So, my wife and I took a trip to France last week from England in our car, 4 days in France we thought, we ended up in Belgium and Ypres/leper, passchendaele, menin gate, hill 60, etc… we sat in glorious sunshine and enjoyed a picnic at hill 60 in front of that pill box, what a contrast to those events of the Great War and the Second World War, on top of the pill box shown on the video is a wreath and it’s worth reading, lest we forget it was truly inspirational! Thank you to all British and commonwealth soldiers who made our picnic possible, rest in peace!!!
Chris: I generally don’t watch your original content. I decided to try today, and I am impressed. Very well done! No hesitation to smash the like button! I think the music really adds to the story telling… by looking at the battle site, it creates a mood of sorrow and foreboding. I will be watching more! Thanks for doing what you do. Stay safe, stay sane, stay Strong Ukraine 🇺🇦
Hi Chris, great videos thank you. I have visited Yprs many times. My great uncle fought (and sady died) there. He was awarded the Milatary medal.And I wanted to visit to pay my respects and find his grave . It is a very moving place to visit.
Hi, Chris, another poignant and brilliant video bringing home in different ways the horrors of both world wars. You tell these stories so well. Just a thought the resistance members in WW2 knew exactly why they were fighting, I wonder how many of the soldiers in WW1 knew the reason they were fighting. Looking forward to your next video in the series. I'm sure it'll be good.
I really love how your directing skills have improve in this series. Fascinating stuff, thank you for making this historical documentary for us to learn more
Another excellent video, very informative & a bonus having the historical content included as well! Really looking forward to visiting the area in the coming months, nice to have an insight first. Well presented & produced…😊👌
Really love the original content from Ypres. Your original content is so much better than the reaction videos. Was wondering if another podcast was coming soon?
Your story-telling is really captivating - the stories themselves obviously also are. This series is all around amazing, and I can’t wait for the remaining episodes! Thank you Chris!
Really informative post, if you come to the comments first, stick with the content. This creator is very good and does great justice to the history of this epic historical and sad conflict.
Many thanks for this informative and sensitive insight. I have recently learned that my Great great uncle Pte. Edward Vincent Jones (Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry) died after being gassed here in September 1915. He was 29 years old. I knew nothing about Hill 60 and this video has been the best resource I’ve found so far.
Hill 60 was one of the places that I visited about 12 years ago, but I just don't recognise any of it. Guess being an alcoholic at the time will have erased a few memories. I really should get myself back over there now that I've sobered up! The WHOLE of the battlefield area is just so full of history, and for me personally it's almost impossible to comprehend the vast scale of the slaughter!
Really impressive video. Informative, nicely edited with well chosen music and a good story telling voice. I had 2 great-grandfathers fighting in the Great War. Their stories, medals, photos in uniform etc. are passed down the generations, but it is good to hear the detailed story of what went down on those iconic battle fields and the horrors these men had to endure.
Really a great job, the piano is beautiful, both of my grandfathers fought in the Great War, both were alcoholics, my great-uncle Paul O'Beirn was killed at St. Mihiel on 26 Sept. 1918.
My Great Uncle (grandfather's brother) was a member of the 1st Australian Tunnelling Company and was KIA at Hill 60. You should do a film review of the film Beneath Hill 60 which is a dramatisation of the 1st Tunnelling Coy's actions in the area.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Harold Grabham. He was one of the earliest casualties of the company and was killed while undertaking familiarisation of that section of the line with the 3rd Canadian Tunnelling Coy. He is buried at a cemetery in Zillebeke.
My great uncle spent his last night in the tunnels in hill 60. He was reported missing after his battalion attacked Lower Star Post on the first day of the battle of Passchendaele. His name is on the Menin Gate
I am a combat engineer in the army. I have seen what 120lbs of cratering charges can do to 1 hole. Let me tell you that that creates a massive hole. The mines at messines make that look small
Was not expecting the French Resistance to make a cameo, but I appreciate it and the message you posted at the end. As an overlapping topic, would you consider tackling French and Belgian resistance in the German-occupied zones during WW1? The story of Louise de Bettignies, aka Alice, who built a spy network for the British, was captured by the Germans and died in captivity is really fascinating.
Beautiful video as usual Chris! I was thinking of something you should do that I think would be fun to watch is maybe like at the end of each year you do like a compilation video of some of the bloopers from your videos. Can't wait for the next one!
Well done Chris. These vlogs are of great importance for those of us with an interest in WW1 and can't visit the battlefield ourselves. Please keep up the good work. God bless, Rob
Bloody brilliant videos. Reliving my travels to the area on a battlefield tour. Happy to have found the channel during this series' release. Keep up the great work!
👍♥️Thank You for this amazing video and the look back a WWI battle sight. I had no idea how vicious this really was. Both sides were truly out to capture and hold these areas at and did whatever they needed to to hold them.
Thanks for the video. I just wanted to point out, that if you make such underground explosion, it not only creates blast wave and impressive crater, but all this incredible mass of earth and rocks will eventually fall back nearby, bringing another wave of carnage.
When I went, I remember our guide telling us a story of when they blew the two (or three) mines, the explosions were so powerful that they could be felt as far away as London.
Great video, being Canadian I'm proud of what we contributed , a couple of my great uncles fought and survived the great war but had health problems the rest of their lives from being gassed 🙂
Great video as always Chris. I usually don't watch the original content stuff as much as the reaction that your channel is known for but I might have to start looking into more of it. Little bit of extra history here but Charles Bean (or Sir Charles Bean, can't remember if he was knighted or not) ended up becoming the official historian for the Australian government after the war and was well known as the most precise (also most boring) of the Australian war reporters that were sent with the troops to write articles of what was going on.
Hey, chris i thoroughly enjoyed the video. I especially liked the format you took in minute 14 seemed purely vlogging. Although I'm enjoying these new site videos the vlogging format seems more relaxed and immersive. Also the layovers with maps and images help a lot with the context. Keep the great work up!
Well done video once again. You were dead right when you said that videos can't capture the size and magnitude of that crater. I was there in person and only seen photo's of it, but seeing it in real time was something else. Also incredible how perfectly round that crater was.
I remember my walk through the Hill 60 crater, being absolutely gobsmacked at the scale... Still cannot find the words to describe how haunting it is stand in the middle of those unrestored battlefields, seeing all the tiny undulations in the ground from the shellings.
At minute 9 You see the Australian monument. There are 2 dents in it, caused by the Germans in WW2 by schooting at the monument. Very clear comments, very well done indeed. Marc from Belgium
Grass By Carl Sandburg Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work- I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work. Source: Cornhuskers (1918)
Chris if there is one war I would love to learn more about it is world war 1. I'm usually an American civil war and WW2 guy but I really need to learn more about WW1 so keep these videos up. I see it. I watch
Quality video again Chris. I've asked this before but didn't get a response. Have you seen the Australian film 'Beneath Hill 60'? I've only seen it once but as someone who knows not much about history I'm unsure how historically accurate it is.
Another awsome Video. Thx! I rember a Museum in germany , they show some photgraphs from the aftermath of this day an the exploded mines. I was shocked bcs the pictures shows support trechnes far in the back who were sqeezed togehter from the shockwave that comes trough the earth. The troops inside had no chance, like lemons. :-(
+108 years later and the massive holes have not yet been eroded by the passing of time, such the the craters themselves become a memorial to the dead from both sides- Least no one forget
Just got home from a week on the Ypres Saliente. I had also been there last year, for a few days. So I'm back to Hill 60 for the second time. Always exciting.
It's amazing to me that the undulation of the ground there isn't natural and is because of the amount of artillery that caused so many deformations in the ground that it's remained like that for over 100 years.
I love this, thank you. My Great Grandfather died there - Do you have information on the battle or date he died? .................Pte. Frederick John Oborne, 2nd Squadron Machine Gun Corps (Cavalry), was killed in action on 21st August 1918. He is buried at Bac-du-Sud British Cemetery, Bailleulval. Any information would be very much appreciated.
They were in the Battle of Albert August 21-23, 1918. That cemetery was at a casualty clearing station which means he was likely wounded somewhere else and brought there for treatment. At that point the British were pushing the Germans back, regaining much of the ground around Arras they had lost in the German spring offensive of 1918. Each Cavalry brigade would have one squadron of Machine Gunners attached to it. vickersmg.blog/in-use/british-service/the-british-army/machine-gun-corps/machine-gun-corps-infantry/no-2-battalion-machine-gun-corps/
He couldn’t have died on Hill 60. That’s in Ypres and his unit was at the Somme (where he’s buried). If he had died there he would be buried in one of the cemeteries in Belgium. Also, I don’t think there was any fighting at Hill 60 in August 1918.
I have thought that mainly due to the distance between Hill 60 and his cemetery - It just didn't make sense to me. Is there anyway of finding out his service history? and the battles he was in? I really appreciate you replying. Considering where he is buried, what battles do you think he was? Thank you very much.@@VloggingThroughHistory
When you say you're on the bottom of a bomb crater, you were standing on the bottom of the actual Hill 60 bomb explosion crater. And on the monument for the Aussie tunnelers, you can see bullet holes... I was told that German soldiers used it as a target practice😢😢
Do you know, did actual specific tactics get developed for tunnel fighting of this kind? The usual WW1 infantryman's kit with a long rifle as the main armament would probably not be particularly useful in the close quarters of a tunnel. For instance, I would imagine a flamethrower to be particularly powerful in such conditions, and even more terrifying for the enemy than usual.
It’s important to remember that the extent of devastation in Ypres is due to not only the stagnation of the frontlines, but also a manifestation of Western Europe’s Industrial Revolution and man’s drive to use those new technologies to push weaponry and warfare to new levels not previously possible.
I have a question. You mentioned that two of mine shafts didn’t explode. What can the army do to find those shafts, and properly dispose the explosives?
Hill 60 is in Ypres, Belgium. Lochnagar is at the Somme in France. So yes, two very different things. Both dug by British & Commonwealth forces though.
Too many breaks and too much piano for my liking. Makes watching the original content kind of jarring. I like what you are saying, and I love seeing the actual places where the fighting happened. I think the format just needs a little work. Still good stuff though.
I am Confident I have the Military Strategy that could have secured wars end so quick. Hear me out if you ask for Women volunteers and get it known to the other side that if they would surrender then they would have his choice of Women ready to please him and be promised to be treated with respect and as a ally not the enemy. I guess id call it Killem with kindness. I dont think anything like this has been tried but I was just thinking how there's no way we could ever have our Women fight wars on par with men. But if combat were to be tailor made to Womens strengths then a Male Army well as the fellas may know its always on every decision sticking your heads together and that dictates action. The flaw I can see being potentilly an issue is once this war is over you get every country seeing the effectiveness and you got entire countrys males Volunteering to join the armed services. lol I Know it sounds ridiculous but when you stop and really consider it and how human nature is its a little hard to see a way its potential effective.
