Top 10 Misconceptions about WWI - The Great War Channel - General

[video=youtube;hs857RflCZE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs857RflCZE[/video] Fantastic channel all around that does week by week coverage of the war, along with various specials.

Informative video, but I find it kinda sad that a supposed "expert" would so readily disregard the contributions Antarctica made to the war.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;50806256]Informative video, but I find it kinda sad that a supposed "expert" would so readily disregard the contributions Antarctica made to the war.[/QUOTE] They have an entire team behind the research for the channel. It's not just one guy.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;50806256]Informative video, but I find it kinda sad that a supposed "expert" would so readily disregard the contributions Antarctica made to the war.[/QUOTE] America's role in WW1 was with handing supplies to Europe and making a fortune doing so, and then of course near the end of the war simply securing an allied victory (that was already looking quite strongly as an allied victory anyway). The vast majority of the fighting in WW1 saw not a single American soldier. We did have a role - it is a World War after all - but America wasn't a massive fighting force in the war until the very, very end. [editline]31st July 2016[/editline] wait I read America, not Antarctica, what kinda clown shoes I'm blind

Very informative video and now I want to know more about WW1

[QUOTE=Dr.C;50806855]Very informative video and now I want to know more about WW1[/QUOTE] Their channel is a good place to start, they have a playlist of their videos in chronological order. They also have specials about different individuals, countries, and such if you want more specifics. The First World War by Hew Strachen is an excellent place to start as well.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;50806256]Informative video, but I find it kinda sad that a supposed "expert" would so readily disregard the contributions Antarctica made to the war.[/QUOTE] I imagine an Artic vortex froze countless soldiers to death

[QUOTE=Saxon;50807309]I imagine an Artic vortex froze countless soldiers to death[/QUOTE] That's [I]Ant[/I]arctic vortex. Watch your geographic appropriation.

I'd contest the air combat being chivalrous, because to a certain extent it really was, in the begining. There is a number of reasons for this, such as pilots being so few in number across the world at that time that they all actually knew each other and (perhaps more importantly) the first planes were not armed, and neither were [I]most[/I] pilots so they had no means to attack an enemy aricraft. Then pilots started taking pistols, bricks, darts, grenades. and then machine guns were fitted, new pilots who did not know their coutnerparts entered the war, pilots would lose their friends giving way to resentment towards the enemy and the urge to get revenge. At that point chivalrous acts became alot more rare, some instances here and there but exceptions that prove the rule.

[QUOTE=bdd458;50807166]Their channel is a good place to start, they have a playlist of their videos in chronological order. They also have specials about different individuals, countries, and such if you want more specifics. The First World War by Hew Strachen is an excellent place to start as well.[/QUOTE] I'm hooked now. Serbia fucked up. They shot the wrong guy. Goddamnit. The french command is stupid, the austrians were dumb. It makes it even more sad that all this could have been avoided

[QUOTE=Raidyr;50806256]Informative video, but I find it kinda sad that a supposed "expert" would so readily disregard the contributions Antarctica made to the war.[/QUOTE] pfft everyone knows antarctica made their biggest contributions during the cold war

Really great video. The Great War is such an incredible channel. Heavily recommend it.

One of my favorite videos from this channel was the special he did about Rommel's service in World War I. [video=youtube;aBZauna5dwk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBZauna5dwk[/video]

I've been binge watching channel since yesterday. What a fucked up war. Millions of people dead and a generation of men gone all over the greed of aristocrats

Unfortunately another big European war at the time was inevitable.

I'm absolutely fucking hooked on this channel now, thanks for sharing OP

[QUOTE=Slim Charles;50814944]Unfortunately another big European war at the time was inevitable.[/QUOTE] Well, no, not really. If you read or watch about the july crisis itself, so many opportunities were tried, and almost succeeded in stopping the war itself, but sheer bad luck, constraints of the time, and ego fucked it all up. This war was so preventable it just really isn't funny

Germany wanted to expand it's empire, the rest of europe didnt want them to. Neither side wanted to back down. As such a fight of some sort was always going to happen it was just waiting for an 'excuse' and Britian was always going to be invovled based on our forign policy of not letting anyone on the mainland take over europe as it was better for us if they fought one another, and not us. It's just that no one figured that the war would reach the size and scale that it did. Britan and France were waiting for an excuse to bloody germany's nose and keep them in check.

Austria-Hungary was just looking for an excuse to take Serbia. They probably could have found one later and Russia would no doubt have gotten involved and that maybe would have dragged everyone else in.

[QUOTE=Dr.C;50814197]I've been binge watching channel since yesterday. What a fucked up war. Millions of people dead and a generation of men gone all over the greed of aristocrats[/QUOTE] If you haven't, listen to "Blueprint for Armageddon" by Hardcore History. The guy who does it really delivers the unbelievable scale that the war occurred on. It's like 7 episodes long and each episode in succession begins with "It was bad when we left the last episode, and it's about to get a lot worse".

It would be funny that the military commanders were so incompetent if it didn't result in millions of people dying. Russia's strategy of letting the enemy take land so they could overextend their supply lines, then come back to retake them when they're exhausted is pretty genius

For anyone in Poland by the way: [media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWkpJSu6Lfs[/media] They intend on meeting up with the fans of the show.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;50817183]If you haven't, listen to "Blueprint for Armageddon" by Hardcore History. The guy who does it really delivers the unbelievable scale that the war occurred on. It's like 7 episodes long and each episode in succession begins with "It was bad when we left the last episode, and it's about to get a lot worse".[/QUOTE] Yes, please listen to Hardcore History. Just fucking put that podcast up and enjoy some dark and brutal history. That guy is amazing at what he does.

[QUOTE=Fr3ddi3;50817121]Germany wanted to expand it's empire, the rest of europe didnt want them to. Neither side wanted to back down. As such a fight of some sort was always going to happen it was just waiting for an 'excuse' and Britian was always going to be invovled based on our forign policy of not letting anyone on the mainland take over europe as it was better for us if they fought one another, and not us. It's just that no one figured that the war would reach the size and scale that it did. Britan and France were waiting for an excuse to bloody germany's nose and keep them in check.[/QUOTE] It was less that Germany wanted to expand its empire, and moreso that Germany wanted to be seen as a powerful nation. The problem at the time was that Germany, while a young nation, was also considerably powerful. Of course since Germany was a young nation, the other nations of Europe in the concert of Europe gave it less recognition then it rightfully should have had, and thus Germany was very eager to prove itself as a great power. This is the reason why Austria-Hungary started the war, and not Germany.

One common misconception we have here is that Australian and New Zealand volunteers died 'for our freedoms'. We had a presence in the war, but the main reason we joined was because Australia and New Zealand felt that, still as British subjects at the time, we had a duty to the 'motherland' (Australia was its own nation by then, but patriotism was still vested in Britain). We rightfully honour the sacrifices of those volunteers who served. But they didn't die for our freedom. That's just a romanticised misconception; our freedom was never under threat. We honour them because they volunteered to fight in a war that was not their own, a war that was an 'adventure' and would 'be over by Christmas', and they paid the highest price for that.

[QUOTE=sb27;50819962]One common misconception we have here is that Australian and New Zealand volunteers died 'for our freedoms'. We had a presence in the war, but the main reason we joined was because Australia and New Zealand felt that, still as British subjects at the time, we had a duty to the 'motherland' (Australia was its own nation by then, but patriotism was still vested in Britain). We rightfully honour the sacrifices of those volunteers who served. But they didn't die for our freedom. That's just a romanticised misconception; our freedom was never under threat. We honour them because they volunteered to fight in a war that was not their own, a war that was an 'adventure' and would 'be over by Christmas', and they paid the highest price for that.[/QUOTE] I haven't heard about the fighting for freedom thing much to be honest. I've always heard it was fighting for King and country and all that, and that it was an adventure so I'm not sure it's a common misconception. However Aussies and New Zealanders did fight for freedom in WW2 in the pacific, that was definitely a fight for freedom.

[QUOTE=Dr.C;50814197]I've been binge watching channel since yesterday. What a fucked up war. Millions of people dead and a generation of men gone all over the greed of aristocrats[/QUOTE] Yea most wars are like that

It's just fucked up that all those turks froze to death because Enver Pasha was literally retarded and then that led to the Armenian genocide

[QUOTE=Cyke Lon bee;50825188]Yea most wars are like that[/QUOTE] yeah but world war 1 was probably the worst war to be a soldier in ever (with 30 years war and world war 2 being the worst wars to be a civilian in)

[QUOTE=Zezibesh;50828384]yeah but world war 1 was probably the worst war to be a soldier in ever (with 30 years war and world war 2 being the worst wars to be a civilian in)[/QUOTE] Not really. Eastern Front during WW2 was probably the worst war to be a person in. Soldiers on both sides committed unimaginable attrocities to POWs, and POWs werent really taken unless they wanted intelligence. Civilians had it bad too, Russian civilians were forced to help the Germans and when the Russians came back through, they punished the civilians for it, assuming the Germans didnt burn the village down during their retreat. The Eastern Front was a whole different war compared to the war on the West, and had far more casualties. That front alone had about as many casualties as WW1 IIRC. It was far worse than WW1. The Eastern Front was a war of extermination and survival, WW1 cant compare to that in brutality.