Harry Patch was completely correct, and voiced the view of many WW1 veterans. My great grandfather had served at The Somme and Passchendaele with the 4th Territorial Battalion of The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) that was renamed the 148th Brigade, 49th West Riding Division. My great grandfather said this, in future leave the soldiers and civilians out of it. Take the Kings and the Kaisers, put boxing gloves on them, put them in a ring, and let them sort it out between themselves. Why should the common man be killed and maimed for the likes of those who should know better how to conduct themselves? Harry was correct too about the orders not to recover soldiers that found themselves in mud filled shell holes. My great grandfather actually saw that....the lads name was Aspinal. They were returning to the line in full pack at Ypres, and the lad slipped off a duck board into a water and mud filled shell crater. Despite the order, the men tried to pull the poor lad out but could not. His pack pulled him down and he drowned in liquid mud. Horrific, just horrific.
@@samuelcorbin3694 'He's a fine fellow', said Harry to Jack, as they marched up to Arras with rifle and pack. But he did for them both with his plan of attack. And my great grandfathers favorite: Far far from Ypres I long to be, where German snipers can't get at me. Damp is my dug out, cold are my feet. Waiting for whizz bangs to send me to sleep.
" A terrible waste of young men's lives " , from the lips of a gentleman who lost 3 of his best friends 80 years earlier. He never forgot them. May they all Rest in Peace, together again, in Heaven .
I used to work with Mr. Mac in a petrol station. He was a private in 1914 and a Major in 1945. He said he would volunteer to go over the top on raids to get away from the smell of sewage. Salute to Major Mac.
It was a common experience for soldiers arriving at the front to be transported by train. They were put into goods wagons marked in French “Horses 8 Men 40”. Just imagine the sound of several hundred facetious young men making animal noises!
My great grandad served in ww1, we believe at Passchendaele and possibly The Somme. He was buried by mud but managed to survive and come home and many years later have my grandma, his brother however, died. I never met my great grandad but I want him to know how proud I am, we all are of him and his brother and everyone who served. “All gave some, some gave all.” Love you great grandad and your brother. Thank you 🙏🏻 x
If you read the war diaries of his battalion you can follow what they did in some detail. I've just done it for my great grandads movements close to Belgium
@anniehall9141 If you dont mind me asking, may i have the name of your Great grand uncle? I currently have a channel that is dedicated to remembering those who died in the great war, and id love to do some research on him if you'd like.
My grandfather. Albert John Rainford, served on the Somme in 1916 with the Lancs. regiment. He was a modest man, but did tell me some of what it was like to be a WW1 soldier (I was a 10 year old in the 1960s). He died in 1975, I miss him tremendously. RIP all who were consumed by the madness of that war.
I really appreciate hearing the first hand accounts from the soldiers who were there. You can read it from books and watch it in film but you can see the memories in his eyes and the pain in his voice when the veteran recounts his experiences of war. God save us, the human race still has yet to learn the useless waste of war.
Most of them didn't care they was going to war! As they thought it was the right thing to do for their country's. This mindset passed over both war's. How many to day would fight for their country and freedom?
@@chriscollins550 Spot on, who in their right mind would fight for a govt that didn't give a 💩 about them and cared more about foreigners than their own people..
Got out just in time too. 2010 was the beginning push into the end times. 2001 started the trajectory. 2010 initiated thurst. 2020+ is the end of the play, the coda. Goodluck all of you
@@Lucky-sh1dm How do you know this and can you point out any evidence that you can share with all of us unenlightened ones or are we perhaps ",sheeple " while you of course are that good bit smarter? Anyway go on and tell us about how and why you know we are in the end days ?
It may seem that way but thankfully we'll never see anything like this ever again. People are far, far more informed than back then. People do know, albeit not to the extent that they should.
In this, you never know when you'll be hit.. as it will be smart bombs, artillery and aerial bombardment. No doubt in the larger cities, there will be small arms fire, but in general it will be death by distance
Im from Ypres, and the horror men from both sides had to endure, is beyond believe. The loss of lives for nothing still makes me angry. We will always respect and pay tribute to them. They shall not be forgotten.
I used to live there about 10 years ago, and when I was coming home one late evening, just after getting off the motorway, I remember driving towards Ypres, I noticed a vehicle in front of me, very slow, like a carriage or horse-driven cart, and with very little lighting, only a tiny red lantern or something on the back.I though what idiot drives a horse and cart at this time of day (must have been around half past eleven p.m.) and I prepared to hit the brakes, but it was strange as even though I wasn't travelling very fast, I kind of "hit" that cart, but at the same time, it dissolved into thin air as if it never had been there in the first place. It was like driving through an apparition. I was totally shocked. I had stopped by then and looked all around, but there was absolutely nothing there. Another one was in my house in the town centre, I used to run a B&B there but by that time, I had stopped and the house was empty. I slept in the annex to the back. I was in my room and had just switched off my lights and had another look outside onto the backyard and back of the house with the windows of the staircase visible. I could see a figure walking up the stairs, wearing something like a cloak or rain sheet over his shoulders. He was dragging his feet and seemed very tired. I waited for him to appear on the next floor window, but nothing. Needless to say, I was the only person on the premises at that time, no guests, no visitors. And I remember that guy like it was yesterday. Ypres is full of ghosts.
@jasonnicholasschwarz7788 The cart story is very chilling. Is the place still very isolated? I mean, is it still villages and farms? Did you felt scared at that time or just brush it aside as Mere tricks of mind?
I never felt scared at all. The road where it happened is a regular, at daytime quite frequented road that connects Ypresand Zonnebeke. Tyne Cot, the biggest Commenwealth cemetery of the Great War, is nearby as well. I went there at night as well and it felt really peaceful. Unlike other cemeteries which might feel eerie. I had a strong spiritual connection to the entire area from the first day I got there, there's a sadness hanging about in places, but nothing angry or evil.@@kaycey7361
Rarely came back the same... All countries lost so many generations of people and probably some great men who would have changed the world for the better
This will get you. This wasn't even the most deadly wars or even had the highest number of deaths. Sad thing is the boar war's had more deaths and that's still not even close to the deadliest war in history.
When i was younger, i was enthralled and horrified by these war stories. Now I'm a man, im absolutely bloody furious that this happend, it's an absolute bloody disgrace that young men and boy were knowingly sent to be slaughtered in some kind of perverse ritual. Shame on the people responsible, may they and their families forever endure the pain they inflicted on the innocents.
Yes, I think this was absolutely idiotic the way they killed a whole generation of young men, I too was enthralled w it when I was younger. How stupid this was.
My heart breaks to hear them. I am so grateful for the ones who had the foresight to get their stories told before they passed on. God Bless all military people that fight and chance giving their lives for wars they did not start.
Hearing Harry Patch talk even now is haunting, they mourn friends and feel anger at their pointless deaths. Thanks and remembrance will never be enough.
Re: 3:30 USA-The early 1980's found me working as a janitor within a Veterans Administration hospital. One of the patients was a man in his eighties who did not sleep well. We talked some, he explained that the worst of his nightmares from the Great War were of the horses screaming in terror.
My great grandfather, John Dalton was killed here, my grandfather remembered his mom getting the telegram. They never found his body but hi cousin saw him go down. My grandfather fought in WW2, came back a different man, the ramifications of this have even effected my generation of the family. What was all the death and suffering for, nothing has been learnt by those in power. They were basically seen as expendable. I still feel so much sadness thinking of him being lost there.
My great grandfathers, their siblings and my grandfathers and their siblings fought in ww1 and ww2 on front lines. Two died at the somme, the rest wounded multiple times but made it. I always thought my family had bad genes and were full of bad men but it turns out they had ptsd and depression from fighting. It still affects our family today. I used to resent them but now as an adult I understand and respect what they did. I'm amazed and proud of then actually. I'm also very angry that they were tricked and sent into the meat grinder.
My grandad Hugh Walker(Liverpool), was killed on The Somme, July 1916, he left a widow and 3 young kids, they lived in abject poverty for many years, his name is commorated on the roll of honor in Liverpool Town Hall along with 15 thousand other men, thats not a typo, 15 thousand men from one city, may they all rest in peace.
I’m french… My family has been established in the Marne since the 16th centuries... 8 of my ancestors on my mother's side, and 5 on my father's side, fell between 14-18 in Verdun, Craonne, Somme, Cote 60, Lorette, Mort-homme, etc... 5 of between them are decorated with the “Mort de la Grande Guerre pour la France” medal, 1 of them is decorated with the « Croix de Guerre » medal. The same goes for my wife's ancestors, who have a few more men who fell in combat. Moreover, absolutely all French families shed blood during the Great War When we were children in the 90s, our towns and villages still bore many scars... bullet holes on the walls, memorials to the dead, grenades and shells bursting in the forest, shells left at the foot of trees, forts, abandoned bunkers, cemeteries of all nations, French, English, German, Canadian, museums, commemorative days, school visits to the trenches of La Somme, on the Butte de Vauquois or at Fort de La Pompelle, etc... and the infamous German shell embedded in the stained glass window of Reims Cathedral... the remains of WW1 were literally omnipresent and part of everyday life. I remember among others things, hurting myself by tripping over a metal object while playing in a river in my grandmother's village, and while digging in the mud I brought out a rusty German rifle carcass. It was normal, and I immediately threw it on the bank as if nothing had happened, because the village was overflowing with war objects. I didn't know my great-grandfather, but my great-grandmother once told us that he was strong like a giant during the day, and fragile like a child at night. She also said that the sight of fire and the smell of grilled meat sometimes made him angry, sometimes sad... in fact, he had held a line at Bois de Malancourt, and attacked with flamethrowers by the Germans, he had seen both his enemies and his friends transformed into human torches. My great-grandmother said that among all the atrocities he could have committed, suffered or seen, it was these memories of barbarity in Malancourt that haunted him the most. She had asked him how he had managed to survive, and he had told her that he had not survived and that he had died with his friends in Malancourt. There you go, it was just the testimony of an old child who grew up on these ravaged lands. Also, I really want to thank your British families who came to support our guys, sacrifice their youth and risk their lives in the midst of horror, for a country that was not theirs. 🇫🇷 🤝 🇬🇧
WW1 is such a massive conflict in everyone's minds because it was the first war in history where actual footage and photographs could be taken. Not only that, but a fair few veterans lived well into the modern age and could account for the horrors they'd seen to a modern generation. The conditions these men faced and the horrors they witnessed are incomparable to what any modern man I feel could endure. Cut from a different far tougher kind of cloth. Nothing but respect for these men for everything they put themselves through. I think Harry Patch summed it up best. "War is meaningless violence, nothing else"
This is not correct - the American civil war, 1861-1865, was the first war to be photographed vividly, accurately, and at pace with real time events. The effect was SHOCKING on the population and on how they felt about what was happening. While I will agree that widespread photographs of WWI were hugely and rightly impactful, it’s not true that it was the first time this took effect. That being said, I want to be sure to acknowledge that your comment was clearly intended to be respectful and from the right place and you made other good points.
Listening to these men speak of the horrors the endured has made me cry a tear or 2. I have a 16 year old son and the thought of him living through something so horrible, so terribly futile and such a waste of so many lives chills me. How on earth did something like this happen. Not once and not twice as war still continues to take the lives of so many . 😢
These first hand accounts of WW1 are absolutely priceless. Well done. A good follow on to this is the documentary "They Shall Never Grow Old"...a great tribute to these fellas here.
I’m ex British Army, one can’t even imagine what it was like, the term “shell shock” was coined, symptoms rarely even seen or likely to be seen, such as as the amount of ordinance fired at each other. My great grandfather was deeply affected by the 4 years he witnessed, and was troubled for the rest of his life.
Ex-Sapper did a tour in the Falklands. While there went through a divorce/separation and had a meltdown. Tour was 6 months. Was around 94 Horrible to think that could have been punishable by death if that was still a thing
Trying to understand the constant weight of fire is difficult, when opposing sides in basically fixed positions, can fire tens of millions of shells at each other. I had the privilege of knowing a WW1 veteran, he was a family friend and was like a great grandad to me, the only time he talked about the western front was the mud and the lice, but nothing about the actual combat.
When I was a young in the eighties I can remember a old man that used to walk past my house now an again, he used to recite what he must have been talking about in battle and make the bangs of the bombs with his hands over his head, I used to be so confused about why he was doing this, it wasn't until you get older and realise what actually happened to the men.
I've been at Ypres. I started my homeless trip there. Before that, an old friend took me there to Ypres and Paschendaele. We visited some museums there. Went through recreated trenches. Smelled the variety of gasses they used there. And then saw pictures and read about the result. After those gasbombs. Everything died. Not even the birds, insects and worms survived those dreadfull gasbombs. I started to feel cold, imagining the cold, the pain from trenchfoot, the silence, the mud, the fatigue, the blood, the stench, the gas, the sickness, broken trees, the trauma, all the decaying bodies, arms, legs, heads with helmets on. The constant anticipation, the bombs on the background. Bombs could strike any time and kill everyone anywhere. All for them to find out that Ypres was wiped off the earth. Everything was destroyed. Gone. Except for a few standing walls and, ruins and fundamentations. The English proposed to leave Ypres like that, as a monument. But the remaining citizens decided different. They built Ypres up from the ground, they really put their best efforts to rebuild it exactly as it was before WW1. Ypres looks amazing. But you can still feel the war has happened there. And not only by seeing the museums and monuments. The fear is still there. Even on the field outside town. From there I went to the Somme. I never went to visit museums there, but you can still feel the war in that area. WW1 was absolutely devastating.
@@dominiclondesborough3222 not yet. But man, I do have some stories to tell. Maybe that's why my writings on youtube are becoming more and more extensive. I think I'm accidentally practicing to become a writer.
My grandfather was a Lewis gunner, wounded three times and gassed twice. Like Mr Bowie, the gas affected him for the rest of his life - I always remember him coughing and bringing up phlegm. However, like most of the soldiers, he never spoke of his war, but after he died we found, amongst his effects, a rosary which must have belonged to one of his pals (he himself was not a Catholic). He must have kept it secretly for 50 odd years. I wish I could have found out more about his experiences - all I could do was go to the cemeteries and battlefields of France and Belgium and be so overcome by the sheer numbers of the fallen. But at least he did come home, unlike that nameless pal of his, who was probably one of his Lewis gun team.
"Living on borrowed time"...that statement, said with true conviction says it all..the horrors to come that they faced..to go over the wall for the last time ..those poor boys..so much wasted youth and that generation...
It is wonderful that the first-hand accounts of these veterans was recorded and saved from the oblivion of lost memory. Every saved record may not guarantee we or future generations avoid mistakes anew, but they provide learning opportunities so that we might.
Forgotten wars.🙏😢.If you ask a student now.......They know nothing about WW1 WW2 Korean War,Falklands.Viet Nam,Desert Storm ad infinitum They maybe Know a little about Hamas/Israel conflict as it's current. But whoever said Lest We Forget must have been joking....😢😡🇦🇺🇬🇧 Ex teacher😁
My Grandfather was wounded twice in the war. He was in the Rainbow Division and on November 11th , someone decided to let the germans know that 'we' meant business so over the top in the morning they went. My grandfather was wounded in the leg and he limped the rest of his life. And the family story is that he laid out in the field for a very long time as everyone celebrated the armistice and he got helped the next day... Almost lost his leg but told the surgeon that he didn't want to wake up without it...
So surprised, while watching these gents speaking of their experiences & remembrances, it was as if their interviews had taken place in more recent times (even though the "math," I knew, couldn't be right), but I didn't want to acknowledge that to myself, realizing near the end, of course, that these gents had long-since passed☹️But what a wonderful tribute to them, a treasure for us today & to those in the future; their words, their faces, describing such horrible things that happened such a long, long time ago; so my compliments to those who produced this, who made me, the viewer, believe, if just for a short while, that these interviews had been conducted such a short time ago!🇺🇸
A visionary series and we can only thank the makers for having the foresight to record these brave people whilst they were still alive. Now out of living memory and at a time when any mental health issues were put down to " nerves" its sad to think these people lived the vast bulk of their lives living with the constant memory of things that no one should ever see or hear. Brave brave men and women, made of much sterner stuff than anyone could ever be now. Beautifully done.
This series i remember watching first time around,ive seen it many times over now im now 52 and it still leaves me with a Lump in my Throat! No other series from either world war gets me quite like this.God Bless these True Heroes from both bloody sides!.Amen.
It must’ve been terrifying knowing that you had two choices, face the huge risk of being killed on the battlefield or face the risk of being killed by your own country for not wanting to die on the battlefield
Can’t overthink it. If you do you’ll never be able to do your duty, and you might die anyways. Gotta accept your fate and prepare to go out with gusto. If you do, that will ironically also improve your odds of going home.
Imagine, fighting in a war that at that time was the most colossal bloodbath in history, for absolutely nothing, and attain a bitter victory; and that conflict spawning an even worse war 20 years later.
My grandfather,, who became a doctor, was badly wounded in one of the major WW1 battles and I believe survived only because his brother searched for him. Died age 56 Then the brother was even more badly wounded and limped slowly all his remaining life with one leg set in the shape of a parenthesis. He became a a lawyer and judge & died in his mid-80's.
Too right, and it’s happening again. What right does Putin have to send all those young Russians to the slaughter and to slaughter. Scary how countries can get caught up in a wave of violence.
General Falkenhayn on Russian mobilisation in 1914 (giving his government a chance to declare war while claiming self defence): "Even if we perish, at least it was beautiful."
@@LiT_Moose89 Not just the royal leaders like the Czar and Kaiser (George V was a constitutional monarch and the decision for war was made by parliament) but political leaders too. Like Bethmann Hollweg the unelected chancellor of Germany, Helmuth Von Moltke the German military chief of staff, the Austrian foreign minister Leopold Berchtold, and the Austrian chief of staff Conrad Von Hotzendorf.
My grandfather was by turn bayoneted and later gassed at Paschendale. He survived to marry his nurse at a convalescent hospital. Subsequently his general ill health encouraged my father to voluntarily join the RN after his 18th birthday in 1941 rather than be trench fodder. My other grandfather served on the Somme and suffered shell shock very severely, making his way back to be with the horses behind the front line on 3 occasions. He was a farm boy and that was his way of dealing with the overwhelming cacophony. His commanding officer recognised his complete incapacity and he was dishonourably discharged. Never strong, he was ultimately murdered in Avignon whilst on a trip to see his mother who was in Italy , in 1934. The tragedies of broken lives pervaded for many years after the sheer devastation caused by the Great War and posturing by Royal cousins, perpetuating itself 20 years later with Hitlers desire for revenge. The whole futility.
My Grandfather was there, and I presume suffered the same experiences, but, like most, he never spoke of them to me, his grandson. His worst medical need was trench foot in Feb 1917 so I presume he was involved in a lot of the following battles. In 1928 he emigrated to Australia never to return to Europe. I remember - Clement James Radford 1896 - 1973 Hon Artillery Company 1st Btn. No 3404
It was amazing to listen to the stories told by these fighting Tommy's. I remember the day that Harry Patch died. I have cried listening to the Horrors that these men went through and the bonds that they form and the losses that they felt it really truly was a waste of so many young lives
J'ai déjà vu ce reportage, il est totalement émouvant, tellement d'émotions en regardant ces images, ils étaient d'incroyables Braves, ces hommes de cette atroce Grande Guerre. Tout mon respect va pour eux...
Frederick Fleet , was the lookout on RMS Titanic and spotted the Iceberg and warned the deck . He fought in a few of the worst offences in WW1 including Verdun and Yppres . He survived and also survived WW2 . Many years later he lost his wife and her brother threw him out of their home . He returned and took his own life . Up until 1985 he didnt even have a headstone , until a Titanic society raised funds to provide one . R.I.P to all these absolute legends , who would despair at what humanity has become and the lack of humility and resect .
Down the road from me is a grave stone with name of a young man 19 died at Ypres. Same South Staffs (Yeomanry) regiment as my grand dad who was same age. Grand dad survived both wars and thus i am here.
It is a pity that there aren't more documentaries like this one and there were not more interviews done with WWI survivors earlier as it a fascinating subject. These men have so many interesting stories to tell.
My grandfather was conscripted, he talked about corpses with worms in them, therefore he wanted him and his wife to be cremated. The poor horses stranding in mud he also told us. He lost brothers in that war.
My Grandfather served at Cantigny, Belleau Wood and the final Spring Offensive in 1918. He lost vision in one eye due to an infection in the deplorable conditions. The horrors he witnessed were with him until he passed in his 80's.
"I didn't want to go but it was a case of had to. I had no inclination to fight anybody. I mean why should I go oout and kill somebody I never knew, for what reason? There's no reason at all in my way of thinking". You and a billion other guys Mr. Patch.
My English grandfather was blinded by mustard gas in WWI. Fortunately he recovered so well that when he emigrated to Australia he was fit enough to join the Victorian Police Force.
My Grandfather was gassed with his unit while they were building a bridge over a creek ,the gas was on the water in like a mist.Poor fellows we're standing in the water. Their skin blistered.He suffered with that until he died in his 80s.
One off the saddest sights of my life was at the Imperial War Museum, where John Singer Sargent's epic painting "Gassed" shows what he himself saw: a line of haggard young men with bandaged eyes , helplessly clinging to one another as they are led to an aid station. Respect for the men who served is also paid by those who demand an end to war, and I write this as a veteran of the Army Medical Corps.
‘Thank you’ seems such an understatement for the sacrifice they made. I hope they knew how much we thought of them.. such heroes and the same for those poor animals especially the horses that must have been terrified. It breaks my heart to think of all the horrors of ww1 and ww2. We will never see such brave heroes as these men and animals again, I pray we never need to. Sleep peacefully and thank you “all gave some and some gave all”x
To think that many of these men that actually survived WW1 went on to fight in WW2. True heroes whether they felt scared to death or not they were heroes.
God bless every single one of them . All heros , even if they didnt want to be . We can never understand what they lived through , or the horrors they witnessed .
3:40 I always think of the poor horses. It was one thing for all those men to be in that position but at least they understood what they were doing there. The noise of the cannons must have terrified all those poor horses. 😢
My Grandfather fought at Ypres (the battle of passchendaele) as a teenager (Born in 1898). I never had the chance to meet him as he died 20 years before I was born.
As a Ukrainian, I found this series of documentary just fascinating. Astonishing. And why did I mentioned my nationality- because in Ukraine, in time of my childhood, we barely had any veterans from WW2 left alive, not even to talk to anyone, who fought in previous wars. Partially because communism eliminated those, who fought in the Great War. Even more, that stupid regime erased any „unmatching“ history and heritage. Of course, topping that WW2 itself took a great harvest of people’s lifes on the territories of contemporary Ukraine. So, again, I appreciate so so much to listen to those voices of witnesses, as well as to read comments of people, telling about their family members.
really? stayed at home till the fight lands on the doorstep? Do not take away the bravery of those who went forward, defended the invaded lands and potentially the land they came from.
@@paulellam6926 There was no danger of a German invasion of Great Britain in 1914, the efforts of the UK should have been in mediating a peace agreement between the belligerent powers. As it was the whole of Europe stumbled into a massively destructive war that had no good outcome at all, it lead to an even more destructive war 20 years later and was the beginning of the decline of western civilization.
It's not discussed much, but during and after a big war, the medical science takes a step or two forward because doctors at the front not only gained great experience but, though emergency experimentations, learned new techniques. I've seen some of the medical publications from during and just after the war and it's truly horrifying.
My grandfather was an ‘old contemptable’, he four in every major battle from August 1914. Bayonetted, gassed twice. Whilst on sick leave he met my grandmother in Kent. They were married for 70 years. They were ‘lions led by donkeys’.
I'm glad horses are no longer needed in wars, hate to think about all the horses being in the middle of wars for so many years, since the beginning of mankind and warfare pretty much until vehicles were widespread
My great grandfather fought in ww1. His commanding officer was also an animal lover and would ask how many men and how many horses were lost? They were told at one point not to waste the bullets on the horses. They disobeyed because they couldn't stand the thought of leaving them to die in the mud. Our last name means "the horse lords" in Gaelic. It was one of the few stories passed down about that war I heard from my dad.
God Bless these men, their souls, and their memory. I know that I'll remember them for the rest of my days, and I'm making sure my American children know of them and what they did.
My Great, Great Uncle, Private Alfred J Steadman, was killed on 9th October 1917 in an attack to capture Polderhoek Chateau. He has no known grave and is listed on the memorial to the missing at Tyne Cot Cemetery.
Lyn Macdonald wrote a series of books about the major British battles of the First World War. She mixes Regimental histories with personal testimonies. Very moving accounts.
These are the best interviews of WW1 veterns I've ever seen. I am so glad they've been preserved so their stories are never forgotten.
Harry Patch was completely correct, and voiced the view of many WW1 veterans. My great grandfather had served at The Somme and Passchendaele with the 4th Territorial Battalion of The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) that was renamed the 148th Brigade, 49th West Riding Division. My great grandfather said this, in future leave the soldiers and civilians out of it. Take the Kings and the Kaisers, put boxing gloves on them, put them in a ring, and let them sort it out between themselves. Why should the common man be killed and maimed for the likes of those who should know better how to conduct themselves? Harry was correct too about the orders not to recover soldiers that found themselves in mud filled shell holes. My great grandfather actually saw that....the lads name was Aspinal. They were returning to the line in full pack at Ypres, and the lad slipped off a duck board into a water and mud filled shell crater. Despite the order, the men tried to pull the poor lad out but could not. His pack pulled him down and he drowned in liquid mud. Horrific, just horrific.
He’s was 100% spot on they just kept the common ppl split along ethnic and religious lines and they sit back and use us like pawns on the chess board
Literally this
"It's Not the Ones Who Give the Orders, Who Fight and Die-! But the Young Men Like You and I."
@@samuelcorbin3694 'He's a fine fellow', said Harry to Jack, as they marched up to Arras with rifle and pack. But he did for them both with his plan of attack.
And my great grandfathers favorite: Far far from Ypres I long to be, where German snipers can't get at me. Damp is my dug out, cold are my feet. Waiting for whizz bangs to send me to sleep.
I believe that sentiment was so common, amongst the men, you can hear it stated by either Tjaden or Krupp in the book All Quiet on the Western Front.
" A terrible waste of young men's lives " , from the lips of a gentleman who lost 3 of his best friends 80 years earlier. He never forgot them. May they all Rest in Peace, together again, in Heaven .
Heaven aint real brother they died for nothing and ended up not existing and not living out their lives rip
@@Capsainn😐
@@Capsainn 😡
I used to work with Mr. Mac in a petrol station. He was a private in 1914 and a Major in 1945. He said he would volunteer to go over the top on raids to get away from the smell of sewage. Salute to Major Mac.
Something about 100 year old veterans still having soldier humor makes them loveable
It was a common experience for soldiers arriving at the front to be transported by train. They were put into goods wagons marked in French “Horses 8 Men 40”. Just imagine the sound of several hundred facetious young men making animal noises!
wot@@jonathanlewis453
i feel like that's a pretty natural human reaction tbh, soldier mindset is a strange and interesting psychology
@@jonathanlewis453I’m married to an infantry combat vet, you bet I can imagine that 😂
My great grandad served in ww1, we believe at Passchendaele and possibly The Somme. He was buried by mud but managed to survive and come home and many years later have my grandma, his brother however, died. I never met my great grandad but I want him to know how proud I am, we all are of him and his brother and everyone who served. “All gave some, some gave all.” Love you great grandad and your brother. Thank you 🙏🏻 x
If you read the war diaries of his battalion you can follow what they did in some detail. I've just done it for my great grandads movements close to Belgium
@anniehall9141 If you dont mind me asking, may i have the name of your Great grand uncle? I currently have a channel that is dedicated to remembering those who died in the great war, and id love to do some research on him if you'd like.
😅
My grandfather. Albert John Rainford, served on the Somme in 1916 with the Lancs. regiment. He was a modest man, but did tell me some of what it was like to be a WW1 soldier (I was a 10 year old in the 1960s). He died in 1975, I miss him tremendously. RIP all who were consumed by the madness of that war.
@@andreneves0588Hi, what is your channel?
I really appreciate hearing the first hand accounts from the soldiers who were there. You can read it from books and watch it in film but you can see the memories in his eyes and the pain in his voice when the veteran recounts his experiences of war. God save us, the human race still has yet to learn the useless waste of war.
Sadly it will never learn.
Most of them didn't care they was going to war! As they thought it was the right thing to do for their country's. This mindset passed over both war's. How many to day would fight for their country and freedom?
Have you seen the one on Free Documentaries. Very touching to see the point of view of both those who fought, and those who waited at home.
@@chriscollins550
Spot on, who in their right mind would fight for a govt that didn't give a 💩 about them and cared more about foreigners than their own people..
@@chriscollins550l😅⁰n
113 YEARS OLD- 1 of the blokes lived from 1896-2009. What an incredible life to live through all those changes!!!
Got out just in time too.
2010 was the beginning push into the end times.
2001 started the trajectory.
2010 initiated thurst.
2020+ is the end of the play, the coda.
Goodluck all of you
@@Lucky-sh1dm
How do you know this and can you point out any evidence that you can share with all of us unenlightened ones or are we perhaps ",sheeple " while you of course are that good bit smarter? Anyway go on and tell us about how and why you know we are in the end days ?
@@paulflah4562spot on
Pretty cool to have lived in 3 centuries ✌️💯❤️
@@MIXTAB1 definitely awesome. I wonder how many ppl throughout history can boast that
The world needs to listen to these men and those from the war that followed this one.
I feel like we're on the edge of such horror again.
Problem is , we've never recovered
It may seem that way but thankfully we'll never see anything like this ever again. People are far, far more informed than back then. People do know, albeit not to the extent that they should.
In this, you never know when you'll be hit.. as it will be smart bombs, artillery and aerial bombardment.
No doubt in the larger cities, there will be small arms fire, but in general it will be death by distance
We are.
Im from Ypres, and the horror men from both sides had to endure, is beyond believe. The loss of lives for nothing still makes me angry. We will always respect and pay tribute to them. They shall not be forgotten.
Are there any ghost stories?
I used to live there about 10 years ago, and when I was coming home one late evening, just after getting off the motorway, I remember driving towards Ypres, I noticed a vehicle in front of me, very slow, like a carriage or horse-driven cart, and with very little lighting, only a tiny red lantern or something on the back.I though what idiot drives a horse and cart at this time of day (must have been around half past eleven p.m.) and I prepared to hit the brakes, but it was strange as even though I wasn't travelling very fast, I kind of "hit" that cart, but at the same time, it dissolved into thin air as if it never had been there in the first place. It was like driving through an apparition. I was totally shocked. I had stopped by then and looked all around, but there was absolutely nothing there. Another one was in my house in the town centre, I used to run a B&B there but by that time, I had stopped and the house was empty. I slept in the annex to the back. I was in my room and had just switched off my lights and had another look outside onto the backyard and back of the house with the windows of the staircase visible. I could see a figure walking up the stairs, wearing something like a cloak or rain sheet over his shoulders. He was dragging his feet and seemed very tired. I waited for him to appear on the next floor window, but nothing. Needless to say, I was the only person on the premises at that time, no guests, no visitors. And I remember that guy like it was yesterday. Ypres is full of ghosts.
@jasonnicholasschwarz7788
The cart story is very chilling. Is the place still very isolated? I mean, is it still villages and farms?
Did you felt scared at that time or just brush it aside as Mere tricks of mind?
I never felt scared at all. The road where it happened is a regular, at daytime quite frequented road that connects Ypresand Zonnebeke. Tyne Cot, the biggest Commenwealth cemetery of the Great War, is nearby as well. I went there at night as well and it felt really peaceful. Unlike other cemeteries which might feel eerie. I had a strong spiritual connection to the entire area from the first day I got there, there's a sadness hanging about in places, but nothing angry or evil.@@kaycey7361
@@jasonnicholasschwarz7788
Genuinely no offense meant but maybe you soul tell your doctor 😉😉
You cannot even begin to imagine what these poor souls went through ❤.
Rarely came back the same...
All countries lost so many generations of people and probably some great men who would have changed the world for the better
This will get you. This wasn't even the most deadly wars or even had the highest number of deaths. Sad thing is the boar war's had more deaths and that's still not even close to the deadliest war in history.
That a man was still brought to tears about friends lost over 80 years prior is gut wrenching. Some wounds never heal.
@@chriscollins550
In what way was the boar war worse in terms of deaths? Can you provide facts? 👍
@@nelliedownsouth2316 more people did in the boar war's then in ww1.
When i was younger, i was enthralled and horrified by these war stories. Now I'm a man, im absolutely bloody furious that this happend, it's an absolute bloody disgrace that young men and boy were knowingly sent to be slaughtered in some kind of perverse ritual. Shame on the people responsible, may they and their families forever endure the pain they inflicted on the innocents.
But the families have nothing to do with it?
Well said!
Yes, I think this was absolutely idiotic the way they killed a whole generation of young men, I too was enthralled w it when I was younger. How stupid this was.
My heart breaks to hear them. I am so grateful for the ones who had the foresight to get their stories told before they passed on.
God Bless all military people that fight and chance giving their lives for wars they did not start.
Hearing Harry Patch talk even now is haunting, they mourn friends and feel anger at their pointless deaths. Thanks and remembrance will never be enough.
Not pointless.
@@hmq9052 How so? The whole of WWI was pointless. Britain should've stayed out of it.
@@StarshipToMarsimpossible read your history
@@bertiewooster3326 I'm perfectly aware of the history.
@@StarshipToMars Then you will know that we were caught by treaties and could not have ""stayed out""
Re: 3:30
USA-The early 1980's found me working as a janitor within a Veterans Administration hospital.
One of the patients was a man in his eighties who did not sleep well.
We talked some, he explained that the worst of his nightmares from the Great War were of the horses screaming in terror.
My great grandfather, John Dalton was killed here, my grandfather remembered his mom getting the telegram. They never found his body but hi cousin saw him go down. My grandfather fought in WW2, came back a different man, the ramifications of this have even effected my generation of the family. What was all the death and suffering for, nothing has been learnt by those in power. They were basically seen as expendable. I still feel so much sadness thinking of him being lost there.
The two world wars effected my family in the same way as yours, it is not something other people understand.
My great grandfathers, their siblings and my grandfathers and their siblings fought in ww1 and ww2 on front lines. Two died at the somme, the rest wounded multiple times but made it. I always thought my family had bad genes and were full of bad men but it turns out they had ptsd and depression from fighting. It still affects our family today. I used to resent them but now as an adult I understand and respect what they did. I'm amazed and proud of then actually. I'm also very angry that they were tricked and sent into the meat grinder.
Pawns in a game of Chess😡The flower if England face down in the Mud
What a bloody waste
Lest we forget.
Just about very rich who make money from war.
My grandad Hugh Walker(Liverpool), was killed on The Somme, July 1916, he left a widow and 3 young kids, they lived in abject poverty for many years, his name is commorated on the roll of honor in Liverpool Town Hall along with 15 thousand other men, thats not a typo, 15 thousand men from one city, may they all rest in peace.
15000... All names, all human, all had relatives. 1 city.
what a brave man and he made your city proud.
lucky ppl had kids early back then or we wouldn't be discussing this
The ww1 made my dad an orphan and the workhouse
I’m french…
My family has been established in the Marne since the 16th centuries...
8 of my ancestors on my mother's side, and 5 on my father's side, fell between 14-18 in Verdun, Craonne, Somme, Cote 60, Lorette, Mort-homme, etc... 5 of between them are decorated with the “Mort de la Grande Guerre pour la France” medal, 1 of them is decorated with the « Croix de Guerre » medal. The same goes for my wife's ancestors, who have a few more men who fell in combat. Moreover, absolutely all French families shed blood during the Great War
When we were children in the 90s, our towns and villages still bore many scars... bullet holes on the walls, memorials to the dead, grenades and shells bursting in the forest, shells left at the foot of trees, forts, abandoned bunkers, cemeteries of all nations, French, English, German, Canadian, museums, commemorative days, school visits to the trenches of La Somme, on the Butte de Vauquois or at Fort de La Pompelle, etc... and the infamous German shell embedded in the stained glass window of Reims Cathedral... the remains of WW1 were literally omnipresent and part of everyday life.
I remember among others things, hurting myself by tripping over a metal object while playing in a river in my grandmother's village, and while digging in the mud I brought out a rusty German rifle carcass. It was normal, and I immediately threw it on the bank as if nothing had happened, because the village was overflowing with war objects.
I didn't know my great-grandfather, but my great-grandmother once told us that he was strong like a giant during the day, and fragile like a child at night. She also said that the sight of fire and the smell of grilled meat sometimes made him angry, sometimes sad... in fact, he had held a line at Bois de Malancourt, and attacked with flamethrowers by the Germans, he had seen both his enemies and his friends transformed into human torches. My great-grandmother said that among all the atrocities he could have committed, suffered or seen, it was these memories of barbarity in Malancourt that haunted him the most. She had asked him how he had managed to survive, and he had told her that he had not survived and that he had died with his friends in Malancourt.
There you go, it was just the testimony of an old child who grew up on these ravaged lands.
Also, I really want to thank your British families who came to support our guys, sacrifice their youth and risk their lives in the midst of horror, for a country that was not theirs.
🇫🇷 🤝 🇬🇧
WW1 is such a massive conflict in everyone's minds because it was the first war in history where actual footage and photographs could be taken. Not only that, but a fair few veterans lived well into the modern age and could account for the horrors they'd seen to a modern generation. The conditions these men faced and the horrors they witnessed are incomparable to what any modern man I feel could endure. Cut from a different far tougher kind of cloth. Nothing but respect for these men for everything they put themselves through. I think Harry Patch summed it up best. "War is meaningless violence, nothing else"
Some even went back to fight again in ww2. Says alot about these men who gave everything for are freedom that we show very little respect for now.
Not the first war, photographs were taken during the American Civil War 1861 - 1865 but yes it was the first war where film was used of actual battles
@nigeljames5622 I didn't think of that, to be honest. Well remembered !
I fell in love with Harry ❤
This is not correct - the American civil war, 1861-1865, was the first war to be photographed vividly, accurately, and at pace with real time events. The effect was SHOCKING on the population and on how they felt about what was happening. While I will agree that widespread photographs of WWI were hugely and rightly impactful, it’s not true that it was the first time this took effect. That being said, I want to be sure to acknowledge that your comment was clearly intended to be respectful and from the right place and you made other good points.
These are utterly precious & remarkable men ❤️
Listening to these men speak of the horrors the endured has made me cry a tear or 2.
I have a 16 year old son and the thought of him living through something so horrible, so terribly futile and such a waste of so many lives chills me.
How on earth did something like this happen. Not once and not twice as war still continues to take the lives of so many . 😢
Bless these men.
These first hand accounts of WW1 are absolutely priceless. Well done. A good follow on to this is the documentary "They Shall Never Grow Old"...a great tribute to these fellas here.
Those are incredible and inspirational stories. It just shows how good we have it now. Never forget them or what they went through.
I’m ex British Army, one can’t even imagine what it was like, the term “shell shock” was coined, symptoms rarely even seen or likely to be seen, such as as the amount of ordinance fired at each other. My great grandfather was deeply affected by the 4 years he witnessed, and was troubled for the rest of his life.
Ex-Sapper did a tour in the Falklands. While there went through a divorce/separation and had a meltdown. Tour was 6 months. Was around 94
Horrible to think that could have been punishable by death if that was still a thing
@@kitkatfisher7018 yes the british army was terrible to its soldiers..like russians are to their soldiers even now
A few took their own lives after returning home. i know of 4 in one of my local cemeteries and there will be many more than 4.
Trying to understand the constant weight of fire is difficult, when opposing sides in basically fixed positions, can fire tens of millions of shells at each other.
I had the privilege of knowing a WW1 veteran, he was a family friend and was like a great grandad to me, the only time he talked about the western front was the mud and the lice, but nothing about the actual combat.
When I was a young in the eighties I can remember a old man that used to walk past my house now an again, he used to recite what he must have been talking about in battle and make the bangs of the bombs with his hands over his head, I used to be so confused about why he was doing this, it wasn't until you get older and realise what actually happened to the men.
Difficult to imagine what these men endured, even with their willingness to talk about it. Rest in Peace.
I've been at Ypres. I started my homeless trip there. Before that, an old friend took me there to Ypres and Paschendaele. We visited some museums there. Went through recreated trenches. Smelled the variety of gasses they used there. And then saw pictures and read about the result. After those gasbombs. Everything died. Not even the birds, insects and worms survived those dreadfull gasbombs. I started to feel cold, imagining the cold, the pain from trenchfoot, the silence, the mud, the fatigue, the blood, the stench, the gas, the sickness, broken trees, the trauma, all the decaying bodies, arms, legs, heads with helmets on. The constant anticipation, the bombs on the background. Bombs could strike any time and kill everyone anywhere. All for them to find out that Ypres was wiped off the earth. Everything was destroyed. Gone. Except for a few standing walls and, ruins and fundamentations.
The English proposed to leave Ypres like that, as a monument. But the remaining citizens decided different.
They built Ypres up from the ground, they really put their best efforts to rebuild it exactly as it was before WW1. Ypres looks amazing. But you can still feel the war has happened there. And not only by seeing the museums and monuments. The fear is still there. Even on the field outside town.
From there I went to the Somme. I never went to visit museums there, but you can still feel the war in that area.
WW1 was absolutely devastating.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ll eventually make it over there to visit these areas as you did.
You describe this so well. Are you a writer?
@@dominiclondesborough3222 not yet. But man, I do have some stories to tell. Maybe that's why my writings on youtube are becoming more and more extensive. I think I'm accidentally practicing to become a writer.
My grandfather was a Lewis gunner, wounded three times and gassed twice. Like Mr Bowie, the gas affected him for the rest of his life - I always remember him coughing and bringing up phlegm. However, like most of the soldiers, he never spoke of his war, but after he died we found, amongst his effects, a rosary which must have belonged to one of his pals (he himself was not a Catholic). He must have kept it secretly for 50 odd years. I wish I could have found out more about his experiences - all I could do was go to the cemeteries and battlefields of France and Belgium and be so overcome by the sheer numbers of the fallen. But at least he did come home, unlike that nameless pal of his, who was probably one of his Lewis gun team.
May God bless those brave men...
"Living on borrowed time"...that statement, said with true conviction says it all..the horrors to come that they faced..to go over the wall for the last time ..those poor boys..so much wasted youth and that generation...
The most heroic men never came back, from any war
It is wonderful that the first-hand accounts of these veterans was recorded and saved from the oblivion of lost memory. Every saved record may not guarantee we or future generations avoid mistakes anew, but they provide learning opportunities so that we might.
These are the stories that should be heard for years to come.
Forgotten wars.🙏😢.If you ask a student now.......They know nothing about WW1 WW2 Korean War,Falklands.Viet Nam,Desert Storm ad infinitum
They maybe Know a little about Hamas/Israel conflict as it's current.
But whoever said
Lest We Forget must have been joking....😢😡🇦🇺🇬🇧
Ex teacher😁
Watching this makes all of lifes issues seem insignificant.
My Grandfather was wounded twice in the war. He was in the Rainbow Division and on November 11th , someone decided to let the germans know that 'we' meant business so over the top in the morning they went. My grandfather was wounded in the leg and he limped the rest of his life. And the family story is that he laid out in the field for a very long time as everyone celebrated the armistice and he got helped the next day... Almost lost his leg but told the surgeon that he didn't want to wake up without it...
So fantastic that these unbelievable men lived such long lives, and shared with us these memoirs to never be forgotten
Give me chills when the Soldier mentioned about the face in the mud which looked like it was laughing at him!
You have to honor these men. Bless them all.
Harry patch rip...died at 111 years old, outlived 3 wives, survived Ypres...thats a soldier....definitely...the last tommie
111yrs is a grand old age & purely coincidental to 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month when WW1 ended 1918.
@@leddielive No coincidence. The elite likes to play with numbers.
@@leddielivenot a coincidence but keep being “level headed”
That ending made my shed tears, Lest we forget 😢
This is very interesting and so very sad. Thank you to all who served.
We will never forget you. Dear men.
So grateful these voices have been recorded forever, sadly the world doesn't listen and send more young people to do the same again 😢
Thank you for your service men God rest your souls 🙏
So surprised, while watching these gents speaking of their experiences & remembrances, it was as if their interviews had taken place in more recent times (even though the "math," I knew, couldn't be right), but I didn't want to acknowledge that to myself, realizing near the end, of course, that these gents had long-since passed☹️But what a wonderful tribute to them, a treasure for us today & to those in the future; their words, their faces, describing such horrible things that happened such a long, long time ago; so my compliments to those who produced this, who made me, the viewer, believe, if just for a short while, that these interviews had been conducted such a short time ago!🇺🇸
Thanks for upploding this.
A visionary series and we can only thank the makers for having the foresight to record these brave people whilst they were still alive.
Now out of living memory and at a time when any mental health issues were put down to " nerves" its sad to think these people lived the vast bulk of their lives living with the constant memory of things that no one should ever see or hear.
Brave brave men and women, made of much sterner stuff than anyone could ever be now.
Beautifully done.
This series i remember watching first time around,ive seen it many times over now im now 52 and it still leaves me with a Lump in my Throat! No other series from either world war gets me quite like this.God Bless these True Heroes from both bloody sides!.Amen.
It must’ve been terrifying knowing that you had two choices, face the huge risk of being killed on the battlefield or face the risk of being killed by your own country for not wanting to die on the battlefield
Can’t overthink it. If you do you’ll never be able to do your duty, and you might die anyways. Gotta accept your fate and prepare to go out with gusto. If you do, that will ironically also improve your odds of going home.
Crying as I watched it. Thank you.
Died for nothing history appears to repeat itselfs RIP 🙏
Imagine, fighting in a war that at that time was the most colossal bloodbath in history, for absolutely nothing, and attain a bitter victory; and that conflict spawning an even worse war 20 years later.
Well yea, think about the German soldier doing the same if not hungrier. For a bitter defeat. Whole conflict is a tragedy on all sides
WWI should never have been fought- ot was propaganda based. What did it achieve? A lousy peace that caused the next war.
Just goes to show how poisonous and destructive ultra-nationalism and demonisation of foreigners is.
My grandfather,, who became a doctor, was badly wounded in one of the major WW1 battles and I believe survived only because his brother searched for him. Died age 56 Then the brother was even more badly wounded and limped slowly all his remaining life with one leg set in the shape of a parenthesis. He became a a lawyer and judge & died in his mid-80's.
What an unimaginable crazy waste of human life...WWI was an avoidable tragedy ... leaders of countries never think about the human consequences...😢
Too right, and it’s happening again. What right does Putin have to send all those young Russians to the slaughter and to slaughter. Scary how countries can get caught up in a wave of violence.
Of course they don't. They get to sit out the whole war. Each war.
General Falkenhayn on Russian mobilisation in 1914 (giving his government a chance to declare war while claiming self defence): "Even if we perish, at least it was beautiful."
The best part is those leaders are all family members. Literally one family caused so much death in the first half of the 20th century.
@@LiT_Moose89 Not just the royal leaders like the Czar and Kaiser (George V was a constitutional monarch and the decision for war was made by parliament) but political leaders too. Like Bethmann Hollweg the unelected chancellor of Germany, Helmuth Von Moltke the German military chief of staff, the Austrian foreign minister Leopold Berchtold, and the Austrian chief of staff Conrad Von Hotzendorf.
My grandfather was by turn bayoneted and later gassed at Paschendale. He survived to marry his nurse at a convalescent hospital. Subsequently his general ill health encouraged my father to voluntarily join the RN after his 18th birthday in 1941 rather than be trench fodder. My other grandfather served on the Somme and suffered shell shock very severely, making his way back to be with the horses behind the front line on 3 occasions. He was a farm boy and that was his way of dealing with the overwhelming cacophony. His commanding officer recognised his complete incapacity and he was dishonourably discharged. Never strong, he was ultimately murdered in Avignon whilst on a trip to see his mother who was in Italy , in 1934. The tragedies of broken lives pervaded for many years after the sheer devastation caused by the Great War and posturing by Royal cousins, perpetuating itself 20 years later with Hitlers desire for revenge. The whole futility.
The 1960s BBC/IWM doco "The Great War" is also good. Most on YT, I think.
This is amazing!! ❤my heart is wheeping
..very well put together ...should be on school schedule ... for ALL 15-17 yr olds
Thank you for uploading this.. from across the Irish sea.
My Grandfather was there, and I presume suffered the same experiences, but, like most, he never spoke of them to me, his grandson. His worst medical need was trench foot in Feb 1917 so I presume he was involved in a lot of the following battles. In 1928 he emigrated to Australia never to return to Europe.
I remember - Clement James Radford 1896 - 1973 Hon Artillery Company 1st Btn. No 3404
It was amazing to listen to the stories told by these fighting Tommy's. I remember the day that Harry Patch died. I have cried listening to the Horrors that these men went through and the bonds that they form and the losses that they felt it really truly was a waste of so many young lives
J'ai déjà vu ce reportage, il est totalement émouvant, tellement d'émotions en regardant ces images, ils étaient d'incroyables Braves, ces hommes de cette atroce Grande Guerre. Tout mon respect va pour eux...
Thank you guys for posting these docs for free. You're doing a big part to help keep history alive! Thank you!
Frederick Fleet , was the lookout on RMS Titanic and spotted the Iceberg and warned the deck . He fought in a few of the worst offences in WW1 including Verdun and Yppres . He survived and also survived WW2 . Many years later he lost his wife and her brother threw him out of their home . He returned and took his own life . Up until 1985 he didnt even have a headstone , until a Titanic society raised funds to provide one . R.I.P to all these absolute legends , who would despair at what humanity has become and the lack of humility and resect .
Down the road from me is a grave stone with name of a young man 19 died at Ypres. Same South Staffs (Yeomanry) regiment as my grand dad who was same age. Grand dad survived both wars and thus i am here.
Grand dad finally passed in late 70's from dropping a Sunday roast on his foot, went septic.
No war truely stops fighting until the last veteran has passed on
These guys were something else..warm me hands 😢
It is a pity that there aren't more documentaries like this one and there were not more interviews done with WWI survivors earlier as it a fascinating subject. These men have so many interesting stories to tell.
Brave, brave men, all of them. Never forget.
I’m just in awe of these men .
My grandfather was conscripted, he talked about corpses with worms in them, therefore he wanted him and his wife to be cremated. The poor horses stranding in mud he also told us. He lost brothers in that war.
My Grandfather served at Cantigny, Belleau Wood and the final Spring Offensive in 1918. He lost vision in one eye due to an infection in the deplorable conditions.
The horrors he witnessed were with him until he passed in his 80's.
"I didn't want to go but it was a case of had to. I had no inclination to fight anybody. I mean why should I go oout and kill somebody I never knew, for what reason? There's no reason at all in my way of thinking". You and a billion other guys Mr. Patch.
Thank you so much for the work put into this amazing video. Very interesting hearing the experience these ol boys had. This was well done.
You would never find courage, bravery, and pride like that today, sadly.
My English grandfather was blinded by mustard gas in WWI. Fortunately he recovered so well that when he emigrated to Australia he was fit enough to join the Victorian Police Force.
My Grandfather was gassed with his unit while they were building a bridge over a creek ,the gas was on the water in like a mist.Poor fellows we're standing in the water. Their skin blistered.He suffered with that until he died in his 80s.
One off the saddest sights of my life was at the Imperial War Museum, where John Singer Sargent's epic painting "Gassed" shows what he himself saw: a line of haggard young men with bandaged eyes , helplessly clinging to one another as they are led to an aid station. Respect for the men who served is also paid by those who demand an end to war, and I write this as a veteran of the Army Medical Corps.
Its amazing that they all lived over 100 years
‘Thank you’ seems such an understatement for the sacrifice they made. I hope they knew how much we thought of them.. such heroes and the same for those poor animals especially the horses that must have been terrified. It breaks my heart to think of all the horrors of ww1 and ww2. We will never see such brave heroes as these men and animals again, I pray we never need to. Sleep peacefully and thank you “all gave some and some gave all”x
To think that many of these men that actually survived WW1 went on to fight in WW2. True heroes whether they felt scared to death or not they were heroes.
God bless every single one of them . All heros , even if they didnt want to be . We can never understand what they lived through , or the horrors they witnessed .
The sheer age these men lived to be is incredible. 103, 105, 105, 101, 111, 113!
3:40 I always think of the poor horses. It was one thing for all those men to be in that position but at least they understood what they were doing there. The noise of the cannons must have terrified all those poor horses. 😢
This is heartbreaking to watch. And yet I feel we've learned nothing.
Imagine being able to say “flying and piloting was pretty new at that point” and in the same lifetime watch a UA-cam video. Astounding
...an excellent video, wonderful, thank you for posting!🇺🇸
My Grandfather fought at Ypres (the battle of passchendaele) as a teenager (Born in 1898).
I never had the chance to meet him as he died 20 years before I was born.
As a Ukrainian, I found this series of documentary just fascinating. Astonishing. And why did I mentioned my nationality- because in Ukraine, in time of my childhood, we barely had any veterans from WW2 left alive, not even to talk to anyone, who fought in previous wars. Partially because communism eliminated those, who fought in the Great War. Even more, that stupid regime erased any „unmatching“ history and heritage. Of course, topping that WW2 itself took a great harvest of people’s lifes on the territories of contemporary Ukraine. So, again, I appreciate so so much to listen to those voices of witnesses, as well as to read comments of people, telling about their family members.
l think Andrew died in a care home near me in fleet Hampshire my daughter lives there nice town god bless Andrew thank you and all the boys
I07 yrs later, I personally will not forget you all.
May you all find rest now.🙏
RIP lads, heroes through and through, Thank you for your bravery and service.
They should have stayed at home, everyone would have been much better off.
really? stayed at home till the fight lands on the doorstep? Do not take away the bravery of those who went forward, defended the invaded lands and potentially the land they came from.
@@paulellam6926 There was no danger of a German invasion of Great Britain in 1914, the efforts of the UK should have been in mediating a peace agreement between the belligerent powers. As it was the whole of Europe stumbled into a massively destructive war that had no good outcome at all, it lead to an even more destructive war 20 years later and was the beginning of the decline of western civilization.
@43:48 Well said that man
It's not discussed much, but during and after a big war, the medical science takes a step or two forward because doctors at the front not only gained great experience but, though emergency experimentations, learned new techniques. I've seen some of the medical publications from during and just after the war and it's truly horrifying.
My great aunt's fiance was killed at Passchendaele. She remained unmarried until she died in the mid-1980s
She was just one of a legion of women forced into that situation. I met one or two on starting work in the 80’s. It was an aspect of the time.
My grandfather was an ‘old contemptable’, he four in every major battle from August 1914. Bayonetted, gassed twice. Whilst on sick leave he met my grandmother in Kent. They were married for 70 years.
They were ‘lions led by donkeys’.
Thanks 🙏
I'm glad horses are no longer needed in wars, hate to think about all the horses being in the middle of wars for so many years, since the beginning of mankind and warfare pretty much until vehicles were widespread
My great grandfather fought in ww1. His commanding officer was also an animal lover and would ask how many men and how many horses were lost? They were told at one point not to waste the bullets on the horses. They disobeyed because they couldn't stand the thought of leaving them to die in the mud. Our last name means "the horse lords" in Gaelic. It was one of the few stories passed down about that war I heard from my dad.
God Bless these men, their souls, and their memory. I know that I'll remember them for the rest of my days, and I'm making sure my American children know of them and what they did.
My Great, Great Uncle, Private Alfred J Steadman, was killed on 9th October 1917 in an attack to capture Polderhoek Chateau. He has no known grave and is listed on the memorial to the missing at Tyne Cot Cemetery.
They had more minerals than anyone, you cannot begin to imagine the horror they went through. Rest easy gentlemen
Lyn Macdonald wrote a series of books about the major British battles of the First World War. She mixes Regimental histories with personal testimonies. Very moving accounts.
Very well done this makes me wounder how and what my great grandfather went through in the great war
Thank you