American Reacts to Visiting the LARGEST Military Cemetery in France

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  • @pubsapass1214
    @pubsapass1214 Місяць тому +136

    And after that, many americans still call french army the cowards. I'm sure those millions soldiers family appreciate that...

    • @aceathor
      @aceathor Місяць тому +1

      21 years after that 2nd war, the worst !

    • @Janzius1
      @Janzius1 Місяць тому

      ​@@aceathorItalians more worst

    • @eiramg
      @eiramg Місяць тому

      Actually all this french are cowards things started in the 2000s when France refused to take part to Irak invasion, like many other countries because there was no evidence linking Saddam and al qaeda and it was probably an excuse to get access to the petrol. Invading Irak was thus seen as inhuman. But of course, US president Bush, the pouting baby, couldn t accept that and decided to react like a child and say that French were all cowards. Which, knowing history, is false

    • @bayamonterenaud8683
      @bayamonterenaud8683 Місяць тому +14

      We don't care ! the people who say that have no culture, we're not going to get angry with ignorant people !

    • @LtVlads
      @LtVlads Місяць тому +8

      Thanks from France.
      My grand-grand father (on my mother side) died on the "Chemin des Dames"
      An other grand-grandfather (on my father side) survived Verdun.
      On WW2, one of my grandfather fight germans, helped à bit the resistance in 1940 and spend the rest of the war in the STO (barely deported), the other participated to the liberation, capturing two germans soldiers at 14 😁

  • @jean-pierrecharpentier2546
    @jean-pierrecharpentier2546 Місяць тому +105

    France has 38,000 towns and villages, all of which have a war memorial commemorating the deaths of servicemen from 1914/1918. Fewer than 5 villages have no deceased soldiers.

    • @cannadodry7022
      @cannadodry7022 Місяць тому +9

      As a french, i say let them underestimate us. They will see why we hold the military victory record...

    • @frantz51
      @frantz51 Місяць тому +3

      and some of them were purely and simply erased forever. I live in the ancient Red Zone near 4 of them, still chilling to drive through, there's nothing left, not a single stone. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villages_fran%C3%A7ais_d%C3%A9truits_durant_la_Premi%C3%A8re_Guerre_mondiale

    • @jean-pierrecharpentier2546
      @jean-pierrecharpentier2546 Місяць тому +3

      @@frantz51 I have a relative who died at Bois Le Chaume, north of Douaumont, near a village that no longer exists. His body was never found.......

    • @frantz51
      @frantz51 Місяць тому +1

      @@jean-pierrecharpentier2546 sad to hear. His body and soûl is part of the place forever.

    • @lirikeaz-dreugi2511
      @lirikeaz-dreugi2511 Місяць тому +3

      @@frantz51 J'suis allé visité étant plus jeune, reste meme pas un cailloux. Que des cratères et des arbres.

  • @tacfoley4443
    @tacfoley4443 Місяць тому +32

    More than 10,000 heroic French soldiers died defending the WW2 retreat to the beaches at Dunkirk. They sacrificed their lives so that some could escape to England and carry on the fight against the nazis. Nobody will call the French cowards in MY hearing.

    • @ombrepourpre7562
      @ombrepourpre7562 Місяць тому +5

      And for the very few who as try to go with the English? Well, the English as said them "thank you" in pushing them in water from the boat, to be certain to run the first.
      The French soldier in England where also asked to take the worst and most dangerous roles, given almost no food, and treat like sh*t.
      Then you learn about what have happened to the French warship in Algeria port city under the kind administration of English fleet. When they were in the know of the "not so secrets order" to flee for USA if German were trying to take the ships. Or the traitor gvt of Petain asked to work for the German.
      Etc, etc...

  • @SkinnyObelix
    @SkinnyObelix Місяць тому +28

    In total numbers WWII was worse than WWI but what people outside the region often don't understand is how small the battlefield on the western front was and that it didn't move for 4 years. Where I live in Belgium, 1.5 million people died in a strip of land you can walk across in 20 minutes. We have a weekly bomb truck that goes around collecting unexploded ordnance like a trash collector. You don't even call when you find bombs if they're smaller than a 2l coke bottle, you just carefully place them by the side of the road (or in telephone poles) for pickup. My sister found the remains of a German soldier as a kid playing in our garden. There's a massive building, The Menin Gate, filled with 54,896 names of commonwealth soldiers whose bodies never been recovered. Every evening at 8pm the street going under the gate is close and the Last Post is played to remember them, every night except during the German occupation in WWII. The day that part of town was liberated, the ceremonies resumed, despite they were still fighting down the road. As schoolchildren, we adopt a grave and maintain it, and people here are still extremely grateful for what those men did.

    • @chean1815
      @chean1815 Місяць тому +2

      I've been to the Menin gate for the Last Post ceremony. It's an incredible place and the ceremony is an incredible experience.

  • @bombbyxpapillon7371
    @bombbyxpapillon7371 Місяць тому +31

    i'm french, all the men of my family fight in that war, only 2 survived, and they were called gueules cassées" (broken mouth ?) on of them commit suicide in 1930 and the other was crazy but dies in 1940. In cemetery there all the men who died in battles, but not the ones who died after because of it

    • @nikline60
      @nikline60 Місяць тому +3

      "broken face" than mouth. C était une expression pour les défiguré.

  • @olivierklein762
    @olivierklein762 Місяць тому +73

    Over 1,3 million french soldiers died during WW1, an entire generation, every town or village, every family had casualties.

    • @CROM-on1bz
      @CROM-on1bz Місяць тому +13

      And more than 5 million injured, eight hundred thousand missing, it is difficult to get an idea given such figures.

    • @alainprostbis
      @alainprostbis Місяць тому +4

      its actually at least 1 .5 million

    • @dianacasey6002
      @dianacasey6002 Місяць тому +7

      Same in Scotland I never knew anyone who had not lost a direct descendant including me. My grandfather died at the Somme.

    • @dianacasey6002
      @dianacasey6002 Місяць тому +2

      @@first-dooblette6911 I cannot watch anything on the first WW without tearing up. I know the sorrow the loss of these young men meant to ppl. It changed ppl lives forever it also was why the NH came about as they found poor ppl were so ill fed and unfit that they couldn’t even pass the medical for the armed forces. The tragedy of the war was felt for generations in Scotland.

    • @inhocsignovinces1327
      @inhocsignovinces1327 Місяць тому

      1.3 millions is the number that has been told in 1919/20. Today, after several works on finding a lot of missed dead soldiers, historians accord to say that at least 1,5 millions of them died. Some even say more. Adding to this 4,2 millions injured.

  • @patriciagousset2884
    @patriciagousset2884 Місяць тому +13

    My great-grandfather fought in the 14/18 war. He was wounded by a shell during the Battle of the Somme. He came back at the age of 20 with both legs amputated, his lungs badly damaged by gas...and half-mad (at the time, we didn't talk about post-traumatic stress disorder). He committed suicide at the age of 33... We had to fight to have his name inscribed on the local war memorial...We can visit trenches in which the life of the "poilus" was recreated, that's how these fighters were nicknamed... But we can't imagine what these men experienced, especially in winter with the cold, mud, bombings and hunger... War in all its horror.

  • @MrCracou
    @MrCracou Місяць тому +24

    Close to my house, in France, 100 years after, we still have "la zone rouge". Definition: "damage to agriculture 100%, damage to buildings, 100%. Heavily Polluted. Poisoned. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible".

  • @CROM-on1bz
    @CROM-on1bz Місяць тому +25

    Entire areas are still uninhabitable due to the pollution caused by gas shells and unexploded shells, not more than 2 or 3 days ago a giant WW1 munitions dump was discovered a few kilometers from this cemetery. When we know that just in Verdun more than 80 million shells were fired we can imagine the rear dumps containing hundreds of thousands of munitions.

    • @jacquesterrier4700
      @jacquesterrier4700 Місяць тому +1

      The red zone.

    • @CROM-on1bz
      @CROM-on1bz Місяць тому +1

      @@jacquesterrier4700 yes.

    • @tillposer
      @tillposer Місяць тому +1

      When walking or biking around Arras, or other areas of the Zone Rouge, my wife has a knack for spotting old ammunition in the paths and fields, lots of fun. Last time we were there, we stumbled upon a British 6" howizer shell, completely intact with its fuze near Bullecourt, and a stack of British 5" shells near Beaumont-Hamel. A nice change from the ubiquitous 18-pounder shrapnell shells. The British Army fired 3.5 million shells in the week before the Battle of Arras, and something like that during the Battle. It'll take another 200 years for that to be cleared.

    • @CROM-on1bz
      @CROM-on1bz Місяць тому

      @@tillposer It is really difficult to realize the number of cannons, I believe that during an offensive which extended over a hundred km wide a cannon was positioned every 21 meters and they fired without stopping for several weeks, I do not even want to try to calculate the number of shells necessary.

    • @tillposer
      @tillposer Місяць тому

      @@CROM-on1bz The front of the Battle of Arras, which included the Battle of Vimy, was about 30 - 35 km, from Souchez to Bullecourt. This makes the bombardement even more concentrated. My grandfather was in the line, at the small island in the Scarpe during the Semaine de Souffrance, the week of suffering, and his memoirs paint a horriffic picture, the impacts coming so close together that the ground under his small bunker liquefying and the concrete structure sliding....

  • @zarg64
    @zarg64 Місяць тому +14

    « La guerre, un massacre de gens qui ne se connaissent pas, au profit de gens qui se connaissent mais ne se massacrent pas. » Paul Valéry
    And the leaders of some of the world's major countries would like to start wars once again for the profit of the world's great fortunes. They all know each other, they all rub shoulders, they all shake hands and smile at each other at cocktail parties, and they all send the poor to fight for their own profit...

  • @bartverhelst4115
    @bartverhelst4115 Місяць тому +11

    My great-grandfather was at the Western Front for 4 years during WW1 (close to Ypres) and survived without injuries.
    Never spoken a word about that time.
    Approx 9 million Soldiers and 8 million civilians lost their lives…
    Even now they still find remains.
    Recently a Belgian soldier was found (well, parts of his gear and a ring)
    And the amount of munition that is still not retrieved from the soil is insane…

  • @HisuiOgawa
    @HisuiOgawa Місяць тому +8

    As someone who lost almost every male members of my family who where of age to WWI and WWII, I never take well the whole "yeah French are good at surrendering" joke. The only 2 survivors in my family that I'm aware of were either too young to actually see battle (becoming of age shortly before the war ended) or came back so heavily mutilated that he lived in pain for a dozen years before finally passing (he was missing a foot from frostbite in the trenches and the lower half of his face because of artillery fire, among other things).
    I've seen someone else mention it in the comment but look up "gueules cassées", which was the nickname given to surviving French soldiers after WWI because of the wounds they'd suffered.
    And on the subject of shell casing, it's not rare to still find stuff in the areas where fighting occured. People tend to forget it, but parts of France were litteraly leveled by explosions of various sizes during WWI and WWII, burying and scattering everything.

  • @didierlacroix6488
    @didierlacroix6488 Місяць тому +9

    I'm a 65 years old French guy. To this day I still mourn the loss of 2 great grand fathers and grand uncle from WW1. 2 have known graves, one is still MIA, presumed dead. To put WW1 in context, at the declaration of war in1914, France drafted 4 million men to fight on the western front ( from the North sea to Switzerland). at the end of the war and victory, we had lost 1,4 million dead casualties. To this day, according to official records, 800000 of our soldiers are still missing in action with no known graves. Between 50 and 100 are recovered every year . a tiny few are identified. every French family has lost a father, a son, brother, cousin, etc... there is a monument in every whatever small village to honor the fallen.

    • @jeroenvangastel9079
      @jeroenvangastel9079 Місяць тому

      Damm so many missing still, thanks for sharing Grtz from the Netherlands 🇳🇱

  • @AlexLafayeteDigitalCreator
    @AlexLafayeteDigitalCreator Місяць тому +10

    one of most symbolic visits in France about WWII is visit Oradour sur Glane an entire village burnst by the nazis

  • @TOMCATnbr
    @TOMCATnbr Місяць тому +2

    As french, i'm happy that finally americans begin to realise how much the french soldiers fought for their ground. Not only in WW1, but also in during WW2. In 4 week in 1940, french lost more than 50000 soldiers (more than 1400 dead per day). Then can't be coward ! YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO CALL THEM COWARD !! They fought like lions. Like they fought bravely during WW1, like they fought bravely in 1870, or during Napoleonic war, or the 100 years war, or in Indochina, Korea, etc.
    Almost every city, down to the smallest village in France have a stele with name of soldiers or civilians who died during WW1 or 2. Almost every french family had lost someone during the great war or had someone who fought during WW1.
    I'm so proud of my country and of those who have fought and still fight for him today. I'm happy to see that videos like this one, finally give to the french soldiers the respect they deserved.

  • @roumiaou
    @roumiaou Місяць тому +14

    ... speechless, kinda sobbing. Cause it's the same history repeating all over the world & many won't be buried. We haven't evolved. At all.

  • @athanase6613
    @athanase6613 Місяць тому +15

    Thank you, Charlie, for this reaction.
    Just to tell you a story my father told me. After the Great War, many surviving soldiers set up veterans' associations to promote peace. My father's uncle, a big guy who fought in the trenches, was with other veterans when the Second World War was announced. All these men, proud and courageous, wept that evening, cursing men and their follies.
    When I went to this region of eastern France where there are military cemeteries everywhere, French, German or British, I couldn't shake the idea of ​​the incredible waste that was made here.
    I am french, 62 years old and have not had to experience war to this day. I hope for generations to come that war will not return to Europe.
    Take care of yourself

    • @LudwigRohf
      @LudwigRohf Місяць тому

      Moi je suis allemand et je vous remerci pour votre contribution. Ma grandmere a eu une entfant pendant la 2me guerre mondial. Elle n' a jamais parler de ça. Je suis trop jeunne et je ne connais personne ce qui ce rapelle du 1ère guerre mondial.
      Si je regarde les tombes avec les noms comme Hans-Werner Leclerc ou Jean-François Müller je me demande seulement "pourquoi?".
      J'espère que nous allons etre plus intelligent.

    • @athanase6613
      @athanase6613 Місяць тому

      @@LudwigRohf C'est notre devoir collectif !

    • @ombrepourpre7562
      @ombrepourpre7562 Місяць тому

      Sadly to late for that now.
      History as the bad habit to make loop. Even more for the bad part of history. We have short memorie. Or more exactly leader have.

  • @paulhadfield7909
    @paulhadfield7909 Місяць тому +18

    the french farmers often dig up dead soldiers remains, then they are moved to military cemetaries

    • @1986kikoolol
      @1986kikoolol 3 дні тому

      And for a long time unfortunately, they dig up unexploded bomb and shells.

  • @benjaminlamey3591
    @benjaminlamey3591 Місяць тому +10

    just one of the military cemetaries along the front line. almost every village along these 800km has its one. maybe not that huge, but still. We still take care of it. we cannot afford to forget that, else it will restart one way or another.
    the amount of young guys named Richard Jones or Francois Fabre, that appear on these walls is crazy ...

    • @schelfie1986
      @schelfie1986 Місяць тому +1

      A lot of those cemeteries and monuments here in Belgium and France (including the one one in this video) are now UNESCO World heritage, btw...
      en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funerary_and_memory_sites_of_the_First_World_War_(Western_Front)
      The list is huge (almost 140 cemeteries and monuments) and it's not even all of them that are present in both countries...

  • @olivierhFR
    @olivierhFR Місяць тому +10

    4:27 In France we have a huge number of monuments to the dead of the First World War in most of the villages in France. It is a real human tragedy like any war at any time no matter who makes war for any Hippocratic reason I am not talking about the civilian or military population but the political one who makes heavy decisions for "good" or bad reasons (I also include all the armed groups, pseudo religion or not) it is always a tragedy, a dead person remains a dead person and it remains just sad and useless
    There will always be manipulation of people somewhere unconscious or conscious.

  • @cellevangiel5973
    @cellevangiel5973 Місяць тому +1

    In Belgium we have military cemeteries all over, Belgian, British, German, American, French, all of them. But on the menen Gate in Ieper there are the names of 70.000 British which have no known grave. MIA, just disappeared, blown to pieces, sunk in the mud.

  • @marcbroeckx-hm7it
    @marcbroeckx-hm7it Місяць тому +8

    IN the First World War 17 million people died including 7 million civilians and 10 million soldiers. That is as many as the Dutch population now to pause for a moment to remember so many dead. Yesterday, November 11, an international commemoration was held in Belgium at the Menin Gate in Ypres with the “The Last Post” which has been played there every day by bugles since 1928 with the exception during the Second World. War below is a link. ua-cam.com/video/nSOQr39syi8/v-deo.html

  • @tillposer
    @tillposer Місяць тому +3

    There are 1,100 British cemetaries in the Pas de Calais and the Ypres area alone, from those with a few graves to those with thousands...

    • @Svarog11
      @Svarog11 Місяць тому +2

      J'habite en Picardie, dans la Somme. Chez nous, on sait le prix du sang qu'on versé les britanniques.
      Même en tant que français et donc vieil ennemi de l'Angleterre, je ne peux m'empêcher de témoigner de l'infini respect que j'ai pour ces hommes tombés au champ d'honneur.
      God save the king.
      I live in Picardy, in the Somme. At home, we know the price of the blood that the British shed.
      Even as a Frenchman and therefore an old enemy of England, I cannot help but express the infinite respect I have for these men who fell on the field of honor.
      God save the king.

  • @FloSinFlosin28
    @FloSinFlosin28 Місяць тому +3

    As a teen, I visited the ossuary of Douaumont near Verdun, that shelters the remains of nearly 130 000 people. 40 years after, I still have that weird feeling in my guts when I think about it...

  • @rorschch12
    @rorschch12 Місяць тому +7

    So I went to find my Great uncle a few years back and like some half a million soldiers on both sides he is a Name on a wall. I went to a place called Tyne Cot IIRC it has something like 10000 graves as you walk in they have a recording of all the names of the buried there. The thing is that well over half of the graves just say "Here lies a Soldier of the Great War Known Only To God".

  • @brunol-p_g8800
    @brunol-p_g8800 Місяць тому +3

    The lantern tower is illuminated at night, the light rotates at 5 rotations per minutes and can be seen for kilometres. It is to guide the souls of the dead.
    There is also an ossuary under it.
    But remember, while this one is the biggest in France, there are hundreds of other burial places holdings tens of thousands of French soldier from WW1.
    France lost two entire generations of men, only the old and children were left, and the few survivors and crippled after the war.

  • @sitbone3
    @sitbone3 Місяць тому +4

    Don't forget, the Donald considers these men "suckers and losers."

    • @jean-luchochart6960
      @jean-luchochart6960 Місяць тому

      Décidément,vous êtes TOTALEMENT soumis aux délires idiots que Kamala Harris,les démocrates américains ainsi que les médias de gauche ont pu raconter sur Donald Trump!
      Donald Trump a même rendu hommage au courageux gendarme Arnaud Beltrame devant Macron qui,lui,ne l'avait fait.
      Cessez de dire des conneries!

  • @daphnelovesL
    @daphnelovesL Місяць тому +6

    or the title when youtube deleted the link: the title: VE Day | Canadian Veterans Celebrated in The Netherlands

  • @estellebegon1622
    @estellebegon1622 Місяць тому +2

    I think the village of Ouradour-Sur-Glane could be of interest to many people who want to learn a little more about what French villages have been through, but I wouldn't recommend it for the faint-hearted.

  • @karnashhero6102
    @karnashhero6102 Місяць тому

    Thanks for this video, i'm french and i have visiting this cemetery a long time ago. November 11 is the day we commemorate those who fell in combat during the First World War, I often make the trip to lay flowers on the grave of my great-grandfather who fought during this war.

  • @Meggimagine
    @Meggimagine Місяць тому

    The Père Lachaise cemetary in Paris has a wall spanning the whole length of the resting place on the side of the Ménilmontant boulevard. On it was inscribed all the names of the dead or MIA parisian soldiers from WW1. The memorial is for the whole war, but the total number of names is of 102,415, again just for Paris. You can find some pictures of it on the internet. I took my time scanning through all the names placed there in alphabetical order. It was gut-wrenching.

  • @Tyu-f1s
    @Tyu-f1s Місяць тому +3

    8:05 and don't forget, there was no vegetation left, so it was even easier to watch (see?) everything, no "we will progress in the wood", cause, there was no wood left
    19:59 in 1909, the Tour de France was a bit rougher than today: no paved road, very primitive bikes, no assistance (or fery few, i don't remember when it was purely "solitary", meaning that even if you felt and someone helped you, it was fordidden) so it was more than an elite athlete
    Kipling: his son had very bad eyesight and was refused by the military several times because of that. Kipling was very militaristic and used his influence to get his son enrolled. Well, when the son died, he was way more antiwar (and his grave was identified only in 1991)
    And 40.000 is 2/3 of the total loss of the US during the Viet Nam war (60.000), fench army lost more than 25000 men, on ONE day, aougust 22 1914

  • @mathis.docquier
    @mathis.docquier Місяць тому +3

    in ONE war france lost more man then the USA in all the war they participated combined.
    so it is nonsensical for peoples to say the french were coward during the war that followed, the wound was still there and still is in a sense.

  • @EverShy_
    @EverShy_ Місяць тому +2

    There are cemeteries for both world wars in France. But also memorials and museums.
    If you don't know much about the world wars I would definitely recommend watching videos about the history of World War I and World War II. And also what life was like under German occupation.

  • @NiallBradley-pg6ge
    @NiallBradley-pg6ge 29 днів тому

    My father and I were at a World War 1 cemetery near Arras, France when I saw Notre Dame de Lorette on the hill and wondered what it was. We visited at the end of a day, so didn't have long enough to properly explore. But the place is huge! I needed to know how huge, so I went to one end. I was young and fit and can walk at a pretty fast pace. It took me 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other. 10 minutes of passing rows of crosses. 120 crosses every row. A new row every 3 strides. Plus the ossuaries. It is always the ossuaries that hit me the worst. Plus the graves with no name.

  • @gambapuirida6216
    @gambapuirida6216 Місяць тому

    From the then France 39 millions of people in 1914, by 1918:
    1.4 million soldiers were officially killed in action,
    0.4 million soldiers were missing in action,
    and 4.2 millions were military wounded.
    Lately, some historians have revised these numbers to:
    2.0 millions soldiers killed, 0.7 million missing.
    Between 70k and 100k of the soldiers killed in action were from the then French colonies.

  • @vanessa.federspiel
    @vanessa.federspiel Місяць тому

    Thanks for watching and remembering our painfull history, here in europe, and the poor fall soldiers of africa too who were far from there home.

  • @laurabel1724
    @laurabel1724 Місяць тому

    My great grandfathers fought during the WWI and came back like ghosts. They were ordinary men who ended up in hell, one came back three years after the end of the war with legs heavily wounded by shells and ptsd, he had been buried alive by a blast for a ling moment and came back with brain damages. The others had been gased in the trenches and were left disabled at the end of the war.
    Only one of my great grandfathers fought during the WWII, he ended up as a POW in germany and came back years after the end of the war with tuberculosis. He died only a few years later.
    No family was left untouched by those wars.

  • @MrTibidibidi
    @MrTibidibidi Місяць тому +2

    Hello from France, FYI : 36% of the french men aged 19-22 yo in 1914 were killed. And thank you for 6-6-1944. :-)

    • @Svarog11
      @Svarog11 Місяць тому

      Respect à ces hommes, sans problème. Mais merci, je suis pas certain.

  • @micade2518
    @micade2518 Місяць тому +3

    Novmber 11th that you Americans call "Veterans' Day" is in fact the Anniversary of the 1914-1918 Armistice Day.
    WWI was nicknamed "the butchery" as "The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from around 15 to 22 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.
    The French army suffered around 6 million casualties, including 1.4 million dead and 4.2 million wounded, roughly 71% of those who fought.
    Casualties (source Wikipedia):
    USA: 117 000
    GB & Ireland: 1.350,000
    Russia : 2,311,000 to 2,754,369
    And many more countries!
    WWI moves me deeply becaus it was the last war when the enemies could actually see eye-to-eye.
    There is this excellent film about a spontaneous Christmas truce that brought a little light in the hell that was the trench combats. When the Armies General Staff heard of it, they had all the participants to that moment of Humanity shot for example!!! Watch and enjoy: "Christmas Truce of World War I -- Joyeux Noel [2005 film]" - Vanaze

  • @EvaHellN
    @EvaHellN 5 днів тому

    I am living here .. every village have one or two military cimetery. thank you for being interested

  • @sandre_sandre
    @sandre_sandre Місяць тому

    Some regions where WWI combats took place are littered with shell cases, bullets, etc. even today. You randomly put your hand in the dirt and you come back with some nearly each time. And the rare pre-war buildings there are covered with impacts. WWI was a slaughterhouse in France. Even if it was mainly a trenched war located in northeast France, almost every village from Lille to Marseille, from Brest to Strasbourg, from Bordeaux to Lyon have its own commemorative monument filled with names. Modern France litterally grew from the blood of this sacrified generation. That's war.

  • @guillaumedarras
    @guillaumedarras Місяць тому

    The little green schrapnel is a part of the copper driving band.

  • @Svarog11
    @Svarog11 Місяць тому +1

    Merci de rendre hommage à nos ancêtres.
    Je vous salut depuis la Picardie.

  • @tillposer
    @tillposer Місяць тому

    16:12 All the time. Especially in spring, the number of shranell shells, both expended and intact, around 30% of all shells fired were duds, is staggering. It'll take another 200 years to clear most of the ordnance, that is an estimate by the French authorities. Nothing enlivens a pleasant stroll through the French countryside so much as finding a 155 mm shell be the path, fuze and all...

  • @christophe77700
    @christophe77700 Місяць тому

    1.4 million deaths. The land of France is covered with cemeteries of this type, to which are added, in the cemeteries of each village, each town, military squares, which bring together dead soldiers from these towns. And of course, there remain the missing, the bodies which have not yet been found 110 years later and which the earth returns little by little, by bringing bodies partially to the surface. Finally, each village or town has a war memorial on which the names of the dead from the place are engraved.

  • @1986kikoolol
    @1986kikoolol 3 дні тому

    Nothing good is born from war. I visit Vimy Lorette when I was a child with school, i found a grave, the name on the stone was the exact same name of one my friend. I was breathless for a few minutes...
    That was terrifying. We must remember all of this. Hope this will never happend again.

  • @pauldurkee4764
    @pauldurkee4764 Місяць тому

    Most of the cemeteries are in a relatively small area in france, they indicate four years of mainly static warfare.

  • @gillessotty8156
    @gillessotty8156 Місяць тому

    Immense Merci de France... Avoir compris que sur notre territoire ont eut lieu tellement de guerres et de morts.....
    Merveilleuse vidéo pour l'histoire

  • @tillposer
    @tillposer Місяць тому

    1:34 Notre Dame de Lorette (pronounced lo-ret) above Souchez is more or less on a hill occupied by the German in 1914 during the line consolidation after the First Battle of the Marne. In the, at that time improvised, trench warfare between the French and German armies a horrific number of men died in this little eddy of the war, somtimes the survivors fighting standing on the improvised burial sites of their comrades. The Germans gave it the nickname "der Totenhügel", the hillock of the dead. The area is wonderful, now. Biking from Arras via Neuville-St.Vaast over Mount Saint Eloi and Ablain-Saint Nazaire to Notre Dame de Lorette and back via Souchez, Givenchy and the hights of Vimy down to the Scarpe is a trip well worth making, but it is bloody ground all the way. My grandfather was there in 1917.
    WWI was for the Allies the much more traumatic war, compared to WWII. France, with a population of just 40 million at the beginning of the war, lost 1.395 million men, the UK, at that time including Ireland, had a population of 41 million and lost 890.000 men. And it was the end of an era. For WWII the figures are 210.000 military and 390.000 civillian losses, out of 42 million for France, and 383.700 military and 67.200 civillian losses out of 48 million for the UK.
    To put it into perspective, Germany had 2 million military and around 600.000 civilian losses out of a population of 65 million in WWI, in WWII it was, numbers vary, around 5.3 million miltary and around 2 million civillian losses out of 70 million. For Germany WWII eclipses WWI to the point that is barely known. This is not so in England and France...

  • @kepoine
    @kepoine Місяць тому

    I was born and raised there, amazing to see this

  • @aureliusvictor4285
    @aureliusvictor4285 Місяць тому

    Notre Dame-de-Lorette is not the largest Military Cemetery in France (39.985 French of which 19.998 are buried in 7 massgraves) + 64 Russian, 1 Belgian and 1 Romanian soldiers. The one that contains the most bodies being the German Military Cemetery of Neuville Saint-Vaast, containing the bodies of 44.833 German soldiers (WW I) and of which 8.040 are buried in one massgrave. It is also not far from the French cemetery.

  • @conallmclaughlin4545
    @conallmclaughlin4545 Місяць тому

    All this mans videos are brilliant! Worth checking him out

  • @ML-oq8cu
    @ML-oq8cu Місяць тому

    You should definitly watch ''loss of life during ww1 visualised'' by real life lore
    It's really eye opening and it s a relly good way to understand why thing happened as they did during ww2

  • @graadlon
    @graadlon Місяць тому +1

    And that's why France didn't fight till the end during the second WW .... They were traumatised... Not 20 years after the butchery that was the first one they had to fight another one? Yeah nah...

    • @thomas.m2250
      @thomas.m2250 Місяць тому +2

      Except they did fight till the end...France had 1millions soldier invading Germany in 44/45 alongside with the rest of the allies

  • @AlexLafayeteDigitalCreator
    @AlexLafayeteDigitalCreator Місяць тому

    i m french Arras is near to my department north and i m born in 1965 just 20 years aftend second world war II. When i was young i m shocked by a fact in all houses you got the marks of bullet in the walls in the rooms and also in furniture.......

  • @Jeni10
    @Jeni10 Місяць тому

    The remains of the church wouldn’t have been a Cathedral. Most Cathedrals are the hub of a diocese because that Cathedral is also the home of the Archbishop or the appointed Cardinal. Cathedra means the official chair of the Bishop.

  • @DidierB2
    @DidierB2 Місяць тому +1

    my grand-grand father was killed by german in 1915 and is now buried in cemetary of notre Dame de Lorette
    my grand father was POW by geman in 1939, my grand mother and my father stayed alone for 6 years during WW2
    grand mother of my wife had some blue numbers tatooed on his arm, for act of resistance
    my father went to Maroc and tunisia for 28 months and came back with a bullet in his leg (still here today)
    I and my son never ever had to go for war....thanks to EUROPE UNION

  • @juliebird5307
    @juliebird5307 Місяць тому

    WW1 was horrific, the number of military and civilian casualties was enormous. In total there was 15.5 million dead and 21 million injured. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars, unfortunately the power hungry never learn.

  • @georges6580
    @georges6580 Місяць тому

    "I wonder if there are still tunnels under there."
    Yes. Absolutly. Old escape tunnels from the middle ages or new ones from the 20th century wars. But given there state & the fact that unexploded ordance pierced through the ground, we just had to seal them.
    We digged under my college to create a music studio behind a wine cellar in St-Nazaire, teachers & students, and came accross 2 undetonnated bombs, one 250 pounds and the other 500 pounder. It was the only building standing for hundreds of meters around, because these two failed. Deminers blew safely away in shallow waters offshore the harbor.
    The occupation of this port city was where some of the main flotillas of U-Boot pens where built. Heavyly armored over time.
    And it was about 150 meters from where my school was created. It's a miracle they didn't blew up right there and then.

  • @gerbentvandeveen
    @gerbentvandeveen Місяць тому +1

    I bin to a WW2 USA cemetiary in Margraten, Limburg the Netherlands. That is so...... I was still the hole time. This ware kids that gif there life for my freedom. 19,22,25. Stone whit no name's.
    Greetings from Spakenburg The Netherlands.

  • @jfrancobelge
    @jfrancobelge Місяць тому

    Trips to places like these cemeteries should be made mandatory to the new warmongers, especially in the younger generations. From this point of view I feel lucky to be in my late 60's, not old enough to experience WWII, but old enough to have heard about it first hand from my parents and grand-parents. Most people my generation realize the privilege it is to live in modern day Europe (at least our part of Europe), certainly not a perfect place, but still a peaceful place where people in their 70's have no experience of war, and even others in their early 80's were too young then to remember it. That's historically unheard of in our countries that people have been able to live a full life up to their old age without experiencing a single war on their soil. Not since the ancient days of the Roman Empire. A visit to these cemeteries might be a good reminder to some that peace is not obvious, it's been a hard prize to win and it should be preserved above everything else.

  • @LeSarthois
    @LeSarthois Місяць тому

    WWII caused more civilian victims because of bombing and of course the Shoah (I think even if we count those as separate, WWII still did way more civilian victims that soldier death).
    WWI did relatively few civilian victims but much more soldier death.
    This is probably why you are under the impression that WWII was more deadly : because globally it was more deadly than WWII (using the commonly admitted dates) but here, it's specifically about soldier's death.
    And yes, this is why it's called World War : the whole world was involved.
    If you can find videos about it (or just documents to read) there is also in France, the Chinese cemetary of Nolette. Basically, the British brought Chinese workers to help in the war effort; none of them ever (officially) took part in battle but they were still part of the Army, and so many died that they received "their own" cemetary at Noyelles-sur-Mer (several others Chinese workers are buried in military cemeteries but witouth a specific place)

  • @ThessaJean
    @ThessaJean Місяць тому +2

    1870/1914, 1918/ 1939,1945. Attacked three times by the Germans.

    • @melchiorvonsternberg844
      @melchiorvonsternberg844 Місяць тому +2

      Ähm... In 1870, France declared war on Prussia. Also in WWII, France declared war on Germany, not otherwise. So... You got not such a big point, with your statement, pal...

    • @oakpope
      @oakpope Місяць тому +4

      @@melchiorvonsternberg844 1870 Bismarck engineered the war, Napoléon 3 was a fool goaded. And WWII, it was following the invasion of Poland. In all three wars, it was Germany (or Prussia) which wanted the war.

    • @melchiorvonsternberg844
      @melchiorvonsternberg844 Місяць тому

      @@oakpope Nobody forced France to declare war on Prussia. It was this absurd French pride that forced it. The same applies to 1939. Of course, Nazi Germany started the war. Nevertheless, France did not have to declare war. In fact, in the short time between the German attack and the entry of the Western powers into the war, the British and France were prepared to give the Nazis back the old eastern border from 1914 if they immediately withdrew their troops. The source for this: Prof. John Lukacs "The Last European War 1939-41". You are welcome to read about it in the work of this American professor. If you are prepared to throw your ally under the bus to avert a major war, that does not sound like loyalty to the death to me. But Hitler preferred to wage his war and things took their terrible course...
      By the way... The reason why the British did not intervene in this conflict in 1870 is simply because the English knew about the French expansion plans. The English did not like the French idea of ​​creating "a Gaul within its natural borders" at all. Because that meant: Pyrenees border, Alpine border and, in the east, the Rhine as a border. In plain language, that means... Belgium will become completely French, the German areas west of the Rhine will go to France, as will parts of the southern Netherlands. So much for "poor France forced into war"... I would also like to remind you how France behaved in Mexico just a few years earlier...

    • @ThessaJean
      @ThessaJean Місяць тому

      @@melchiorvonsternberg844 1870 July 19 Napoleon III declares war on Prussia The continuation of a dispatch which he considered insulting dispatch sent by William I in January but slightly modified by Bismarck the German Chancellor

    • @ThessaJean
      @ThessaJean Місяць тому

      In 1949, in a context of cold war between the United States with reinforcement of nuclear arsenals, France orange alongside the United States on April 4 by joining NATO organization North Atlantic Treaty

  • @MichaelCoIIins
    @MichaelCoIIins Місяць тому +1

    2:55 every square is 250 graves 🤯
    🫡

  • @Jeni10
    @Jeni10 Місяць тому

    Charlie, you wondered how many people would be alive today if these soldiers hadn’t been killed in the two world wars. I often wonder the same thing about the USA, with statistics showing an annual increase for the past fifty years or so, until they stopped keeping count in 2021 because it was getting very close to one million pre-born per year! That leaves a huge generational gap because all of those people would have been part of the work force and producing their own families, inventions, leadership skills, careers, etc.

  • @marieadriansen2925
    @marieadriansen2925 Місяць тому

    The 1st World War was terrible! From the then France 39 millions of people in 1914,
    Lately, some historians have revised the numbers of victims:
    2.0 millions soldiers killed, 0.7 million missing.
    We must add 300,000 civilian deaths , 4.5 million injured and a lot of destruction
    Between 70k and 100k of the soldiers killed in action were from the then French colonies.
    There have been deaths in each family, there have often been several brothers in the same family. I know a family that lost 3 boys between 1914 and 1918. The French used to say "it's the last of the last" which meant, it's the last war! We didn't want these useless massacres anymore. They never thought there would be a second war. The Germans have been preparing at all levels for a Second World War with a war economy since 1932. They modernized their army, they were much more numerous than the French ( 68 million Germans against 39 million French) and the Germans waged an offensive war on several fronts. There was a great imbalance of power, both demographically and materially. France had no choice but to capitulate. The French continued to fight with the resistance. The Second World War caused the death of nearly 600,000 French people, and many more were wounded or displaced. France suffered significant material damage, Reconstruction after the war was a long and expensive process. To say that the French are cowards is completely absurd, especially if we know our past and current history. We didn't want war, we are victims

  • @tsuntofan
    @tsuntofan Місяць тому

    really enjoyed your video ,if you want tolook for more stuff about french military history i recoomand you to look for the french resistance history during world war two with people like jean moulin

  • @Jeni10
    @Jeni10 Місяць тому

    You pronounced the name correctly! Notre Dame translates literally to Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus in His human form.

  • @matissebrement7161
    @matissebrement7161 Місяць тому

    Wars like these shouldn't have happened in the first place.

  • @paulhadfield7909
    @paulhadfield7909 Місяць тому +1

    in my villag ein uk, there is a grave of a canadian soldeir.,

  • @krugger82
    @krugger82 Місяць тому

    36% of 19-22 year olds died in this war.

  • @melchiorvonsternberg844
    @melchiorvonsternberg844 Місяць тому +1

    Jean Jaures, Charlie. Look up Jean Jaures and what happend to him...

  • @loulouchris1085
    @loulouchris1085 3 дні тому

    Gloire au heros

  • @MichaelCoIIins
    @MichaelCoIIins Місяць тому +1

    23:15 40 per row 🤯

  • @grapa350
    @grapa350 Місяць тому

    if you want to have a idea about first wordl war, you can watch the Sam Mendes movie "1917"

  • @angellove91150
    @angellove91150 25 днів тому

    let' not forget that problem with germany does happen even before ww1 befre that we already does have others wars with them so the ww2 was just too much peoples was exausted and have enough, they wanted peace....

  • @marieadriansen2925
    @marieadriansen2925 Місяць тому

    The 1st World War was terrible! The 1st World War was terrible! From the then France 39 millions of people in 1914, by 1918:
    1.4 million soldiers were officially killed in action,
    0.4 million soldiers were missing in action,
    and 4.2 millions were military wounded.
    Lately, some historians have revised these numbers to:
    2.0 millions soldiers killed, 0.7 million missing.
    We must add 300,000 civilian deaths
    Between 70k and 100k of the soldiers killed in action were from the then French colonies.
    There have been deaths in each family, there have often been several brothers in the same family. I know a family that lost 3 boys between 1914 and 1918. The French used to say "it's the last of the last" which meant, it's the last war! We didn't want these useless massacres anymore. They never thought there would be a second war. The Germans have been preparing at all levels for a Second World War with a war economy since 1932. They modernized their army, they were much more numerous than the French ( 68 million Germans against 39 million French) and the Germans waged an offensive war on several fronts. There was a great imbalance of power, both demographically and materially. France had no choice but to capitulate. To say that the French are cowards is completely absurd, especially if we know our past and current history.

    • @marieadriansen2925
      @marieadriansen2925 Місяць тому

      The Second World War caused the death of nearly 600,000 French people, and many more were wounded or displaced. France suffered significant material damage, Reconstruction after the war was a long and expensive process. The French continued to fight with the resistance

  • @MichaelCoIIins
    @MichaelCoIIins Місяць тому +2

    Slow down with the "please sub" banner mate, no need to see that 12 times per vid (and not the best topic ngl to have that pop up so much on)

  • @nikline60
    @nikline60 Місяць тому

    France lost 15% of his population at the wwi.

  • @TYRAdu33
    @TYRAdu33 Місяць тому

    17:08 It feels weird to see you in this video, my dear and beloved grand father…

    • @TYRAdu33
      @TYRAdu33 Місяць тому

      Je suis français, je suis juste assez poli pour ne pas vous faire traduire cela.

  • @MiaHerssens
    @MiaHerssens Місяць тому

    My town Wevelgem escaped most war damage in WWI. There are close to 50000 wardead buried in Wevelgem. > 48000 Germans in Menen Wald, > 100 commonwealth at Kezelberg Cemetery and Belgian troops in the local Cemeteries. Currently about 33000 inhabitants. Tunnels are still present all along the WWI front.

  • @anthonymullen6300
    @anthonymullen6300 Місяць тому +3

    "Sacrifice for the greater good" the Germans were not the bad guys neither were the French, that's why it was a stupid wasteful War, although France was the most militaristic nation in Europe and was actually itching for payback for losing the franco-prussian war.

    • @languerouge5385
      @languerouge5385 Місяць тому +3

      Bullshit ! You are an hypocrite ! Because telling that France was the most miliaristic nation in Europe and was actually itching for payback is a way to suggest that France was the bad guy. And to tell that germany, a country unified by the most miliaristic country in the world, Prussia was less militaristic than France is a liar. And in 1914, Germany has 68 millions inhabitants and a stronger economy and France 38 millions.

    • @ybreton6593
      @ybreton6593 Місяць тому

      revoyez , revisez les livres d'histoires sur le pourquoi de cette guerre ? Les principales causes sont les systèmes d'alliances entre Pays ; rivalités impérialistes , courses aux armements et tensions nationalistes . le 28 juin 1914 l'assassinat de l'archiduc d'Autriche François - Ferdinant par un étudiant serbe pousse l'Autriche et la Hongrie , membre de la triplice' a déclarer la guerre a la Serbie . Subséquemment le système des alliances pousse l'Allemagne à déclarer la guerre à la Russie et à la France .

  • @johnveerkamp1501
    @johnveerkamp1501 Місяць тому +1

    you. MAST look at the Dutch CEMETERY IN. THE
    CITY. MARGRATEN !!!

  • @hellemarc4767
    @hellemarc4767 Місяць тому

    The tunnels might very well still be there, they would have sealed the entrances by now. Some, like the Fort de Douaumont, are also still well kept and people can visit. In some forests, shells and other metal objects are still found today, sometimes even the occasional unexploded bomb. If you want to know more about WWI, Verdun is the place to go (Douaumont is just next to Verdun).
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdun_Memorial

  • @danguid2753
    @danguid2753 Місяць тому

    Dude, what I blame you for is skipping a certain part. You see what I mean, it's the involvement of Muslim soldiers. I'm going to teach you one thing, the first mosque in France, the great mosque of Paris, was built in memory of the Muslim soldiers who died during the ww1 for France. I followed several of your interventions on UA-cam before that and I admit that it's a stain, Greetings from France.

  • @cbjmurer
    @cbjmurer Місяць тому +2

    😢😢😢😢

  • @ledocteurgonzo
    @ledocteurgonzo Місяць тому

    c'est dingue comment les français on vole comme des mouches vers ce genre de video , tout ça parce que ça parle de nous.

  • @dv9614
    @dv9614 Місяць тому +1

    Le plus grand cimetière militaire américain se trouve dans la commune de Saint-Avold en Lorraine ( Nord-Est de la FRANCE ).
    The largest American military cemetery is located in the commune of Saint-Avold in Lorraine (North-East France).
    C'est le plus grand cimetière militaire américain en Europe.
    It is the largest American military cemetery in Europe.
    10489 soldats américains y reposent en paix.
    10489 American soldiers rest there in peace.

  • @louisa1253
    @louisa1253 Місяць тому

    C'est ma région

  • @Sayitlikitiz101
    @Sayitlikitiz101 Місяць тому

    My family on both sides lost a dozen relatives to WWI on the front, and also a female relative who was killed by German soldiers while fleeing from Lille to Caen. My grandpa always says that he was lucky his dad was born at all because his family dwindled to almost nothing as almost all of his grandpa's young male relatives died on the front while his own grandpa was on the less deadly Alsace front where locals saw them as liberators.

  • @daphnelovesL
    @daphnelovesL Місяць тому +1

    The crash of the malaysian: Raw: Mourners Gather As MH17 Bodies Transporte
    Links don't work.

  • @daphnelovesL
    @daphnelovesL Місяць тому +1

    And respect for they all fall! Dit is geen correct Engels sorry.

  • @hellemarc4767
    @hellemarc4767 Місяць тому

    I lived in Saint-Avold, which has the largest American cemetery from WWII in Europe. The only American one larger in Europe is from WWI, and it's about 100 miles away.
    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine_American_Cemetery_and_Memorial

  • @LOLOVAL-os3pq
    @LOLOVAL-os3pq Місяць тому

    it is a French military cemetery, so there are only French soldiers, during the Great War, 2.2 million French soldiers died, the civilians killed during the war are buried in the classic cemetery, when it was impossible to recognize the victim, they were buried in a mass grave, it must be said that in 1914/1918, no DNA!! between 1939 and 1945, it should be noted that there were several dozen French cities destroyed by Allied bombings, especially American bombings, there were 77,000 French civilians killed under American bombs, because the sights of the American bombers were of poor quality, the errors could reach more than 8 km! I think that these bombings could have been avoided!! they caused significantly more deaths among the French population than among the Nazis!

  • @evertticket2060
    @evertticket2060 Місяць тому

    hey heard u like leffe and my klj (its a youth group) has a party called night of the leffe wich has to offer alot of leffe and other belgian beers and if u ever thing about visiting belgium u schould deffenantly do one of these partys its another thing than the big city's like antwerpen or brugge i heard u have tasted west-malle from west-vleter wich is actully really close to where the night of the leffe is located if ur interested in this different culture in belgium feel free to reply or smth idk or if u would like to ever come do one of these partys feel free to contact me (btw love the vids keep up the work.

  • @niaraa8378
    @niaraa8378 Місяць тому

    there is somes villages in France that have zero inhabitant scince WW1 Beaumont-en-Verdunois, Bezonvaux, Hautmont-près-Samogneux, Louvemont-Côte-du-Poivre et Fleury-devant-Douaumont. those places where leveled to the ground with not enought people to build it back. so the name are style here as a memory but there is only green field of grass