The Somme

[Aardvark154]

In the midst of the Canada Day festivities tomorrow, spare a thought for the over 481,000 British and Dominion troops who were killed in the Battle of the Somme which began a century ago tomorrow. Particularly let us remember the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were almost annihilated at Beaumont Hamel.

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave. . . In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land. Commits her children to Thy gracious hand.

 

[omegaphallic]

In the midst of the Canada Day festivities tomorrow, spare a thought for the over 481,000 British and Dominion troops who were killed in the Battle of the Somme which began a century ago tomorrow. Particularly let us remember the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were almost annihilated at Beaumont Hamel.

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave. . . In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land. Commits her children to Thy gracious hand.

I agree, the poor men, so many lives, so much human potiential waste stupid slaughter.

Lets make sure that never happens again, that we make it clear to the world that lives of men matter, and its not okay to put men through the meat grinder of war because world leaders choose to act like goofs.

 

[Boss Nass]

My paternal grandfather was in that battle. He survived. Too many did not.

 

[Aardvark154]

I agree, the poor men, so many lives, so much human potiential waste stupid slaughter.

Lets make sure that never happens again, that we make it clear to the world that lives of men matter, and its not okay to put men through the meat grinder of war because world leaders choose to act like goofs.

War is always Hell. That, however, is quite far from war never being justified.

 

[SkyRider]

TVO broadcast a 6 part series on WW I last November 11th. What is bizarre is that while millions of men were suffering and dying on the front lines, life in Paris for innocent civilians went on fairly normally. A unit of the French Army thought this carnage was insane and refused to march into machine gun fire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paths_of_Glory

 

[buttercup]

In the midst of the Canada Day festivities tomorrow, spare a thought for the over 481,000 British and Dominion troops who were killed in the Battle of the Somme which began a century ago tomorrow. Particularly let us remember the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were almost annihilated at Beaumont Hamel.
All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave. . . In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land. Commits her children to Thy gracious hand.

The tumult and the shouting dies.
The captains and the kings depart.
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice;
An 'umble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget. Lest we forget.

 

[radagast]

Particularly let us remember the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were almost annihilated at Beaumont Hamel.

The stone men on Water Street still cry for the day when the pride of the city went marching away.

 

[danmand]

In the midst of the Canada Day festivities tomorrow, spare a thought for the over 481,000 British and Dominion troops who were killed in the Battle of the Somme which began a century ago tomorrow. Particularly let us remember the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were almost annihilated at Beaumont Hamel.

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave. . . In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land. Commits her children to Thy gracious hand.

Glorifying war again. Never miss a chance, eh Aardie?

 

[Boss Nass]

Glorifying war again. Never miss a chance, eh Aardie?

I have had a lot of differences of opinion with him over the years, but I fail to see how his post is glorifying war.

 

[fuji]

I have had a lot of differences of opinion with him over the years, but I fail to see how his post is glorifying war.

Danmand hates the West and never misses an opportunity to denigrate those who served in our military.

 

[danmand]

Danmand hates the West and never misses an opportunity to denigrate those who served in our military.

Only according to our resident fascist, who claims that it is anti-american to critizise Hillary Clinton.

 

[dirkd101]

In the midst of the Canada Day festivities tomorrow, spare a thought for the over 481,000 British and Dominion troops who were killed in the Battle of the Somme which began a century ago tomorrow. Particularly let us remember the Royal Newfoundland Regiment who were almost annihilated at Beaumont Hamel.

All you had hoped for, all you had, you gave. . . In glorious hope their proud and sorrowing land. Commits her children to Thy gracious hand.

Thanks for reminding us Aardy of this, as it is a part of our national fabric. A shame in the fact that the generals of the day thought little of the lives that they were wasting.

 

[SkyRider]

I think Australia was the only country in WW I that refused to shoot their soldiers for "cowardice".

 

[wilbur]

Same old same old, at the expense of people who think that they are doing their country a service. That's geopolitics, and geopolitics benefits the financial interests who run those countries.

Beaumont Hamel was a disaster and a tragedy, and in NF, July 1st is rightly regarded as a day of mourning.

In 1914, the Germans burned babies (bogus propaganda) and that got hundreds of thousands of men to volunteer for a quick war to kick the Hun in the rear end; we wound up with disasters like the Somme. In reality, FRance, Germany, Austria and Russia were jockying for power, especially France that was hankering to retake Alsace and Lorraine they lost to the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian war. 1990, Iraqi soldiers dumped babies out of incubators so they could ship them (sans babies) to Baghdad, and that got hundreds of thousands to do their partiotic duty and volunteer to destroy Iraq. In reality, the incubator story was nonsense; Rumsfeldt, Cheney, Wolfowitz et. al. then went to grab Iraqi oil under the pretext of WMD's and because Saddam was going to start trading oil in Euros (that resulted in dumping Iraq into Iranian hands; a massive US foreign policy blunder was the result, culminating in the creation of ISIS). The Viet-Nam war was started with a US false flag operation (Gulf of Tonkin incident) so they could grab offshore oil interests in Viet-Nam, under the pretext of preventing the domino effect.

WW2 was an exception, because Uncle Adolf was an evil man. However, the origin was the winners of WW1 that imposed such draconian conditions on the losers, that only a dictator could get them out of it.

All to say that patriotism is used as the pretext to get the population to volunteer into mass sacrifice, but the beneficiaries are the big industrialists and financers who reap huge profits from war production. During WW2, Ford owned Opel, and Opel was manufacturing German Army trucks.

Nowadays, as NATO is losing it's reason for being, they are manufacturing consent for war with Russia so that the military-industrial complex can continue to make profits feeding a new arms race and selling to their new NATO members equipment that will replace their Soviet inventory. For Canada, jobs and profits trump principles as we are selling 15 billion dollars of armoured vehicles to the Saudi one-family rule dictatorship, where there are no established civil rights, and where women are treated as chattel.

So go ahead: heed the call to battle. But just remember who you're going to sacrifice yourself for.

 

[tml]

God bless those who served and sacrificed, and those who returned to normal life without requiring a PTSD label.

 

[powerten]

On a per capita basis, Newfoundland as a separate dominion had the highest casualty rate of any participant on either side in WWI.

 

[danmand]

On a per capita basis, Newfoundland as a separate dominion had the highest casualty rate of any participant on either side in WWI.

Ironically, without any good reason to be involved in the war.

 

[guelph]

Same old same old, at the expense of people who think that they are doing their country a service. That's geopolitics, and geopolitics benefits the financial interests who run those countries.


WW2 was an exception, because Uncle Adolf was an evil man. However, the origin was the winners of WW1 that imposed such draconian conditions on the losers, that only a dictator could get them out of it.

Good point this was revenge will get you

 

[Aardvark154]

Only according to our resident fascist, who claims that it is anti-american to critizise Hillary Clinton.

How little you understand me.

 

[Aardvark154]

Thanks for reminding us Aardy of this, as it is a part of our national fabric. A shame in the fact that the generals of the day thought little of the lives that they were wasting.

In fact Earl Haig, disagreed with the timing of the attack. - However, one needs to remember the terrible toil Verdun was playing on the French Army.