German Soldier Describes Grim Reality of Life on Western Front (1914) // Diary of Rudolf Binding 

That struck me too!

It’s just amazing how something so deeply horrifying can also be so humorous. Gallows humor is the one of the most interesting and endearing parts of humanity, to me.

Just like the freaking RPG birds in Afghanistan.

@@codybailey855: When one considers that the main purposes of birdsong are to define territory and to attract mates, birds mimicking RPGs takes bizarreness to a whole new level.

@@codybailey855 is that a real thing? How could there be enough rpg fire for them to learn?

They where probably more open to it then we know. Remember alot of the generals fought in the Franco Prussian war I believe it was, or perhaps another war something was fought by Germans in the 1870s/80s. Regardless they where drilled and trained and had success already in another form of wat, they where the opitomy of stubborn but for not necessarily incompetent reasons just a situation of old dog new tricks. Regardless it's a tragedy. Plus modern war tactics where arguebly perfected by the Germans first. At least they had an effective strategy by the end. The allies, such aa WW2, had the huge advantage of outnumbering the central powers by a magnitude.

The makings of WW1 were very clear from the Civil War. Fortified defensive positions reigned supreme. Frontal assaults could only be successful with a very high cost of human life. This was a big change from the Napeleonic and Revolutionary era, wherein a disciplined assaulting unit could crush their foes. It's something Lee understood immediately, while the politically appointed Union generals - McClellan chief among the offenders - failed to grasp for years. The US is a large expanse of land, however. That enabled generals like Sherman, Sheridan, Grant, Lee, and Jackson to excel at maneuver warfare. Bypassing the trap of trench warfare, using limited frontal assaults ('demonstrations') primarily as a means to keep the enemy honest and hold them in place. Nor is it a mistake, the German response in WWII was the Blitzkrieg... itself a form of maneuver warfare specific to the technology available. Were we to fight a war today, would there be a cohesive strategy by competent generals? Or merely copying what worked 75 years ago by incompetent political appointments? Recent field results, as well as history generally, strongly suggests the latter.

The Europeans made it a point to not draw any lessons from the American Civil War because the belligerents were rustics and not proper professionals.

That was the Western Front, but things changed. The misconception is that trench warfare was the only mode and that is far from the truth. The Eastern Front was dynamic and German strategic planning led to a crushing defeat of the Russians at Tannenberg, which allowed the Germans to move seasoned soldiers to the Western Front. The Italian Front was also dynamic. In 1917, Rommel utilized infiltration tactics at Caporetto (defeat of Italy) to stunning effect where it was later used by the German Army in their 1918 Offensive on the Western Front. Rommel lost 6 dead and captured over 9000 Italians. This infiltration tactic was essentially blitzkrieg without tanks and involved bypassing resistance and exploiting weak points. During the Spring 1918 offensive on the Western Front, the Germans utilized elite, Strosstrupen (storm troopers) who were armed with flame throwers, light machine guns, high explosives, and artillery support to drive the allies up to 50 km back. Eventually, all armies adopted infiltration tactics...even to this day. It's an effective way to fight and makes tactical combat more like chess.

@@APsupportsTerrorism The way that Armenia got whipped by Azerbaijan in their recent war, with Armenia copying what worked 75 years ago and Azerbaijan explaining at quite low cost that shit don't work no more is pointing the way to future war.

Indeed. And what he describes is already explaining perfectly how terrible this war was and how pointless any advancement could be and how any move has to be payed in blood.

Yeah. I'm crying my eyes out. Bastards.

Makes me wonder how much more we have left to go in this pandemic

The sections used actually come from many different parts of the book. For example, the "The starlings ... whistle like rifle bullets. And as the bullets cannot have learned to whistle from the starlings one may safely presume the opposite." part came from his 1915 Easter writings.

@@strictlylethalthere’s no way you tried to compare covid to this

A storm of Steel would be great material for this channel, as would Poilu. I also recall interesting diaries from I believe the perspective of a German field kitchen cook and a French stretcher bearer, both from the early days of the war but I can't remember the names.

Ernst Junger was wired differently. Dan Carlin (yes, I'm aware he's not a historian) did a little talk about him at one point, to the effect of: "The man was made for war." I don't think he *enjoyed* it, but I do think he understood it differently than many of the men around him. It's clear from his writing that he was just as effected by the horrors of it all as other men. He grieved lost friends, he was paralyzed by fear, he lost his head on more than one occasion from the terror. His description of what it was like to be shelled is referenced frequently for a reason. But there's something else going on, too, when you read it, which I have trouble putting my finger on. He seems to be awed by his experiences. Drawn to it the way one might be drawn to watching a wildfire consume a town, from a distance. Yet, he was also in the middle of it at the same time. The closest thing I can think of that touches on a similar note is the film The Thin Red Line (1998). That film contains the line "One man looks at a dying bird and sees nothing but unanswered pain. Another man looks at that same bird... Feels the glory, knows there's something shining through it." I think Junger was the second man.

Storm of steel is amazing read I just reread it this week. Ernst Junger was a superhuman man

@@-ZETA- Junger had a concept baked into him. It is called Duty.

@Zeta I’ve noticed that Carlin and others like Liulevicius mischaracterize Ernst Jünger; it’s as if they read a completely different Storm of Steel than what Jünger wrote. They appear unable to divorce themselves from a postmodern “American” mindset and thus are incapable of comprehending a stoic 19th-Century Prussian mindset.

That was just the *first*...

He was describing the first Battle not the more deadly battles later in the war

starlings, like many birds of that family (Sturnidae which includes mynahs), imitate noises in their surroundings, to the point that you cannot tell if it is a bird or the real thing.

Could be both. Also, plenty of birds can easily imitate both human speech, other birds' songs and all sort of mechanical sounds.

Starlings mimic, I think the author was being matter of fact.

Mockingbird imitates a car alarm... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_Zd6Iy4JuGk.html

@@kidmohair8151 theres a starling near my house that loves to imitate buzzards. It always disappoints me when I realise I'm not going to see one

Seems that was the goal of these wars. Death.

And in-between the two wars they had the Spanish flu, and that further ravaged an already heavily decimated generation. Can't imagine the despair that the people of this time must have felt.

A myth, the vast majority survived 90pc British, 85pc French & 83pc German

Just thinking of WW1 can start tears. There are many instances of what might be called Hell on earth, but the magnitude and duration of "The Great War" is beyond my comprehension.

I think All Quiet on the Western Front should be required reading in high school .... or must youth now be protected from all revelations of reality?

@@Psychol-Snooper it is beyond the comprehension of anyone who has not been part of it. It is weird to think that the next generation of those countries fought another war in the same areas, with not much less blood spilled. Although that war was much less pointless, as Nazi-Germany couldn't be allowed to win that war. But WW1 was as pointless as a war could be.

@@rb3872 Well, philosophically that can be said of any part of human experience. Part of why I've studied history since I was a small child is because I could project myself into the various aspects of events, from the leaders down to the peasants, and prisoners. From the men awaiting the German assault at Bastogne, or the Japanese soldiers acting as human landmines scattered all over the Pacific. From Andersonville to Auschwitz... it all feels at a somewhat human scale. My life experiences make most events seem real... But the thought of endless waves of boys being marched into what amounts to a perpetually exploding grave of putrid viscera... it's just too unreal. JRR Tolkien served in WW1 and lost all of his civilian friends... how is that a thing?

What's sobbering? Sobbing while sobering? Please don't drink alcohol when you're sad, it always makes it worse.

Gives some perspective, it really does. Thanks for sharing!

Holy crap! Me too! Only, I’m 37 now, and my brother (who also served) is there with me. But it’s like he never left, and I’m just getting back over there. Stuff I used to do regularly seems down right stupid now! “Are we really back doing this same shit!?😂

You might have missed it, but at 0:21it says that he commanded a squadron of dragoons (wikipedia says hussars). So he was a relatively junior field grade officer of cavalry....at the front and in the shit.

It generally never is a good idea!

Best comment I've ever seen xD

That young man was 47yrs old.

Probably an officer as he had an trumpeter

And without modern standardized education to teach him 'nuanced thinking' and vocabulary. Shocking right!

@@brianshockledge3241 You can be 47 and young at heart.

The German language tends to be flowery and poetic to english speakers and he was likely educated.

War has always been glorified though

War is sweet to those who haven't experienced it.

war is always glorified by those that profits from it and by those that never have been in a war zone.

@@DaviRenania Not by those who experience it first hand.

@@lysimachosdiadochos7203 Mostly but not entirely true. Lots of examples of it from generals especially from Napoleonic eras. Like the famous RELee qoute from when he saw all those union troops charge up a hill only to all die and said something like "its a good thing war is so horrible for otherwise we might be enamored of it." Meaning that the glory of war was compelling even for those surrounded by its horror. Of course with modern warfare, I think that mostly went out the window. Unless you were Patton. To be fair though this glorification of war is much more honest, because it is focused on the courage of individual soldiers and not some imaginary idea of war's 'noble' purpose.

I as well, at least it is true that man has no control... even over his own will.

@@hyperboreanarchives7299 YES!!!!!!

I don't think that day is ever gonna come. As long as there are 2 people on this earth, there will be conflict. Whether it will be international conflicts, civil conflicts, or gangs bleeding eachother white.

@@MHG2000DK this, there will always be disagreements that will be raised to conflict, may they be small or large.

@@MHG2000DK wait til humanity colonises Mars, and new generations grow their own Martian identity: interplanetary conflict

That day will never come. Humanity lives off of war, one way or another. We will fight amongst ourselves until the day we meet an alien race. Then we will make war upon them, and either they shall destroy us or we shall destroy them.

Indeed, and yet the bankers still pushed for yet another world war. They couldn't just let Germany regrow her industry and arrest a Rothschild after all... all modern wars are banker wars in the end. They are the sole benefactors.

@@hyperboreanarchives7299 not the sole, unfortunately.

@@hyperboreanarchives7299 What kind of crack you on mate? Germany was very heavily expanionist which is why it started in the first place, appeasement never works dumbass.

@@Jonathan-fb1kj lol, the war started between Austro-Hungary and Serbia. Try again kiddo.

@@mrs.hancock4124 As a german it makes me sad to read your comment. I’ve never read something more wrong and terrible. Spreading this shit to explain the past in the narrative you like is just terrible.

keep kidding yourself noob

But for how long ???

Peace of the Strong

peace at gunpoint is what that means, so not peace at all

Fragile peace

thats what you think

Seconded. Another event that basically requires primary source to even begin to really understand.

Try "Blood Red Snow" by Günther Koschonek.. The Audio book is here on RU-vid.

Would be something like "Piles and piles of Russian bodies..."

You would have to find a survivor first

They should've taken the rulers out to the guillotine. The people have the power. They just don't realize it.

@@coolbreeze2.0-mortemadfasc13 Then again, people are stupid. George Orwell and Thomas Hobbes were correct on one thing: humanity is not nice to each other...

A small mercy perhaps.

Did Stalin and Churchill fight in The Great War?

@@VonHohlochzenburg hitler started the war by continuing to invade other countries

@@VonHohlochzenburg Both fought in the war.. Churchill was coordinating the siege of Gallipoli peninsula and Stalin was conscripted in 1916 before going on to lead troops in the Russian Civil War taking place in the latter years of the war.

@@iBloodxHunter Churchill also served as an officer on the Western Front

World War 2 on the horizon was plausible enough that even officials at the time called the treaty of Versailles as much as a "some years ceasefire". I recommend to just watch a few documentaries on the matter, since every thing factoring into it is beyond the scope of a comment. It does have a lot to do with the harsh terms of the treaty of Versailles and an antiquated perspective of the victor and the vanquished that just isn't viable to create lasting peace.

If the Second World War could not be averted just 20 years after this apocalypse, I have zero confidence that we will be able to tackle the looming climate change disaster.

The German didn't think he was beaten. It took another war to take the fight out of them. I think if the US had stayed out of it the peace would have been negotiated rather than a dictat forced on Germany. Maybe things would have been different. Impossible to say.

If you watch the documentary they shall not grow old (I think) about soldiers in either world war 1 or 2 not sure. One of the soldiers who survived the war talks about coming home and telling his family of how horrific war was and how badly organised his army was and his family wouldn't believe him and called him a liar so he stopped talking about it completely, heartbreaking really

Absolutely. Every war is a bankster's war.

Money (changers) indeed.

Smedley*

The last time that happened, the enemy managed to bankrupt a kingdom just paying the ransom. There is a reason why kings were stopped from going to the frontlines...

Yep. Wars and fanatics.

either that or monotheism but methinks Genghis Khan would beg to differ anyway.

@@kittytrail dont bring God into mans folly.

@@kittytrail because things were so much better with warring polytheistic kingdoms and empires huh?

@@kittytrail monotheism is better change my mind

@@andrewdock7288 lmao