# True Face of The Great War !



## GT (Jul 24, 2005)

Cancelled.


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## Nonskimmer (Jul 24, 2005)

Not surprising. War is war after all, no matter how we choose to look at it. The Great War was astoundingly brutal, being the first major war to see chemical agents, sub-machine guns, huge artillery (Big Bertha), intense aerial combat, etc., etc. Despite isolated incidents of chivalry, it was a meat grinder like any war.


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## GT (Sep 5, 2005)

Cancelled.


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## plan_D (Sep 5, 2005)

That is why the tank was so amazing when used properly. It could achieve amounts of ground that would cost hundreds, even thousands, of men without it.


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## syscom3 (Sep 20, 2005)

That web site is haunting.


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## 102first_hussars (Oct 4, 2005)

What does everybody know who is Not Canadian about the 2nd battle of Vimy Ridge


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 4, 2005)

Oh!...*OH!* 

Oh wait, I'm Canadian.


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## trackend (Oct 5, 2005)

Nonskimmer said:


> Not surprising. War is war after all, no matter how we choose to look at it. The Great War was astoundingly brutal, being the first major war to see chemical agents, sub-machine guns, huge artillery (Big Bertha), intense aerial combat, etc., etc. Despite isolated incidents of chivalry, it was a meat grinder like any war.



Agreed Skim its just that earlier conflicts IE before the Crimean US civil war where not recorded on film. but I dont suppose troops hacking each other up with swords, axes and spears was a pretty site either.


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 5, 2005)

trackend said:


> ...I dont suppose troops hacking each other up with swords, axes and spears was a pretty site either.


No, I doubt very much it would be. Up close, personal, and very, very bloody.


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## Medvedya (Oct 6, 2005)

Vimy Ridge? Well, I know it was a great victory, and some of the trench systems there have been preserved.


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 6, 2005)

Yes, some of it has been. They still find the odd artillery shells and other explosives from the Great War too. It would be nice to visit the memorial there.


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## 102first_hussars (Oct 6, 2005)

Just out of Curiosity when the Canadians took Vimmy Ridge was that what ended the stalemate between the Triple Alliance and the Allies?


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 6, 2005)

It was certainly a turning point. The ridge was of little strategic importance when viewing the big picture, but it got things moving again after a long period of virtually no movement, and it was the first Allied victory in over a year and the largest to that date on the Western Front. It certainly didn't help the German morale either. But the price in Canadian lives, as well as other Allied lives leading up to the victory, was dear too. See for yourself:

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/turner/ar_vimy.html

http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/vimyridge.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vimy_Ridge

To Canadians, the battle for Vimy Ridge means something. It was the first time that a Canadian force fought as a complete unit in an independent battle, and it was a major victory on the Western Front. It was perhaps this battle that truly identified us as Canadians for the first time in our history. To ourselves most of all.
Just as Newfoundlanders view the battle at Beaumont Hamel as a cornerstone in Newfoundland's history. Although it was a fiasco that nearly wiped out the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. (Newfoundland didn't become a part of Canada until 1949.)


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## Douglas Jr. (Oct 7, 2005)

Hello,

A few more harsh photos... 

Douglas.


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## Douglas Jr. (Oct 7, 2005)

Another images...


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## Douglas Jr. (Oct 7, 2005)

Last ones for tonight!

Douglas.


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## 102first_hussars (Oct 8, 2005)

Oh my God.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Oct 8, 2005)

Man that is horrible those pictures. I have seen some grousome stuff in my service but nothing like that.


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## evangilder (Oct 8, 2005)

War is hell. It's kind of strange, but I am kind of numb to pictures like that. After things I saw during the "war on drugs" in Central and South America, nothing seems shocking anymore. The messed up thing is that I know they should shock me.


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## trackend (Oct 8, 2005)

I am not keen on images like this although it is improtant everyone gets a little taster of what war at least looks like but of course the viewer is remote from them as they are images and not 4 feet in front of their faces
with the associated smells. I used to get upset if I thought too deeply on who the guys where and their families ect, nowdays if someone is killed at work the normal method of most of the staff for emotional defence is to turn it in to banter and make daft remarks which I dislike intensley and usually end up in rows over.(perhaps that is my method of handling it).


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## plan_D (Oct 8, 2005)

The images don't bother me. But that's just because I'm insane and shouldn't be let out into society.


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## trackend (Oct 8, 2005)

plan_D said:


> The images don't bother me. But that's just because I'm insane and shouldn't be let out into society.


I must confess D your picture does tend to confirm your own findings.


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## evangilder (Oct 8, 2005)

You make a good point Lee. They are just photos of terrible events. It is a small piece of a larger picture that includes smells. It might be more shocking if it were in color also. But I do think that people should see the grim realities of war to know the truth, non-Hollywood style.


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## plan_D (Oct 8, 2005)

I have seen someone die before in a car crash. But ...I didn't really smell him rotting ...see the British ambulance service isn't that bad! But that didn't bother me either.


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## evangilder (Oct 8, 2005)

I saw some things that bother me to this day to think about that I still can't talk about. Fortunately, those are not normal everyday occurences.


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## Erich (Oct 8, 2005)

there is something about burnt bodies that...........well I cannot describe it really. the smell of war never goes away. even today a whiff of something takes me back. imagine picking up a corpse that nearly melts off your hands. How the "scrub" detachment can do this type of stuff is hard to fully realize but as Eric said you just grow knumb to it. No movie/video/dvd can really come close to reproducing these horror's, thank God !

v/r E ~


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 8, 2005)

I haven't been in combat (knock on wood) so I've never seen the casualties of battle, but I have seen death. Some of it quite grizzly too. Nothing can prepare you for it, and it's something you don't forget. As much as you'd like to.


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## evangilder (Oct 8, 2005)

Erich, certain smells can trigger a memory immediately. Burnt corpses are the absolute worst, the sight and the smell is enough to make the strongest stomach turn. I remember some of the graves registration guys and I can tell you that it is a job that I just couldn't do.


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## Glider (Oct 8, 2005)

I think its always the unknown. I worked for a short while in the Air Crash Investigation unit, nothing grand I was basically an office boy being on office duty after an accident. 
However I was talking to one of the experienced investigators. Obviously there was almost nothing he hadn't seen and how told me that there was only one thing that had ever freaked him out. It was a crash site of a Gannett, lifting up one of the panels there was an eye underneath it. For some reason this totally threw him and he had to leave the site. It was a shock to him that he had reacted in this way as he had seen worse than that many times. He put it down to just relaxing his guard for a second and being suprised.


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## syscom3 (Oct 8, 2005)

These pictures were of my Great Grand Father, a proud soldier of the British Army.

The first picture is of him on leave in 1918. He was so excited to be back home to see his daughter (my grandmother, who is in her 90's and still alive told us the story). He wanted a pix of her and his wife, so they had this photo taken.

He was killed in action not long after the pix was made, on Sept 30 1918, and buried in one of the many small cemetaries dotting the "Fields of Flanders"

The place he fought in is near Ligny-Thilloy, Beaulencourt, Pas de Calais, France 

This location was captured in March, 1917, It was lost the the Germans on the 24th-25th March, 1918, and recovered after severe fighting at the end of August. The cemetery was begun by the 53rd Field Ambulance early in September, 1918, and used during the latter part of the month and the early part of October by the 3rd, 4th and 43rd Casualty Clearing Stations. It adjoined a German cemetery of March-August, 1918, from which 200 German graves have been removed to larger cemeteries and seven British to Favreuil British Cemetery. There are now nearly 250, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. The cemetery covers an area of 673 square metres and is enclosed by a rubble wall.


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 8, 2005)

Thanks for sharing that, syscom. That's a touching little story actually.


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## evangilder (Oct 8, 2005)

Indeed. What an interesting piece of family history. Nice to have pictures as well.


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## 102first_hussars (Oct 8, 2005)

When I was in Afghanistan, me and my squad had just finished our shift, a lady had ran to Mckenzie our feild surgeon, she was holding her daughter whose legs had been blown off, she must had stepped on a landmine anyway the little girl had already bled to death, I just had to say this because shit is still happening in Afghanistan I have heard from friends in the PPLIC that there are numerous confrontations and scrimages with gunmen who work for the warlords the next town over, and that the medi centers are always packed with people who tripped landmines.

The country is extremely poor, the central government is not organized enough to govern its country so now we got warlords runnig small villages all over Afghanistan, smuggling weapons from pakistan to arm their militia, and have reopened their Grow-ops.

If nothing changes within the next 2-5 years we could have another Somalia incident which means Ill probably have to go back and we will have more gruesome pics to moan about.


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## Nonskimmer (Oct 9, 2005)

So you're really with JTF 2? By the way, you mean your friends are in the "PPCLI" don't you?


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Oct 9, 2005)

evangilder said:


> War is hell. It's kind of strange, but I am kind of numb to pictures like that. After things I saw during the "war on drugs" in Central and South America, nothing seems shocking anymore. The messed up thing is that I know they should shock me.



You are correct. The pictures dont really bother me it is just that I hope we never have to see stuff like that on such a large scale. As you said War is Hell. After 10 months of Kosovo and 1 year in Iraq and flying fallen soldiers and wounded soldiers and seeing Iraqi's get blown up the site of a dead body and or of blood and guts does not really bother me anymore. I sort of have learned just to put it away and get on with my life and do my job. In Iraq that was the only way to survive.


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## evangilder (Oct 9, 2005)

Yep, it is.


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## trackend (Oct 11, 2005)

Thats a really good post Sy gives a bit of personal insight to war all that is needed is for people to multiply it by several million times and each of those guys in the pictures had families and a life that ended before they had a fair crack of the whip.
My old man was fine after the war then had nightmares in the early 60's and not related to anything he saw or did the blood,guts burns ect never effected him much at the time. 
It was always the same dream of a squad of Japanese bayoneting him it suddenly stopped after a couple of years. It affects everyone differently .


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Oct 11, 2005)

Has anyone seen Faith of my Fathers about Sen. John McCain. Good movie and gives an insite to lilke as a POW.


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## trackend (Oct 11, 2005)

No Adler I'll make a point of looking out for it cheers.


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## evangilder (Oct 11, 2005)

Hmm, I have the book. I haven't gotten a chance to read lately. One of the neat things in the book is a picture of his father and grandfather together on the deck of the USS Missouri during the surrender document signing in Tokyo Bay.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Oct 12, 2005)

I will have to read the book also.


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## GT (Dec 9, 2005)

Update.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Dec 9, 2005)

LOL


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## FLYBOYJ (Dec 9, 2005)




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## Gnomey (Dec 9, 2005)




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