I think the only major difference is, in antiquity, hand to hand combat was VERY personal. In our new age of combat there's more of a "to whom it may concern" vibe. In the end, every one of these accounts has the same common thread. Every man was willing to fight and die with the man beside him.
@@saiph8872 I would argue the point raised is more about combat in general takes place at a distance than face to face like wars of old. In CQB examples, even then it's sometimes just a matter of who gets the shot off first. I look at it this way: clearing a house with a shotgun is similar but different than clearing a house with a sword and a shield. Just my two cents
There's 2 books that cover the psychology and physiology of combat and how it's changed through the years. On Killing and On Combat. The author is some dr. Navy seal. Jus a suggestion if you're into this kind of stuff. On Combat was better. Def worth checking out
If you want to read something similar, check out the book 'Fires on the Plain' by Ooka Shohei. It was adapted into a movie sometime in the 1960's as well, which I haven't seen, but the book is great. Also, greatly disturbing, but it's definitely worth the read.
@@huntclanhunt9697 Or, it just didn't get documented as much because mental illness wasn't taken seriously back then. People today still slip through the cracks. But after such wars, people started paying more attention and calling it what it was when it occurred.
@@huntclanhunt9697 PTSD was always existent. People theorize the surge of veterans moving west after the American Civil War to get away from the land they associated with war and the crime that ensued made the Wild West
A samurai once quoted “ My past is an armour I cannot take off, no matter how many times you tell me the war is over”. It is probably one of the oldest references to PTSD in history. Edit: I’ve never gotten this many likes thank you.
Very interesting account by Jean De Joinville who, seeing himself unable to draw the sword by his side, drew the sword at his horse's side. Even the Crusaders' horses were armed.
Well you're not bringing just 1 weapon into battle right? Romans had ranged pillas, 2 short swords (1 backup), a shield and in some cases a sling and some pellets.
The sword Joinville is referring to is most probably a bastardsword which came up at that time and usually were attached to the horse. In his account there are more references to "big swords" or "German swords" as they are often called. This account is extremely interesting, even though it is written many years after the crusade and certainly include the usual inaccuracies and exregations. It is one of the very few accounts we have about medieval military and social life of the high medieval period.
Imagine getting thrown off your horse in battle like this man did, these dudes were really about it and not the playing around. Crazy how you can listen to someone’s near death experience from 700 to 800 years ago. These are not made up stories, that situation really happened somewhere out there all those years ago.
@@valentinaroldan7764 Jean de Joinville is considered fairly reliable by medievalists and his chronicle is regarded as one of the best of the Middle Ages. *Jean de Joinville was a knight. He was neither a cleric skilled in composing books, nor a chronicler informed by researching written or oral information. Nevertheless, his writing is sincere and neutral. He wrote about everything he personally experienced during the reign of Saint Louis, essentially the crusade in Egypt and their stay in the Holy Land. His narrative is full of life, anecdotes and even humour. It is more of a personal testimony about the king than a history of his reign.* *The freshness and precision of his memories are impressive, especially since he wrote his work some decades after the fact. Certain medievalists explain this by supposing that Joinville had often recounted his past orally or that he had previously committed it to writing before beginning his work.* *Joinville speaks almost as much about himself as he does about the king, the subject of his book, but he does it in such a natural manner that he never gives the impression that he wants to place himself above the king. Thus we have an incomparable clarity about the ways of thinking of a 13th-century man. For this reason, modern editors have sometimes said the work is more of a memoir than a history or a biography of Saint Louis.*
The coming Home story of the Qing Dynasty soldier felt close to home for me. I'm a war veteran. Served on the front lines in Afghanistan as a machine gunner. I remember coming home. How alien it felt, seeing my parents and brother. While I was only gone for 12 months and have been back for 11 I still don't feel at home.
It is hard but you will need to somehow adapt to this new reality, same as how you adapted to the other realiteit which you replaced with your old one. Do not be afraid to speak, if you feel the need to. People may not be able to truely understand but some are interrested in your welfare, in you! Never forget that, please. And make sure to not feed parels to the swines. Nightmares are just bad dreams. Memories are in the past. Don't forget the past but focus on the future. May God bless you.
You weren't a soldier You were a guard for the pharmacy poppy fields Your service caused thousands of deaths in america. Opium is why we invaded Afghanistan. Pakistani pilots from Saudi Arabia hit the twin towers and you invade for opium. The only good soldier is the one that realizes they were used.
What really strikes me the most on these accounts was the similar feeling of dread, the terrifying feeling knowing you might die from seeing allies get wounded, dying around you. The constant stressful anticipation of ones surroundings, the fear of uncertainty. Praying, hoping that somehow everything will go on your way, and everything will work out for you, that the enemy will be few, that reinforcements will come, that some how you get to strike the enemy first, no matter how impossible or silly it may seem. All to reasure and comfort oneself admist the nightmarish and unpredictible situation that everyone hopes in their minds, will soon end.
Both my great grandfathers joined up in 1915 both served with Royal field artillery . their names are Albert f Burnett who died in Italy July 1917. the other was called Joseph t Lodwick .he survived the carnage and returned with his nightmares.
The Napoleonic one got me shivering, Napoleon army in 1807 was at it's height so was the French Empire you can really perceive the fear and the need to retreat, the French army was identical to an unstoppable natural disaster destroying everything on it's path, it's a reminder of why Napoleon was called the God of War in this era.
@@josh3.064 Iraq at that time had one of the largest standing armies, but they were enemies with a force of nature (USA) that is impossible to stop, similar to Rome during its prime.
@@josh3.064 "i wouldn't step foot in anothers country to terrorize the locals and wreak havoc on everything." I hope that includes not getting involved in Ukraine!
@@bluemachine1025 "Iraq at that time had one of the largest standing armies, but they were enemies with a force of nature (USA) that is impossible to stop, similar to Rome during its prime." But Iraq won through a prolonged insurgency. There are ways to defeat giants, even Rome.
We thought we'd moved on from armies being deployed in long static lines, hunkering down in trenches and long range, unguided artillery being used without prejudice. Yet here we are in 2022 with both Ukranian and Russian lads dug-in deep, trying to survive in the most horrible of conditions, as civilians lose their lives and homes due to indiscriminate shelling... We've actually gone backwards.
@@residentelect Air power is not a dominant factor for either of them, thats why its turned into what it is. If a proper air war was waged those trenches would be empty. During the first Persian gulf the Iraqi army attempted to "dig in". They were obliterated by coordinated air strikes. But because western powers are not allowed to directly intervine in Ukraine, this outcome isn't likely.
My g.g maternal grandfather was a foot soldier who rose to the rank of captain in the Somme before he got exposed to Mustard Gas in the trenches, which ruined his lungs. After a 3 week duration in a war hospital he was forced to retire from active duty as the damage was deemed largely permanent. He gave up his captains title because after getting gassed, he felt that he didn't deserve to keep on calling himself a captain. He married a suffrogette (female rights activist) and later went on to become a very successful engineer (self-taught) and built things which contributed to the war efforts and rebuilding of the country, but he was also a (functional) morphine addict (his addiction began when he was prescribed morphine as a pain treatment for his damaged lungs). My g.g. maternal grandfather had 3 sisters, all of whom also served as nurses in the Somme. In the 1920s, one of them went onto become a female doctor, which an extreme rarity back in the day; she put herself through one of only 2 medical universities in the whole country back then that would accept women for doctor training and she later went on to pioneer in childrens medicine (there's a plaque dedicated somewhere to her in London). But although she loved children, she never had any of her own children; her first love (and one true love)- her fiance - had died in the trenches in WW1 and after his sudden death, she never formed an attachment to another man ever again. As a doctor, she was said to cut a very austere figure; she was very tall woman- dominant, confident, fast walking, and harsh talking (she was also an athiest!) and she didn't take any nonense from adults around her (especially men) but towards children, she was very soft and understanding. She also developed a great fondness for young artists (and sponsored quite a few) after following the life stories of some of the patients she saved. My g.g. paternal grandfather was pilot, flying over the trenches in one of the early primitive planes of the day. He was also a captain. But he lost his younger brother, who was also a pilot; back then, the planes were horrendously vulnerable to fire (they were so easy to shoot at that they were often called sitting ducks) and his brothers (my g.g. uncle) plane caught fire after being shot at by the enemy. There was only 1 functioning parachute and rather than ditch the burning plane and let the navigator die, he insisted on trying to land it. He was forced to land it over enemy lines; the navigator survived, but my g.g. uncle died of over 70% burns to his body 4 days later in a military hospital (the Germans did look after him, but this level of burns are very difficult to survive even with modern technology, the odds are stacked against the individual). He was later post-humously awarded a great medal of honour for his bravery, for he knowingly sacrificed his life to a terrible burns death to save another (there's a plaque dedicated to him somewhere in a small chapel in france). After my grandparents died, I inherited a small book which had originally belonged to this g.g. uncle when he was a child and in the book, were illustrations and stories of heroic tales from the Medieval times and tucked amongst the pages, was a small and very faded photo of his mother and him as a child which had been used as a bookmark. My g.g. paternal grandfather was said to have a very severe, strict, strange and intense personality, letting few people get close to him. In his final years, his untreated PTSD made him go quite loopy; apparently he would have attacks during the night where all-of-sudden in a flashback, he would be back in the barracks, believing the house to be under enemy fire and scrambling to get ready for combat whilst also running around naked and confused in the dark. During these episodes he couldn't be reasoned with and it was quite scary for other family members to see and experience. There were a lot of relatives who also died and never left any decendents nor legacies, such as one g.g. aunt who lost her 2 only children - 2 very handsome sons - in WW1, one after the other, in quick succession. She then lost her husband in the Spanish Influenza Pandemic and was said to be so crushed by the deaths of her husband and sons (her whole world, basically), that she died of a broken heart not long afterwards. A lot of relatives died in the war years, but she cut a particularly tragic figure in the family. Many people who fought and died have been long forgotten already. Please try not to forget. Go to your local graveyard, leave a flower on a stone. Make conversation with elderly veterans. Research your family history, talk to your grandparents and old aunts and uncles. Every family's story is full of tales of heroics, survival, courage and determination. You are made of your ancestors, and they were made of great stuff. Never forget. Keep the memories alive and stay peace v . The more we understand and remember, the less likely we are to repeat histories darkest hours.
Everybody has a Story' Your's is one of the Greatest....A unique and heartfelt expressions of Humanities struggle to live for Life! Yet in you/us the struggle continues. Very encouraging!
WW1 accounts are always so horrific. I remember going to my grandpa's once, and he was showing me pictures of my ancestors. He was gestured to each one saying, 'This is your great-great-grandfather; he died during WW2'. WW1 did a good job of preening my family tree. There was one set of brother on my paternal grandmother's side who all died in WW1.
my grandad told of a story of one of my ancestors doing a messenger run on the western front, and the horse he was walking with was hit directly by enemy artillery, it. Even though all of my family involved survived, I cant imagine how something like that would disturb you for years to come.
Great-great grandfather in WW2? I’m 19 and my great-great grandfather fought in the American Revolutionary War. That difference is kind of interesting.
@@guydunn5354 did all the men in your line have children at 100 with 30 year olds? How was your great great grandfather at least 16 between 1775 - 1783? I have a feeling you are lying.
@@historyrepeat402 My dad was 37 when I was born and my grandpa was born in 1916. Nobody really remembers my great-grandfather because I guess he was kind of a jerk, and the great-great that fought in the Civil War was a double amputee. But yes, my paternal ancestors had a weird habit of having kids at like 45 years old.
@@guydunn5354 ohh that does make more sense, you said revolutionary war at first. The civil war took place almost 100 years later! I guess your great-great-great maybe one more great might have fought in the revolutionary war, if your family was here at the time.
I met a WWII veteran and his lovely wife at a play a few years ago, his name was John Garand (possibly Grand/Grande). I noticed his WWII vet hat and approached him not really knowing what I wanted to say. So I just walked up and said "I've never met a world war II veteran before." He replied, "Now you have" and shook my hand. He seemed so happy to have someone ask him about it and was open about his experience in Europe. We didn't speak for very long, and as I was returning to my seat I found myself overwhelmed with emotion and I cried as the play began. I imagine he has passed on by now, but thank you for your service Mr. Garand.
My great grandfather was a signaller at pashendale. Won the highest non officer medal (behind the Victoria cross) Australians could earn. After hearing Dan Carlin (of hardcore history) describe pashendale as one of the last places he'd ever want to be I was rightly horrified at what my poor great grandfather must have gone through.
What an haunting tale from the Somme, especially when three of my great Uncles were killed, one of them was awarded the MM and all three of the ones killed had been previously wounded. My other uncle got his leg machine gunned off and my one other uncle was in the tank corp, both returned. My great grandfather was a tunneller, he also returned, but all of them volunteered and fought for a country where they weren’t even allowed the vote till 1918.
Both my great great grandfathers were captains in the Somme and 3 of my great great aunts were front line nurses there, we are all deeply proud of them as a family. I know of 3 of great great uncles and cousins who also fought but sadly perished in that war (shot, burned to death, etc, whilst fighting), with one of them receiving a high medal of honour for his deeds. One g.g. grandfather was particularly lucky to have survived as he was gassed in the trenches (mustard gas) and suffered severe lung damage as a result.
Truly dispairing. All different eras and time periods, yet the horrors of war never seem to change for the better. The British soldier in the Somme left my heart feeling like a wet rock after, how miserable it is to live a life where you embrace death like an old friend.
Is miserable ,You get used to it , You either become all happy like or completly pessimistic ,you just hope that when your time comes ,it happens as fast and painless as possible. Also you began to detest violence especially useless violence and bullies.
The trench wars always get to me. Every other account at least had an end to it, but the trenches never seem to end. How did any of them ever truly leave those trenches?💜
My maternal g.g. grandfather only got out of the trenches when the trench he was in was gassed with Mustard Gas. Many of the men in that trench were fatally gassed, but he managed to survive by sheer luck (he just happened to be far away enough when the shell was dropped). He lungs were really messed up by the gas he had been exposed to though and he was forced to spend 3 weeks in a military hospital to recover but most of the lung damage ended up being permanent, so he was discharged from service after being deemed no longer fit enough to fight (his lung damage left him unable to run or walk up flights of stairs without getting out of breath). As hellish as the trenches were though, he was deeply proud of his service (he had risen to the rank of captain through his own merits and didn't actually want to stop fighting) and he felt deep insecurity about his injuries. But he was never a quitter and wanting to still be of use, he started reading books on engineering and later went on to become a successful engineer and inventor who contributed to the war efforts and rebuilding of the country.
Well it's not like you're there for the whole war like in ancient times you'd go on campaign for 10 years, modern soldiers only go for about 3 months on the front line before getting rotated.
@@BoleDaPole the trenches would probably still be in the minds of those who served in them. Three days or 3 months or 3 years. It was a very traumatic experience.😊💙
@@BoleDaPole People who got sent to the trenches were typically there until they either died in combat or were discharged because of injuries incurred during combat. The casualty rates in places like the battle in the Somme were insane. You were lucky if you survived even 3 weeks, let alone 3 months in the trench warfare in the front lines, with the average life expectancy for front line trench soldiers being just 6 weeks (but many lasting only days). And it's not the duration that gets you, it's what witness and experience and the general intensity of it. I've seen a rash of comments from you expressing a combination of completely dismissing veterans accounts, experiences and mental illnesses, to practicing a modern day war worship whilst insinuating soldiers today are weak. I doubt you've ever fought in the military or been very close to anyone in the military, your posts are just a slew of anti-mental health awareness, shame mongering and politicised war narrative garbage. Please apply more critical thinking before you post and do some research.
In a foreign field he lay Lonely soldier, unknown grave On his dying words he prays Tell the world of Paschendale Relive all that he's been through Last communion of his soul Rust your bullets with his tears Let me tell you 'bout his years Laying low in a blood filled trench Kill time 'til my very own death On my face I can feel the falling rain Never see my friends again In the smoke, in the mud and lead Smell the fear and the feeling of dread Soon be time to go over the wall Rapid fire and end of us all Whistles, shouts and more gun fire Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire Battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb Be reunited with my dead friends soon Many soldiers eighteen years Drown in mud, no more tears Surely a war no-one can win Killing time about to begin
My great great grandfather fought in the Somme and survived. He was a sergeant in the East Surrey Regiment. On the last morning he told his squad to scrape the dirt of their uniforms with their button hooks and they would go and find some food. As they were about to head off a General came along on horseback and told my great great grandfather that he was being mentioned in dispatches for having a clean uniform. As you can understand my great great grandfather was livid for that. His death was an ironic one if you ask me. He worked on the rail roads when he came home and was hit by a train as the watchman hadn't seen it coming and couldn't warn my great great grandfather. He survived one of the bloodiest battles of WW1 to be killed by a train when he came home.
That's really interesting. My great great uncle fought in World War I as well (on the Western Front), and was also hit by a train after he got back home and killed. He had been suffering PTSD and drinking, and had not seen it coming.
The man who wrote the last account, "1916 The Somme" was very gifted writer. I hope he lived past war and passed away being happy with his life. His talent with the pen was more than just special. The way he described anything from the landscape or setting he was in, to the sharp dreadful emotions thrust upon you from the experiences of war, was perfect. It was uniquely descriptive, he had the ability to capture ones attention before getting to the action. I felt like I was there haha, like I was watching a movie in theaters for the first time.
Considering his personal journal was able to be found and shared with millions of people almost a century later, I'd say there was a good chance he made it back home in one piece (or at least in enough pieces to potentially have a family).
The Crusader's account's just pure cinematic, I love that he neither spared the extremely gory details nor the almost Deux Ex Machina Splendor of Louis coming in with his riding sledge hammer of knights. Such beauty of language for such a savage scene, at times you feel almost the time is still and you hang on his every next word. But you could totally see it probably just as he (spellbound) saw all of it. Just finished the Qing officer's part. The last part of his account is where it really hits. Right when the Emperor arrives and demobilizes the army, and what's been going on outside of his campaign caught up with him. Him reacting to news of his brother and of his (almost certainly PTSD-filled) return. An old soldier return to a strange incongruous home with children and family who seemed to be strangers. It's so ahead of its time too. That sense of alienation once men who are put in such pressurized violent cauldron are plucked back into their peaceful homes. Something Erich Remarque who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front or many Nam vets would probably nod about. Unlike the former, its the silence and unspoken parts that really hits. The last one in WW1 is the most eerie, without even seeing, the soldiers essentially clambered into an ecosystem of war, of war-made fog, war-made auditory distortions, and war-made corpses that littered everywhere. That when combined with him previously psyching himself before going over was like a condemned man torturing his own mind while awaiting execution. The fact that he just became brutally economical after Friar died reminded me how men from the Lost Generation like Hemmingway really despised long sentences and only wanted to use very minimal words.
ALL THESE ACCOUNTS LACK AGENCY. NONE OF THESE PEOPLE SEEM TO BE IN CONTROL OF THEIR DESTINY. IT'S ALL FOR SOMETHING THEY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT. THEY KILL AND FIGHT BUT FOR NO REAL CAUSE. NONE OF THEIR RECOUNTING SEEMS TO SHOW ANY VALUE IN THEIR OWN LIFE OR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. THE SCARED SIGNALER IN WORLD WAR 1 WAS THE CLOSEST THING TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROBOTIC AND FRUITLESS NATURE OF HIS LIFE.
Sometimes when I see large crowds of people I try to imagine what it might have been like with thousands of people all fighting with melee weapons and I just can't imagine it, let alone in disciplined formations and things
You must remember that most battles were fought in waves and not all at once. Sieges on the other hand were absolutely brutal displays of human destruction.
Shit must have sounded like a large car crash all that shield and sword smashing into one another at once. Not to mention the massive puddles/rivers of blood, piss, shit, limbs, and dead.
@@GuadalupeF.Arredondo rivers of blood? don't be silly. combat was not that deadly in ancient wars. statisitcally most battles had less than 10% casualties total (15% for the loser and 5% for the winner). that is both killed and wounded. most death in ancient times for armies were outside battles.
There was a very interesting article (in the Times I think?) that reflected upon the normalisation and glorification of war in media, and even in museums. The idea is that a proper account of war is unfit for a general audience, especially when dealing with WW1 and similar conflicts. A veteran’s quote was quite powerful: « when we say war is hell, is is not a hyperbole, it’s an accurate description of what war can be », in the sense that it is the end of all justice and humanity. He recollected how he saw friends die in the most horrific, absurd and senseless ways, how he was witness of rape, murder, massacre, in a way he had never thought possible. Essentially, the idea is that if you wanted to have a good idea of what WW2 was, you’d have to see the naked rotting corpses of teenagers eaten by rats, the scattered brains of innocent people, the bloody legs of a raped and strangled elder woman, pieces of legs and arms thrown about, while young men who would otherwise be in school try to survive without being crushed by a truck by accident or losing their hearing or sight in a blast. Of course you don’t ever see that in museums or in movies, but gore, crime, injustice, filth were all major parts of WW1 and 2.
saving private Ryan I think is one of the first movies to bring this type of a description from a soldier's perspective to the public eye. I don't think its never been done, just that we are too removed from war in an unprecedented time of global peace to recognise the real horror of war.
And WW I and II were possibly not even the worst wars in terms of absolute horror, the mongol conquests or crusaders or chinese rebellions with all the cannibalism and exterminations are just...
@@rolandfeussner1892 yeh the media and it’s portrayal of war isn’t done for the east and it’s history very often and when it is it’s often wiped clean of the horror and mass genocide. Somehow you find people glorifying the mongol empire which is mind blowing to me. As if Genghis khan was a fair and uniting force it’s historically illiterate. The Netflix show Marco Polo for example.
@@rolandfeussner1892 although the industrialisation of war made it more deadly I think that’s indisputable but not necessarily more horrifying since that’s subjective I suppose
These are fantastic storys. Some of the best things from history you could hear. Thank you so very much. For this its amazing to me. I wish someone would make people read this in history class. Memorizing state flags that's barely history. This stuff is real history thank you
Imagine the sheer pain and terror of having your *nose* sliced off in grim melee. The knight from the story weathered this injury and then politely asked his lord if he wanted to call for help. Death can wait for chivalry.
Another account I’d recommend looking into is Angilbert’s poem on the Battle of Fontenoy between Louis the Pious’ sons. His descriptions are so vividly human.
While I was in the Navy stationed in Japan, I got the opportunity to go to Iwo Jima for a det. prior to the annual carrier deployment. It was a very somber feeling walking around knowing that so many people perished on that small island. Everywhere you went you could see remnants of what happened there, along the roads, in the caves, on the trails, bottles, toothbrushes, rusted rifles, shell casings, etc. Near the invasion beach area, you could see where people had carved their names and dates into the rocks, both Japanese and American and there was also a small shrine close to the "housing" area where old Arisaka rifles had been lined up against the wall, laid to rest. I have never been to another place like that in my life, and the feeling was almost overwhelming in a way. So much history, and so many lives lost on an island so small.
The Napoleonic one got me, Napoleon army in 1807 was at it's height so was the French Empire you can really perceive the fear and the need to retreat the French army was identical to an unstoppable natural disaster destroying everything on it's path, it's a reminder of why Napoleon was called the God of War in this era.
As a soldier myself one of the things that listening to these stories reminded me of is that regardless of the time and place, the utter horror and inhumanity of war never changes.
@@jimmyohara2601 I'm not sure i follow; you have no idea the circumstances in why and how he/she became a soldier, soldier being a vague term used to describe a plethora of individuals in relation to fighting with "weapons of war". Typically as far as where I live, I'd agree no one has a place to be one as this place hasn't fought a just war in over 200 years. But I tend not to cast judgment until after finding out the details.
Your work of bringing the video format to these sources making them widely consumable. I absolutely LOVE this and always look out for letters. My grandmother has some old ones even one from her grandmother who was the only Cherokee in our family.
That's not nit-picking my friend, imagine if they showed you a picture of Michael Jordan, in hockey gear, and told you this was a football quarterback!
@@VoicesofthePast how dare you provide us with free, unique, educational historical content and not make it perfect?!!! work harder, do not sleep or eat if you have to, the interwebs demand it! 🍻🇨🇦👉
@@VoicesofthePast FYI I enjoy these more than almost any other history channel out there. Rather than Dry presentations or bought out narratives, this channel is where I go to listen to resurected ghosts and feel less alone in this nerve-wracking world. Where ghosts came back and repaints their world in colors and emotions. They could be of all skin colors but their stories, I get inside their heads. Without you how many normies would let the dead stay dead? But with you voice- like the great tradition of literature and written arts itself, we Feel that world again. The fundamental power of the written word. And the words and thoughts of the dead is heard again despite their death, and we see inside their thoughts despite the skull that thought it first was long gone.
Those who fought in WW I have fought a war that has never seen befor. The amount of destruction and industrialized death truelly was out of this world. Landscapes changed to be never be the same again. Complete villages whiped of the map. Men, weapons and bombs in the burried ground to this very day, and dead lands where no tree will grow for the coming 200 years.
There were lots of previews- the US Civil War, The Franco-Prussian War and the Russo-Japanese War. If anybody was surprised by the carnage they weren't paying much attention to what was developing.
@@Conn30Mtenor some of the French definitely weren't paying attention. I have watched The Great War channel and only learned that the French had a marching band during the early days of the War. Needless to say, there were all gunned down by German machine guns. Thousands of French soldiers died in just a day.
"the first world war was a war fought with 20th century weapons, and 19th century tactics, a war which saw the great powers of europe all fight on this grand of a scale since napoleon, except napoleon didn't have howitzers and machine guns" -me
The first one is quite unique, it’s not only a first person view of Roman warfare but Caesar’s first person view. We literally know how Caesar saw, fought in and triumphed in an engagement, everything he felt and what he saw…mind blowing
It seems that over time combat has distanced the enemy from each other, with current conflict often striking unseen enemies with artillery and air strikes, and much more casualties resulting than early conflicts
What is interesting too is how until the Middle Ages, leaders of entire stares used to fight and even die for their motherland in battles, but since then, most leaders just send thousands of innocent young men to do the dirty job for them.
There's a study that found medieval combat had only about a 5% casualty rate, partly due to everyone getting drunk before battle. It was also more like a realtime chess game, with retreat more common than actual combat. The Peace and Truce of God, and common sense, protected most people because the land you conquer is worthless without peasants to work on it. Despite media portrayals, fully armored knights were virtually invincible, no sword can cut through plate armor. And, they were worth more alive as ransom than dead.
@@SomeBody-rm6hf there is no god. just people brainwashed by religion that the elites made to control the population. average middle age peasant cant even read. u can read and u have education similar to those elites in middle ages. yet u chose to believe to be a willing slave.
@@SomeBody-rm6hf The quality of our leaders have declined so heavily because our morals have declined so heavily. Courage is no longer seen as a moral virtue, neither is loyalty or honor. Instead we talk about "fairness" and "equality". Whatever those words mean given this fundamentally unfair and unequal world we live in. How far we've fallen.
My grandfather who retreated at Dunkirk, re-deployed to Libya /N.Africa, then up through Italy until stationed at Belgium, told me; “I lost my faith when I saw all my friends buried alive in a shelled trench.” Just those sad words alone haunt me, God rest & have mercy on his good soul.
My grand uncle was in France, he and his squad came under fire from a german machinegun, he got hit in the head and the squad fell back without him, thinking him dead. The germans found him and patched him up with a metal plate in his head. According to my dad he had a wicked sense of humor but was always a little bitter about how his buddies had left him.
@@magmat0585 To be fair, when one gets shot in the head you don't normally expect them to survive. If they thought him dead, I think thats perfectly understandable. In an active combat situation, you never endeavor to save a corpse at the potential expense of peoples lives (combat aside, this is why Mt Everest is also litered with so many corpses as they are usually deemed not worth the risk to collect).
@@maywalker997 We had to evacuate our dead and wounded as quickly as possible in Iraq and Afghanistan due to the utterly unspeakable things the Insurgency would do their corpses, as well as torture the dying and use them for propaganda purposes. The role our squadron fulfilled day-in-day-out (Medical Emergency Response Team) was to rescue the injured from the battlefield and transport to hospital, but also collect those killed in action, providing them with the same high degree of commitment, dignity and compassion afforded to the living, as both wounded or deceased they would have traumatised families waiting for them at home.
@@residentelect The conditions and circumstances of Afghanistan are not comparable to the battlefields of WW1 and WW2, many of which remain littered with corpses which are still being excavated to this day (and no, people weren't left to rot because their fellow soldiers didn't care). In Afghanistan you weren't in an equivalent situation of fighting an equally (if not at times, superior) European force with an insane size army, you were occupying a 3rd world country fighting a desert mountain people's armed with stuff like AK47's left over from the Cold War. The technological prowess and backing of the American military in comparison to the Afghan side, is like comparing a modern day computer to a Ford Model T. I'm not saying that you guys didn't do brave stuff out there, but Afghanistan and WW2 couldn't be more different in terms of just about everything in their circumstances, nature, enemies and overall expectations and reality.
He's right too. If you grew up believing in a loving god and you see good people getting their lives absolutely thrown out to shit in the worst, most unjust and cruel kind of way, something has got to give.
Incredibly evocative stories, you can't beat the feeling of being in a battle knowing you may well die in the coming moments as you run, with your friends, towards death. A timeless emotion that has been oft repeated, without exception, in the history of mankind. Courage and valour had always been held in high regard by us, no doubt encouraging some of these incredible acts by human beings
OH, that glorious Segue into the promotion. What SKILL ! The Sutlers Caesar mentions were the men whose charge was controlling and caring for the baggage horses and carts, and cavalry remounts, often they were old men who had been Auxiliary, or allied troops when they were younger. In later days, Sutlers were considered to be strong and aggressive men, from their outdoor life spent working with horses.
Thank you for sharing these glimpses into a few lives so affected by the horror of war. There are countless number of soldiers and civilians who never got to share their stories of such powerful and impactful events. I recommend the documentary; They Shall Not Grow Old. It is a collection of WW1 film matched with voices from an archive of first person accounts during the war. It's powerful to hear these real people speak of what they experienced. I hope humanity will learn from our long history of war and suffering, and aim to create a better world for those who will inherit it.
Shooting a rifle is waaaaay different than fighting in close quarters with swords and spears and maces, just saying. Unless you ever get into the kinds of battles they did, I don't think you'll ever truly know them
What really got me was listening to the soldier mentioning his experience with shell shock at the Somme and realizing that somewhere in history the term shell shock had to be invented to describe the effects of a new weapon of warfare, artillery. Inventing new weapons to do damage then inventing terms to describe the damage done.
I read The Recollections of Rifleman Harris. It’s a great book that displays the Peninsular war in a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking manner. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the military history!
Damn, the last one is brutal. You can feel all the horrors that a war can bring. People around can pretend to fight wars in videogame, enjoy battles in movies, but real life is raw and cruel, and anything related to war as you experience it in flesh is totally inhumane.
And that was a century ago. These days, drones can kill you with even less warning than artillery. You can be in a bunker, and MAM-L will get into the smallest opening to fuck you up.
Read Ernst Junger, many peoples experiences and interpretations are widely different, although civilian pacifists like to pick and choose accounts disproportionately.
@@olegkosygin2993 he was wounded 7 times and awarded the highest German medal for bravery, which was incredibly rare as he was not apart of the aristocracy.
The Rifleman from the Peninsular War is an interesting one. Riflemen under Craufurd at that time were some of the best soldiers in the British Army: usually literate and numerate, with good eyesight, volunteers, as well as those 'difficult' men other Regiments wanted rid of (usually with some intelligence). This meant they were a mixed lot, everything from 'Gentlemen rankers' to criminals. The number of books called 'The Recollections of Rifleman --- ' attests to this. I found a memoir from WWII (in which my father served in Egypt and Italy, and into Austria, by 'Rifleman Dalby'. After my father read it, he reckoned he knew the men mentioned, as the names were altered, but still descriptive, and the name or number of the units had been shifted 'one to the right'. Dalby was probably a man my Dad knew as 'Prof', and there was an Irishman there called 'Mick' in the book (IIRC), but he was Paddy Doherty, my fathers close friend. The book covers the Italian campaign from the British viewpoint, and how these men were the first to enter the Third Reich (Austria), and tells how all of this is almost forgotten, as reporting of the Italian campaign fell off almost to nothing after June, 1944.
This dude and his team is without doubt the best documentarian. History of the universe/earth and now this channel my God, thankyou for making great content
We only hear about the heroes who survived or died in really epic ways. We never hear the stories of the simple soldier who died doing something like going over the top or clearing a building but sets off a trap and dies. There were millions and millions of Patrick McLoughlan's in WW1 and every other war fought ever and we'll never know most of them even though each one of them were a unique human being with their own thoughts and feelings and dreams
When you boil it down to it's core, no matter the passage of time or the advancement of technology, their experiences were all similar. War is hell to those who fight it.
i think the most horrible thing about war is that how horror becomes trivial and normalised so quickly. like lets say in civilian life someone shoots someone with a gun. that is a big thing, even if the other person is not killed. it becomes a new story, lots of people get involved. the justice system, the healthcare system etc, a lot of time and energy is spent to make sure the injured person is cared for and the perpetrator is brought to justice. and the whole affair is not forgotten so quickly. but in war... someone gets shot and noone even flinches and thousands of other even more ghastly things all day every day. all these things that should be cared about and cried over and slowly "digested" become pretty much normal and a lot of it is completely forgotten or not even known about. like all the people missing in action that noone will ever know exactly what happened to them.
I remember a friend who was both in Afghanistan and Iraq describing to me how war is a feeling of both horror and triumphs you get kind of a Stockholm syndrome to it but it’s awful in the end
These first hand accounts of war are always so harrowing. The one regarding the Crusaders fighting the Turks i've heard before, but always sticks with me.
The medieval one is the most interesting, I like how it subverts the expectation that medieval combat was chivalrous and romantic, dude literally had his nose dangling from his lip
@@QWERTY-gp8fd because the plot is so predictable it’s almost not even worth watching, GOT however, that show you never knew what was going to happen next, especially the red wedding. Can you see the red wedding in LOTR?
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Get an exclusive discount for a 2-year NordPass premium plan at nordpass.com/votp or use a code votp. Plus you get an additional month for free!
Forgive me for the helmets...
@@VoicesofthePast Are they inaccurate or something?
@@VoicesofthePast you have a brother that goes by the name of Amber King?🤔 Vox in the Void a cousin?!!?😂
Enjoy all of your work man. Keep it up!
Love your marketing segue from Roman passwords to internet security...
FYI your description is off, Geoffrey de Villehardouin chronicled the 4th crusade.
I think the only major difference is, in antiquity, hand to hand combat was VERY personal. In our new age of combat there's more of a "to whom it may concern" vibe. In the end, every one of these accounts has the same common thread. Every man was willing to fight and die with the man beside him.
This also falls in to CQB though? I'd say CQB is incredibly personal. Using a shotgun for example to clear a small room. Thats personal.
@@saiph8872 I would argue the point raised is more about combat in general takes place at a distance than face to face like wars of old. In CQB examples, even then it's sometimes just a matter of who gets the shot off first. I look at it this way: clearing a house with a shotgun is similar but different than clearing a house with a sword and a shield. Just my two cents
In Ukrainian dense forests combat is very personal, it's like Vietnam jungles
There's 2 books that cover the psychology and physiology of combat and how it's changed through the years. On Killing and On Combat. The author is some dr. Navy seal. Jus a suggestion if you're into this kind of stuff. On Combat was better. Def worth checking out
@@jamesmoriarty9603 can’t fucking imagine what that was like
That WW1 account is like a horror novel. One of the most disturbing things I've listened to. I can't imagine the mental illness caused by this war.
If you want to read something similar, check out the book 'Fires on the Plain' by Ooka Shohei. It was adapted into a movie sometime in the 1960's as well, which I haven't seen, but the book is great. Also, greatly disturbing, but it's definitely worth the read.
No doubts the more disturbing
Surprisingly less documented accounts of it than later wars. I wonder... Were people back then just tougher?
@@huntclanhunt9697 Or, it just didn't get documented as much because mental illness wasn't taken seriously back then. People today still slip through the cracks. But after such wars, people started paying more attention and calling it what it was when it occurred.
@@huntclanhunt9697 PTSD was always existent. People theorize the surge of veterans moving west after the American Civil War to get away from the land they associated with war and the crime that ensued made the Wild West
A samurai once quoted “ My past is an armour I cannot take off, no matter how many times you tell me the war is over”.
It is probably one of the oldest references to PTSD in history.
Edit: I’ve never gotten this many likes thank you.
Maybe because the war is never over and it'll never be..
@@damiangabriel2485 the war inside his head
Samurais we’re from 12th century and 19th century. Definitely not that old
11B all Da WAY ! OEF 2008-2010, 82nd 239th HHC , Kabul, Kandahar, Bagram airfield,
@@Jake-dh9qk not that old, but if there are nearly no older references?
Very interesting account by Jean De Joinville who, seeing himself unable to draw the sword by his side, drew the sword at his horse's side.
Even the Crusaders' horses were armed.
It’s true.
Well you're not bringing just 1 weapon into battle right? Romans had ranged pillas, 2 short swords (1 backup), a shield and in some cases a sling and some pellets.
Bro, do yourself a favour and buy the Penguin edition of his account. It's awesome.
lol
The sword Joinville is referring to is most probably a bastardsword which came up at that time and usually were attached to the horse.
In his account there are more references to "big swords" or "German swords" as they are often called.
This account is extremely interesting, even though it is written many years after the crusade and certainly include the usual inaccuracies and exregations.
It is one of the very few accounts we have about medieval military and social life of the high medieval period.
Imagine getting thrown off your horse in battle like this man did, these dudes were really about it and not the playing around. Crazy how you can listen to someone’s near death experience from 700 to 800 years ago. These are not made up stories, that situation really happened somewhere out there all those years ago.
not necessarily. these could be exaggerated or even completely fictional accounts
Even if fake SOMEONE deffo experienced something like this or worse
@@valentinaroldan7764 true but like the guy daniel here saying even if fake things like this happened.
@@valentinaroldan7764
Jean de Joinville is considered fairly reliable by medievalists and his chronicle is regarded as one of the best of the Middle Ages.
*Jean de Joinville was a knight. He was neither a cleric skilled in composing books, nor a chronicler informed by researching written or oral information. Nevertheless, his writing is sincere and neutral. He wrote about everything he personally experienced during the reign of Saint Louis, essentially the crusade in Egypt and their stay in the Holy Land. His narrative is full of life, anecdotes and even humour. It is more of a personal testimony about the king than a history of his reign.*
*The freshness and precision of his memories are impressive, especially since he wrote his work some decades after the fact. Certain medievalists explain this by supposing that Joinville had often recounted his past orally or that he had previously committed it to writing before beginning his work.*
*Joinville speaks almost as much about himself as he does about the king, the subject of his book, but he does it in such a natural manner that he never gives the impression that he wants to place himself above the king. Thus we have an incomparable clarity about the ways of thinking of a 13th-century man. For this reason, modern editors have sometimes said the work is more of a memoir than a history or a biography of Saint Louis.*
@@Zeerich-yx9po yeah but u know this shit happen still l;mfao
The coming Home story of the Qing Dynasty soldier felt close to home for me. I'm a war veteran. Served on the front lines in Afghanistan as a machine gunner. I remember coming home. How alien it felt, seeing my parents and brother. While I was only gone for 12 months and have been back for 11 I still don't feel at home.
, war criminal
It is hard but you will need to somehow adapt to this new reality, same as how you adapted to the other realiteit which you replaced with your old one.
Do not be afraid to speak, if you feel the need to. People may not be able to truely understand but some are interrested in your welfare, in you!
Never forget that, please.
And make sure to not feed parels to the swines.
Nightmares are just bad dreams.
Memories are in the past.
Don't forget the past but focus on the future.
May God bless you.
You weren't a soldier
You were a guard for the pharmacy poppy fields
Your service caused thousands of deaths in america.
Opium is why we invaded Afghanistan.
Pakistani pilots from Saudi Arabia hit the twin towers and you invade for opium.
The only good soldier is the one that realizes they were used.
How many of my American rights did you save while over there?
Slave
Sheep
Murderer
Its for sure some dissasociation
What really strikes me the most on these accounts was the similar feeling of dread, the terrifying feeling knowing you might die from seeing allies get wounded, dying around you. The constant stressful anticipation of ones surroundings, the fear of uncertainty. Praying, hoping that somehow everything will go on your way, and everything will work out for you, that the enemy will be few, that reinforcements will come, that some how you get to strike the enemy first, no matter how impossible or silly it may seem. All to reasure and comfort oneself admist the nightmarish and unpredictible situation that everyone hopes in their minds, will soon end.
Once you accept death. It gets easier
Astounding
Both my great grandfathers joined up in 1915 both served with Royal field artillery . their names are Albert f Burnett who died in Italy July 1917. the other was called Joseph t Lodwick .he survived the carnage and returned with his nightmares.
The Napoleonic one got me shivering, Napoleon army in 1807 was at it's height so was the French Empire you can really perceive the fear and the need to retreat, the French army was identical to an unstoppable natural disaster destroying everything on it's path, it's a reminder of why Napoleon was called the God of War in this era.
@Black Lesbian Poet wth are you on to? How is that relevant, oh wait your name and profile pic, ah yes, the ones who'll destroy culture
As an infantryman during the late unpleasantness in Iraq, I assure you the triumph and horror of war is the same as it ever was.
Fighting desert rebels lol imagine what the Ukraine military is going through
@@josh3.064 Iraq at that time had one of the largest standing armies, but they were enemies with a force of nature (USA) that is impossible to stop, similar to Rome during its prime.
@Garrus Vakarian i wouldn't step foot in anothers country to terrorize the locals and wreak havoc on everything.
@@josh3.064 "i wouldn't step foot in anothers country to terrorize the locals and wreak havoc on everything." I hope that includes not getting involved in Ukraine!
@@bluemachine1025 "Iraq at that time had one of the largest standing armies, but they were enemies with a force of nature (USA) that is impossible to stop, similar to Rome during its prime." But Iraq won through a prolonged insurgency. There are ways to defeat giants, even Rome.
That WWI account, man. Nightmarish.
We thought we'd moved on from armies being deployed in long static lines, hunkering down in trenches and long range, unguided artillery being used without prejudice. Yet here we are in 2022 with both Ukranian and Russian lads dug-in deep, trying to survive in the most horrible of conditions, as civilians lose their lives and homes due to indiscriminate shelling...
We've actually gone backwards.
@@residentelect yip - bloody horrific and barbaric what is happening in Ukraine.
Blueprint for Armageddon.
@@residentelect Air power is not a dominant factor for either of them, thats why its turned into what it is. If a proper air war was waged those trenches would be empty. During the first Persian gulf the Iraqi army attempted to "dig in". They were obliterated by coordinated air strikes. But because western powers are not allowed to directly intervine in Ukraine, this outcome isn't likely.
@@fredrickpoggi5493 well said.
My g.g maternal grandfather was a foot soldier who rose to the rank of captain in the Somme before he got exposed to Mustard Gas in the trenches, which ruined his lungs. After a 3 week duration in a war hospital he was forced to retire from active duty as the damage was deemed largely permanent. He gave up his captains title because after getting gassed, he felt that he didn't deserve to keep on calling himself a captain. He married a suffrogette (female rights activist) and later went on to become a very successful engineer (self-taught) and built things which contributed to the war efforts and rebuilding of the country, but he was also a (functional) morphine addict (his addiction began when he was prescribed morphine as a pain treatment for his damaged lungs).
My g.g. maternal grandfather had 3 sisters, all of whom also served as nurses in the Somme. In the 1920s, one of them went onto become a female doctor, which an extreme rarity back in the day; she put herself through one of only 2 medical universities in the whole country back then that would accept women for doctor training and she later went on to pioneer in childrens medicine (there's a plaque dedicated somewhere to her in London). But although she loved children, she never had any of her own children; her first love (and one true love)- her fiance - had died in the trenches in WW1 and after his sudden death, she never formed an attachment to another man ever again. As a doctor, she was said to cut a very austere figure; she was very tall woman- dominant, confident, fast walking, and harsh talking (she was also an athiest!) and she didn't take any nonense from adults around her (especially men) but towards children, she was very soft and understanding. She also developed a great fondness for young artists (and sponsored quite a few) after following the life stories of some of the patients she saved.
My g.g. paternal grandfather was pilot, flying over the trenches in one of the early primitive planes of the day. He was also a captain. But he lost his younger brother, who was also a pilot; back then, the planes were horrendously vulnerable to fire (they were so easy to shoot at that they were often called sitting ducks) and his brothers (my g.g. uncle) plane caught fire after being shot at by the enemy. There was only 1 functioning parachute and rather than ditch the burning plane and let the navigator die, he insisted on trying to land it. He was forced to land it over enemy lines; the navigator survived, but my g.g. uncle died of over 70% burns to his body 4 days later in a military hospital (the Germans did look after him, but this level of burns are very difficult to survive even with modern technology, the odds are stacked against the individual). He was later post-humously awarded a great medal of honour for his bravery, for he knowingly sacrificed his life to a terrible burns death to save another (there's a plaque dedicated to him somewhere in a small chapel in france). After my grandparents died, I inherited a small book which had originally belonged to this g.g. uncle when he was a child and in the book, were illustrations and stories of heroic tales from the Medieval times and tucked amongst the pages, was a small and very faded photo of his mother and him as a child which had been used as a bookmark.
My g.g. paternal grandfather was said to have a very severe, strict, strange and intense personality, letting few people get close to him. In his final years, his untreated PTSD made him go quite loopy; apparently he would have attacks during the night where all-of-sudden in a flashback, he would be back in the barracks, believing the house to be under enemy fire and scrambling to get ready for combat whilst also running around naked and confused in the dark. During these episodes he couldn't be reasoned with and it was quite scary for other family members to see and experience.
There were a lot of relatives who also died and never left any decendents nor legacies, such as one g.g. aunt who lost her 2 only children - 2 very handsome sons - in WW1, one after the other, in quick succession. She then lost her husband in the Spanish Influenza Pandemic and was said to be so crushed by the deaths of her husband and sons (her whole world, basically), that she died of a broken heart not long afterwards. A lot of relatives died in the war years, but she cut a particularly tragic figure in the family.
Many people who fought and died have been long forgotten already. Please try not to forget. Go to your local graveyard, leave a flower on a stone. Make conversation with elderly veterans. Research your family history, talk to your grandparents and old aunts and uncles. Every family's story is full of tales of heroics, survival, courage and determination. You are made of your ancestors, and they were made of great stuff. Never forget. Keep the memories alive and stay peace v . The more we understand and remember, the less likely we are to repeat histories darkest hours.
Outstanding comment!
Your comment should be pinned to the top. Thank you for sharing that amazing piece of family history.
Everybody has a Story' Your's is one of the Greatest....A unique and heartfelt expressions of Humanities struggle to live for Life! Yet in you/us the struggle continues. Very encouraging!
Awesome. I know barely something about my family's history. I would like to know more.
(She was also an atheist!) said with enthusiasm 🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓
WW1 accounts are always so horrific. I remember going to my grandpa's once, and he was showing me pictures of my ancestors. He was gestured to each one saying, 'This is your great-great-grandfather; he died during WW2'. WW1 did a good job of preening my family tree. There was one set of brother on my paternal grandmother's side who all died in WW1.
my grandad told of a story of one of my ancestors doing a messenger run on the western front, and the horse he was walking with was hit directly by enemy artillery, it. Even though all of my family involved survived, I cant imagine how something like that would disturb you for years to come.
Great-great grandfather in WW2? I’m 19 and my great-great grandfather fought in the American Revolutionary War. That difference is kind of interesting.
@@guydunn5354 did all the men in your line have children at 100 with 30 year olds? How was your great great grandfather at least 16 between 1775 - 1783? I have a feeling you are lying.
@@historyrepeat402 My dad was 37 when I was born and my grandpa was born in 1916. Nobody really remembers my great-grandfather because I guess he was kind of a jerk, and the great-great that fought in the Civil War was a double amputee. But yes, my paternal ancestors had a weird habit of having kids at like 45 years old.
@@guydunn5354 ohh that does make more sense, you said revolutionary war at first. The civil war took place almost 100 years later! I guess your great-great-great maybe one more great might have fought in the revolutionary war, if your family was here at the time.
I met a WWII veteran and his lovely wife at a play a few years ago, his name was John Garand (possibly Grand/Grande). I noticed his WWII vet hat and approached him not really knowing what I wanted to say. So I just walked up and said "I've never met a world war II veteran before." He replied, "Now you have" and shook my hand. He seemed so happy to have someone ask him about it and was open about his experience in Europe. We didn't speak for very long, and as I was returning to my seat I found myself overwhelmed with emotion and I cried as the play began. I imagine he has passed on by now, but thank you for your service Mr. Garand.
My great grandfather was a signaller at pashendale. Won the highest non officer medal (behind the Victoria cross) Australians could earn. After hearing Dan Carlin (of hardcore history) describe pashendale as one of the last places he'd ever want to be I was rightly horrified at what my poor great grandfather must have gone through.
It couldn't have helped that Field Marshal Haig was an idiot.
Its passchendaele but yea, war is hell
Blueprint for armageddon is the best podcast of all time.
What an haunting tale from the Somme, especially when three of my great Uncles were killed, one of them was awarded the MM and all three of the ones killed had been previously wounded. My other uncle got his leg machine gunned off and my one other uncle was in the tank corp, both returned. My great grandfather was a tunneller, he also returned, but all of them volunteered and fought for a country where they weren’t even allowed the vote till 1918.
They were better men than we
@@animula6908 they were very hard men and all heroes.
Stop glorifying soldiers you guys are part of the problem
@@dj_koen1265 they aren’t just soldiers, they’re my family.
Both my great great grandfathers were captains in the Somme and 3 of my great great aunts were front line nurses there, we are all deeply proud of them as a family. I know of 3 of great great uncles and cousins who also fought but sadly perished in that war (shot, burned to death, etc, whilst fighting), with one of them receiving a high medal of honour for his deeds. One g.g. grandfather was particularly lucky to have survived as he was gassed in the trenches (mustard gas) and suffered severe lung damage as a result.
Truly dispairing. All different eras and time periods, yet the horrors of war never seem to change for the better. The British soldier in the Somme left my heart feeling like a wet rock after, how miserable it is to live a life where you embrace death like an old friend.
Is miserable ,You get used to it , You either become all happy like or completly pessimistic ,you just hope that when your time comes ,it happens as fast and painless as possible. Also you began to detest violence especially useless violence and bullies.
War does change, but the horrors dont.
The trench wars always get to me. Every other account at least had an end to it, but the trenches never seem to end. How did any of them ever truly leave those trenches?💜
I have read the diary of my great great grandfather, they never left them.
My maternal g.g. grandfather only got out of the trenches when the trench he was in was gassed with Mustard Gas. Many of the men in that trench were fatally gassed, but he managed to survive by sheer luck (he just happened to be far away enough when the shell was dropped). He lungs were really messed up by the gas he had been exposed to though and he was forced to spend 3 weeks in a military hospital to recover but most of the lung damage ended up being permanent, so he was discharged from service after being deemed no longer fit enough to fight (his lung damage left him unable to run or walk up flights of stairs without getting out of breath). As hellish as the trenches were though, he was deeply proud of his service (he had risen to the rank of captain through his own merits and didn't actually want to stop fighting) and he felt deep insecurity about his injuries. But he was never a quitter and wanting to still be of use, he started reading books on engineering and later went on to become a successful engineer and inventor who contributed to the war efforts and rebuilding of the country.
Well it's not like you're there for the whole war like in ancient times you'd go on campaign for 10 years, modern soldiers only go for about 3 months on the front line before getting rotated.
@@BoleDaPole the trenches would probably still be in the minds of those who served in them. Three days or 3 months or 3 years. It was a very traumatic experience.😊💙
@@BoleDaPole People who got sent to the trenches were typically there until they either died in combat or were discharged because of injuries incurred during combat. The casualty rates in places like the battle in the Somme were insane. You were lucky if you survived even 3 weeks, let alone 3 months in the trench warfare in the front lines, with the average life expectancy for front line trench soldiers being just 6 weeks (but many lasting only days). And it's not the duration that gets you, it's what witness and experience and the general intensity of it.
I've seen a rash of comments from you expressing a combination of completely dismissing veterans accounts, experiences and mental illnesses, to practicing a modern day war worship whilst insinuating soldiers today are weak. I doubt you've ever fought in the military or been very close to anyone in the military, your posts are just a slew of anti-mental health awareness, shame mongering and politicised war narrative garbage.
Please apply more critical thinking before you post and do some research.
In a foreign field he lay
Lonely soldier, unknown grave
On his dying words he prays
Tell the world of Paschendale
Relive all that he's been through
Last communion of his soul
Rust your bullets with his tears
Let me tell you 'bout his years
Laying low in a blood filled trench
Kill time 'til my very own death
On my face I can feel the falling rain
Never see my friends again
In the smoke, in the mud and lead
Smell the fear and the feeling of dread
Soon be time to go over the wall
Rapid fire and end of us all
Whistles, shouts and more gun fire
Lifeless bodies hang on barbed wire
Battlefield nothing but a bloody tomb
Be reunited with my dead friends soon
Many soldiers eighteen years
Drown in mud, no more tears
Surely a war no-one can win
Killing time about to begin
Wow! Never heard this poem before.. Very deep.. The battle at Passchendaele sure sounds like hell.. Thank you for posting this comment..
@@DanB1987 it's lyrics to passchendaele by Iron maiden
My great great grandfather fought in the Somme and survived. He was a sergeant in the East Surrey Regiment. On the last morning he told his squad to scrape the dirt of their uniforms with their button hooks and they would go and find some food. As they were about to head off a General came along on horseback and told my great great grandfather that he was being mentioned in dispatches for having a clean uniform.
As you can understand my great great grandfather was livid for that.
His death was an ironic one if you ask me. He worked on the rail roads when he came home and was hit by a train as the watchman hadn't seen it coming and couldn't warn my great great grandfather.
He survived one of the bloodiest battles of WW1 to be killed by a train when he came home.
That's really interesting. My great great uncle fought in World War I as well (on the Western Front), and was also hit by a train after he got back home and killed. He had been suffering PTSD and drinking, and had not seen it coming.
Not a bad life he even passed on his genetic material which became you a success if you ask me
The man who wrote the last account, "1916 The Somme" was very gifted writer. I hope he lived past war and passed away being happy with his life. His talent with the pen was more than just special. The way he described anything from the landscape or setting he was in, to the sharp dreadful emotions thrust upon you from the experiences of war, was perfect. It was uniquely descriptive, he had the ability to capture ones attention before getting to the action. I felt like I was there haha, like I was watching a movie in theaters for the first time.
Considering his personal journal was able to be found and shared with millions of people almost a century later, I'd say there was a good chance he made it back home in one piece (or at least in enough pieces to potentially have a family).
The Crusader's account's just pure cinematic,
I love that he neither spared the extremely gory details nor the almost Deux Ex Machina Splendor of Louis coming in with his riding sledge hammer of knights. Such beauty of language for such a savage scene, at times you feel almost the time is still and you hang on his every next word. But you could totally see it probably just as he (spellbound) saw all of it.
Just finished the Qing officer's part. The last part of his account is where it really hits. Right when the Emperor arrives and demobilizes the army, and what's been going on outside of his campaign caught up with him. Him reacting to news of his brother and of his (almost certainly PTSD-filled) return. An old soldier return to a strange incongruous home with children and family who seemed to be strangers. It's so ahead of its time too. That sense of alienation once men who are put in such pressurized violent cauldron are plucked back into their peaceful homes. Something Erich Remarque who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front or many Nam vets would probably nod about. Unlike the former, its the silence and unspoken parts that really hits.
The last one in WW1 is the most eerie, without even seeing, the soldiers essentially clambered into an ecosystem of war, of war-made fog, war-made auditory distortions, and war-made corpses that littered everywhere. That when combined with him previously psyching himself before going over was like a condemned man torturing his own mind while awaiting execution. The fact that he just became brutally economical after Friar died reminded me how men from the Lost Generation like Hemmingway really despised long sentences and only wanted to use very minimal words.
And the last line of the WW1 tale . . . a whole world of meaning, in seven words.
Too long didn't read
@@skyhappy I see what you did there. :P
ALL THESE ACCOUNTS LACK AGENCY. NONE OF THESE PEOPLE SEEM TO BE IN CONTROL OF THEIR DESTINY. IT'S ALL FOR SOMETHING THEY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE ABOUT. THEY KILL AND FIGHT BUT FOR NO REAL CAUSE. NONE OF THEIR RECOUNTING SEEMS TO SHOW ANY VALUE IN THEIR OWN LIFE OR THE LIFE OF OTHERS. THE SCARED SIGNALER IN WORLD WAR 1 WAS THE CLOSEST THING TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROBOTIC AND FRUITLESS NATURE OF HIS LIFE.
@@GreenLightMe We all have little agency. You are probably speaking English because you grew up in the West
Sometimes when I see large crowds of people I try to imagine what it might have been like with thousands of people all fighting with melee weapons and I just can't imagine it, let alone in disciplined formations and things
You must remember that most battles were fought in waves and not all at once. Sieges on the other hand were absolutely brutal displays of human destruction.
Shit must have sounded like a large car crash all that shield and sword smashing into one another at once. Not to mention the massive puddles/rivers of blood, piss, shit, limbs, and dead.
@@codycampbell3562 sieges were typcially slow things, not like the movies.
@@GuadalupeF.Arredondo rivers of blood? don't be silly. combat was not that deadly in ancient wars. statisitcally most battles had less than 10% casualties total (15% for the loser and 5% for the winner). that is both killed and wounded.
most death in ancient times for armies were outside battles.
@@matthiuskoenig3378 There is no way to slowly siege unless you're talking about building battlements.
There was a very interesting article (in the Times I think?) that reflected upon the normalisation and glorification of war in media, and even in museums.
The idea is that a proper account of war is unfit for a general audience, especially when dealing with WW1 and similar conflicts.
A veteran’s quote was quite powerful: « when we say war is hell, is is not a hyperbole, it’s an accurate description of what war can be », in the sense that it is the end of all justice and humanity. He recollected how he saw friends die in the most horrific, absurd and senseless ways, how he was witness of rape, murder, massacre, in a way he had never thought possible.
Essentially, the idea is that if you wanted to have a good idea of what WW2 was, you’d have to see the naked rotting corpses of teenagers eaten by rats, the scattered brains of innocent people, the bloody legs of a raped and strangled elder woman, pieces of legs and arms thrown about, while young men who would otherwise be in school try to survive without being crushed by a truck by accident or losing their hearing or sight in a blast.
Of course you don’t ever see that in museums or in movies, but gore, crime, injustice, filth were all major parts of WW1 and 2.
saving private Ryan I think is one of the first movies to bring this type of a description from a soldier's perspective to the public eye. I don't think its never been done, just that we are too removed from war in an unprecedented time of global peace to recognise the real horror of war.
And WW I and II were possibly not even the worst wars in terms of absolute horror, the mongol conquests or crusaders or chinese rebellions with all the cannibalism and exterminations are just...
@@rolandfeussner1892 yeh the media and it’s portrayal of war isn’t done for the east and it’s history very often and when it is it’s often wiped clean of the horror and mass genocide. Somehow you find people glorifying the mongol empire which is mind blowing to me. As if Genghis khan was a fair and uniting force it’s historically illiterate. The Netflix show Marco Polo for example.
@@rolandfeussner1892 although the industrialisation of war made it more deadly I think that’s indisputable but not necessarily more horrifying since that’s subjective I suppose
@@trystanexul5681 Watch, Come and See
These are fantastic storys. Some of the best things from history you could hear. Thank you so very much. For this its amazing to me. I wish someone would make people read this in history class. Memorizing state flags that's barely history. This stuff is real history thank you
studying flags is indeed not history, it is vexillology
Imagine the sheer pain and terror of having your *nose* sliced off in grim melee. The knight from the story weathered this injury and then politely asked his lord if he wanted to call for help. Death can wait for chivalry.
I'd imagine the adrenaline had much to do with it
Another account I’d recommend looking into is Angilbert’s poem on the Battle of Fontenoy between Louis the Pious’ sons. His descriptions are so vividly human.
While I was in the Navy stationed in Japan, I got the opportunity to go to Iwo Jima for a det. prior to the annual carrier deployment. It was a very somber feeling walking around knowing that so many people perished on that small island. Everywhere you went you could see remnants of what happened there, along the roads, in the caves, on the trails, bottles, toothbrushes, rusted rifles, shell casings, etc. Near the invasion beach area, you could see where people had carved their names and dates into the rocks, both Japanese and American and there was also a small shrine close to the "housing" area where old Arisaka rifles had been lined up against the wall, laid to rest. I have never been to another place like that in my life, and the feeling was almost overwhelming in a way. So much history, and so many lives lost on an island so small.
So youve been there. Now, imagine fighting a war in that black, sinking, lightly packed, volcanic sand.
The Napoleonic one got me, Napoleon army in 1807 was at it's height so was the French Empire you can really perceive the fear and the need to retreat the French army was identical to an unstoppable natural disaster destroying everything on it's path, it's a reminder of why Napoleon was called the God of War in this era.
As a soldier myself one of the things that listening to these stories reminded me of is that regardless of the time and place, the utter horror and inhumanity of war never changes.
Why did you become a soldier? If you don’t mind me asking. I’m not judging, just curious
You had NO place being a soldier. 😐☹️
@@jimmyohara2601 Have you tried executing yourself?
@@jimmyohara2601 I'm not sure i follow; you have no idea the circumstances in why and how he/she became a soldier, soldier being a vague term used to describe a plethora of individuals in relation to fighting with "weapons of war". Typically as far as where I live, I'd agree no one has a place to be one as this place hasn't fought a just war in over 200 years. But I tend not to cast judgment until after finding out the details.
@@jimmyohara2601 Is this a philosophical comment or a judgement attack?
This channel is honestly a godsend, so much to be learnt and so interestingly presented.
Your work of bringing the video format to these sources making them widely consumable. I absolutely LOVE this and always look out for letters. My grandmother has some old ones even one from her grandmother who was the only Cherokee in our family.
This is easily one of the most important and impressive channels on UA-cam.
1:30 Hmmmmmmmmm the nitpicky part is killing me about the legionnaires wearing Hellenistic linothorax
Regardless. Love this channel so much.
That's not nit-picking my friend, imagine if they showed you a picture of Michael Jordan, in hockey gear, and told you this was a football quarterback!
Slipped through the cracks.
@@VoicesofthePast how dare you provide us with free, unique, educational historical content and not make it perfect?!!! work harder, do not sleep or eat if you have to, the interwebs demand it!
🍻🇨🇦👉
@@VoicesofthePast FYI I enjoy these more than almost any other history channel out there. Rather than Dry presentations or bought out narratives, this channel is where I go to listen to resurected ghosts and feel less alone in this nerve-wracking world. Where ghosts came back and repaints their world in colors and emotions. They could be of all skin colors but their stories, I get inside their heads. Without you how many normies would let the dead stay dead? But with you voice- like the great tradition of literature and written arts itself, we Feel that world again. The fundamental power of the written word. And the words and thoughts of the dead is heard again despite their death, and we see inside their thoughts despite the skull that thought it first was long gone.
They're huge grecophiles
Those who fought in WW I have fought a war that has never seen befor. The amount of destruction and industrialized death truelly was out of this world. Landscapes changed to be never be the same again. Complete villages whiped of the map. Men, weapons and bombs in the burried ground to this very day, and dead lands where no tree will grow for the coming 200 years.
There were lots of previews- the US Civil War, The Franco-Prussian War and the Russo-Japanese War. If anybody was surprised by the carnage they weren't paying much attention to what was developing.
@@Conn30Mtenor British had their first taste of modern warfare in the Second Boer War as well. Guerillas and weapons similar to those used in WW1
@@Conn30Mtenor some of the French definitely weren't paying attention. I have watched The Great War channel and only learned that the French had a marching band during the early days of the War. Needless to say, there were all gunned down by German machine guns. Thousands of French soldiers died in just a day.
@@Conn30Mtenor balkan wars
"the first world war was a war fought with 20th century weapons, and 19th century tactics, a war which saw the great powers of europe all fight on this grand of a scale since napoleon, except napoleon didn't have howitzers and machine guns"
-me
One of the Finest History Channels on UA-cam!
The most fascinating, informative video I've seen in months. Well done ! Thank you for your time and effort. Pat
Loved this! Keep up with the great content sir!
This channel is so underrated, Excellent content every upload ✅
GROSSLY underrated.
This is another masterpiece! Thanks so much for all your work!
Your work Voices of the Past is truly appreciated
This is a beautiful collection, thanks
The first one is quite unique, it’s not only a first person view of Roman warfare but Caesar’s first person view. We literally know how Caesar saw, fought in and triumphed in an engagement, everything he felt and what he saw…mind blowing
Amazing video like always!
Captivating. Epic narration
It seems that over time combat has distanced the enemy from each other, with current conflict often striking unseen enemies with artillery and air strikes, and much more casualties resulting than early conflicts
What is interesting too is how until the Middle Ages, leaders of entire stares used to fight and even die for their motherland in battles, but since then, most leaders just send thousands of innocent young men to do the dirty job for them.
@@pasionlamadrid4240 that's what happens when you trade a ruler chosen by God for a ruler chosen by a popularity contest.
There's a study that found medieval combat had only about a 5% casualty rate, partly due to everyone getting drunk before battle. It was also more like a realtime chess game, with retreat more common than actual combat. The Peace and Truce of God, and common sense, protected most people because the land you conquer is worthless without peasants to work on it. Despite media portrayals, fully armored knights were virtually invincible, no sword can cut through plate armor. And, they were worth more alive as ransom than dead.
@@SomeBody-rm6hf there is no god. just people brainwashed by religion that the elites made to control the population. average middle age peasant cant even read. u can read and u have education similar to those elites in middle ages. yet u chose to believe to be a willing slave.
@@SomeBody-rm6hf The quality of our leaders have declined so heavily because our morals have declined so heavily. Courage is no longer seen as a moral virtue, neither is loyalty or honor. Instead we talk about "fairness" and "equality". Whatever those words mean given this fundamentally unfair and unequal world we live in.
How far we've fallen.
My grandfather who retreated at Dunkirk, re-deployed to Libya /N.Africa, then up through Italy until stationed at Belgium, told me;
“I lost my faith when I saw all my friends buried alive in a shelled trench.”
Just those sad words alone haunt me, God rest & have mercy on his good soul.
My grand uncle was in France, he and his squad came under fire from a german machinegun, he got hit in the head and the squad fell back without him, thinking him dead. The germans found him and patched him up with a metal plate in his head. According to my dad he had a wicked sense of humor but was always a little bitter about how his buddies had left him.
@@magmat0585 To be fair, when one gets shot in the head you don't normally expect them to survive. If they thought him dead, I think thats perfectly understandable. In an active combat situation, you never endeavor to save a corpse at the potential expense of peoples lives (combat aside, this is why Mt Everest is also litered with so many corpses as they are usually deemed not worth the risk to collect).
@@maywalker997
We had to evacuate our dead and wounded as quickly as possible in Iraq and Afghanistan due to the utterly unspeakable things the Insurgency would do their corpses, as well as torture the dying and use them for propaganda purposes. The role our squadron fulfilled day-in-day-out (Medical Emergency Response Team) was to rescue the injured from the battlefield and transport to hospital, but also collect those killed in action, providing them with the same high degree of commitment, dignity and compassion afforded to the living, as both wounded or deceased they would have traumatised families waiting for them at home.
@@residentelect The conditions and circumstances of Afghanistan are not comparable to the battlefields of WW1 and WW2, many of which remain littered with corpses which are still being excavated to this day (and no, people weren't left to rot because their fellow soldiers didn't care).
In Afghanistan you weren't in an equivalent situation of fighting an equally (if not at times, superior) European force with an insane size army, you were occupying a 3rd world country fighting a desert mountain people's armed with stuff like AK47's left over from the Cold War. The technological prowess and backing of the American military in comparison to the Afghan side, is like comparing a modern day computer to a Ford Model T.
I'm not saying that you guys didn't do brave stuff out there, but Afghanistan and WW2 couldn't be more different in terms of just about everything in their circumstances, nature, enemies and overall expectations and reality.
He's right too. If you grew up believing in a loving god and you see good people getting their lives absolutely thrown out to shit in the worst, most unjust and cruel kind of way, something has got to give.
Love the bits of comedy and irony in these stories. Wow, truly the most bravest stories lived
Another fantastic insight. Thank you ❤
That last account was haunting. Just an amazing video thank you so much for this
Incredibly evocative stories, you can't beat the feeling of being in a battle knowing you may well die in the coming moments as you run, with your friends, towards death. A timeless emotion that has been oft repeated, without exception, in the history of mankind. Courage and valour had always been held in high regard by us, no doubt encouraging some of these incredible acts by human beings
OH, that glorious Segue into the promotion. What SKILL !
The Sutlers Caesar mentions were the men whose charge was controlling and caring for the baggage horses and carts, and cavalry remounts, often they were old men who had been Auxiliary, or allied troops when they were younger. In later days, Sutlers were considered to be strong and aggressive men, from their outdoor life spent working with horses.
This is one of the best things ive seen on youtube.
Absolutely fascinating.
Brilliant stuff. Thank you guys for amazing content.
Thank you for sharing these glimpses into a few lives so affected by the horror of war.
There are countless number of soldiers and civilians who never got to share their stories of such powerful and impactful events.
I recommend the documentary; They Shall Not Grow Old.
It is a collection of WW1 film matched with voices from an archive of first person accounts during the war. It's powerful to hear these real people speak of what they experienced.
I hope humanity will learn from our long history of war and suffering, and aim to create a better world for those who will inherit it.
They Shall Not Grow Old is a treasure
When it comes to history nothing surpasses the actual words of thosewho were there!
One of the best history channel on UA-cam
I love this channel thank you for giving me hours of quality content.❤
This is why people should write. History needs to remember.
I almost feel you could make a horror story about WW1. Something about that war is just the epitomy of dread and hopelessness.
The art in this is awesome!
I loved this collection!
If these recollections are contained in one book, I would love to obtain it. Riveting video. Well done.
Im a US Marine Rifleman and I feel I know each and every one of these Warriors.
War is Hell. War is unavoidable. War is Human
There’s and ancient samurai quote that says “My past is an armour I cannot take off, no matter how many times you tell me the war is over”.
Sure ya do guy, sure ya do
cool story bro
Shooting a rifle is waaaaay different than fighting in close quarters with swords and spears and maces, just saying. Unless you ever get into the kinds of battles they did, I don't think you'll ever truly know them
Awesome video man!!!!
Awesome video! Thank you!
What really got me was listening to the soldier mentioning his experience with shell shock at the Somme and realizing that somewhere in history the term shell shock had to be invented to describe the effects of a new weapon of warfare, artillery. Inventing new weapons to do damage then inventing terms to describe the damage done.
I read The Recollections of Rifleman Harris. It’s a great book that displays the Peninsular war in a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking manner. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the military history!
Excited to play this video when i finish work today
Brilliant video. Glad to know no matter how grave the situation, the word 'bunghole' still makes me chortle
Damn, the last one is brutal. You can feel all the horrors that a war can bring. People around can pretend to fight wars in videogame, enjoy battles in movies, but real life is raw and cruel, and anything related to war as you experience it in flesh is totally inhumane.
And that was a century ago. These days, drones can kill you with even less warning than artillery. You can be in a bunker, and MAM-L will get into the smallest opening to fuck you up.
Read Ernst Junger, many peoples experiences and interpretations are widely different, although civilian pacifists like to pick and choose accounts disproportionately.
@@ore1692 100%
@@ore1692 Did this Junger guy spend the war in a bunker far behind the front lines?
@@olegkosygin2993 he was wounded 7 times and awarded the highest German medal for bravery, which was incredibly rare as he was not apart of the aristocracy.
The Rifleman from the Peninsular War is an interesting one. Riflemen under Craufurd at that time were some of the best soldiers in the British Army: usually literate and numerate, with good eyesight, volunteers, as well as those 'difficult' men other Regiments wanted rid of (usually with some intelligence).
This meant they were a mixed lot, everything from 'Gentlemen rankers' to criminals.
The number of books called 'The Recollections of Rifleman --- ' attests to this.
I found a memoir from WWII (in which my father served in Egypt and Italy, and into Austria, by 'Rifleman Dalby'. After my father read it, he reckoned he knew the men mentioned, as the names were altered, but still descriptive, and the name or number of the units had been shifted 'one to the right'.
Dalby was probably a man my Dad knew as 'Prof', and there was an Irishman there called 'Mick' in the book (IIRC), but he was Paddy Doherty, my fathers close friend.
The book covers the Italian campaign from the British viewpoint, and how these men were the first to enter the Third Reich (Austria), and tells how all of this is almost forgotten, as reporting of the Italian campaign fell off almost to nothing after June, 1944.
This video is awesome!! You gained a subscriber today, looking forward to enjoying the rest of your content. 👍🏾👍🏾🔥🔥
This dude and his team is without doubt the best documentarian. History of the universe/earth and now this channel my God, thankyou for making great content
We only hear about the heroes who survived or died in really epic ways. We never hear the stories of the simple soldier who died doing something like going over the top or clearing a building but sets off a trap and dies. There were millions and millions of Patrick McLoughlan's in WW1 and every other war fought ever and we'll never know most of them even though each one of them were a unique human being with their own thoughts and feelings and dreams
Coming from a military family, from the civil war forward that I know of…war isn’t glamorized, but camaraderie in arms was held at a high standard.
These stories must be a series I want every war story in the history of man kind on this channel
Absolutely splendid.
When you boil it down to it's core, no matter the passage of time or the advancement of technology, their experiences were all similar. War is hell to those who fight it.
i think the most horrible thing about war is that how horror becomes trivial and normalised so quickly. like lets say in civilian life someone shoots someone with a gun. that is a big thing, even if the other person is not killed. it becomes a new story, lots of people get involved. the justice system, the healthcare system etc, a lot of time and energy is spent to make sure the injured person is cared for and the perpetrator is brought to justice. and the whole affair is not forgotten so quickly. but in war... someone gets shot and noone even flinches and thousands of other even more ghastly things all day every day. all these things that should be cared about and cried over and slowly "digested" become pretty much normal and a lot of it is completely forgotten or not even known about. like all the people missing in action that noone will ever know exactly what happened to them.
At the end of the Roman segment, that was the slickest sponsorship plug I’ve ever seen and I commend you for it 😂
Fascinating, thank you.
I remember a friend who was both in Afghanistan and Iraq describing to me how war is a feeling of both horror and triumphs you get kind of a Stockholm syndrome to it but it’s awful in the end
Holy moly the ww1 Somme account gave me chills
This was amazing.
Excellent. Thanks!
I like this!!! Can you do one on life on a shipping vessel through history?
Homoseg
I need more first hand accounts of historical events.
You're in the right place
Amazing video. The best channel on UA-cam
Pure class of an ad segway
Dear God the crusader one was just... Man it was beautiful!
in what way? the part where everyone was getting their faces and limbs mutilated?
@@rc1800 In the way it was related.
These first hand accounts of war are always so harrowing. The one regarding the Crusaders fighting the Turks i've heard before, but always sticks with me.
Great work
Yeees perfect, exactly what I was asking for, ima share this video
That one account from World War I was absolutely horrific. Goodness, we really can't be fixed.
The medieval one is the most interesting, I like how it subverts the expectation that medieval combat was chivalrous and romantic, dude literally had his nose dangling from his lip
"subverts the expectation that medieval combat was chivalrous and romantic" I kinda thought we were already past all that anyway. Maybe not.
@@Taima it’s after seeing trailers like LOTR that makes me think about the reality of the situation again.
@@Kingedwardiii2003 how lotr is romanticization
@@QWERTY-gp8fd because the plot is so predictable it’s almost not even worth watching, GOT however, that show you never knew what was going to happen next, especially the red wedding. Can you see the red wedding in LOTR?
@@Kingedwardiii2003 its fantasy...
I love how Genuine and respectful towards the enemy the roman commander was
Just wanna say the drawings of the soldiers in the thumbnail and the illustrations in the video are amazing.
Fred Bulls companion was Private Samuel Friar, Manchester Recumbent.
He died on the First of July, 1916. He was only 22
"my recovery from an overdose of rum"
I'm dead.
Thank you - magnificent!
Fine work.