Really appreciate that this video is finally getting picked up by the youtube algorithm. If you like these sorts of videos, check out this channel's home page for videos from historic sites all over Europe and the United States! If you think I've earned it, please consider subscribing.
I had the honour about 30+ years ago of walking in your footsteps with a WW1 veteran. Wonderful homage to the fallen and life closure for George the veteran.
I’m 16 hopefully a future history teacher and I hate how I can’t pay my respects in that way anymore, god bless to all who served military or civilian in the War to end all wars !
I've. Been. Tour. Of. Somme. Very moving. Everywhere is green now. Trenches covered. In. Rusty. Wire. And. Grass. Atmosphere striking when. You. Walk about.
My great-uncle died at the Somme in the trenches on 8/9 Oct 1916. Pvt John Nottingham was from Toronto. A young man of 27. An electrician and engaged to be married upon his return. A sad and pointless war, as most are. Thank you for this moving documentary!❤
Thanks for this Tour. My grand-grandfather fought on german side at the somme, near Hawthorne Ridge. When I was I kid, he told me stories about this time. He also survived WW2 as a Reserve-Officer incl fighting in Normandy. He alsways said: The great war was by far worse from a soldiers point of view, then the WW2. Its not even imaginable for us today, what those men suffered. Thanks for honouring them with this brilliant documentation.
My late husbands grandfather was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his service at Verdun. He was the last "metrailleure" standing in a machine gun nest to which all the young men ftom his village had been assigned. The men who lay dead all around him were his childhood chums. So his medal came at the cost of all the boys he grew up with. I talked to him about it in 1984 when he was 87. He cried tears remembering and feeling guilty he couldn't save them. I appreciate your sensitivity to the traumatic event that was this war. It permanently changed the boys who fought and lived and the reverberations fr their PTSD were felt later by their offspring who weren't even alive at the time. So senseless... And i know what you meant when you said the sheer number of names of the dead was overwhelming. I felt overwhelmed by the number of dead on the Vietnam wall. I can't imagine seeing any multiple of that. Good job on the series. Gonna watch it again.
I toured Verdun when motorcycling across Europe in the 1980's. Those WW One battlefields are haunting. There is the feeling of being watched, .....and cemetaries everywhere. You do an excellent job. Take care.
Agree about the haunting feeling of the battlefields. I was naive when I traveled to the Somme to see "the Somme battlefield" and "the Somme cemetery." As you note, many battlefields, hundreds of cemeteries everywhere, large and small, by big memorials, or by the sides of highways, in little towns, or by fields. At Verdun, the Douaumont Ossuary is supposed to be a resting place for these soldiers. I didn't get that feeling there at all: I got a feeling of the spirits not at rest, still wondering why they died.
I'll be completely honest, this is the first one of your original content videos I've seen, and I'm incredibly impressed by the amount of detail that you have gone into with this series. The research that you did leading up to this trip really shows, and it's incredible the way that you have humanized those casualty numbers. Never really before had I thought about the individual soldiers who died, or experienced these things to the level of detail that you explained. War is a great evil, and takes so much from so many, typically only to gain so little. I understand that sometimes war is the only answer, but it was definitely moving to me to see you hold back tears as you talked about these young men who bravely gave their lives just trying to take 300 yards of field. I'll definitely be watching more of these in the future.
My granddad had 5 small children so they didn't conscript him until late 1916. By that time, so many pals battalions had been wiped out that they were distributing the men. He lived in West Yorkshire but was sent to the East Yorkshire Regiment. Didn't help much coz he was killed in the attack on Oppy wood 3.45am Thursday 3rd May 1917... My dad, his son, was conscripted and shipped off to fight in the jungles of Burma in WW2. He survived and lived to age 81
i was born in Accrington 1954. found this so moving. i remember elderley relatives sat round a piano playing 'keep the home fires burning;' God rest the Accrington Pals who did their bit above and beyond the call of duty.
My great grandfather fought in the Somme with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, I always think about him and the hell he must have went through. He was was machine gunned in the hip and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Well done for presenting this amazing video.
I have just returned from a trip called 'All Quiet on the Western Front ' I've always been interested in the Great War, probably because when I was at a convent boarding school in the 1960's we had an ancient French nun who had lost 2 brothers in the French army during ww1, she still cried, and wanted to tell us about it but we were young and disinterested, but obviously she had got through to me because I am now learning all I can about this dreadful conflict, my interest was 're-awakened when I read Testament of Youth by Vera Brittan, all so sad and such a waste of those brave young men and animals, you often see a dog in the French photos I think the soldiers made pets of them for some comfort. I have really enjoyed these videos, thank you for making them.
Thank you for a great video. Some of the guys in Fricourt Cemetery are actually Danish. Not geographically but by hearts and minds as their parents were born in what at that time was Denmark but lost to Germany in the war in 1864 and their children were brought up speaking Danish and with Danish values and the majority saw themselves as Danish not Germans . This area known as North Schleswig was voted back to Denmark by a referendum in 1920. To of my great grandfathers fought in the Emperial Army during WW1 but they were anti-German before and after the war. 30,000 "Danes" went to war for Germany and around 6,000 never saw their homes again. Lots of Danes immigrated to US, Canada, UK, Australia, NZ and joined up and sometimes there would have been Danes against Danes somewhere on the front. To all of you who fought from all nations....you are never forgotten
That was the best most informative, sensitive and ‘human’ presentation of the First World War I have ever seen. I’m speechless at the carnage, and what’s that saying ‘ the only thing we learn about History is we never learn. Thank you for all your effort.
Chris, thank you for your kind words and appreciation of the work of "The Commonwealth War Graves Commission". You have given give the soldiers who fought and died on both sides in Europe the same deference you have shown the for the soldiers of both sides of the Civil War in the US- Apolitical views and comment without judgement is a difficult thing to do well. I think this is why your profile is being recognised with the meteoric rise in subscribers
UA-cam is a better place with you in it. Thank you for your dedication and work! Always look forward to your works. Here's to more and pushing the caliber of your content!
Wow, lo e the quality and compassion of your videos. When we still lived in west yorkshire back in the 70s and 80s we had contact with old soldiers thru our medical careers. My wife became a Sister in community nursing and i met a few surviving ww1 guys and a couple agreed to talk to us. Sam in the West Yorks reg. had his life saved by being shot thru the knee by his officer's incompetence whilst servicing his Webley.He wassent home and his convalescence took 6mths avoiding July 1st where his battalion suffered 70% casualties. He was retrained as a linesman and had to keep communicacions going in the 3rd Ieper.He died in 1980s and left me his trench diary and medals.❤
The Somme is and forever shall be, I imagine, the first thing British people think about in regards to WW1, over 100 years later, it still leaves an everlasting scar on our collective psyche. Thank you for your documentary minI series, I know you are historian but I was surprised by how well researched this is and how much I learned. I will be showing it to my father who doesn't really interact with the internet, as I am sure he will appreciate this even more than I already have. Thank you again.
Absolutely excellent presentation. My grandfather was French and was in the Great War. He lost his hearing because of the big guns. You should be commended for keeping alive the memory of a war that has ramifications to this time, considering boundaries and new countries that came out of it - not to mention how the Germans used the war as a reason for regaining territories lost.
I watch a LOT of documentaries. I’m only about 30 minutes into this and it’s already become one of my favorites for one outstanding reason: emotion. So many documentaries are so watered down and the narrators are so stiff and seemingly indifferent to what they are reading that it takes away a lot of the punch some lines would otherwise have. I can actually hear you getting emotional at points as you talk and to me that adds so much of the human element that is missing from so many documentaries. Thank you for doing this.
As someone from Newfoundland I would like to sincerely thank you for spreading the story of the newfoundland regiment. July 1st is a very bittersweet day for us newfoundlanders as the whole country is celebrating canada day while NL is also remembering the sacrifice of the men on that fateful day.
I think learning how the Commonwralth joined together to become one in their fight against the Kaiser's aggression in Europe, is a lesson we all can learn from today. Like the majority of Brits I thought Newfoundland was part of Canada, not a separate land with it's own Government, separate from the rest of Canada. Great video.
A tragedy indeed. But I wouldnt view them in vein. Their death, more than any death in a previous war, laid the groundwork for the decades of peace in recent times. Their death meant and means something to this day.
@jackudark8848 massively agree with your comment. To simply call the deaths and casualties inane robs them of the very sacrifice they offered. Yes deaths caused by wars are tragic but we should definitely revere the sacrifice they made. I absolutely understand what the original commenter was saying and yes in the broad scheme of things it's a tragic loss of life. But when these men died they did so believing that what they were doing meant something. Also we often forget that ww1 was much bigger than the somme offensive. People were fighting and dying all over the theatre of war throughout the world on both sides. WW2 was far bloodier sometimes for far less.
@@ja_u what the fck you are talking about? They laid the groundwork for decades of peace??? 20 years later the fought an even more evil war... we never had peace
@@SMB96 Curious to be back here a year later. If you know anything about the world wars you would understand. The second World War's inception was fueled by the aftermath of the first World War. Reparations, slow recovery, poverty, hunger, etc. The second World War arguably got us 75years of peace and without the first World War the second and especially its aftermath wouldve looked very different. The mistakes of the first World War were taken into consideration and avoided the second time around. Now you might argue cynically that the first was therefore useless but I would strongly disagree. We know, thanks to plenty of examples, that big conflicts wont just be settled with one war, however big and long. There is so much more to it than fight and win/lose.
UA-cam algorithm finally got you to me! This is one of the best narrated, Somme related films that I’ve watched. There is one (a series of three programmes) that is more detailed but it lacks the moving delivery of your narration. Serre and the Pals.....that had me weeping.....and so it went on, an unrelenting wave of sadness that moved me greatly. What comes across in your narration, is the fact that you genuinely care and are properly moved by the events that played out on these fields and you convey that honestly and simply. Thank you.
I have been a student of WW1 for nearly 70 years, am a member of the Western Front Association, have visited nearly all the major battlefields and have led informal tours to Ypres and the Somme inclduing, of course, Sheffield Park. This is one of the best videos about the battle that I have seen. May I recommend the poem Matthew Copse by John William Streets (it's on the web) which sums up the beauty before the battlefield, the destruction caused by the batttle and gives us hope for the future - one of the best poems by a little known poet who left school at 14 and worked as a miner.
What an excellent video. The content was delivered with genuine passion and sympathy. You can see how he chokes when he says the numbers of men lost on the Somme. Subbed.
I had done that research several months before, and as I was reading the casualty number it just hit me in a powerful way because I was standing right where those men fell. I'm headed back to the Somme next week to do another 6 part series.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Great job. Keep up the good work. I’ve visited the battlefields and it very often makes you catch your breath. Everyone should visit at least once.
A detailed , sometimes emotive account of the horror of war. I congratulate your research and knowledge. Been there many times , somehow linked to the awful carnage that touches the heart. A most excellent presentation. Thank you.
I am from The Netherlands, the Somme is about 3 hours by car, on the way to Paris. I remember my Belgian grandfather and my grandmother telling me about the War 14-18, as they called it. They lost 4 boys at the end on WW 2. This is one of the best videos on this subject, with great respect for all people that lost their lives in such a useless war. Thank you for this video.
I myself have extensively visited these sites, thank you for making this series of films it brought back many memories, I would like to complement you on your approach and the quality of the content & thank you for keeping their stories alive we will remember them.
Thank you for doing this video and others. My maternal grandfather and at least one of his cousins were at the Somme. The cousin is one of the many names mentioned on the Theipval memorial, luckily my grandfather survived but was shot in the knee. He was one of two of his battalion to survive. He could hear something coming and realised it was a Scottish battalion with their bagpipes. My grandfather and his cousin came from Liverpool. I’m not sure whether his cousin was a Liverpool pal but grandad enlisted because of the Lusitania bombing, he knew and had worked with a lot of the crew. I shall never forget all those brave men.
As a youth I was a bugler in the boys brigade and played the last post at several WW1 Pals cenotaphs each Nov 11th. I'm 59 now, old enough to have met men who were there. Because of the convention of the times they were unable to sob as everyone who was standing with them knew they wanted to, wished they would. Instead they stood rigidly to attention and stifled those tears again with the instinctive thousand yard stare they had acquired in those days in hell. I could see their faces change. Push it down lad, push it down. Your sensitive and honest coverage of the Pals story is worthy of their memory, by telling their stories you are helping to keep the promise that Byron wrote for us and we commit to every year. "They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them." Thank you very much. If you don't mind, here's a link to a song written by Manchester comedian and folk singer Mike Harding about the Accrington Pals. ua-cam.com/video/V3AkBJeLV4E/v-deo.html
Amazing work Chris. My hometown of Blackburn getting a mention! :D The Accrington Pals are celebrated and cherished in this part of the world. The memorial built using the famous 'Accrington Brick' and the East Lancashire regiment who still have the EGYPT insignia on their crest of arms. Magnificent effort, I love seeing the growth of your channel, you deserve every success.
Watched them all individually as they were coming out and just rewatching because the whole story works great. Great content, have not been watching the battlefields until The Somme and now I'm watching the old ones plus can't wait about what's to come.
A superb set of documentaries, thank you Chris. For me, the smaller cemeteries throughout the Somme are especially moving, the words written by grieving families on the headstones are so, so sad. The conflict is STILL written in the landscape if you know where and how to look.
It’s like you described before this trip-awe in being in such a historic place mixed with oppressive sadness at the human lives and stories that were lost making that history.
Absolutely stunning stuff Chris. Not only do you provide content which educates and entertains, you've provided me with a link to the past like no one else has done before. All the best to you sir.
If there is a heaven, I hope there is a special place in it for those who share personal histories, ensuring that individuals like those buried at the Somme can never be forgotten. By making these videos that will be on the Internet for all time, you have ensured that these brave souls have not been lost to time. Thank you, sir.
There are plenty of places out there where people can get the big picture and learn about troop movements and generals, my goal in my trip to France was to tell stories that people maybe have never heard before. Glad there are others who appreciate these stories as much as I do
This was absolutely incredible. I can't even put into words how moving this video was. You did an incredible job Chris. Thank you so much from a Canadian Vet
I very much appreciate your videos. This one in particular is overwhelming. When you said 'over 3000 British cemeteries', I had to rewind and listen several times. just to make sure I heard correctly. It is often unfathomable to comprehend the number of brave, young lives that were lost in that war, and this one statement somehow got through to me of just how overwhelming the whole death toll was. Thank you for all of your work.
When I was 13 I discovered Lynn MacDonald's books on the Great War, I remember persuading myself that the term 'mortally wounded' meant taking a wound that was potentially fatal but the soldier recovered. My young mind was simply incapabable or unwilling to accept the scale of the loss.
A very moving account of this terrible time. My father's brother was killed later in October after enduring months of these abominable conditions. Like so many others, his body was never found so his name is recorded on the Thiepval monument. Through your extensive research and sensitive narration, you have brought this alive to me like no other has. Many thanks to you for this, as well as for your care in pronunciation of English, French and German words and names, which all too often are mangled by linguistically insensitive American voices. Many thanks and best wishes.
This is absolutely THE best summary of the Battle of the Somme I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much for creating it and for making the human stories so often missing from military history a part of your story. This battlefield is high on my bucket list.
Wait! I know this guy! I had no idea you had this channel! UA-cam hiding good content is obnoxious. Looking forward to hearing these stories. Thank you for your hard work putting these together.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Sorry. Not personally. But I'm a huge military history fan, and a gamer. I think I've watched your UGCW game playthroughs a million times while I'm playing. I didn't even know you had this other channel on history from a non-gaming perspective. It's fantastic! Really appreciate the work and effort in these videos. Better than almost everything on TV. 👍👍
Truly brilliant. Thank you. My great great Uncle was killed on July 20th on the Somme battlefield. Signaler , Private, 10th Essex Regiment, his name is on the memorial at Thiepval. You're a true Gentleman.
This was really great. Cut past the pomp and the glory and straight to the truth of it. An objective and honest reflection of what was the most horrific and pointless conflict in human history. A great and unbiased honoring of all of the poor souls who lost their lives there on both sides. Thank you sir.
My Grandfather was part of the Battle of the Somme. He was just 17 years old ( he lied about his age to join up at age 16) and was in the 5th Batallion Sherwood Foresters, Notts and Derby Regiment, and after a charmed journey through WW1 he came home in 1919 after serving in the Army of Occupation. He didn't talk much about his time there, but what he did share was horrendous.
I made the decision before I went that I wanted to focus more on those stories than on troop movements and the like. Plenty of other places to get that information. There are so many stories like this that need to be told.
Recent subscriber here and even more recent viewer of your original videos. Thank you so much for telling these stories. You've reinvigorated my love of history, especially of WWI and WWII
You remind me so much of my very favourite history teacher, Mrs. Maddox. Just like her, your passion to view and understand struggles of the past from all perspectives seeps through to us and it makes committing these events to memory seemless. I just wanted to let you know that your influence is very much appreciated.
I came to this from your response to a comment I made asking you about what to cover at the Somme. I'm so glad I did. Your usual serious yet engaging style is on full display. You bring the humanity of the war as well as the facts.
This was a good idea Chris. Putting all these together makes it like a feature length documentary. You really seem to get emotionally moved by the stories you tell. That makes a difference from other UA-cam history people.
i’m not really a war history person but I really enjoyed this video and your work. You explain the events so well and tell individual’s stories beautifully. Thank you for keeping their names alive.
Chris, this series was amazing. I watched a lot of videos about WW1 but this is one of the most emotional and heartbreaking journeys I've seen so far. Especially the 5th episode. Keep up the good work and I can't wait for your future trip in Europe, wherever that would be.
Once again I am in awe of the knowledge and connection you have with this history. In May I will visit, once again, Ypres, Vimy, and Beaumont Hamel. You have deepened my understanding and personal connection to these sites. Thank you.
Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I had a great uncle, Richard Devine, killed near by Loghnagar Crater on July 2nd, 1916. His name is on the Thiepval Memorial as he has no known grave. I visited a few years ago. Also another buried at Lens who was killed just four weeks before the war ended and another buried in Belgium. The saddest of all was my great uncle Stanley Reed, killed in action aged 16 on January 1st, 1915. He was a Royal Marine bugle boy and the ship he was on, HMS Formidable, was sunk by a German U-Boat. He gave his drum to someone who could not swim and saved their life but lost his own.
I’ve spent my whole Sunday watching your battlefield tours. Some of the best content I’ve seen regarding the Great War on UA-cam. Many thanks from the UK 🇬🇧🇺🇸
I’m a word, excellent! Thanks for the hard work. 2 hours flew by and you brought out the humanity and loss experienced by the participants on both sides. The Korean War is termed the forgotten war but the Great War is largely out of the American conscience. Your work on this Chris should be seen by all. Thanks again
Excellent video. Thank you. I learned a lot. We visited Newfoundland Park in 2017. It was incredibly moving. In loving memory of my father's first cousin, Clarrie Victor Tarlin. 2nd Auckland, New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Died of wounds near Y Farm cemetery on 22nd February 1917, aged 19 years. ❤
Really appreciate that this video is finally getting picked up by the youtube algorithm. If you like these sorts of videos, check out this channel's home page for videos from historic sites all over Europe and the United States! If you think I've earned it, please consider subscribing.
superb post Sir,thank you
Subbed,excellent content sir I plan to view many of your offerings thanks so much
Typical American version of the event with incorrect facts and dates.
@urbanfox53 what is incorrect? Be specific. This was all well researched for months beforehand, mostly using British accounts.
Ignore him he's a wanker
I had the honour about 30+ years ago of walking in your footsteps with a WW1 veteran. Wonderful homage to the fallen and life closure for George the veteran.
Priceless experience 👌
I’m 16 hopefully a future history teacher and I hate how I can’t pay my respects in that way anymore, god bless to all who served military or civilian in the War to end all wars !
I've. Been. Tour. Of. Somme. Very moving. Everywhere is green now. Trenches covered. In. Rusty. Wire. And. Grass. Atmosphere striking when. You. Walk about.
To increase your views I will keep this running in the background. Since I seen the individual videos already :)
My great-uncle died at the Somme in the trenches on 8/9 Oct 1916. Pvt John Nottingham was from Toronto. A young man of 27. An electrician and engaged to be married upon his return. A sad and pointless war, as most are. Thank you for this moving documentary!❤
Liverpool my city. It took many years but there is now recognition in lime street station of the men who left from there. Lest we forget.
Thanks for this Tour. My grand-grandfather fought on german side at the somme, near Hawthorne Ridge. When I was I kid, he told me stories about this time. He also survived WW2 as a Reserve-Officer incl fighting in Normandy. He alsways said: The great war was by far worse from a soldiers point of view, then the WW2. Its not even imaginable for us today, what those men suffered. Thanks for honouring them with this brilliant documentation.
Tell that to the guys in the eastern front in ww2. War is war
My late husbands grandfather was awarded the Croix de Guerre for his service at Verdun. He was the last "metrailleure" standing in a machine gun nest to which all the young men ftom his village had been assigned. The men who lay dead all around him were his childhood chums. So his medal came at the cost of all the boys he grew up with. I talked to him about it in 1984 when he was 87. He cried tears remembering and feeling guilty he couldn't save them. I appreciate your sensitivity to the traumatic event that was this war. It permanently changed the boys who fought and lived and the reverberations fr their PTSD were felt later by their offspring who weren't even alive at the time.
So senseless... And i know what you meant when you said the sheer number of names of the dead was overwhelming. I felt overwhelmed by the number of dead on the Vietnam wall. I can't imagine seeing any multiple of that. Good job on the series. Gonna watch it again.
That’s very sad indeed…
Love hearing the emotion in your voice reading about the Pals. Shows how much history matters to you. Much respect. ❤
Yes! Makes the story of these men so much more profound
I toured Verdun when motorcycling across Europe in the 1980's. Those WW One battlefields are haunting. There is the feeling of being watched, .....and cemetaries everywhere. You do an excellent job. Take care.
What an education you gave yourself with that tour through those fields. Amazing.
Agree about the haunting feeling of the battlefields. I was naive when I traveled to the Somme to see "the Somme battlefield" and "the Somme cemetery." As you note, many battlefields, hundreds of cemeteries everywhere, large and small, by big memorials, or by the sides of highways, in little towns, or by fields. At Verdun, the Douaumont Ossuary is supposed to be a resting place for these soldiers. I didn't get that feeling there at all: I got a feeling of the spirits not at rest, still wondering why they died.
As long as there are people like you sir they will not be forgotten.
I'll be completely honest, this is the first one of your original content videos I've seen, and I'm incredibly impressed by the amount of detail that you have gone into with this series. The research that you did leading up to this trip really shows, and it's incredible the way that you have humanized those casualty numbers. Never really before had I thought about the individual soldiers who died, or experienced these things to the level of detail that you explained. War is a great evil, and takes so much from so many, typically only to gain so little. I understand that sometimes war is the only answer, but it was definitely moving to me to see you hold back tears as you talked about these young men who bravely gave their lives just trying to take 300 yards of field. I'll definitely be watching more of these in the future.
My granddad had 5 small children so they didn't conscript him until late 1916. By that time, so many pals battalions had been wiped out that they were distributing the men. He lived in West Yorkshire but was sent to the East Yorkshire Regiment. Didn't help much coz he was killed in the attack on Oppy wood 3.45am Thursday 3rd May 1917... My dad, his son, was conscripted and shipped off to fight in the jungles of Burma in WW2. He survived and lived to age 81
i was born in Accrington 1954. found this so moving. i remember elderley relatives sat round a piano playing 'keep the home fires burning;' God rest the Accrington Pals who did their bit above and beyond the call of duty.
My great grandfather fought in the Somme with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, I always think about him and the hell he must have went through. He was was machine gunned in the hip and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Well done for presenting this amazing video.
My grandfather was an Aussie who was shot and lost his arm after only two months in the trenches.
@@bungee7503 Sorry to hear that my friend, so many great men were maimed, injured and destroyed in that war.
I have just returned from a trip called 'All Quiet on the Western Front ' I've always been interested in the Great War, probably because when I was at a convent boarding school in the 1960's we had an ancient French nun who had lost 2 brothers in the French army during ww1, she still cried, and wanted to tell us about it but we were young and disinterested, but obviously she had got through to me because I am now learning all I can about this dreadful conflict, my interest was 're-awakened when I read Testament of Youth by Vera Brittan, all so sad and such a waste of those brave young men and animals, you often see a dog in the French photos I think the soldiers made pets of them for some comfort.
I have really enjoyed these videos, thank you for making them.
Thank you for a great video. Some of the guys in Fricourt Cemetery are actually Danish. Not geographically but by hearts and minds as their parents were born in what at that time was Denmark but lost to Germany in the war in 1864 and their children were brought up speaking Danish and with Danish values and the majority saw themselves as Danish not Germans . This area known as North Schleswig was voted back to Denmark by a referendum in 1920. To of my great grandfathers fought in the Emperial Army during WW1 but they were anti-German before and after the war.
30,000 "Danes" went to war for Germany and around 6,000 never saw their homes again. Lots of Danes immigrated to US, Canada, UK, Australia, NZ and joined up and sometimes there would have been Danes against Danes somewhere on the front.
To all of you who fought from all nations....you are never forgotten
That was the best most informative, sensitive and ‘human’ presentation of the First World War I have ever seen. I’m speechless at the carnage, and what’s that saying ‘ the only thing we learn about History is we never learn.
Thank you for all your effort.
Chris, thank you for your kind words and appreciation of the work of "The Commonwealth War Graves Commission".
You have given give the soldiers who fought and died on both sides in Europe the same deference you have shown the for the soldiers of both sides of the Civil War in the US- Apolitical views and comment without judgement is a difficult thing to do well. I think this is why your profile is being recognised with the meteoric rise in subscribers
Excellent content. Severely underrated.
UA-cam is a better place with you in it. Thank you for your dedication and work! Always look forward to your works. Here's to more and pushing the caliber of your content!
Wow, lo e the quality and compassion of your videos. When we still lived in west yorkshire back in the 70s and 80s we had contact with old soldiers thru our medical careers. My wife became a Sister in community nursing and i met a few surviving ww1 guys and a couple agreed to talk to us. Sam in the West Yorks reg. had his life saved by being shot thru the knee by his officer's incompetence whilst servicing his Webley.He wassent home and his convalescence took 6mths avoiding July 1st where his battalion suffered 70% casualties.
He was retrained as a linesman and had to keep communicacions going in the 3rd Ieper.He died in 1980s and left me his trench diary and medals.❤
we have toured ieper,flanders,somme and Verdun.All those combatants deserve our respect and awe.
The Somme is and forever shall be, I imagine, the first thing British people think about in regards to WW1, over 100 years later, it still leaves an everlasting scar on our collective psyche. Thank you for your documentary minI series, I know you are historian but I was surprised by how well researched this is and how much I learned. I will be showing it to my father who doesn't really interact with the internet, as I am sure he will appreciate this even more than I already have. Thank you again.
Never forget Passchendaele.
Absolutely excellent presentation. My grandfather was French and was in the Great War. He lost his hearing because of the big guns. You should be commended for keeping alive the memory of a war that has ramifications to this time, considering boundaries and new countries that came out of it - not to mention how the Germans used the war as a reason for regaining territories lost.
This is very well done the best I've seen and I've seen them all
I watch a LOT of documentaries. I’m only about 30 minutes into this and it’s already become one of my favorites for one outstanding reason: emotion. So many documentaries are so watered down and the narrators are so stiff and seemingly indifferent to what they are reading that it takes away a lot of the punch some lines would otherwise have. I can actually hear you getting emotional at points as you talk and to me that adds so much of the human element that is missing from so many documentaries. Thank you for doing this.
As someone from Newfoundland I would like to sincerely thank you for spreading the story of the newfoundland regiment. July 1st is a very bittersweet day for us newfoundlanders as the whole country is celebrating canada day while NL is also remembering the sacrifice of the men on that fateful day.
I think learning how the Commonwralth joined together to become one in their fight against the Kaiser's aggression in Europe, is a lesson we all can learn from today. Like the majority of Brits I thought Newfoundland was part of Canada, not a separate land with it's own Government, separate from the rest of Canada. Great video.
@@docfurious2408 You were correct in the first place.Newfoundland is a province of Canada.
Have been to the Newfoundland memorial 3 times and will go again at the end of this year as well. It’s very moving. Lest we forget.
@@Anglo_Saxon1In 1914 it wasn't part of Canada
@@steveforster9764 Fair comment 😉
All that death…and for what!? Unbelievably sad. Thanks for the tour.
A tragedy indeed. But I wouldnt view them in vein. Their death, more than any death in a previous war, laid the groundwork for the decades of peace in recent times. Their death meant and means something to this day.
@jackudark8848 massively agree with your comment. To simply call the deaths and casualties inane robs them of the very sacrifice they offered. Yes deaths caused by wars are tragic but we should definitely revere the sacrifice they made. I absolutely understand what the original commenter was saying and yes in the broad scheme of things it's a tragic loss of life. But when these men died they did so believing that what they were doing meant something. Also we often forget that ww1 was much bigger than the somme offensive. People were fighting and dying all over the theatre of war throughout the world on both sides. WW2 was far bloodier sometimes for far less.
To stop German imperial aggression. Which was a forerunner of Nazi Germany.
@@ja_u what the fck you are talking about? They laid the groundwork for decades of peace???
20 years later the fought an even more evil war... we never had peace
@@SMB96 Curious to be back here a year later.
If you know anything about the world wars you would understand. The second World War's inception was fueled by the aftermath of the first World War. Reparations, slow recovery, poverty, hunger, etc.
The second World War arguably got us 75years of peace and without the first World War the second and especially its aftermath wouldve looked very different. The mistakes of the first World War were taken into consideration and avoided the second time around. Now you might argue cynically that the first was therefore useless but I would strongly disagree. We know, thanks to plenty of examples, that big conflicts wont just be settled with one war, however big and long. There is so much more to it than fight and win/lose.
UA-cam algorithm finally got you to me! This is one of the best narrated, Somme related films that I’ve watched. There is one (a series of three programmes) that is more detailed but it lacks the moving delivery of your narration. Serre and the Pals.....that had me weeping.....and so it went on, an unrelenting wave of sadness that moved me greatly. What comes across in your narration, is the fact that you genuinely care and are properly moved by the events that played out on these fields and you convey that honestly and simply.
Thank you.
Much appreciated and welcome to the channel!
I'm so glad you were able to go man.
I have been a student of WW1 for nearly 70 years, am a member of the Western Front Association, have visited nearly all the major battlefields and have led informal tours to Ypres and the Somme inclduing, of course, Sheffield Park. This is one of the best videos about the battle that I have seen. May I recommend the poem Matthew Copse by John William Streets (it's on the web) which sums up the beauty before the battlefield, the destruction caused by the batttle and gives us hope for the future - one of the best poems by a little known poet who left school at 14 and worked as a miner.
What an excellent video. The content was delivered with genuine passion and sympathy. You can see how he chokes when he says the numbers of men lost on the Somme. Subbed.
I had done that research several months before, and as I was reading the casualty number it just hit me in a powerful way because I was standing right where those men fell. I'm headed back to the Somme next week to do another 6 part series.
@@VloggingThroughHistory Great job. Keep up the good work. I’ve visited the battlefields and it very often makes you catch your breath. Everyone should visit at least once.
Excellent video sir, thank you.👍👍
A detailed , sometimes emotive account of the horror of war. I congratulate your research and knowledge. Been there many times , somehow linked to the awful carnage that touches the heart. A most excellent presentation. Thank you.
Your presentation is superb and understandable that it disturbs you, well done.
I am from The Netherlands, the Somme is about 3 hours by car, on the way to Paris. I remember my Belgian grandfather and my grandmother telling me about the War 14-18, as they called it. They lost 4 boys at the end on WW 2. This is one of the best videos on this subject, with great respect for all people that lost their lives in such a useless war. Thank you for this video.
Fantastic stuff.. Will help me with my visit
Thank you Chris
THANK YOU CHRIS !!!
Spectacular work! Thanks for your excellence in video and editing.
This was a really great series. The way you present these men's stories is very powerful. Cant wait to see what comes next
I myself have extensively visited these sites, thank you for making this series of films it brought back many memories, I would like to complement you on your approach and the quality of the content & thank you for keeping their stories alive we will remember them.
Thank you for doing this video and others. My maternal grandfather and at least one of his cousins were at the Somme. The cousin is one of the many names mentioned on the Theipval memorial, luckily my grandfather survived but was shot in the knee. He was one of two of his battalion to survive. He could hear something coming and realised it was a Scottish battalion with their bagpipes. My grandfather and his cousin came from Liverpool. I’m not sure whether his cousin was a Liverpool pal but grandad enlisted because of the Lusitania bombing, he knew and had worked with a lot of the crew. I shall never forget all those brave men.
As a youth I was a bugler in the boys brigade and played the last post at several WW1 Pals cenotaphs each Nov 11th. I'm 59 now, old enough to have met men who were there. Because of the convention of the times they were unable to sob as everyone who was standing with them knew they wanted to, wished they would.
Instead they stood rigidly to attention and stifled those tears again with the instinctive thousand yard stare they had acquired in those days in hell. I could see their faces change. Push it down lad, push it down.
Your sensitive and honest coverage of the Pals story is worthy of their memory, by telling their stories you are helping to keep the promise that Byron wrote for us and we commit to every year.
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."
Thank you very much.
If you don't mind, here's a link to a song written by Manchester comedian and folk singer Mike Harding about the Accrington Pals.
ua-cam.com/video/V3AkBJeLV4E/v-deo.html
Amazing work Chris.
My hometown of Blackburn getting a mention! :D
The Accrington Pals are celebrated and cherished in this part of the world. The memorial built using the famous 'Accrington Brick' and the East Lancashire regiment who still have the EGYPT insignia on their crest of arms.
Magnificent effort, I love seeing the growth of your channel, you deserve every success.
Watched them all individually as they were coming out and just rewatching because the whole story works great.
Great content, have not been watching the battlefields until The Somme and now I'm watching the old ones plus can't wait about what's to come.
A superb set of documentaries, thank you Chris.
For me, the smaller cemeteries throughout the Somme are especially moving, the words written by grieving families on the headstones are so, so sad.
The conflict is STILL written in the landscape if you know where and how to look.
Brilliant descriptions and information , many thanks for this video .
I just want to say these are my favorite videos of yours keep it up :)
It’s like you described before this trip-awe in being in such a historic place mixed with oppressive sadness at the human lives and stories that were lost making that history.
Thank you for compiling all the videos into 1
Absolutely stunning stuff Chris. Not only do you provide content which educates and entertains, you've provided me with a link to the past like no one else has done before. All the best to you sir.
Thank you for your wonderful empathetic tour, I hope you do many more. Thank you again.
Heading back to the Somme next week to do at least 6 more videos.
Most underrated youtuber ever
If there is a heaven, I hope there is a special place in it for those who share personal histories, ensuring that individuals like those buried at the Somme can never be forgotten. By making these videos that will be on the Internet for all time, you have ensured that these brave souls have not been lost to time. Thank you, sir.
There are plenty of places out there where people can get the big picture and learn about troop movements and generals, my goal in my trip to France was to tell stories that people maybe have never heard before. Glad there are others who appreciate these stories as much as I do
Really well made and very poignant video,three of us went recently to many of the places shown in your excellent video very well done.Thank you .
This was absolutely incredible. I can't even put into words how moving this video was. You did an incredible job Chris. Thank you so much from a Canadian Vet
Appreciate that. It was a profoundly moving experience to be there.
I very much appreciate your videos. This one in particular is overwhelming. When you said 'over 3000 British cemeteries', I had to rewind and listen several times. just to make sure I heard correctly. It is often unfathomable to comprehend the number of brave, young lives that were lost in that war, and this one statement somehow got through to me of just how overwhelming the whole death toll was. Thank you for all of your work.
When I was 13 I discovered Lynn MacDonald's books on the Great War, I remember persuading myself that the term 'mortally wounded' meant taking a wound that was potentially fatal but the soldier recovered. My young mind was simply incapabable or unwilling to accept the scale of the loss.
A very moving account of this terrible time. My father's brother was killed later in October after enduring months of these abominable conditions. Like so many others, his body was never found so his name is recorded on the Thiepval monument.
Through your extensive research and sensitive narration, you have brought this alive to me like no other has. Many thanks to you for this, as well as for your care in pronunciation of English, French and German words and names, which all too often are mangled by linguistically insensitive American voices. Many thanks and best wishes.
What an amazing documentary. Thank you
A really brilliant piece of work
Pleasant surprise with your detailed knowledge
This is absolutely THE best summary of the Battle of the Somme I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much for creating it and for making the human stories so often missing from military history a part of your story. This battlefield is high on my bucket list.
Absolutely worth a visit. I have so many more stories I want to tell from there, and I can't wait to go back.
the full package! just what i’ve been waiting for
also found this as the first video on my home page. hope that’s a good thing for your view count!
Thanks for this!
Great video the stories told with respect and real emotion thank you
Wait! I know this guy!
I had no idea you had this channel! UA-cam hiding good content is obnoxious.
Looking forward to hearing these stories. Thank you for your hard work putting these together.
How do we know each other?
@@VloggingThroughHistory Sorry. Not personally. But I'm a huge military history fan, and a gamer. I think I've watched your UGCW game playthroughs a million times while I'm playing. I didn't even know you had this other channel on history from a non-gaming perspective. It's fantastic! Really appreciate the work and effort in these videos. Better than almost everything on TV. 👍👍
So good that I'm going through each individual episode and like'ing them individually!!!
Great video, thanks for sharing. I really learnt a lot from this video.
This is an excellent presentation. One of the best I have seen on the Somme. Thank-you for posting.
Folly, total folly... And as it seems we are soon at it again.
Beautiful moving video.
Truly brilliant. Thank you. My great great Uncle was killed on July 20th on the Somme battlefield. Signaler , Private, 10th Essex Regiment, his name is on the memorial at Thiepval. You're a true Gentleman.
This was really great. Cut past the pomp and the glory and straight to the truth of it. An objective and honest reflection of what was the most horrific and pointless conflict in human history. A great and unbiased honoring of all of the poor souls who lost their lives there on both sides. Thank you sir.
Inspiring, humbling, unforgettable. Thank you.
Your presentation skills have been honed over the last year! Awesome work!
My Grandfather was part of the Battle of the Somme. He was just 17 years old ( he lied about his age to join up at age 16) and was in the 5th Batallion Sherwood Foresters, Notts and Derby Regiment, and after a charmed journey through WW1 he came home in 1919 after serving in the Army of Occupation. He didn't talk much about his time there, but what he did share was horrendous.
What an awesome series of videos. I love the personal stories of the soldiers
I made the decision before I went that I wanted to focus more on those stories than on troop movements and the like. Plenty of other places to get that information. There are so many stories like this that need to be told.
@@VloggingThroughHistory I agree, thank you for sharing these stories!
Fabulous documentary, and so sensitively narrated. Thank you.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Thank you sir.
Absolutely outstanding video. Thank you so much for doing this 😘
Recent subscriber here and even more recent viewer of your original videos. Thank you so much for telling these stories. You've reinvigorated my love of history, especially of WWI and WWII
A really good video. Thank you so much for highlighting such an important story to tell. Great work
You remind me so much of my very favourite history teacher, Mrs. Maddox. Just like her, your passion to view and understand struggles of the past from all perspectives seeps through to us and it makes committing these events to memory seemless. I just wanted to let you know that your influence is very much appreciated.
I came to this from your response to a comment I made asking you about what to cover at the Somme.
I'm so glad I did. Your usual serious yet engaging style is on full display. You bring the humanity of the war as well as the facts.
This was a good idea Chris. Putting all these together makes it like a feature length documentary. You really seem to get emotionally moved by the stories you tell. That makes a difference from other UA-cam history people.
PLEASE keep putting out this original content! It is fantastic and higher quality than many big budget productions!
i’m not really a war history person but I really enjoyed this video and your work. You explain the events so well and tell individual’s stories beautifully. Thank you for keeping their names alive.
Nice. Good job
Chris, this series was amazing. I watched a lot of videos about WW1 but this is one of the most emotional and heartbreaking journeys I've seen so far. Especially the 5th episode. Keep up the good work and I can't wait for your future trip in Europe, wherever that would be.
Absolute masterpiece.
Great content as always. Love this kind of content. Please don’t ever stop.
I started this channel to do videos like this. I will always do them.
These videos are so educational! I was never taught 99% of this
Absolutely brilliant ! Thought provoking, provocative, informative and convoyed with sensitivity and knowledge. Great job 👍
Once again I am in awe of the knowledge and connection you have with this history. In May I will visit, once again, Ypres, Vimy, and Beaumont Hamel. You have deepened my understanding and personal connection to these sites. Thank you.
What a brilliantly researched and put together video. Thank you.
Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I had a great uncle, Richard Devine, killed near by Loghnagar Crater on July 2nd, 1916. His name is on the Thiepval Memorial as he has no known grave. I visited a few years ago. Also another buried at Lens who was killed just four weeks before the war ended and another buried in Belgium. The saddest of all was my great uncle Stanley Reed, killed in action aged 16 on January 1st, 1915. He was a Royal Marine bugle boy and the ship he was on, HMS Formidable, was sunk by a German U-Boat. He gave his drum to someone who could not swim and saved their life but lost his own.
I’ve spent my whole Sunday watching your battlefield tours. Some of the best content I’ve seen regarding the Great War on UA-cam. Many thanks from the UK 🇬🇧🇺🇸
Much appreciated Ryan! I’m going back to the Somme to do six more videos in 2 weeks.
I’m a word, excellent! Thanks for the hard work. 2 hours flew by and you brought out the humanity and loss experienced by the participants on both sides. The Korean War is termed the forgotten war but the Great War is largely out of the American conscience. Your work on this Chris should be seen by all. Thanks again
Excellent video. Thank you. I learned a lot. We visited Newfoundland Park in 2017. It was incredibly moving. In loving memory of my father's first cousin, Clarrie Victor Tarlin. 2nd Auckland, New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Died of wounds near Y Farm cemetery on 22nd February 1917, aged 19 years. ❤
An Excellent Video may I say. Very poignant and moving indeed. Thank you.
great video!