I could not leave the house without making a comment about the bad joke that was the "military historian" on Channel 4 News. Gordon Corrigan sounded and looked like a cross between Terry Thomas in a 1950's Ealing Comedy and Stephen Fry in Blackadder Goes Forth. His bizarreview seemed to be that most Tommies spent more time having a joke and a laugh and playing football with their mates than facing the firing line. I would love to know what Harry Patch would have made of such "informed" views but all I know is that I would not be sitting here unless my grandfathers had also been among the lucky ones alongside to survive the carnage which destroyed a generation. We owe all of them, now that they are gone, a great debt of gratitude. Rest in peace, Harry
Thursday, 6 August 2009
HARRY PATCH
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4 comments:
I thought that was a bit odd as well. I am also most irritated with the way that the current Chief of defence Staff has tried to recruit Harry Patch for his cause including the war in Afghanistan, whereas he made it absolutely clear that he followed an essentially pacifist position where no war was worth the taking of lives
Yes, Dannett's comments were a bit of an insult to say the least.
But that is how the war was, days weeks months of doing nothing, then a mad few hours, days, of fighting, then back to the sitting cleaning waiting, it was that and the shelling which sent many into madness.
War is shit, once people in government remember that less chance we might have of leaders sending young people to die. The madness is our beloved leader now saying after 197 dead, we might need to talk.
But WWI was *not* madness!
It was fought for very proper reasons to do with the defence of our national interests. The fact that it was a bloody mincing machine was due entirely to the fact that it occurred when two particular aspects of warfare dominated the battlefield to the exclusion of all else, that is, high explosive and machine guns. The generals were not as bad as mythology would have them, they simply lacked the means to break the deadlock - until the tank was invented, and then it was in its infancy, subject to all sorts of mechanical failures (like any prototype), and no-one had worked out an operational doctrine to use them effectively - we had to wait another 20+ years for Gen. Guderian to show us how!
War might be "shit" but it is part of the human condition so it is best to be very good at it!
David duff
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