Sunday being the first of July......over 100 years ago, that was the WORSE day in the British Army.....Opening day of the Somme Offensive....close to 60,000 in loses...KIA, WIA, and MIA.  

WWI was a horrible war, especially for the ground troops who were sent charging each other en mass by generals who employed attrition to decide outcomes.  Who has the most men to lose and can last the longest. In addition, men from the lower income groups, especially rural villages, were the most drawn in. Entire villages were lost, some never rebuilt. Throw in the awful conditions of trench warfare, mustard gas, inadequate field medical care, outdated tactics, command malfeasance, and the horrors of WWII, and its little wonder Europe is so reluctant to get involved again.

hat

I saw a series of documentaries on WWI a few years ago.   Year by year, it covered who was at war, why, alliances, truces, when they entered and left.  Quite fascinating.  I think this was it

 

Wow, what an epic review of WWI. The horrific insanity of war is impossible to even begin to understand. The Smithsonian channel has a 2-part series on the The Great War. It is beyond tragic that wars have continued since then. We are clearly not the most intelligent species, I'd say.

hat

By night fall on the first day...20,000 BEF soldiers had been killed.   German soldiers  were also dropping..8,000 on that day were KIA.  

 

Just getting to the "MASH" unit was a problem for most....ordered 10 trains to haul the wounded..Rawlinson only recieved 2......

I found it very indicative of the grisly horror of it all when many units actually mutinied against their commands. "NO MORE!!" Even worse, none or very few of the politicians or top brass were held accountable for their actions. Maybe if the to dogs had to duke it out, there would be less war crushing the rest of us.