Dislikes

[fsn]

Why is WWI more harrowing than any other war?

I say to those who criticise WWI generals "you have no flanks, no tanks, no airpower. You don't have enough artillery and your troops were all civvies 6 months ago. Now, how do you take that trench line ahead?"

[FierceKitty]

I say to those who criticise WWI generals "you have no flanks, no tanks, no airpower. You don't have enough artillery and your troops were all civvies 6 months ago. Now, how do you take that trench line ahead?"

Could try opening diplomatic channels?

[toxicpixie]

Jibber a FK, whose side are you on? Are trying to be shot as a defeatist turncoat?!

[Leman]

There's your problem. It's not just the fighting that's going on, but also the culture and milieu of the time. No point looking at WWI through the cultural eyes of a C21st  western liberal European.

[FierceKitty]

There were pacifist voices in Europe by 1916 too. If rather indistinctly heard from the prison cells.

[Rob]

Fools with little knowledge putting other fools with little knowledge in charge of the official oppositions defence policy for this country, when it is my family they are supposed to protect with that policy. 

[Rob]

Historians who are very knowledgeable about the first day of the Somme but have never considered the situation on the last day 

[Rob]

photobucket 

[Tawa]

photobucket

Primes grenade and lobs it!

[paulr]

Why is WWI more harrowing than any other war? At Towton more  Britons were killed on British soil than on the first day of the Somme. At Flodden almost the whole of the Scottish ruling elite was wiped out leaving Scotland in a far greater mess than after WWI. I dislike the way the anti-war sentiments of the 60s have coloured the view of WWI as opposed to any other war. It was a war fuelled by national jingoistic pride and very much of its time. It was also the first war in which the British used conscription and most soldiers were not professionals. They were also able to express their thoughts in writing to a greater degree than previously. Somehow I doubt those thoughts were any different from soldiers' thoughts throughout history. All wars are harrowing resulting in massacres, destruction of families, unfulfilled human promise etc. Unfortunately they are also part of the human condition - greed, protecting the area around you, competition for resources, the quest for adventure, cultural psyche and so on.  

Seconded

[Heedless Horseman]

Rules that leave one side in a cavalry melee wiped out, and the other reduced to 10% of its starting numbers.

OK. BUT...having once been coerced into a 'silly game' on horseback, a melee should end with 5% fallen orff, 5% b******d orff, 88% wandering about thinking "WTF is going on?", 8% of BOTH sides thinking "I WON!!...didn't I?)", 1% gone for a smoke and the 1% instigators p**ing themselves, laughing, 'cos they got paid for it!
And that is without swords and pistols...and, multiplied x10+, is why you have bugles,

Actually, the proportions work out..throw evens as to who won! lol.    
Stupid thing is...you'll do it again...even if you don't want to, so rules aren't TOO wrong to decide a combat. Just most casualties can reform eventually! Infantry have more sense...find a hole.  

[Heedless Horseman]

O.K. Maths not good at 02.00....just add in Prince Rupert's Poodle, or whatever! lol.

[Sandinista]

Reports that always treat Muslim armies as the bad guys.

Have you read Amin Maalouf's "The Crusades through Arab eyes"? I found it a very readable history

Cheers
Ian

[FierceKitty]

Thanks. I'll watch out for it.

[Last Hussar]

Gratuitous family values scenes in movies, when we're waiting for the nudity and violence to get going.

But enough about your life.

People who think politicians should treat defence policy as 'Army with a country attached.'

I don't hate 'Honey's' but never understood the love for them.  Yes, they were easy to maintain. Nut thin armour and undergunned... In a tank?