Nobby and the millions of others who died will never be forgotten.I visited the battle sites and war graves recently,and the sheer scale and futility of this so called great war shocked me.Thousands of men just told to walk into the enemy fire and get slaughtered before they got anywhere near the enemy lines.The people who gave the orders of course where miles away from the front line.And yet 20 years later it happened again,millions more dead because of a mad man.Will we ever learn.
The scale of death in World War 1 was and is unbelievable. The Menin Gate alone, which commemorates those missing with no known grave, has more than 54,000 names on it, my Great Uncle, Private Samuel Tebby mentioned elsewhere on here, amongst them.
54,000 that's two Valleys full to capacity and we haven't even considered the numerous cemeteries.
This weekend will be hugely emotional for me, effectively the last 25 years since leaving the forces have been spent in the study and understanding of the Great War (Great being a metaphor for its size as opposed to its glory). It has led to an MA, writing, lecturing and a total career change, I still have more questions than answers.
That in some small way culminates tomorrow as we reach the centenary of the Armistice, but what have I learnt so far?
That men were not ordered to walk into certain death whilst Generals slumbered about in Chateau's for four long years.
That the re-industrialisation of our country alongside the huge loss of life and limb during a total war against a near peer enemy changed our nation forever.
That as a nation, we lost more men to migration to the new world countries in the decade spanning the war than we did during it.
That Nobby and his generation fought amd fell for a cause they believed in, even if it is hard for us to comprehend a century on.
That they deserve our empathy not our sympathy.
The Great War was a complex combination of a perfect geo-political storm that effectively began in 1870 and continued through most of the 20th century and whose embers still burn today.
Futility? that will be when I remember the faces of friends killed in Northern Ireland as I sit in Westminster Abbey tomorrow for that conflict, on personal reflection, really did seem a waste of time.
I think the “ Lions led by donkeys” narrative has been largely debunked by now. The British army of 1914 was not designed or equipped to fight a major war against other major industrialised nations on the continent of Europe. All the armies that took part in that war took horrendous casualties: British military losses were considerably less than those suffered by Russia, France, Austria-Hungary and Germany.
Throughout the war the tactics and weapons used by the British army evolved. It was the British who invented weapons such as the tank, and developed the all arms battle.
The derision heaped on the Senior officers for being Chateau generals safely behind the lines is badly misplaced. The only way to run a campaign or battle is to be placed somewhere where all the information coming in from miles of battlefront can be collated and acted upon. This could not be done from a frontline trench.
British generals did make mistakes and some were worse than others. However this is true of all wars and there were several incompetent British senior officers in the Second World War as well. The main way that Britain avoided the same level of military casualties in WW2 was because it was the Russians who tore the guts out the German army in that conflict whereas in WW1 it was us and the French.
In partnership with the Woodland Trust and National Football Museum’s ‘For Club and Country' project, The Premier League, English Football League, Professional Footballers’ Association and Football Association have planted trees to create a living legacy to the footballers who served and died 100 years ago in the First World War, as part of the national, Football Remembers campaign. https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5bdb286496052/for-club-and-country-charlton-plant-trees-in-memory-of-fallen-heroes
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They won't be forgotten.
The scale of death in World War 1 was and is unbelievable. The Menin Gate alone, which commemorates those missing with no known grave, has more than 54,000 names on it, my Great Uncle, Private Samuel Tebby mentioned elsewhere on here, amongst them.
54,000 that's two Valleys full to capacity and we haven't even considered the numerous cemeteries.
That in some small way culminates tomorrow as we reach the centenary of the Armistice, but what have I learnt so far?
That men were not ordered to walk into certain death whilst Generals slumbered about in Chateau's for four long years.
That the re-industrialisation of our country alongside the huge loss of life and limb during a total war against a near peer enemy changed our nation forever.
That as a nation, we lost more men to migration to the new world countries in the decade spanning the war than we did during it.
That Nobby and his generation fought amd fell for a cause they believed in, even if it is hard for us to comprehend a century on.
That they deserve our empathy not our sympathy.
The Great War was a complex combination of a perfect geo-political storm that effectively began in 1870 and continued through most of the 20th century and whose embers still burn today.
Futility? that will be when I remember the faces of friends killed in Northern Ireland as I sit in Westminster Abbey tomorrow for that conflict, on personal reflection, really did seem a waste of time.
Throughout the war the tactics and weapons used by the British army evolved. It was the British who invented weapons such as the tank, and developed the all arms battle.
The derision heaped on the Senior officers for being Chateau generals safely behind the lines is badly misplaced. The only way to run a campaign or battle is to be placed somewhere where all the information coming in from miles of battlefront can be collated and acted upon. This could not be done from a frontline trench.
British generals did make mistakes and some were worse than others. However this is true of all wars and there were several incompetent British senior officers in the Second World War as well. The main way that Britain avoided the same level of military casualties in WW2 was because it was the Russians who tore the guts out the German army in that conflict whereas in WW1 it was us and the French.
https://www.cafc.co.uk/news/view/5bdb286496052/for-club-and-country-charlton-plant-trees-in-memory-of-fallen-heroes
This makes three memorials to our Nobby, this one where he studied, the post office where he worked and at the Valley.