the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster division

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BaggyTrousers
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by BaggyTrousers »

big mervyn wrote:
daveysemtex wrote:my grandfathers brother fought at the Somme, my grandfather assures me it was a victory
So did mine. He didn't.
So did mine Merv and he was never the same after as far as I've been told.
NEVER MOVE ON. Years on, I cannot ever watch Ireland with anything but indifference, I continue to wish for the imminent death of Donal Spring, the FIRFUC's executioner of Wee Paddy & Wee Stu, and I hate the FIRFUCs with undiminished passion.
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Hans Indaruck
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by Hans Indaruck »

The scale of loss is unimaginable in modern terms and to use words like "bullshit" to describe it is quite sickening Baggy.

Agree with the sentiment - but to be accurate some 14m died in WW1 whereas some 35m died in WW2. There are no winners in wars!
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Jackie Brown
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by Jackie Brown »

35m in WW2 the vast majority were communists.

WW1 greatest loss of British life. I had 2 great grandfathers in the trenches, one gassed in Ypres the other shrapnel in the Somme.

It is a general feeling that WW1 was super powers flexing their muscles. The most disgusting stories being the men sent over the top in the final hours even though an armistace had been agreed. WW2 was a war against pure evil in the Japanese and German regimes. Saying that it made little difference to the men in battle they were fighting for their very survival, not something which is to be sneared at...
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stickinout
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by stickinout »

Will somebody lock this thread down. Doesn't deserve to exist if ye can't even get the title correct.

I'd say it's the greatest win in France since we beat Bayonne. Let's keep it rugby please.
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big mervyn
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by big mervyn »

Yeah. It was basically huge empires colliding over colonial ambition. Not that that probably meant a rats Brennan to most of those who died.

Northern France is a sobering place to visit. Never mind the war cemetaries. Walk into any small village and be astounded at the length of the list of local dead on the war memorial.
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BaggyTrousers
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by BaggyTrousers »

LastKnightoftheproms wrote:
BaggyTrousers wrote:
tommyblue wrote:Either way - heroic sons of ulster :stir:
Don't be an idiot Tommy, cannon fodder about whom neither their commanders nor government gave a flying feck. Conscripts told to walk into any sort of fire for a meaningless 50 metres of field.

So much bullshit wound around the sacrificial lambs.
I have to say Baggy. I'm actually a bit offended by that. You have entirely missed the point. Neither the 36th nor the 16th were conscripts "told" to do anything. Every man and in some cases boy was a volunteer. Whether those who ordered them cared or not is neither here nor there because the men who volunteered most certainly did care. The scale of loss is unimaginable in modern terms and to use words like "bullshit" to describe it is quite sickening Baggy.

I have no desire to glorify war nor to lionise those who served or lost their lives but to dismiss them as "cannon fodder" and t@he remembrance of their loss as "bullshit" is really not on.
Be offended if you so choose. It has been discussed in these pages before that there was little or no choice for men of fighting age who actively faced the prospect of going to do your bit or being awarded a white feather as a coward. As someone who has servicemen in the last 3 generations of my family I'll take no lectures from anyone thanks very much and if people are happy to glory in war that's their problem. Equally if you can only imagine men marching off happily ready to die I fear for the limits of your imagination.

As for the use of bullshit I clearly used that as reactions to people calling the slaughter a "victory" and I stand by the nobody cared about the canonfodder for as Jackie has well demonstrated that's exactly what they were used as.

I am sure you have seen it as will many others - the final episode of Blackadder - and it sums up pretty much how my imagination sees what faced the men at the front.

We're they brave? We're they in a situation well beyond any personal control ? Were they aware of why they were there? Maybe a bit of everything thrown in.

In any event people will have their own feelings towards war, I don't expect to change your view you certainly won't change mine and as we all know well none of us are a breed slow to be offended by the convictions of others,
NEVER MOVE ON. Years on, I cannot ever watch Ireland with anything but indifference, I continue to wish for the imminent death of Donal Spring, the FIRFUC's executioner of Wee Paddy & Wee Stu, and I hate the FIRFUCs with undiminished passion.
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Snipe Watson
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by Snipe Watson »

stickinout wrote:Will somebody lock this thread down. Doesn't deserve to exist if ye can't even get the title correct.

I'd say it's the greatest win in France since we beat Bayonne. Let's keep it rugby please.
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by Boutye »

I only post occasionally on here and now I know why, can we not keep it to rugby? There is so much crap going on in our own wee society, I enjoy this site to get away from it all and we still manage to argue and bicker over politics wars and the like.
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Re: the greatest win in France since the 32nd Ulster divisio

Post by caledoniancelt »

Well put Boutye. Like you I also prefer to post occasionally and this thread reminds me why i choose to do that. This thread should have been locked ages ago.
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