to only be cut down by machine guns. And the fact they kept making the same mistakes over and over again caused a significant loss of life and unable to break through the lines

My Grandfather joined the Royal Navy in 1916 using his brothers birth certificate. He was 14 years old. He went on to fight in WW2.

I actually looked up these people online. Especially the Manchester regiment. The captain May's house is still there where is lived with his wife and child. 😢 Lest we forget.

It’s hard to think how thousands of people, who was forced to fight in this war. Would go on to fight throughout the Second World War!

Very emotional videos guys. I think that it is all the more poignant in the UK with events like this and remembrance day which is why there has been so much trouble in london in recent weeks with marches. The world forgets that for a while at the start of WW2 the British empire fought alone against the axis alliance to protect the world at huge cost and selflessness just like she did in the British crusade against the slave trade. All if these things are never mentioned or taught and seem to get forgotten

One of my Grandmothers brothers (mothers side) lied about his age to join up, he died there strangely enough with a brother of my Grand Father (father side), my sister resently visited those war graves, a trip I should do myself.