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100 years since World War 1

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Prof_Pretorius
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31 Jul 2014, 4:50 pm

Don't forget the mortar. It proved to be a deadly weapon at close range. The Germans would move forward of their position and rain mortar fire down on the British or French troops. Then they would pretend to retreat, luring those troops to chase them and occupy the now empty trenches, except the Germans had sighted their artillery on those trenches and as soon as the British or French got to them, it was wholesale slaughter.


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31 Jul 2014, 5:29 pm

Kraichgauer wrote:
kraftiekortie wrote:
Yeah....they were bloodthirsty, to THEMSELVES, primarily.


They were pretty bloodthirsty to captured Germans, whether they had personally committed atrocities or not.


Captured Germans disappeared into the gulags to be used as slave laborers where most died if they even lived long enough to make it that far.

Captured Russian prisoners were used for slave laborers and even exterminated in concentration camps. Even Stalin's son died in one (I think either Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald).


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31 Jul 2014, 5:41 pm

mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:
kraftiekortie wrote:
Yeah....they were bloodthirsty, to THEMSELVES, primarily.


Stalin killed more people than Hitler. Not saying Hitler wasn't an evil man, but people tend to overlook just how brutal Stalin was.


Yes. What has kept Stalin's purges from outside eyes is that even for decades after those purges Russia remained communist where all the information was controlled behind the iron curtain and deniable. The world will probably never know the scope of it since time has erased so much. On the other hand, Hitler's holocaust was laid open for the world to see most of at the end of the war. The facts and figures were much easier to find.


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Kraichgauer
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31 Jul 2014, 5:57 pm

Raptor wrote:
Kraichgauer wrote:
kraftiekortie wrote:
Yeah....they were bloodthirsty, to THEMSELVES, primarily.


They were pretty bloodthirsty to captured Germans, whether they had personally committed atrocities or not.


Captured Germans disappeared into the gulags to be used as slave laborers where most died if they even lived long enough to make it that far.

Captured Russian prisoners were used for slave laborers and even exterminated in concentration camps. Even Stalin's son died in one (I think either Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald).


Knowing the Germans would try to negotiate for a release of a great number of their POW's in Soviet hands in exchange for his son, Stalin was reputed to have said, "I have no son." Thus, a checkmate to the anticipated German move.


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richie
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23 Aug 2014, 1:43 pm

trollcatman wrote:
bleh12345 wrote:

I'm reminded why I found history so boring. You almost made it entertaining for me, and that's a very big compliment. I am curious why the (I'm assuming border) between the Allies and Central Powers only moved a few miles. That seems like so much death for such little progress. :s

Why did the USA get involved? Why does the USA always seem to get involved in certain wars last minute? -.-


With the technology and tactics of the time, it was much easier to defend a position than it was to assault it. Basically both sides dig trenches and made a fortified position, and because they defended it with machine gun fire and artillery, it was nearly impossile for the opposing forces to reach their trench. The reverse was also true.
The war did not end because the Allies had military superiority, but because the German and Russian Empires had an internal revolution. The Ottoman Empire also fell apart.

As for why the USA got involved, I think many people would regard that as a mistake. History is full of mistakes. Here is a whole wiki article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_entry_into_World_War_I



The largest contributing factor to bringing WWI to an end was the Spanish Influenza pandemic that started early in 1918 and brought about more deaths than the war itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1918_flu_pandemic


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Hi_Im_B0B
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24 Aug 2014, 11:50 am

modernmax wrote:
Before you all see it on the news or hear people talking about it, because I KNOW none of you already knew this, you can learn it from me.
thank you ever so much for the condescension. right back atchya.



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24 Aug 2014, 2:20 pm

Earlier in 2014 two workers died in Belgium from an unexploded grenade from WW1.



Kraichgauer
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24 Aug 2014, 2:42 pm

trollcatman wrote:
Earlier in 2014 two workers died in Belgium from an unexploded grenade from WW1.


The last two casualties of the Great War - so far.


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