Last WW1 Veteran Dies - Polidicks

[QUOTE=NoDachi;34590853]and WW2.[/QUOTE] To be fair, England tried to stop it with appeasement. May not have been the best idea, nor the most effective, but they tried in a way.

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34590864]Yeah but that's what I mean, the introduction of new technology somewhat clashed with traditional military tactics which is probably why it all ended up devolving into a war of attrition[/QUOTE] But I disagree that they used particularly 'traditional' military tactics. The tactics, the planning, the army makeup and training was unique to the time and situation.

[QUOTE=NoDachi;34590836]Even though the popularised chemical warfare? Then again, they complained that the wounds inflicted by the British .303 constitutive as a war crime.[/QUOTE] To be honest that kind of stuff is somewhat forgivable on their part considering chemical weaponry was fairly new and everyone was pretty much doing whatever they could to win.

[B]Interesting note:[/B] There was heavy trench warfare in the American Civil War. World War I did not "invent" trench warfare, only used it on a massive scale never seen before in history.

her children were in their 80's and 90's. that's weird

[QUOTE=NoDachi;34590897]But I disagree that they used particularly 'traditional' military tactics. The tactics, the planning, the army makeup and training was unique to the time and situation.[/QUOTE] To an extent, but it did seem to have a bit of a traditional approach with them ordering men to march towards enemy gun fire.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;34590877]To be fair, England tried to stop it with appeasement. May not have been the best idea, nor the most effective, but they tried in a way.[/QUOTE] You know, Hitler didn't actually plan on taking out France and Britain up until they declared war. He was mostly focused on dealing with Russia.

[QUOTE=smeismastger;34590977]You know, Hitler didn't actually plan on taking out France and Britain up until they declared war. He was mostly focused on dealing with Russia.[/QUOTE] I know. He hated communism more than anything else (besides Jews, that is).

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34590950]To an extent, but it did seem to have a bit of a traditional approach with them ordering men to march towards enemy gun fire.[/QUOTE] Well reading the poet Robert Graves biography of his experiences in WW1 as an officer. Not once were any men ordered to 'march' into gun fire. In fact he noted that most causalities was the result of platoons patrolling outside the trenches or shrapnel to the head of those in the trenches .. oh and in one particular sector.. syphilis.

[QUOTE=NoDachi;34591035]Well reading the poet Robert Graves biography of his experiences in WW1 as an officer. Not once were any men ordered to 'march' into gun fire. In fact he noted that most causalities was the result of platoons patrolling outside the trenches or shrapnel to the head of those in the trenches .. oh and in one particular sector.. syphilis.[/QUOTE] During the Somme they definitely were, that's one of the things that battle was so famous for, not sure how wide spread that was. [editline]7th February 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=smeismastger;34590977]You know, Hitler didn't actually plan on taking out France and Britain up until they declared war. He was mostly focused on dealing with Russia.[/QUOTE] Didn't Hitler make a deal with Russia saying he wouldn't attack? I mean of course he planned on breaking that eventually but wasn't the whole point of that to allow him to deal with the other major European powers?

[QUOTE=NoDachi;34589931]dat goatee [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58364000/jpg/_58364787_tv013939173.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] GILF. :Oh, you touch my tralala, mmh my ding ding dong: Jokes aside, as horrible as WWI was, you can't deny it's importance when it comes to innovating in warfare and technology in general. Automatic weapons, specialized vehicles like tanks, chemical warfare, aviation, trench warfare, etc. come to mind.

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34591091]During the Somme they definitely were, that's one of the things that battle was so famous for, not sure how wide spread that was.[/QUOTE] Popular history can be irritatingly inaccurate.

wasn't harry patch the last survivor?

[QUOTE=NoDachi;34591115]Popular history can be irritatingly inaccurate.[/QUOTE] Well it could depend on how late into the war that poet enlisted, tactics may have changed nearer the end of the war. I'm not all that sure though since I've never studied WW1 in depth.

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34591146]Well it could depend on how late into the war that poet enlisted, tactics may have changed nearer the end of the war. I'm not all that sure though since I've never studied WW1 in depth.[/QUOTE] Throughout? [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Graves#First_World_War[/url]

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;34590849] But when I say officers being produced by the aristocracy, I'm basing this on all participating nations, including Austria-Hungary and Imperial Russia. Britain may not have had it so bad, but it's more likely the exception than the rule.[/QUOTE] it was like that for most nations but it started to die off during the impending doom of WW1. The war killed many of Britain's rich and aristocracy early on and so they went back to the drawing board and realized it wasn't the best way to run things, mid war and late war saw the better British army rather than the dream cloud and honour/chivalry they expected WW1 to be. Hey, Britain even had a black officer leading British soldiers in the trenches. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tull[/url] oh and related [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyNPzxrhi-w[/media]

[QUOTE=Hmn30;34591130]wasn't harry patch the last survivor?[/QUOTE] He was the last british 'Tommy', not the last person who did efforts for his country during the war

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34591091]During the Somme they definitely were, that's one of the things that battle was so famous for, not sure how wide spread that was.[/quote] The Somme was particularly gory because there were lots of new weapons experimented with in its course. Tanks, napalm, new types of shells, etc. John Toland wrote a book about the situation during the war called [i]No Man's Land[/i]. It describes the scene and actually has some stuff about Hitler in it: [quote]For some of the lucky soldiers, death came quickly. Those in the vicinity of an explosion from a shell were often vaporized. For others, the only things left behind were a few body parts. Most men however did not die so easily. Survivors saw friends with their legs blown off desperately moving to the nearest shell crater on stumps. Between bursting shells of "liquid fire" (a prototype version of napalm), they saw burning men running in circles, screaming in agony. They saw men running with their intestines dragging twenty feet behind them. They saw living men without arms, without legs, without jaws, without heads or faces. They saw opened chests containing still-beating hearts and pumping lungs, opened stomachs and skulls. Clumps of bloodied, mangled flesh that no longer resembled a living human being continued to breath. Mercifully, some never knew how badly they were hit and died abruptly in the midst of a sentence. Yet some still died slowly as they looked on in shock at a large portion of their body now laying yards away from them. Some looked at their ghastly wounds with their long faces contorted in bewilderment, seemingly unable to accept the fact that [i]it[/i] had happened to them. A young corporal, Adolf Hitler would later write: [i]"The regiment dug itself into the mud, clung to its shell-holes and craters, neither flinching nor wavering, but growing smaller in numbers day after day. Finally the English launched their attack on 31 July. We did not bury our dead. We pushed them into the little niches in the wall of the trench [that we earlier had] cut as resting places for them. When I went slipping and slithering down the trench, with my head bent low, I did not know whether the men I passed were dead or alive. In that place, the living and the dead had the same cold, stone-gray faces."[/i][/quote]

Cherish life while you can.

Don't forget Tolkien drew up his idea for The Hobbit and his mythology in the trenches of the Somme.

Woah, yesterday was the 100th birthday of Eva Braun, Hitler's wife.

[QUOTE=TheFilmSlacker;34593603]I thought we had already lost him. This makes me really sad.[/QUOTE] Its a girl With a beard

Holy shit, last time I checked the list there were like 7 left

[QUOTE=LunchboxOfDoom;34591559]The Somme was particularly gory because there were lots of new weapons experimented with in its course. Tanks, napalm, new types of shells, etc. John Toland wrote a book about the situation during the war called [i]No Man's Land[/i]. It describes the scene and actually has some stuff about Hitler in it:[/QUOTE] Wasn't Hitler supposedly a massive coward in WW1?

Wow, sad to see an era go, but this is history. Just wow, how the times have changed since then. Turn the page on history. [editline]7th February 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=carcarcargo;34594577]Wasn't Hitler supposedly a massive coward in WW1?[/QUOTE] Yea, and people used to make fun of him for being gay with some soldier. He also was only injured when he was riding a bike back and forth way behind the lines and was hit with artillery. He was delivering letters or something easy like that.

[IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58364000/jpg/_58364471_58364470.jpg[/IMG] That looks like a man! .. Wait a minute... [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/58364000/jpg/_58364787_tv013939173.jpg[/img] GOATEE!!!

[QUOTE=Hans-Gunther 3.;34591111]GILF. :Oh, you touch my tralala, mmh my ding ding dong: Jokes aside, as horrible as WWI was, you can't deny it's importance when it comes to innovating in warfare and technology in general. Automatic weapons, specialized vehicles like tanks, chemical warfare, aviation, trench warfare, etc. come to mind.[/QUOTE] hooray

Its sad to think an entire era has died out.

[QUOTE=crackberry;34594591]Wow, sad to see an era go, but this is history. Just wow, how the times have changed since then. Turn the page on history. [editline]7th February 2012[/editline] Yea, and people used to make fun of him for being gay with some soldier. He also was only injured when he was riding a bike back and forth way behind the lines and was hit with artillery. He was delivering letters or something easy like that.[/QUOTE] Your ignorance hurts my brain. Take a minute and read what you said. "He was delivering letters or something easy like that." If that's so easy, how about we have you go take a piece of paper, and run into a battlefield alone, getting shot at. His job was not easy.

The end of an era as we say goodbye to the last one to partake in a conflict that should never have been. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9Pu92St5O0[/media] Godspeed ma'am and thank you.