Here we are. One hundred years after the end of the Great War, and we still haven't learned much. With other keyboard warriors, we squabble over puny things. We complain about insignificant matters. We forget how easy it is to wound someone and how hard it is to help them heal... Will you ever wake up, humanity? Will you ever redeem yourself...
Humanity has lost its "great war" if you will... there is no turning back from our current path. At least we won't see the final end. But we can see the beginning of it.
The irony is that nowadays for the people pushing the coordinates it becomes easier while the ones on the other end it becomes even more hell because they get eliminated without much of a chance. People murdered becomes statistics and you cannot really see rather or not it is a man with a shovel or a man with a weapon from drone height.
World War 1 in the trenches was the true definition of Hell. Living day to day in a muddy trench which was little more than a sewer, being bombed, shot at, friends being blown to pieces before your eyes, dead bodies rotting in no mans land, I cannot think of a more awful environment, no wonder these poor men became so traumatized
also staying out in the open snow mud and cold ,wet through , lice and fleas in your clothes ,basic food maybe sent to your trench once a day if doesn't get blown up first ,being buried by shell explosions .The loudest noises ( imagine the loudest thing you have heard ever but then get it during the night as you sleep over 100 times more )
as a young boy in the 60s in London I remember an old shuffling man in a army greatcoat walking aimlessly around streets and parks talking to himself we were always warned off him because he "never recovered after the great war "
Kalian bangsa eropa adalah bangsa penjajah , hanya rakus dengan kekuasaan dengan menjajah negara bangsa yang lain untuk memikirkan diri sendiri . sangat pantas mereka mendapatkan nya bahkan mereka lebih rendah dari pada najis .
My Great-Grandfather was a German machine gunner in Verdun. He never spoke with his wife or anyone about what he experienced during the war. But my grandfather told me that he was always crawling under his bed at night and he always went crazy when he heard a teapot-pipe or a firecracker or the word "Deckung" or "Granate". These people received no financial help or any other medical care from the government , they were left alone with their problems, because the doctors never believed that those symptoms are real. Sad but true.
What's even more tragic was that two decades later another war started which engulfed the entire Europe again and this time it was even worse. These brave souls were not even safe after the hell which was ww1 much less them getting paid by the government.
Apparently "Deckung" means cover, which makes sense because people would yell for you to take cover when a bomb is coming. Same for Granate which means grenade.
Not a lot, but yeah some of them. The worst is that 1,5 M dead for the french during ww1, more than 3M injuried. The begining of ww2 were deadliest for the french than the worst month of ww1, and some of UK/US people are saying that french are cowards. Thats the worst.
I forget who, but a rather high up ww1 general who had a hard stance on shellshock had a complete reversal on his stance after visiting a forward hospital. Hopefully that spared a few. A million dollar wound back then was worth 10x as much.
One man was deaf to all words but bomb, he would immediately take cover under a nearby desk or bed and come out later, like clockwork as if he were waiting for his officer or comrades to order him around and warn him of shells.
sightinsight you’re so ignorant if you believe it was just men that suffered. I suggest you meet my grandmother, she’ll tell you many stories that will make you quiver.
My great grandfather committed suicide as a result of what you see here. The Great War claimed many lives. And his ending of life by his own hand, knowing what I know now of the hell he endured... I cannot call him a coward.
This year will be the 100th anniversary of the battle of Verdun one of the longest bloodiest battle in human history. May theses men be remembered with the respect we own them.
@@iscool6647 No shit...how many died at Omaha and how many at Verdun ??? Where were the worst condicions ? Omaha or Verdun ? Tell you what...2944 dead on the US side,and for the other allied side 4414. These number were official numbers from US National D-Day Memorial Foundation
“We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and sorrowful and superficial... I believe we are lost.” -Erich Maria Remarque
No, Industrial Revolution came up with it. Artillerie was abundand on all sides. It's not like the Germans war hammering away whilst the poor french were throwing flowers. Shell shock knows no nationality.
This is why I believe the most important event in modern history is WWI. Everything we know today derives from the aftershocks of WWI; without WWI there would be no WWII, without WWII there would be no United Nations, no human rights declarations, no space race… hell, there would be no miniaturized computers or smartphones! Every action has consequences, both negative and positive. WWI had *a lot* of consequences.
Sometimes I think of the men I met from this era. My father owned a small store when I was a child, and several of his regular customers were nice, damaged men from WW I and WW II from the nearby home for survivors of what was still called shell-shock at the time. I always enjoyed talking with them as a boy - terrible experiences, it seems, either harden you or soften you, and in the case of the PTSD veterans I knew from my childhood, it brought a kindness to them. They always wanted to talk or smile or have coffee, but their eyes always showed sadness, probably at knowing first-hand the depths of mans' cruelty. Russell, Gerome and Tom were the 3 who came to the store most often. The other two spoke, but Russell constantly muttered to himself and was occasionally known to swear at random objects like telephone poles. He always smiled though, especially when other people around him were happy or laughing. I later joined the military myself, never saw combat though, but combat-like conditions on a few occasions. Noise fatigue - a solid day of fighters screaming over my head in full AB, louder than you can imagine, and the extreme noise makes you puke and gives you wicked migraines - feels like being seasick - and these guys weren't even trying to kill me. The physical effects are real, I've felt them, and I cannot imagine the psychological effects when you know that cacophony of sound is men trying to slaughter you. The very fact that I remember these veterans' faces, and eyes, 50 years later says something about the looks etched into their faces from the world wars and how memorable they were.
Yes mate. The Royal Artillery shelled the German lines for seven days non-stop, day and night, before the first battle of the Somme. German bunkers were strong enough to withstand the bombardment, but could not suppress the noise and vibrations. Some men lost it completely and ran out of the bunkers and into the barrage rather than endure any more. I can't imagine how hellish that must have been. Truly, the mind is an extremely powerful thing and our control over it is tenuous at best
no. hell is hell and war is war. because in hell it's believed that "bad people" suffer. however, in war, innocent people suffer. (not my quote, don't remember where it's from tho)
Over 400 000 French soldiers were killed in 11 months of battle. Around 100 000 of these dead soldiers were completely destroyed by artillery and left were they fell in a thousand pieces. One can only imagine what went through these brave men's heads for the rest of their lives if they were lucky enough to live. A French lieutenant at Verdun who was later killed by a shell, wrote in his diary on 23 May 1916: "Humanity is mad. It must be mad to do what it is doing. What a massacre! What scenes of horror and carnage! I cannot find words to translate my impressions. Hell cannot be so terrible. Men are mad!"
too think that in the battle of Rhzev in 1942 the Soviet Union lost 2.3 million men and nobody has heard of it, sums up the eastern front in that not even ww1 western front comes anywhere near close to the brutality
I hate it when people now say this is the worst time to be alive, these men suffered and watched their friends get shot and blown up. These men gave us what we have now, and we need to remember this, too many people now are given everything they could ever want or need, and they still want more. They disrespect these people who gave them what they have.
Samuel Stace As long as human beings have the instincts to kill and survive, we will be able to do anything that is in our hands, no matter how much it will cost.
+Samuel Stace And some people, who never experienced war, wish to serve in an army. In war. In those extreme situations. I cannot understand that... Not referring to war service, that's bad enough, but to people who want to serve as a single man army in war.
that poor sweet man at :45 will always make me cry and haunt me. when I think of how war hurts people he is one of the main pictures I think of. he did not deserve, or ask for, what was done to him. RIP dear man.
tall32guy ya just image people screaming got down now in trenches your head got snipe living writing letters scared your head will. get pop boom. off by a snipe
that's the same part that got my the tears running, those poor people who were trying to do the right thing and that's the consequences they paid. War is something that never should have been invented
a combination of neurological damage from concussion waves, like boxers' punch-drunkeness, and psychological trauma reaction to the horror and danger, so aversion- or flinch-reactions
Wow I never took the shock wave thing into consideration. Yeah those waves damage you from the inside out. Like you said, it was a combination of things.
My great grandfather served in WW1 for the United States, and he went to France and survived 2 years of hell. This video is a pure example of why war is such an unnecessary thing in this world.
@@DestructorN7 Passchendaele was not worse, and that tells you something considering how hellish Passchendaele was. And I am not just referring to the total casualties, but to the _conditions_ in which the respective battles were fought. The mud was just as notorious at Verdun as it was to become at Passchendaele (people drowned in both cases), yet Verdun was fought on a much narrower front. That was a greater concentration of death per square foot, and a greater number of men died with respect to the number of men who fought at Verdun than at Passchendaele. I believe that of all the battles on the Western Front, Verdun was by far the worst.
As a french, it's hurt me, to see all my ancestor who fight for us...i'm almost crying. When people say hell, they say Verdun. The most violent battle in history...And people say we are cowards... people who say that don't respect all these mens who fell. Shame on you guys. France is eternal
Most are uneducated americans who don't know shit about France's war history. They always talk about ww2 because it's considered their shining moment. Strangely enough they don't talk about how they would not exist and would've been destroyed by the british if not for the french's help. They don't talk about ww1, in which they arrived at the very end, a war which the french would've won without their help though at a terrible cost.
Lionel, I am an American who knows your ancestors were not cowards. From Charles Martel all the way down to the millions of French who fought and died bravely in both world wars, I appreciate the gallantry of the French. Now it would be nice if the French did not think we Americans were all a bunch of stupid 🍔 heads. Some yes, but not most. Merci et Vie la France!
I can remember, as a child living in England in the 60s, seeing one of the local man who shook violently as this when he walked and asking my Mum why. I was told that he was in the War and had shell shock. I didn't really know what that was. Now I am an adult and have seen my own War, merely thinking of that man and remembering him walking to the shops makes me weep because I understand his pain. I am sure by now he has found his peace and someday I hope I will find mine.
There is no "Thank you" great enough for these heroes of our past. The neurological stress and damage caused by their experiences at war, is something that we can only pray, stays in the past.
This is just so sad and depressing... These men... they had a good and healthy life, good sanity, beautiful children, a gorgeous wife and a nice home to live in, but the rich and self-righteous leaders who sent these men to the frontlines caused them eternal darkness, trauma and fear, alongside the horrifying and permanent injuries, scars and disfigurement. Their eyes would be wide open forever after the war, and maybe even not knowing that the war is over. WW1 was just too cruel and bad to be described in any humane way... Deep respect to all who fought.
"Its better to negotiate 100 hours in vain, than to shoot one minute." -Helmut Schmidt, Ex-Chancellor of Germany I am very proud of my country and the lessons it has learned.
I honestly hope all these men found a level of of peace ... But that guy at 0:44 really got to me, I really hope he was looked after and cared for the rest of his life, poor chap looks lost, almost as if he never left the battlefield, god bless him rip
wow. i've heard the term "shell shocked" used before as a derogatory statement toward someone who is being unreasonable or belligerent... this is one of the most heartbreaking things i've ever seen. no amount of gold or political agenda is worth even one HUMAN CITIZEN OF EARTH having to endure this. the people who've lost life, mind, and limb for these greedy cocksuckers that run the world's major countries and/or financial institutions... those people deserve the most respect that is possible to give. cowardice my ass.
American should see it, and stop saying that French soldiers are coward. Moreover, in ww2, france lost 100,000 soldiers in 1 month in battle of France ! You can imagine that number.
The reason why the French surrendered is in part due to the blitzkrieg but also to the French lost so many young men who died or were crippled physically or emotionally WW1 was just 20 years ago and France was far from ready for a second World War.
The lives of women and children are valued more in times of war and those who commit horrendous acts against them are loooked upon with disgust and rightly so but a man's life doesn't seem to matter. Yes they get raped, men get slaughtered. Men and boys don't matter.
Tiberius Muhic - A lot men signed up for war. Soldiers who were drafted were still trained and conditioned for war. The women and children who died were NOT trained for war, but it was still brought to them anyway. In case you didn't know, most of the dead in WWII are women and children. Over 70% of the 80 million victims of World War II the were women and people under 16 years old. Who do you think was living in all those buildings the bombs were dropped on and the tanks shot down? Women get more than just raped in wars. Soldiers who died lie in national cemeteries and have monuments and national ceremonies dedicated to them. How is that "not mattering"? Children and women who were killed don't have national monuments, ceremonies honoring their memories or national cemeteries. You'll probably just ignore all this. It gets in the way of your "men are the real victims of the world" Anti-Feminist agenda.
It's with these types of videos that I feel "guilty" when I play war games, because those who were there witnessed hell, lost their lives, and I'm here simply "taking advantage" from their suffering to fun.
It's one of the most distinctive features of western Europe: every village has a memorial with a couple hundred people's names written on it as fallen in WWI placed on the main square. You can't visit any village in Belgium, Britainor France without seeing one.
my father fought in Vietnam and Algeria, he was decorated for bravery but I remember him in his moments of delirium spending his days staring into empty spaces, talking to people who didn't exist, he ended up his life one day by throwing himself under a train to end his suffering that no one could understood.
Think how loud it must have been. It was a quiet world cause people didn't have radios and tv's and music just available at any time. Its like their nervous systems are waiting for the next horrible incredibly loud noise. Its noise of war that would get to me. Cause the sound reverberates through you.
Just as additional information : Shell-shock is a disease due to the brain being shaken around inside the membrane (because of explosion blast). To much of this "damage" the brain which lead to loss of motion control (the guys shaking in the video). There were many case in WW1 because of the constant artillery bashing but there are still cases today. A common disease among soldier was also "post traumatic" mental disorders...paranoia, phobias, demence...these are due to seeing the horrors of war and living under extreme conditions (you can also see some exemples in this video). May they all rest in peace since they couldn't afford it durint their, way to short, lives.
Except it's not. From wikipedia: Shell shock is a term coined in World War I to describe the type of posttraumatic stress disorder many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD itself was a term).
@@truditu That's why it was later referred to as PTSD instead, shit dick. These guys were destroyed from constant shelling, that's why they're shaking. You're a doofus if you can't see that.
Nerve damage. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be under bombardment from hundreds of artillery weapons, for days on end. My god... These poor souls. I was in Iraq for one year and I was constantly scared of a sniper picking me off. So I have an idea of what this could be like. But it is NOTHING like the hell these men went through in the First World War.
I'm not gonna lie I did shed a tear. I looked up the definition for the term shell shocked, inability to reason, sleep walk or talk. It's bad enough to be paralyzed with fear. but at the start they just thought that they were just being cowards and they were killed for it. When I found that out I cried. Where did shellshock come from?
shell shock is not the same as ptsd. Shell shock was physically debilitating in regards neurologically. Ptsd is more mental with less severe physical attributes resulting in stress related episodes equal to panic attacks. People with Ptsd can and do function normally with treatment. Shell shock victims were more what you call walking vegetables if they could even get up and walk.
shell shock come from constant bombardment and is a form of ptsd, sorry bad english so you can suffer from ptsd and not shell shock but you cant have shell shock and not ptsd.
WWI was worse than WWII for the frontline troops. Imagine being in a hole with your mates and hearing shells flying down on you, never knowing when one will hit you.
Wow-so very sad. I remember my father explaining shell shock to me. Many of these guys stayed at the VA in this condition forever. But I’ve never actually seen it
Drum roll shelling (30 bombs going off every second for 10 months) was insane to think about. When you add in the air pressure differential that was literally shaking these people's brains, of course you are going to see this level of utter chaos.
Their minds are stuck in a snapshot. They are perpetually experiencing the horrifying moment that finally broke them. Like a broken record. They are stuck there forever until their bodies finally die. We can't even comprehend what that is like.
Many of these examples appear to be manifestations of a neurological disease caused by a head injury or even a TBI. It makes me wonder if the concussions from the numerous shell blasts directly caused what we see in the film clips. What would frequent, numerous shell bursts do to the proprioreceptors in the inner ear? If those are damaged, it's hard to orient in the upright position.
Looking at many videos and having survived a Traumatic Brain Injury myself and living in inpatient treatment facilities, these were definitely a variety of TBI or TBA. Trauma to the brain creates clonis and gait walking pattern problems. They did not have the cerebral knowledge we do now to help them get the treatment needed to regain living. This was a mis diagnosis. Loud sounds or any head injury can cause a portion of the brain to bleed, bruise, clot, aneurysm, etc.
There is one clip on the internet, it shows a French soldier sat down on a chair as normal as anyone. Yet when the French military cap is shown to him he physically recoils from it while plugging his ears and just stares at it in a way I’ve never seen a human stare.
I wonder what is the main thing that causes shell shock.. Maybe its the constant falling of bombs around you that, along with screams of pain, drives you insane knowing that you can't do anything about it. You're forced to live it, and you can die at any moment. Imagine this going on for days, weeks.. etc
+Abe Grimm I think the lack of control of their own destiny was an important factor. These men were placed in hell on earth. dysentery, rats, drum roll shelling, the stench of death, rotting corpses, maggots, mites, disease, freezing cold, flooding, machine gun fire, the threat of raids, poison gas attacks, sleep deprivation, sewage, mud, starvation, you name it, they endured it. Their own mortality looming, and powerless to change the circumstances. They had no control over what was happening to themselves, for days, weeks and months. They were unable to formulate their own plans, take action, and fight their own battles. Instead, they sat and held position in hell, as pawns, with no escape powerlessly waiting for death and not knowing when it's their turn to die. All wars are terrible. But the first world war, particularly the Western front, is a level of hellishness, on such a grand scale, that it's impossible to imagine.
+Abe Grimm My guess is that its an accumulation of multiple factors. You basically overload your body and mind and it breaks. Fear, fatigue, stress, hunger, dehydration, death, the constant sounds of death (cries, moans, screams, gun fire, artillery), the smell of death, mud, filth, cold, rain, inability to escape these conditions. It is just constant misery.
It's like ptsd shell shock it's the brain that gets damaged from constantly seeing dead or screaming and blood guts everywhere people dying on your hands people begging for help and chemicals from gas just how insane would you go
Almost all of these were brave french men. They fought for their land and their country with pride and honor and for sure did not surrender. I am from Spain and I admire the way France defended themselves even with their lives.
May all the victims of the First World War Rest In Peace. Eternal rest must be so much more comfortable than the indescribable hell they all have been through
This breaks my heart. Having encountered real fear of death in life is a helpful, but also horrific experience. The imagination of being trapped inside that feeling, not being able to escape it and experiencing it as the "new normal feeling" is totally disturbing.
I had symptoms like that after episodes of child abuse. Imagine being in the mud, shit exploding all around, throat deep in exploded people, for months.
I have no words I can't even wrap my brain around the pain and suffering. If I can hug and help each one i would. This crushed my soul to see. I will never use the phrase shell shocked ever again. This rocked me.
As a teacher with 15yrs praxis i think, that is necessary for students/pupils/young people to see these videos. Exactly these ones. Not only war movies, war books etc. Greetings from Slovakia
Face and hand injuries always got to me, but sometimes a funny would happen, this guy thought his bones were sticking out but it turned out to be a tree branch sticking in, another stepped on an APM blew his leg off, he then fell over onto another APM and blew his other leg off, oh the bad luck laughs.
May God forgive us for putting men through horrors that drove them into these shells of their former selves. Just heartbreaking seeing the aftermath. I pray that these men found some solace and peace while they still live
I feel so much for these soldiers. This is the lifelong result they have to live with to keep us free. Too bad they are not around to hear some of the comments left for them...I have the deepest respect for anyone who puts their life on the line for us even if 296 do not.
When I was 17, I saw a car accident. 3 people in 2 cars squeezed between 2 huge trucks until there was nothing left - only a bloody mass was dripping on the road. I was in a really bad state back then - and these men went through something even worse! Witnessing death is a horrid thing. I really feel for those soldiers... they must have seen awful things :(
A lot of them were around the same age you were as well ... Horrific things to be put through, read "All is quiet on the Western front" it is beyond tragic what these young men were put through
The more I understand about WW1 the more I realise how senseless and horrific it was; only the men and women who lived through it will know how terrible it was and they all took it to their graves. We need videos like this to make sure this sort of barbaric violence never happens again. I feel so sorry for the people who were put through this hell.
They saw thousands of their comrades died right before their eyes. Imagine the pressure, anger, and fear they had to endure. I don't know which one is luckier, those who had to live with crippled body or those with crippled minds.
