Better watch real footage and interviews with actual event participants on youtube than another garbage which is called high quality docu lol for some reason!
@@Stopovergarding Sorry liar, but 750K civvies did not die on the first day of the Iraq war. And most that did die were killed in sectarian violence caused by the poor handling of post Saddam Iraq.
Hemingway wrote of it:......"What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain.’ I did not say anything. I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. … Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.”
My grandfather served in the 7th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, he was wounded on the Somme. About 12 of his mates signed up in January 1915, by October 1918, three were left. The rest dead or wounded. I’m writing a book about it. Lest we forget
Quite often those who lived through such a tragedy are able to put it into words best. WWI really broke the old ideas of glory and pulled people into modernity
I missed a lot of opportunities because I was afraid to bring things up, but looking back, I severely regret not being able to tell stories lost to time. I can't get them now. @@TonyBongo869
My great great grandfather was the commander of the 3rd regiment of Zouaves, lieutenant-colonel René Louis, during the offensive of Champagne of 25th September 1915. His regiment took 400 prisoners in a few hours. He was shot in the belly and died in terrible suffering on his way to the hospital. He was professor of general tactics at the Military School in Paris, and advocated for combined arms tactics. His brother had been badly wounded in October 1914 and had to experience trepanning.
my grandfather fought in the Canadian army serving as a front line grenadier. he survived without any injuries that i am aware of. he never spoke of it. Our family treasures his "i was there" medals. How awful for your ancestor to go that way. RESPECT to veterans (and those serving today)
The Battle of Malplaquet was one of the European battles of the 18th century, and had about that same number. It only lasted a single day, so imagine on of those every single day during a major battle of WW1 for months straight.
@JZ's BFF People being less questioning of civil and religious authority does not cause them to be illiterate? Most soldiers from Britain, France, Germany and Austria were literate, probably less so for Russians, but not by a lot. But don't worry, people are as unquestioning of "civil authority" as they ever were, it's just now they are also dependant on it in a way that the people of 1914 were not. There is merit in the idea that people become accustomed to death and suffering, this is true. Even if sheltered and working on a farm it would be normal for children to regularly witness the killing of animals as well as a higher base level of violence in society, settling things with a fight wasn't particularly frowned upon. Honour duels were still legal in a few places in Europe in 1914. However, even by the standards of the day, people knew that the war was a different beast. Even by the standards of war it was a protracted and ruthless business that nobody thought would be sustainable save for a few eccentric military thinkers.
It was characteristic of the age. In 1910, having 3 full meals a day was rare for the urban working class, childhood diseases like polio and scarlet fever were rife, and tuberculosis was still incurable and rampant. Values like patriotism and steadfastness also made up the political correctness of the age, so you would be cancelled just as easily. Times were hard, and so people were desensitised to suffering and death. We have come a long way, despite the global population being 3x higher than in 1914
WW1 is one of the scariest events in human history, its crazy there was Christmas truce in 1914 where soldiers of both sides buried friends and foes together
What's even more interesting is that modern warfare has come full-circle. Advancements in technology have relegated combat in Ukraine right back into the trenches. History repeats!
I already mentioned this in the comment section in Patreon but my great great uncle fought and died in the battle of Passchendaele in 1917. He served in the British army. His body sank into the mud and was never recovered. I thought I'd mention it here again for those who didn't see it on Patreon
The numbers of killed and wounded in WW1 are mind boggling and inconceivable. Too bad that these horrors are forgotten and man seems bound to repeat them.
Every 100 years or so. Before this; the napoleonic wars. Before that? Man waged wars across continents for North American furs and African lands rich in resource. Before that?? Peasant wars and vassal states breaking free of old ways. It goes in and on.
To put that day day in perspective I have read that the Germans opposite the Commonwealth countries suffered around 8,000 total casualties. And the initial attacking force on that day was around 66,000. So that also puts the losses he quoted in even more perspective.
Great episode, as always Jessie and the entire GW Team. Such a somber topic. For context for the US audience, the Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in the Civil War with ~23,000 casualties, on both sides, dead, wounded and missing combined. To think the French suffered this many dead in a single day is tragic.
@@alexp2327 I think most of the unsympathetic attitude towards the French defeat in the second world war comes from their petty attitude at the conclusion of the first world war, which is arguably what lead to the second world war. From the American perspective it was another pointless European pissing contest amongst their elite aristocracies. The U.S. tried very hard to stay out of it for three years and was only dragged in due to cooperate greed in sending munitions aboard civilian transports to make a quick buck. Afterwards the attitude towards Americans was a ridiculously outrageous "why didn't you join us in our meat grinder sooner!?" So kindly excuse us for taking a jab at the French and their "pristine military record" that they pride themselves on every now and then. Most of us are protestant Christians and pacifists , we have sympathies for losses from all sides, but are also frustrated at the entire ordeal to begin with and rely on humor to ease over the subject.
We joke about the french and saving their asses because over a century before ww1 the shoe was on the other foot and the french helped us out as a young nation in our fight against the british. Playful jabs really.
I think the Battle of the Marne in 1914 might have one the bloodiest days. 153,000 were killed in on both sides in only a 7 day battle and its known to have the highest average casualties per day than any battle in WW1
Its amazing to realize that only less than a hundred years had passed between the Battle of Waterloo and the first opening shots of World War 1. Only 102 years had passed when La Grande Armee marched into Russia and the First Battle of the Marne. Someone being born during the Napoleonic Wars was still alive in World War 1.
1:48 When I saw that footage of the names of the fallen in stone, the name R. Ritchie stood out. I know it wasn't my Great Grandfather Robert Ritchie as he survived the Great War but I had to do a double take. Any loss of life in war is senseless & we lost a generation. Thanks again for another brilliant episode Jesse.
My great grand father (my grand mother’s dad) was wounded at Souain on the 25th. He was with the 5th colonial infantry regiment. It is strange when you realise that sons and daughters of men who fought that day are still around.
My great grand father (father side) was medic in Austria Hungary military. He survived the war and was later working pro bono fixing broken limbs, fractures and wounds. In those times real doctors where rare so all armies trained lots of combat medics, Sanitater was German name. I was born in 1975 and he has died before, but i remember fighters of the great war being around untill early 80s.
Thanks for posting this .... Very well done! 👍 My great grand uncle Camille (sergeant in the 90th Infantry division) was killed in September 17th 1915, while preparing lateral trenches for the Third Battle of Artois.... His brother Adrien, survived the Battle of Verdun....both my great grand fathers also survived the Great War ... I believe both were auxiliaries in the rear, due to their age.....
The repeated failures of British industry to mass produce reliable clockwork fuzes for the WW1 army artillery projectiles was another major reason for high British Empire casualties on the Western Front. Excessive consumption to offset the high dud count was the real reason for the "shell shortage scandal". The huge PR effort involving constant cinema propaganda newsreels of the flood of munitions pouring forth from factories and "quickly being shipped to the front" was an early form of "damage control".
My both grandfathers were in WW1 on the other side of the trenches. They did not want to fight but they had to. On the twentiest birthday of my grandmother, the first of August 1914 the war was declared. She often told me about this sad day. Greetings from Germany.
Thank you for getting the French names right. And for recalling France’s losses. English speakers only remember the Somme. It is always “English speaking history.”
It's completely natural for a nation to focus rememberance on its own sufferings to the neglect of others. All nations were guilty of this, French included.
By far the best narration for any European conflict of any era. Excellent German and French (especially) pronunciation; Italian words even creditably expressed. Easy to follow, clearly enunciated: bravo!
You're one of the only History-tubers to give the men who bled in the dirt the respect they deserve, instead of treating them like squares on a map. Kudos, and hope to see more of your work here and on Real Time History!
The horrible losses experienced by the Newfoundland Regiment on the first day of the Battle of the Somme is still remembered to this day. July 1st was named Memorial Day after WWI and still is today despite it now being a part Canada (since 1949). Unofficially, the morning is a somber day of remembrance, and Canada Day isn't really celebrated until after ceremony at the National War Monument in St. John's.
I had the opportunity to travel to Belgium and France with the Vimy Foundation in 2016. We toured the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, where the Newfoundlanders were positioned on the first day of the Somme. What a solemn and heartbreaking site. While most of Canada celebrates the anniversary of confederation on July 1st, Newfoundlanders remember the Somme.
It's even sadder and more incredible to think the Newfoundlanders were a follow-up unit: when they left the trenches, no-man's land was already full of dead and wounded from the regiments that had gone before them. Somehow, most modern British historians regard it as all part of a 'learning curve' and not a failure by any means.
Same as the Australians at Fromelles... planned by British Generals to 'blood' the Australians. Australians used it as a how not to pull a stunt from thereon.
@JZ's BFF Not so much a surprise. The combined population of the primary allies (UK, France and Russia (USA after 1917) was more than 100 million more (with Russia) and 30 million more (with USA) than the Central powers, and the allies had a massive global base of supply thanks to the Royal Navy and lukewarm US sympathy (until late 1916). You also have to remember that everything Austria did that wasn't directly supported by Germans was pretty much an unmitigated catastrophe, and the Italians signed up (which at the time would have seemed like treachery) so the Allies did have optimistic news out of the South and East to keep up morale both in leadership and public circles.
Thank you. I didn't know that database had made us change our perspective on the deadliest day in the war. But it allowed me at the time to track down an ancester of mine who died at Chemin des Dames in 1917.
This isn't as surprising to me as one would think. I am a veteran of the US Navy. Through my time in service, though brief, I learned a lot about our military as a whole, and it is quite often the small forgotten battles that lay waste to the most souls. That was the reason they were forgotten. Perhaps that's only the case with our military, or when we're involved, but your average American knows absolutely nothing about most major conflicts, and it's up to us veterans to remember our brothers (and sisters), and the families of the departed to remember their names. And what's worse? 108 years from the day you talked about, we're about to live through the nightmare again. With the risk of nukes involved, who's going to remember our names? Who's going to be left to tabulate the losses?
1915 also included the majority of the fighting in the Vosges, First Champagne, Vaquois, Les Eparges, the Battle of the Woevre Plain, and other battles that English historians generally brush over.
I sometimes go to the churchyard in Haderslev (Hadersleben in German), Southern Jutland, Denmark. There's a memorial for the fallen from the city and surrounding countryside, who fell during the Great War in German service. Haderslev were part of Germany/Prussia from 1864 (after the war with Prussia and Austria-Hungary) until 1920, when Southern Jutland voted itself back to Denmark as a result of the plebiscite. There's more than a hundred single stones for the fallen, some of them with two and even three names on them (probably brothers). Not many of them more than 20-25 years of age when they were killed. I can't but think, that my great-grandfather could have been one of them. Luckily he survived the war, and lived on to be 90-something before dying of old age.
My great uncle was killed on Oct 8, 1918 during the Argonne -Meuse Offensive. He was in the US Army, 4th ID. Him and my grandfather registered for the draft together but my grandfather was deemed 4F due to a hernia.
I've tried researching the French battles of 1915, esp Champagne, there is very little English language materials out there for the public unfortunately
I live near pere Lachaise cemetery, there is a 100m memorium with name of the fallen Parisian soldiers, so much names that's frightening me every time i see it. Be nice to each other, don't do war.
I'm a former serviceman in the British armed forces and I have visited the battlefields and cemeteries in France. The thousands of rows of gravestones was absolutely heartbreaking to see and it still seems impossible that so many fell. The graves went on for an absolute eternity and I don't even know how many cemeteries there are in France and Belgium 😢
It’s a shame that the Germans are forever condemned for all the war time deaths of the 20th century. Even more so when one considers the even-greater death tolls achieved during peace time under the soviets, who were sufficiently beloved in the west that millions more would die to save Stalin’s regime from its various victims …. That would be a discussion needed for eight or so decades by now..
🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝Спасибо за ваше переживания и понимание того, что ВСЕ ВОЙНЫ- ЭТО ЛЮДЯМ НЕ НУЖНО 🙏🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝 Привет из России 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝, город Тверь .... пишите мне если хотите 🤝🤝🤝
В Москве, в самом городе есть парк. В 1914 г , в первую мировую войну там каждый было клочёк земли был захоронением. А сейчас там - просто парк🤦.. люди гуляют и даже не понимают, что ходят по костям... Я скину вам ссылку на это место через карты гугл...
Just a note to point out that Newfoundland was not a part of Canada during the First World War, but was a separate Dominion. Also, July 1st, 1916 was the 49th anniversary of the Canadian confederation.
I'm guessing the largest single day loss had nothing to do with actual combat. It's probably ill-equipped Austrian soldiers freezing to death in the Carpathians or their Ottoman counterparts freezing in the Caucus Mountains.
My French great-grand-father has been killed on 20 April 1915 aged 34. My grand-mother was 8 and her brother 6. My great-grand-mother was 33, they were married during 10 years only.
The top 3 deadliest days are all French related. Going through small towns in France you will see war monuments with rows and rows of names. Entire villages lost all their sons and fathers. I’ve seen them. It’s insane.
Most of the Generals during WW1 were completely inept and worthless. REGARDLESS of their apologists saying "but it was a new kind of war.. Waaaaa, Waaaaa". They had YEARS upon YEARS to adapt, they didn't do much of that.
Determining the deadliest day is about impossible because you have often multiple battles and offensives at once in various locations and slow attrition in so-called quiet sectors and then the lingering impact of disease, deaths in captivity, the Arminian genocide, etc
Thanks, new information for me. New Zealand’s blackest day was attacking Bellevue Spur in the mud on 12 October 1917. 843 dead, a high toll from a population of one million.
@@drunkenmmamaster419 fun fact : 1. in the first week in Battle of France (1940), French lost roughly 100,000 men against German offensive, 2. on 4th June 1940, before French surrender, 40,000 French soldiers, including 7,000 North African soldiers, confronted German offensives at Lille to ensure the British retreated safely at Dunkirk
Very small quibble to Alex’s as-always outstandingly well researched documented and narrated history videos: minute 2:27 unless I am mistaken I am certain this is a clip taken of BEF soldiers climbing out of tunnels dug half way into No-Man’s Land at the start of the Arras Offensive on 9 April 1917
Another excellent video from this channel. Though i am curious if there was any information on the deadliest days for the more minor players of the war? Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria? Belgium? Individual French colonies? British India? Japan? The Ottomans were certainly major, but finding sources for them, especially accurate ones, must be daunting if not impossible.
Seeing those men smiling as they march around 2:05...so young. Some probably lied about their age, sold on the promise of adventure, glory and patriotic duty. And next to none of them probably survived to the end of the war...
I always heard that the battle of Tannenberg was one of the bloodiest few days for the Russian army. First battle of the Marne was also bad for France before trench warfare began and troops fought out in the open. The French stopped the German advance on Paris and then drove them back into retreat for 100 kilometers at very great cost. Their battle cry was "they shall not pass."
Thank you for this. I always believed it was August 22, 1914 when France suffered almost 22,000 killed in one day at the Battle of the Frontiers. The news of this slaughter was suppressed by the French Army to avoid panic in the population. Unbelievably, less than a month later France would defeat Germany at the 1st Battle of the Marne where the casualties would be staggering on both sides. I'm going to have to do more research about these battles that occurred in 1915, which are well known, but evidently not as well as they should.
11:36: the number you’re giving, close to 21’000 are the dead that have been found and identified, the total number of French dead is around 30’000 including the bodies who’ve not been identified., not even including the missing ones..
22nd august 1914, 27000 french soldiers died in 1 day, the bloodiest day of the French army in history. One of my related felt this day in the east of France near Pierrepont. One dead every 3 seconds, scary...
I don't think they even respected their own leader back then either. The French even had to deal with insubordination back the. For more info, the old videos of the Great War where Indy Neidell taclked the war week by week. Prepare to gasp at the "genious" of Holtzemdorf and Cadorna.
France and England might be the smallest shock just because the countries (excluding the colonies for now) are not very changed in borders and have the same governmental structures. But for everyone else it would be a whirlwind of history to catch up on and weigh to even try and answer the question. But the fact that it's culturally universally agreed now that the war was a pointless slaughter would definitely be a blow to any resurrected time traveler.
@@kueller917 Agreed. Imagine a German learning the way people view the Kaiser now, the horrors Hitler inflicted on the world and how that is now what the world views Germany's history as. The destruction of monarchy across the entire world. And worst yet, the French are viewed as... humans (a thought many today shudder to believe). Lol, on a serious note though, it'd be cool to see his stance on many things.
Considering that British ''tactics'' were quiter similar in even in the Somme and in the 1917 Flanders offensives I don't see nany specific French, a part the fact that they endured a continuous series of ofensives from 1915 to mid 1917 and had to defend Verdun. The mutinies changed the mindsed to defense, limited well prepared attacks and large counter-attacks in 1918. But it's not ''tactics'' it's policy and politics that get to use of over the top offensives. The same as in other armies, even as the germans like in Verdun or in the Kaiser's offensives of 1918. Tactics largely changed, a french platoon in 1918 would have be seen as very alien a strange to french soldiers from august 1914 in nearly all aspects.
The British practically rotated troops out of the trenches extremely frequently,some months troops never went to the front trench. The French kept troops in the trenches for prolonged periods. The British were better looked after but lost local knowledge of the sector they were on
I'll make a guess and say the 22nd of august 1914, when the french army lost ~22.000 men in a few hours. But IIRC those estimates were criticized by some historians. Now onto watching the video.
Just a little chemistry for you. Contrary to what you may first think, phosgene is not phosphorus, it's actually named after a the process of it's creation, 'phos'(light)'gennao'(birth of) and it's made of Carbonyl dichloride. A heavy aerosol that lingers, and rapidly produces H+ and increases acidy of aqueous chemistry(all chemistry) in the body to the point of extreme degradation. SO essentially, dying by acid in your own bodily fluid.
@@LLUUCCAA1914 It really depends on the application or how they can be applied (it would determine how effective they are). They all effect the body in the same way. All them creating extreme oxidization via radicals. Most of them are made differently regarding methods of distribution.
in order to support its allies, Montenegro declared war on Austria-Hungary and if Austria-Hungary offered Montenegro not to enter the war and to give it the territories that Montenegro conquered in 1912 and then returned under the threat of war from every European power, later the European powers would allow Serbs. to occupy Montenegro and to be part of the new state of Yugoslavia
I personally know and remember the "second bataille of Champagne" besause of my Great Uncle who died there in October 1915. I preserve his "Médaille Militaire" and his memory, with the "citation à l'ordre de l'armée" to my grand father, who vas wounded in Verdun 1916 and was prisoner in 1940. This war was unbelievable... Inimaginable.
Now I understand why the Germans kept the French and British in a stalemate for so long. It always puzzled me that France, with 39 million people in 1914, and Britain, with 45 million people in 1914, couldn't numerically overwhelm Germany at 67 million people in 1914. The Allies had close to 20 million extra people to bring to bear in the Western Front. But if the British took their sweet time to gear up and fight with full force until mid-1916, of course it would be a stalemate. France, the weakest of the great powers, took most of the brunt of German offensives for two whole years. That's crazy.
Sorry but you're wrong: check for this french book : JEAN-MICHEL STEG Le Jour le plus meurtrier de l'histoire de France (deadliest day of french history)
Being ex-army myself I answered "That day the army cooks let their imagination run wild, that was the deadliest day" as I'm aware those guys cause the most casualties. 😉 That said, let's watch the video and see if I'm right.
Phillippe Petain was not the only Lion of Verdun, all of those soldiers are lions. Napoleon would be proud. Sacrifice ultime, admiration éternelle 🇫🇷🇫🇷
C'est le Général De Castelneau qui a gagné Verdun, Pétain est un parvenu, utile au gouvernement de l'époque qui voulait fabriquer un héros pour mieux écarter Joffre.
The Deadliest day WWI - i would have thought sometime in late 1918 - with many Germans/occupied Belgians suffering from Blockade starvation, the fighting dead, the coming of the world wide Spanish Flu, the chaos in Russia and Turkey, the fighting in the Middle East, the starvation of East African guerrilla fighting - battle deaths are different from the total war deaths. But it is hard to calculate all that.
Great video. Love to see the channel dive deep into the conflict. I very much miss the forays into the Interwar period though. But it seems it just sadly didn't get enough views
The post did mention the losses of the Newfoundland regiment- the Colony of Newfoundland had 220,000 inhabitants. THe colony sent a regiment of 1000, of which 700 died on July 1. This loss was 0.3% of the population of Newfoundland, very significant- by scale it this was USA today, the death toll would have been 1 million men
As one of the major belligerent, I would like to contribute with the official numbers from the Turkish archives. The night of 25/26 December 1914 is the deadliest day for the Turkish army when 10th Corps from the 3rd Army tried to cross the Allahuekber Mountains in the Battle of Sarıkamış. For a walk that was supposed to take 5 hours, which actually took 19 hours, only 3200 out of 26000 soldiers reached their destination. It is believed and backed by the Russian claims that the rest of the 10th Corps died from freezing in extreme conditions (-30C to -40C celcius), in the snowy mountains of the Caucasian Campaign in a single day.
Ahhhh...thank you for bringing attention to the Battles of Artois and Champagne. This is literally the first time I've heard of them, and I'm a huge history geek.
For anybody interested (this is by no means a correction to the video), but the British on the Somme chose a rigid battle timetable (barrages etc) and to walk, due to the inexperience of Kitchener’s army. They went for a simple plan in order to account for the new troops. They weren’t confident they could correctly execute an intricate, high speed plan. It wasn’t simply stupidity as some think
making my guess before watching this video, i think it'll be that day in the first month of the war when the french were advancing into germany from alsace in tight formations and got annihilated by german artillery, i think like 25000 died that day
1:29 A war so terrible that many graves are left unmarked, their heroism and perseverance under fire only to be remembered by the phrase ‘A soldier of the Great War.’
"In Flanders fields the Poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place ; and in the sky ; We are the dead. ... " And with parts of that great poem by Lt Col John McCrae - Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz taught an ( all too ) young me just how deadly WWI was. With simple words and art in an animated cartoon, Snoopy and the gang transported to a place and a history I had not known or thought about ( though my mom had always told me her father served in the U S Navy during the Great War ). Support arts and humanities teaching folks, it matters. Thank you to Jesse Alexander and all @ The Great War and Real Time History. I like the ongoing "update" videos, as well as these "special episodes". Though it took me a couple of extra days to ... prepare for this - I knew it would make me cry. Thanks again, everyone. (:
I really enjoy your channel. Doing some research on my great uncle who fought in WWI in France and died two years later in Montana. He's was in the 361 Infantry Regiment. So many of the records have gone missing with the archives fire. Sounds like the other allies haven't done much better with record preservation
Hello! I am a regular watcher of your channel and has been for the past months. Though, I fail to see that you have uploaded many videos in the past month or so. Is there a specific reason as to why that is the case or has the Great War ended? Thank you.
Jesse what about the Russian losses at the Battles of Tannenburg, or the Masurian Lakes a few days after. A geat video thanks I have studied WW1 since I was 15.
I’ve been a fan of this channel since 1914, great work, I think an episode about the Filipino American war and/or the Moro rebellion would be interesting, American wars for colonialism is seldom talked about
Watch Red Atoms on Nebula: go.nebula.tv/redatoms?ref=the-great-war
Better watch real footage and interviews with actual event participants on youtube than another garbage which is called high quality docu lol for some reason!
tell us first about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki from the USA. It's not fictional.
Sounds like a Skyrim quest
1st day of American Invasion on Iraq on Just Civilians,? 750k ......Woopes! Sorry about that
@@Stopovergarding Sorry liar, but 750K civvies did not die on the first day of the Iraq war. And most that did die were killed in sectarian violence caused by the poor handling of post Saddam Iraq.
“The senseless insignificance of heroism” ( 18:47 ) is such a harsh and raw line, so full of disgust and anger, but also pity and respect.
Hemingway wrote of it:......"What has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain.’ I did not say anything. I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. We had heard them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it. … Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.”
My grandfather served in the 7th Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force, he was wounded on the Somme. About 12 of his mates signed up in January 1915, by October 1918, three were left. The rest dead or wounded. I’m writing a book about it. Lest we forget
Quite often those who lived through such a tragedy are able to put it into words best. WWI really broke the old ideas of glory and pulled people into modernity
@@TonyBongo869 Where could i read it once its done?
I missed a lot of opportunities because I was afraid to bring things up, but looking back, I severely regret not being able to tell stories lost to time. I can't get them now. @@TonyBongo869
My great great grandfather was the commander of the 3rd regiment of Zouaves, lieutenant-colonel René Louis, during the offensive of Champagne of 25th September 1915. His regiment took 400 prisoners in a few hours. He was shot in the belly and died in terrible suffering on his way to the hospital.
He was professor of general tactics at the Military School in Paris, and advocated for combined arms tactics. His brother had been badly wounded in October 1914 and had to experience trepanning.
Sorry to hear that. My great grandfather managed to survive and later helped smuggle weapons to the resistance.
my grandfather fought in the Canadian army serving as a front line grenadier. he survived without any injuries that i am aware of. he never spoke of it. Our family treasures his "i was there" medals. How awful for your ancestor to go that way. RESPECT to veterans (and those serving today)
I respect you all. Your Grandfathers were all heroes!
❤
What is trepanning?
@@davidlafranchise4782 Some king of head/brain surgery
It's insane that numbers like 23,000 dead in a day are thrown around casually when it comes to this war
The Battle of Malplaquet was one of the European battles of the 18th century, and had about that same number. It only lasted a single day, so imagine on of those every single day during a major battle of WW1 for months straight.
Yes that's half as many are killed by guns in America each year per day
@JZ's BFF People being less questioning of civil and religious authority does not cause them to be illiterate? Most soldiers from Britain, France, Germany and Austria were literate, probably less so for Russians, but not by a lot. But don't worry, people are as unquestioning of "civil authority" as they ever were, it's just now they are also dependant on it in a way that the people of 1914 were not.
There is merit in the idea that people become accustomed to death and suffering, this is true. Even if sheltered and working on a farm it would be normal for children to regularly witness the killing of animals as well as a higher base level of violence in society, settling things with a fight wasn't particularly frowned upon. Honour duels were still legal in a few places in Europe in 1914. However, even by the standards of the day, people knew that the war was a different beast. Even by the standards of war it was a protracted and ruthless business that nobody thought would be sustainable save for a few eccentric military thinkers.
The term “wastage” is the one that strikes me - the term for daily casualties of incident and intent
It was characteristic of the age. In 1910, having 3 full meals a day was rare for the urban working class, childhood diseases like polio and scarlet fever were rife, and tuberculosis was still incurable and rampant. Values like patriotism and steadfastness also made up the political correctness of the age, so you would be cancelled just as easily. Times were hard, and so people were desensitised to suffering and death.
We have come a long way, despite the global population being 3x higher than in 1914
My favorite thing about this channel is the attention to the memories of the common soldier.
Thanks.
WW1 is one of the scariest events in human history, its crazy there was Christmas truce in 1914 where soldiers of both sides buried friends and foes together
@@noneofyourbusiness-c7h
I'd say two decades afterwards would be a lot scarier for civilians.
This war was brutal
What's even more interesting is that modern warfare has come full-circle. Advancements in technology have relegated combat in Ukraine right back into the trenches. History repeats!
Britain should have joined the Germans. Period
@@GerMFnU1848Sax I always thought the US should join with North Korea.
I already mentioned this in the comment section in Patreon but my great great uncle fought and died in the battle of Passchendaele in 1917. He served in the British army. His body sank into the mud and was never recovered. I thought I'd mention it here again for those who didn't see it on Patreon
That's terrible I can honestly say that is a terrible but honorable way to go
so sad
@@secretagent86 indeed
Just looking for attention then?
@@stompythewonderlizard286 shut it
The numbers of killed and wounded in WW1 are mind boggling and inconceivable. Too bad that these horrors are forgotten and man seems bound to repeat them.
Trust me Europe, Scandinavia and The North will never go through that again. Believe me we remember (😑👉🇷🇺)
@mistressofthewoods5333 everything resets on a long enough timeline
Every 100 years or so. Before this; the napoleonic wars. Before that? Man waged wars across continents for North American furs and African lands rich in resource. Before that?? Peasant wars and vassal states breaking free of old ways. It goes in and on.
H G Wells..non fiction..
Outline of History 1920..
Wandering how the great war..developed ?
To put that day day in perspective I have read that the Germans opposite the Commonwealth countries suffered around 8,000 total casualties. And the initial attacking force on that day was around 66,000. So that also puts the losses he quoted in even more perspective.
Great episode, as always Jessie and the entire GW Team. Such a somber topic. For context for the US audience, the Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in the Civil War with ~23,000 casualties, on both sides, dead, wounded and missing combined. To think the French suffered this many dead in a single day is tragic.
To think americans love to make fun of french fighting spirit and their soldiers is tragic
@@alexp2327 I think most of the unsympathetic attitude towards the French defeat in the second world war comes from their petty attitude at the conclusion of the first world war, which is arguably what lead to the second world war. From the American perspective it was another pointless European pissing contest amongst their elite aristocracies. The U.S. tried very hard to stay out of it for three years and was only dragged in due to cooperate greed in sending munitions aboard civilian transports to make a quick buck. Afterwards the attitude towards Americans was a ridiculously outrageous "why didn't you join us in our meat grinder sooner!?" So kindly excuse us for taking a jab at the French and their "pristine military record" that they pride themselves on every now and then. Most of us are protestant Christians and pacifists , we have sympathies for losses from all sides, but are also frustrated at the entire ordeal to begin with and rely on humor to ease over the subject.
@@alexp2327French mock the Americans all the time as well.
We joke about the french and saving their asses because over a century before ww1 the shoe was on the other foot and the french helped us out as a young nation in our fight against the british. Playful jabs really.
I love the French. Napoleon is my daddy.
05:00 Five old boys from my school were killed on 1st July 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. That day was tragic for many communities in Britain.
I think the Battle of the Marne in 1914 might have one the bloodiest days. 153,000 were killed in on both sides in only a 7 day battle and its known to have the highest average casualties per day than any battle in WW1
Its amazing to realize that only less than a hundred years had passed between the Battle of Waterloo and the first opening shots of World War 1. Only 102 years had passed when La Grande Armee marched into Russia and the First Battle of the Marne. Someone being born during the Napoleonic Wars was still alive in World War 1.
100 years isn't as long as many would think
@@Slenderslayer351 yeah bro 100 years totally isn't a long time 😂
@@drunkenmmamaster419it really isnt all that long ago.
Somebody born during WW1 was alive during desert storm
1:48 When I saw that footage of the names of the fallen in stone, the name R. Ritchie stood out. I know it wasn't my Great Grandfather Robert Ritchie as he survived the Great War but I had to do a double take. Any loss of life in war is senseless & we lost a generation. Thanks again for another brilliant episode Jesse.
My great grand father (my grand mother’s dad) was wounded at Souain on the 25th. He was with the 5th colonial infantry regiment. It is strange when you realise that sons and daughters of men who fought that day are still around.
My great grand father (father side) was medic in Austria Hungary military. He survived the war and was later working pro bono fixing broken limbs, fractures and wounds.
In those times real doctors where rare so all armies trained lots of combat medics, Sanitater was German name.
I was born in 1975 and he has died before, but i remember fighters of the great war being around untill early 80s.
Thanks for posting this .... Very well done! 👍
My great grand uncle Camille (sergeant in the 90th Infantry division) was killed in September 17th 1915, while preparing lateral trenches for the Third Battle of Artois....
His brother Adrien, survived the Battle of Verdun....both my great grand fathers also survived the Great War ... I believe both were auxiliaries in the rear, due to their age.....
The repeated failures of British industry to mass produce reliable clockwork fuzes for the WW1 army artillery projectiles was another major reason for high British Empire casualties on the Western Front. Excessive consumption to offset the high dud count was the real reason for the "shell shortage scandal". The huge PR effort involving constant cinema propaganda newsreels of the flood of munitions pouring forth from factories and "quickly being shipped to the front" was an early form of "damage control".
Sort of like western propaganda regarding ukraine today.....
My great grandfather died on July 7, 1916 in the Battle of the Somme. ❤ My two year old son is named after him.
My grandad was there, he was 21 when the war started, and fought through to Italy. We were blessed to have him back, even after he was gassed.
RIP to your great grandfather!
My both grandfathers were in WW1 on the other side of the trenches. They did not want to fight but they had to. On the twentiest birthday of my grandmother, the first of August 1914 the war was declared. She often told me about this sad day. Greetings from Germany.
Thank you for getting the French names right. And for recalling France’s losses. English speakers only remember the Somme. It is always “English speaking history.”
He is canadian. He speaks french,english and german.
@@vincentlefebvre9255 i think he meant that the history of WW1 is often depicted through the prism of British history and memory
the English speakers can finally understand that they were not the only one who fought the Germans
I guess the Brits are supposed to write French history.Not many French were alive to right history@@pianoman1857
It's completely natural for a nation to focus rememberance on its own sufferings to the neglect of others. All nations were guilty of this, French included.
By far the best narration for any European conflict of any era. Excellent German and French (especially) pronunciation; Italian words even creditably expressed. Easy to follow, clearly enunciated: bravo!
Thanks!
You're one of the only History-tubers to give the men who bled in the dirt the respect they deserve, instead of treating them like squares on a map.
Kudos, and hope to see more of your work here and on Real Time History!
The horrible losses experienced by the Newfoundland Regiment on the first day of the Battle of the Somme is still remembered to this day. July 1st was named Memorial Day after WWI and still is today despite it now being a part Canada (since 1949). Unofficially, the morning is a somber day of remembrance, and Canada Day isn't really celebrated until after ceremony at the National War Monument in St. John's.
I had the opportunity to travel to Belgium and France with the Vimy Foundation in 2016. We toured the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, where the Newfoundlanders were positioned on the first day of the Somme. What a solemn and heartbreaking site. While most of Canada celebrates the anniversary of confederation on July 1st, Newfoundlanders remember the Somme.
It's even sadder and more incredible to think the Newfoundlanders were a follow-up unit: when they left the trenches, no-man's land was already full of dead and wounded from the regiments that had gone before them. Somehow, most modern British historians regard it as all part of a 'learning curve' and not a failure by any means.
Same as the Australians at Fromelles... planned by British Generals to 'blood' the Australians.
Australians used it as a how not to pull a stunt from thereon.
France's casualties in 1915 were catastrophic. It's not widely known, but they were just brutal.
@JZ's BFF Not so much a surprise. The combined population of the primary allies (UK, France and Russia (USA after 1917) was more than 100 million more (with Russia) and 30 million more (with USA) than the Central powers, and the allies had a massive global base of supply thanks to the Royal Navy and lukewarm US sympathy (until late 1916). You also have to remember that everything Austria did that wasn't directly supported by Germans was pretty much an unmitigated catastrophe, and the Italians signed up (which at the time would have seemed like treachery) so the Allies did have optimistic news out of the South and East to keep up morale both in leadership and public circles.
@JZ's BFF except that the two highest year in term of casualties in the French army is not '15 and '16 but '14 and '15
What's catastrophic
@@Brandon-nr8fn catastrophic: extremely harmful; bringing physical or financial ruin.
Thank you. I didn't know that database had made us change our perspective on the deadliest day in the war. But it allowed me at the time to track down an ancester of mine who died at Chemin des Dames in 1917.
So are you extending a welcome to all species of Nebalia , or are you welcoming folks to a place named after the genus Nebalia?
@@guaporeturns9472 Lay down the crack pipe buddy
This isn't as surprising to me as one would think. I am a veteran of the US Navy. Through my time in service, though brief, I learned a lot about our military as a whole, and it is quite often the small forgotten battles that lay waste to the most souls. That was the reason they were forgotten. Perhaps that's only the case with our military, or when we're involved, but your average American knows absolutely nothing about most major conflicts, and it's up to us veterans to remember our brothers (and sisters), and the families of the departed to remember their names.
And what's worse? 108 years from the day you talked about, we're about to live through the nightmare again. With the risk of nukes involved, who's going to remember our names? Who's going to be left to tabulate the losses?
U guys are the best TH-cam channel
No doubt about that, I've been watching this channel for years
A cruel and pointless war
1915 also included the majority of the fighting in the Vosges, First Champagne, Vaquois, Les Eparges, the Battle of the Woevre Plain, and other battles that English historians generally brush over.
I sometimes go to the churchyard in Haderslev (Hadersleben in German), Southern Jutland, Denmark. There's a memorial for the fallen from the city and surrounding countryside, who fell during the Great War in German service. Haderslev were part of Germany/Prussia from 1864 (after the war with Prussia and Austria-Hungary) until 1920, when Southern Jutland voted itself back to Denmark as a result of the plebiscite. There's more than a hundred single stones for the fallen, some of them with two and even three names on them (probably brothers). Not many of them more than 20-25 years of age when they were killed. I can't but think, that my great-grandfather could have been one of them. Luckily he survived the war, and lived on to be 90-something before dying of old age.
yet again, i just love your ending tag lines... don't know how you manage to say it with a straight face. Great job as always, Jesse
My great uncle was killed on Oct 8, 1918 during the Argonne -Meuse Offensive. He was in the US Army, 4th ID. Him and my grandfather registered for the draft together but my grandfather was deemed 4F due to a hernia.
I've tried researching the French battles of 1915, esp Champagne, there is very little English language materials out there for the public unfortunately
Time to learn French
@@tiko4621😂 No kidding
Such a horrific war.
Indeed.
By far the worst in history and most that were lucky enough to survive got sick and died from the Spanish Flu
@@drunkenmmamaster419yay, people????
I live near pere Lachaise cemetery, there is a 100m memorium with name of the fallen Parisian soldiers, so much names that's frightening me every time i see it. Be nice to each other, don't do war.
I'm a former serviceman in the British armed forces and I have visited the battlefields and cemeteries in France. The thousands of rows of gravestones was absolutely heartbreaking to see and it still seems impossible that so many fell. The graves went on for an absolute eternity and I don't even know how many cemeteries there are in France and Belgium 😢
It’s a shame that the Germans are forever condemned for all the war time deaths of the 20th century. Even more so when one considers the even-greater death tolls achieved during peace time under the soviets, who were sufficiently beloved in the west that millions more would die to save Stalin’s regime from its various victims …. That would be a discussion needed for eight or so decades by now..
🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝Спасибо за ваше переживания и понимание того, что ВСЕ ВОЙНЫ- ЭТО ЛЮДЯМ НЕ НУЖНО 🙏🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝
Привет из России 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝, город Тверь .... пишите мне если хотите 🤝🤝🤝
В Москве, в самом городе есть парк. В 1914 г , в первую мировую войну там каждый было клочёк земли был захоронением. А сейчас там - просто парк🤦.. люди гуляют и даже не понимают, что ходят по костям...
Я скину вам ссылку на это место через карты гугл...
Я на вас подписалась 🙏🙏🙏🙏🤝🤝🤝🙏🤝
Just a note to point out that Newfoundland was not a part of Canada during the First World War, but was a separate Dominion. Also, July 1st, 1916 was the 49th anniversary of the Canadian confederation.
That's why Nfld and Canada are mentioned separately in this video.
@@jessealexander2695 outside of Canada, other than historians, I would say not many people would know that.
@@davidcarr7436 I believe only one irish battalion had a higher ratio of killed men on the 1st of july.
@@jessealexander2695 Jesse tu devrais écrire des livres.
@@vincentlefebvre9255 J'en ai écrit trois!
Excellent video thank you.
Sergeant Welsh being able to standing at attention and asking permission to retreat after being shot twice in the chest is pretty baller
I'm guessing the largest single day loss had nothing to do with actual combat. It's probably ill-equipped Austrian soldiers freezing to death in the Carpathians or their Ottoman counterparts freezing in the Caucus Mountains.
Another WW1 video here we go!
Did you get over you're fear of snake's?
@@Snp2024 not one bit
My French great-grand-father has been killed on 20 April 1915 aged 34. My grand-mother was 8 and her brother 6. My great-grand-mother was 33, they were married during 10 years only.
The numbers are insane
The top 3 deadliest days are all French related. Going through small towns in France you will see war monuments with rows and rows of names. Entire villages lost all their sons and fathers. I’ve seen them. It’s insane.
Most of the Generals during WW1 were completely inept and worthless. REGARDLESS of their apologists saying "but it was a new kind of war.. Waaaaa, Waaaaa".
They had YEARS upon YEARS to adapt, they didn't do much of that.
Which military college did you attend.
Why not tell us how it should have been fought.
Awesome production..great job guys..your ease in pronouncing the French names is so impressive
I started learning it when I was about 4, so that helps!
@Jesse Alexander I really do enjoy the videos man...great work, the Sparkling Wine quip at the end was a crack up
He speaks every language for some reason
@@Ukraineaissance2014 haha, not even close.
@@jessealexander2695 Which languages do you speak?
Determining the deadliest day is about impossible because you have often multiple battles and offensives at once in various locations and slow attrition in so-called quiet sectors and then the lingering impact of disease, deaths in captivity, the Arminian genocide, etc
Thanks, new information for me.
New Zealand’s blackest day was attacking Bellevue Spur in the mud on 12 October 1917. 843 dead, a high toll from a population of one million.
the French fought like lions in ww1, especially battle of Verdun. respect 🇫🇷
They shall not pass!
And then fought like absolute women in the second world War 😂
@@drunkenmmamaster419 fun fact :
1. in the first week in Battle of France (1940), French lost roughly 100,000 men against German offensive,
2. on 4th June 1940, before French surrender, 40,000 French soldiers, including 7,000 North African soldiers, confronted German offensives at Lille to ensure the British retreated safely at Dunkirk
@@drunkenmmamaster419 i don't mind if you like making fun of French troops , but please, read some books first.
@@Mike-tz4ku easy bro, i’m ok. he’s clearly a yankee. Don’t expect too high from him 😂
Very small quibble to Alex’s as-always outstandingly well researched documented and narrated history videos: minute 2:27 unless I am mistaken I am certain this is a clip taken of BEF soldiers climbing out of tunnels dug half way into No-Man’s Land at the start of the Arras Offensive on 9 April 1917
Another excellent video from this channel. Though i am curious if there was any information on the deadliest days for the more minor players of the war? Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria? Belgium? Individual French colonies? British India? Japan?
The Ottomans were certainly major, but finding sources for them, especially accurate ones, must be daunting if not impossible.
Serbia in ww1 is interesting
Seeing those men smiling as they march around 2:05...so young. Some probably lied about their age, sold on the promise of adventure, glory and patriotic duty. And next to none of them probably survived to the end of the war...
It took me a while, but NOW I'm uptodate with the channel. Great job these past 9 years, guys. BTW, will there be any more uploads?
Yes!
@@jessealexander2695 Yay, that got me excited!
I always heard that the battle of Tannenberg was one of the bloodiest few days for the Russian army. First battle of the Marne was also bad for France before trench warfare began and troops fought out in the open. The French stopped the German advance on Paris and then drove them back into retreat for 100 kilometers at very great cost. Their battle cry was "they shall not pass."
Oui on ne passe pas!
You may want to fact check that
@@nerdyguy1152Oui, et aussi "ils ne passeront pas"
@@AV-the-machinist you may want to do more readings
Thank you for this. I always believed it was August 22, 1914 when France suffered almost 22,000 killed in one day at the Battle of the Frontiers. The news of this slaughter was suppressed by the French Army to avoid panic in the population. Unbelievably, less than a month later France would defeat Germany at the 1st Battle of the Marne where the casualties would be staggering on both sides. I'm going to have to do more research about these battles that occurred in 1915, which are well known, but evidently not as well as they should.
11:36: the number you’re giving, close to 21’000 are the dead that have been found and identified, the total number of French dead is around 30’000 including the bodies who’ve not been identified., not even including the missing ones..
🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
22nd august 1914, 27000 french soldiers died in 1 day, the bloodiest day of the French army in history.
One of my related felt this day in the east of France near Pierrepont.
One dead every 3 seconds, scary...
Mes plus sincères condoléances. Vive la France 🇫🇷
Watch the vid, newer estimates put the losses that day at a lower number, and another day higher.
If the soldiers were resurrected, I wonder how would they feel about their respective countries today. Was it worth it?
I don't think they even respected their own leader back then either. The French even had to deal with insubordination back the. For more info, the old videos of the Great War where Indy Neidell taclked the war week by week. Prepare to gasp at the "genious" of Holtzemdorf and Cadorna.
France and England might be the smallest shock just because the countries (excluding the colonies for now) are not very changed in borders and have the same governmental structures. But for everyone else it would be a whirlwind of history to catch up on and weigh to even try and answer the question. But the fact that it's culturally universally agreed now that the war was a pointless slaughter would definitely be a blow to any resurrected time traveler.
@@kueller917
Agreed. Imagine a German learning the way people view the Kaiser now, the horrors Hitler inflicted on the world and how that is now what the world views Germany's history as. The destruction of monarchy across the entire world. And worst yet, the French are viewed as... humans (a thought many today shudder to believe).
Lol, on a serious note though, it'd be cool to see his stance on many things.
@@spiffygonzales5160 And Americans discovering that their underdeveloped rural country became the ruler of the world economy...
It was a giant waste. Their grandkids hate them and their own country. They don't even remember these brave men. They could care less.
Thank you for these informational videos!
Considering the tactics, and the attitudes of their leadership, the later mutinies of French troops seem not just understandable, but inevitable.
Considering that British ''tactics'' were quiter similar in even in the Somme and in the 1917 Flanders offensives I don't see nany specific French, a part the fact that they endured a continuous series of ofensives from 1915 to mid 1917 and had to defend Verdun. The mutinies changed the mindsed to defense, limited well prepared attacks and large counter-attacks in 1918. But it's not ''tactics'' it's policy and politics that get to use of over the top offensives. The same as in other armies, even as the germans like in Verdun or in the Kaiser's offensives of 1918. Tactics largely changed, a french platoon in 1918 would have be seen as very alien a strange to french soldiers from august 1914 in nearly all aspects.
The British practically rotated troops out of the trenches extremely frequently,some months troops never went to the front trench. The French kept troops in the trenches for prolonged periods. The British were better looked after but lost local knowledge of the sector they were on
French mutinies are overlooked. Every country had its own mutinies, sometimes more serious and more harshly reproved.
I'll make a guess and say the 22nd of august 1914, when the french army lost ~22.000 men in a few hours. But IIRC those estimates were criticized by some historians. Now onto watching the video.
13:15 “irresistible élan”? Big words for an old man who wouldn’t be anywhere near the bloodshed himself.
Just a little chemistry for you. Contrary to what you may first think, phosgene is not phosphorus, it's actually named after a the process of it's creation, 'phos'(light)'gennao'(birth of) and it's made of Carbonyl dichloride. A heavy aerosol that lingers, and rapidly produces H+ and increases acidy of aqueous chemistry(all chemistry) in the body to the point of extreme degradation. SO essentially, dying by acid in your own bodily fluid.
Which WW1used gas has the most devastating effects in human body?
Phosgene
Chlorine
Or Mustard gas
@@LLUUCCAA1914 It really depends on the application or how they can be applied (it would determine how effective they are).
They all effect the body in the same way. All them creating extreme oxidization via radicals. Most of them are made differently regarding methods of distribution.
The juxtaposition of the images of the chaos of war to the stillness of the graves is honestly striking.
in order to support its allies, Montenegro declared war on Austria-Hungary and if Austria-Hungary offered Montenegro not to enter the war and to give it the territories that Montenegro conquered in 1912 and then returned under the threat of war from every European power, later the European powers would allow Serbs. to occupy Montenegro and to be part of the new state of Yugoslavia
Champagne-Artois often is overlooked because of Verdun, Somme & the Belgium sector.
Very interesting video
I personally know and remember the "second bataille of Champagne" besause of my Great Uncle who died there in October 1915.
I preserve his "Médaille Militaire" and his memory, with the "citation à l'ordre de l'armée" to my grand father, who vas wounded in Verdun 1916 and was prisoner in 1940.
This war was unbelievable... Inimaginable.
With respect you do not know or remember.
@@anthonyeaton5153 wrong.
I don't know the REALITY of tranchées and the great meat-grinder. But I KNOW and remember history and poilus.
Now I understand why the Germans kept the French and British in a stalemate for so long. It always puzzled me that France, with 39 million people in 1914, and Britain, with 45 million people in 1914, couldn't numerically overwhelm Germany at 67 million people in 1914. The Allies had close to 20 million extra people to bring to bear in the Western Front. But if the British took their sweet time to gear up and fight with full force until mid-1916, of course it would be a stalemate. France, the weakest of the great powers, took most of the brunt of German offensives for two whole years. That's crazy.
Thanks!
😢all those men from different places, an each had stories.were still doing it.
Sorry but you're wrong: check for this french book : JEAN-MICHEL STEG
Le Jour le plus meurtrier de l'histoire de France (deadliest day of french history)
No, the information we discuss here came out after this book, it is now dated.
Will check it out. Merci
Being ex-army myself I answered "That day the army cooks let their imagination run wild, that was the deadliest day" as I'm aware those guys cause the most casualties. 😉
That said, let's watch the video and see if I'm right.
Haha, we should have included that as a candidate!
Or as they're commonly known to the rest of us? RATION ASSASSINS!
Phillippe Petain was not the only Lion of Verdun, all of those soldiers are lions. Napoleon would be proud.
Sacrifice ultime, admiration éternelle 🇫🇷🇫🇷
C'est le Général De Castelneau qui a gagné Verdun, Pétain est un parvenu, utile au gouvernement de l'époque qui voulait fabriquer un héros pour mieux écarter Joffre.
The Deadliest day WWI - i would have thought sometime in late 1918 - with many Germans/occupied Belgians suffering from Blockade starvation, the fighting dead, the coming of the world wide Spanish Flu, the chaos in Russia and Turkey, the fighting in the Middle East, the starvation of East African guerrilla fighting - battle deaths are different from the total war deaths.
But it is hard to calculate all that.
Ww1 is underrated it’s so cool
The host/narrative is excellent and easy to follow and listen to.
Great video. Love to see the channel dive deep into the conflict. I very much miss the forays into the Interwar period though. But it seems it just sadly didn't get enough views
That was a heavy episode ,I asked that question, much work went into that ,insane. Much appreciated
Thanks!
Have you thought about doing a movie review of the new interpretation of “All Quiet on the Western Front”?
Review: It wasn't quiet!
It wasn't quiet at all! :(
The battle of Vimy Ridge, April 9, 1917, Canada. 2,414 killed in one day, total 1914 - 1918, 56,639. 🇨🇦🇨🇦
VETERAN SCOTS GUARDS 💂ROYAL SCOTS.!! MY GRANDFATHER SERVED IN WW1 AT THE SOMME AND GOT A BLIGHTY LEG WOUND...THAT SAVED HIS LIFE...!!
I love the video as a whole but especially your pronunciation of the many names especially the French.
The post did mention the losses of the Newfoundland regiment- the Colony of Newfoundland had 220,000 inhabitants. THe colony sent a regiment of 1000, of which 700 died on July 1.
This loss was 0.3% of the population of Newfoundland, very significant- by scale it this was USA today, the death toll would have been 1 million men
I'm 57 My grandfather fought 3 battles 12 skirmishes WW1 France
As one of the major belligerent, I would like to contribute with the official numbers from the Turkish archives. The night of 25/26 December 1914 is the deadliest day for the Turkish army when 10th Corps from the 3rd Army tried to cross the Allahuekber Mountains in the Battle of Sarıkamış. For a walk that was supposed to take 5 hours, which actually took 19 hours, only 3200 out of 26000 soldiers reached their destination. It is believed and backed by the Russian claims that the rest of the 10th Corps died from freezing in extreme conditions (-30C to -40C celcius), in the snowy mountains of the Caucasian Campaign in a single day.
Hi, very interesting. Can you link to the souce for that - I'd love to have a look. Thanks.
Ahhhh...thank you for bringing attention to the Battles of Artois and Champagne. This is literally the first time I've heard of them, and I'm a huge history geek.
Never knew these footages can beat a Bank surveillance system
For anybody interested (this is by no means a correction to the video), but the British on the Somme chose a rigid battle timetable (barrages etc) and to walk, due to the inexperience of Kitchener’s army. They went for a simple plan in order to account for the new troops. They weren’t confident they could correctly execute an intricate, high speed plan. It wasn’t simply stupidity as some think
making my guess before watching this video, i think it'll be that day in the first month of the war when the french were advancing into germany from alsace in tight formations and got annihilated by german artillery, i think like 25000 died that day
Incredible.
1:29 A war so terrible that many graves are left unmarked, their heroism and perseverance under fire only to be remembered by the phrase ‘A soldier of the Great War.’
"In Flanders fields the Poppies blow. Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place ; and in the sky ; We are the dead. ... " And with parts of that great poem by Lt Col John McCrae - Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz taught an ( all too ) young me just how deadly WWI was. With simple words and art in an animated cartoon, Snoopy and the gang transported to a place and a history I had not known or thought about ( though my mom had always told me her father served in the U S Navy during the Great War ). Support arts and humanities teaching folks, it matters.
Thank you to Jesse Alexander and all @ The Great War and Real Time History. I like the ongoing "update" videos, as well as these "special episodes". Though it took me a couple of extra days to ... prepare for this - I knew it would make me cry.
Thanks again, everyone.
(:
Excellent work, full of well documented information and quote of the sources.
I really enjoy your channel. Doing some research on my great uncle who fought in WWI in France and died two years later in Montana. He's was in the 361 Infantry Regiment. So many of the records have gone missing with the archives fire. Sounds like the other allies haven't done much better with record preservation
My first guess is at The Battle of The Frontiers.
Hello! I am a regular watcher of your channel and has been for the past months. Though, I fail to see that you have uploaded many videos in the past month or so. Is there a specific reason as to why that is the case or has the Great War ended? Thank you.
Thank you for this upload
Jesse what about the Russian losses at the Battles of Tannenburg, or the Masurian Lakes a few days after.
A geat video thanks
I have studied WW1 since I was 15.
I’ve been a fan of this channel since 1914, great work, I think an episode about the Filipino American war and/or the Moro rebellion would be interesting, American wars for colonialism is seldom talked about
Wow, that does sound very interesting. Would love to get a video about it (that doesn't do apologia for colonialism of course)...
The battle of Borodino seems to be the deadliest in one day military loss count.
Yes it is !