In the very same centres of indoctrination that prepared and used these men as cannon fodder for political purposes? Ironic. More than ever, our modern schools and universities are merely facilities for ideological indoctrination!
My great-grandfather was not spoken about much and was only remembered for two things: he was in WWI and he died as a mentally-unwell absent father. I recently did some research and I learned he was a medical officer in WWI, was stationed in France with the American Expeditionary Forces. When he came home he was not the same person and spent the rest of his life in and out of mental health facilities. I finally put two and two together to realize the war destroyed a young man that had so much promise and had many people counting on him. Family journal entries and public records showed that his family was very confused why he was so dysfunctional. Pre-war, he was a normal guy who enlisted and sought advanced training, moving from base to base to rise in rank. Very ambitious and from a good family home with no history (or future) of criminality or substance abuse. A life completely lost.
extremely sad.. I think of the countless recollections of those who were thrown into these unforgivable situations, so many unheard moments.. overwhelms the heart with a great grief...
When I started in Nursing in 1993 I was working at the VA as a student nurse technician I cared for a patient who was a former nurse from both WWI and WWII. She was the nicest and the most interesting lady I ever had as a patient. She died a 2 week later in her sleep.
An old man, I am moved to tears. I served but never saw action as my dad did. We always think of our mothers when things are darkest. War is so terrible.
@rustykilt I’m a middle-aged lady and I move to tears at these handsome men, confident, optimistic, and then so tired and miserable. Who they are, what happened to them. I believe guardian angels hovered over all of them. ❤️
My grandfather arrived in France in November 1915 after having enlisted in October 1914. He was severely wounded in early 1916. His two pals next to him were killed outright by shrapnel. He remembers coming to on a stretcher at a channel port awaiting evacuation to England and trying to catch the attention of somebody he knew. He still had the piece of shrapnel that severed the optic nerve for one eye. He was medically discharged in August 1916, and lived until his 80s. He was probably lucky to miss the Somme.
My grandfather (my father’s dad) was also wounded in 1916, it would have been better if everyone had missed the Battle of the Somme, what a waste of life, the stories from survivors of The Pals Battalions (the very few survivors) are heartbreaking!
I was a community nurse for 20 years and spoke to quite a few WWI veterans. Several that were wounded by shrapnel were given the lump off metal to keep. I was shocked at how heavy even small pieces were. I became an army medic and have picked up the shell pieces on the former battlefields.
God that's sobering. Normal people doing extraordinary tasks without realising they are our heroes. Makes me want to go back in time just to talk to them and offer my heartfelt thanks.
I wonder if they'd even accept it or want your thanks. An elderly Canadian WW2 veteran I thanked looked at me cynically. "What was it all for"? He said. "Look at the state of things. It achieved nothing!"
Us seeing this in 2023 allows those who never heard of any of this to appreciate the circumstances we live in now. Thank you to the women who helped the brave men of the early 20th century.
@@MisanthropicOcellus You would be surprised, or maybe not. Years ago when Saving Private Ryan came out a co-worker of mine saw it, and he was shocked by the D-Day landing scene at the beginning. He had no idea about any context, what war it was, where in the world it was, etc.
Seeing the beginning of SPR had me shaking bad. I’ve never been in the military - could not pass the physical due to being born without a right ear, and hence deaf on that side - but I’d endured enough injuries of a serious nature that I was reliving them then.
My gran was a nurse in queen alexandras nursing ,she was there from start of the war to the end , she was highly decorated also good conduct medal when she came back she had yellow fever , my grans fiancee was killed , my gran was a wonderful lady , R,I,P to all those brave men and woman
Woman like your grandmother did a service to those she cared for that can never be repaid. Bless her for her gentle service and sacrifice. There is a nurse that gave me comfort when I was wounded and she will forever be in my heart, so I can tell you with absolute certainty those she cared for carried the same gratitude I carry. I’m not ashamed to admit I was in great pain and I was scared and just the sound of a woman voice is such a reassuring comfort.
You Brit’s are a tough folk. Love to your gran and your family. Hail to the medical staff. Rowing you through the Styx or providing life with the will of Asclepius.
Thank you for reading about my lovely gran , such a wonderful lady even after the war she was matron in Erskine hospice in Scotland, that's where we're from but just across the Clyde, se wa also a suffragette lol , she taught me so much , thank you
My grandad was wounded twice on the Somme but survived the war. All his life he suffered from flashbacks and nightmares. He was a wonderful, gentle man who gave everything with love. He once told me that the saddest thing of all was that they believed what they'd been told by the politicians and the generals that war was glorious and they were all heroes. I still miss him.
My great grandfather never really spoke of his service to this country. He used to say if you took the letter L out of glory all you were left with was the word gory and that summed up life on the front line. He said the letter L was to represent the L you lived through every single day until your luck finally ran out. He maintained war was merely the means a few men used to make a fortune from the blood of masses of poor men.
At least at the start of WW2 Churchill told the Brits that he could offer nothing but blood, tears and sweat. The Brits knew very well what another war meant because a whole generation of men was destroyed by WW1; with many survivors maimed and mentally ill for life. So Churchill told it to them straight and the people "stayed calm and carried on".
Yes, that is what politicians and the armed services tell everyone who enlists. We know better now but people still sign up. My friend was an Army recruiter for a time but he had to quit because he felt awful telling all of these young people all the propaganda and BS. I'm so glad I grew up in a time when war is known to be anything but glorious. My Dad lost so many friends in Vietnam and he was in college so he never served. He wouldn't have anyway. Just that disturbed him so much he never watched a single movie about Vietnam. He was very clear that we were going to college and that no branch of the armed services was an option for us. Luckily, we all agreed anyway. My grandfather served in WWII and he was a proud veteran but he never wanted to talk about it when we asked him what it was like. I know of at least one relative who fought in the Civil War and one in the Revolutionary War and I doubt they found it glorious.
A lot of people wonder why the mental symptoms of WW1 veterans were so severe. They categorized it all as shell shock if it wasn't a physical issue. Many people know that PTSD is the new name for shell shock, but there's more to the story. The "shell shock" of WW1 can also be partially attributed to the essentially constant CTE injuries suffered by people being shelled without adequete protection. And WW1 there was a LOT of shells. This offers some context on why the casualty rate of this was so much higher than any other war and why the symptoms can be quite different than known PTSD symptoms today. It was often a combination of the PTSD and brain damage incurred. Never before or since have soldiers experienced this intensity, scale, and duration of horror.
It's horrid to think that they had to endure those conditions, and couldn't leave. The whole war never should have happened. Another poster suggesting reading Guns of August. If only the soldiers and their families had known what lay ahead, then maybe they would have found another way to press their governments to diplomacy. Too bad the 1914 Christmas Truce didn't become permanent. It was the sanest path in the middle of the crazy idea of continuing to send men to get killed for nothing.
Yes, there would have to be some form of brain damage to cause the tremors and shaking. That is not just mental. So, like you said some who had "shell shock" had brain damage and PTSD. I don't imagine there was anyone who didn't have some level of PTSD.
I watched an awful lot of documentaries about ww1. One I watched told the story about the fact that when armistance day was set the powers that be ordered that the artillery shells be used up shelling the enemy positions, if my memory serves me, the figure quoted was 4 million shells laid down within a couple of weeks. A classic example of man's inhumanity towards man, deeply and utterly senseless. God rest and there souls for eternity
My ex-husband’s grandmother was a Red Cross nurse during WWI. She was at the Buffalo Base Hospital in France. She kept a diary of her time there. She had a particular patient that she cared for, a young man from Waterloo, Iowa who had been gassed. He was doing well until one night he hemorrhaged and died. She wrote to his parents about him and was invited to visit them after the war. She died in 1996 6 days short of her 206th birthday, the last member of her unit, the last WWI nurse, and the last WWI veteran of the Six Nations if the Grand River Reserve in southern Ontario. I was very proud to have known her.
What an amazing woman your grandmother was! I am a retired VA and Indian health services RN. I was a medical professional for over 50+ years when I retired. God bless her heart.
@@sookie4195 She was my ex’s grandmother but, yes, she was amazing! She was the first NativeCanadian woman to be trained as a nurse, however, at the time, no nursing school would train “an Indian” so she applied in the US. The New Rochelle School of Nursing accepted her readily. She was working as a public health nurse when the US entered the war. She mentioned the activities, dances and things at the Buffalo Base Hospital before the fighting for the Americans heated up and casualties started flooding in. As an amusing side-note, they had a visit from the American ace pilot, Eddie Rickenbacker to the hospital and a tea dance was arranged in his honour. He asked her to dance. In her diary she noted that he was very handsome “but a bit full of himself”! She was a beautiful woman, btw. Her name was Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture (Monture being her married name). There are profiles and photos of her on the US Army Nursing site and on the Canadian Veteran’s Affairs website amongst others.
My Grandfather was a stretcher bearer in the 11th Field Ambulance in the Canadian Corp. He died in 1971 when I was 5. When I talk to my Father about him, he tells me he never spoke of the war. I can’t imagine the horrors he faced and the trauma it caused. We didn’t know how to care for PTSD in those days and he just had to live with it
They may know lots of more abt PTSD, but we still have to live wth it, same as they did back then. There may be treatments like therapy and meds, but it never goes away. Just like back then, you carry it around inside of you forever. But you are fortunate if you have more and better means to cope wth it today than back then.
I realize these wonderful people are gone now but God Bless them. There is no better medicine and no better comfort when you’re scared and suffering than the gentle voice and tenderness of a nurse. I know firsthand, the sound of a woman’s voice is a comfort that touches your heart, no words can ever express your gratitude, it’s a motherly type love that you can’t possibly repay that is with you forever.. There is no glory in war, just pain, suffering and death and I can only hope that one day mankind will realize the complete waste of war. 42:31
How can you not leave a comment after watching this documentary ? Was in tears a lot in this vid. Nobody was born to do what they did. , they were part of an era where “all gave some, some gave all”. There was no other way. Amazing stories, RIP
My great grandmother was a Voluntary Aid Detachment and served as a nurse on the frontline in military hospitals in France. There was constant shelling all around her but she kept working. I'm very proud of her and I look up to her enormously.
These stories are really sad but I have to commended the bravery of the Medical Teams that had to deal with more than The Great War 1914 on both sides.
I was an oncology nurse. Patients often talk to their parents, etc that have died previously. I believe that their love ones that have died come to help them cross over. This I truly believe. I also believe that when it is my turn, my loved ones will come to get me and so will some of my patients.
We live in Florida. We visited my parents in Pennsylvania one summer on a fairly annual trip, and then five days after we flew home, my Dad had a stroke and died. It's almost as if his body said, "OK, you have visited with your daughter and she is doing well, now you can let go and let God." And he did.
God does not care for us. He’s admitted so through his administration of suffering and death of innocent children. It is up to us humans, and us alone, to care enough about one another that we prevent another world war.
The brave and I hope never forgotten service men and women. May they all RIP. Amazing that most of those featured here all lived past 100 years old. Some even got to 2000 AD! They lived in 3 centuries! Wow!
My great grandfather Mac, US Army - Brookland, Arkansas, was a WWI Vet. He survived France but suffered such severe PTSD that he died in a Veterans Hospital in the 60's. He went to the Somme a handsome teenager...and returned with scars no one could see, like millions of others. May they never be forgotten. 🙏
For sure they suffered from extreme PTSD. But therapy wasn’t known or practiced back then. So nurses had to fill that capacity and they did their best they could with what they had. Brave people. All of them 🫡
_The illusion of glory in war is but a fleeting dream. It is those who have never experienced the horrors of battle, the anguished cries of the wounded, who clamor for more conflict, more retribution, further devastation. War is a profound abyss of suffering. Above all, it is the soldier who yearns most fervently for peace, for it is they who endure the gravest injuries and carry the enduring scars of conflict within their souls._ _Conflict arises when peaceful dialogue falters. It is the elders who initiate war, yet it is the young who must bear the burden and face mortality. In times of peace, sons lay their fathers to rest. In times of war, fathers mourn their fallen sons. In the midst of war, there are no unscarred soldiers. Remember, war does not ascertain righteousness; it merely decides who endures._ _During conflict, civilians often shoulder the weight of suffering. They confront the constant threat of harm or death from acts of violence, lose their homes, and endure scarcity of basic necessities. Conflict disrupts their lives, and the wounds it inflicts, both physical and emotional, can leave enduring scars. Civilians, often not involved in starting conflict, end up paying the price as the silent victims of war._ _Politicians entangled in the machinery of war suppress our calls for peace. The ceaseless cycle of strife endures, as the spoils of conflict safeguard those who wield authority over its inception. So long as military-industrial complex gains bolster the positions of those who govern the when and how of wars, the dream of peace is but a distant dream._ _The military-industrial complex not only controls our government; it controls our culture, and has become a major threat to our security. It is so immense and so powerful, and so interlocked with corporate interests, that we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought. With the exception of the military-industrial complex, we all want a more peaceful world, a world where our shared humanity takes precedence over the pursuit of power._ _Let us be inspired by the dream of a world where the horrors of war are but a distant memory. Let us rise above the forces that perpetuate violence and division, and let our collective voice for peace be heard. The path to peace may be fraught with challenges, but it is a path worth pursuing, for it is the path toward a better world, a world where justice, compassion, and love prevail over the illusion of glory in war._ *By Unknown Soldier*
Man dominate Man to His own injury! Humans were never made to rule themselves! That was our Creator’s right not man’s! The Bible shows wars will end and all the humans on Earth will live forever without war! Psalms 37:10,11,29!
The new artillery broke them to bits. Them and their horses. Barbaric incompetence to head into war when the generals didn’t even understand the need for new strategies and refused to listen to others and adjust so as to save lives. Cannot ever fathom what they were thinking…. All those young people! What a devastating waste for humankind!
One thing I noticed is that they all lived to be 100+ years old with the exception of one (97 YO). After all they went thru they went on to live long lives which I attribute to their strength of enduring the war at a young age. God bless all who endured this brutal and senseless war.
One of my regrets is that I never got to meet, thank, and maybe chat with a World War I Veteran. There were still many around when I was a kid, but the opportunity never arose. My family had none. WW 2, Korean War and Vietnam veterans, yes, but not the Great War. If I did meet any, I either didn't know or was too young to remember.
I nursed a few veterans and women who had survived both wars. One lady had lost her husband in WWI and her two sons in WWII. All did not want to speak much of their experience, and many were lost in thought throughout the day. But you could feel their heavy weight on their shoulders. Whatever distraction we could offer, it was short lived...
Probably going to get some stick for this in this mad world we live in now! But listening to these wonderful old women there surly can’t have been anything better to look after these seriously injured men than these ladies.. men calling for there mothers and crying whilst these women clean and comfort them! Absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
In one of the other documentaries in this series, one of the wounded soldiers (Somme, I think) spoke of a hospital back in England - and how the sounds of women’s’ voices helped him so much. Until I watched that documentary, I thought I was crazy to think that being around women helps *ME* as much as it does. No more.
I believe those good people in this video who shared with us the horrible spectacle of the Great War they'd personally witnessed have now passed on. They are now reunited with their friends and loved who've preceded them onto the next realm. They'll also join those of whom they'd treated and comforted during that tragic event who sadly passed in their care. God bless their memory and may they RIP!
Firstly. How down right disrespectful of TH-cam to allow trivial advertising during a documentary on this subject! How much counselling did these people get? Non I'll wager. Just a very good. Now get on with the next 80 years of you're lives & suffer your flashbacks in silence. A lot different to today. Counselling for hurt feelings. They were a much different breed. God bless them.
I am 58 years old we must never never forget the people who lost their lives for us so we can have tomorrow thank you thank you all for giving us today from London England South East London
What beautiful spirits, to have gone through so very much! I think about my granddad and grandma, he, having served in the first world war. A wonderful gentle man, who was taken from me when i was 7. But, in those years, he showed such love and guidance. God bless them!
Thank you for posting this video. Very touching and valuable. It's important to have the voices of these remarkable people on record, hopefully for all time. They inspire us, maybe urge us, to look at what we're truly whining about in life today. Maybe a little less "give me give me" and a little more "what can I give?"
_"The worst thing about treating those combat boys wasn't... that they had their flesh torn. It was that they had their souls torn out."_ - Edwards Simmons Sledge (The Pacific, Part 4)
My Grandad (1892-1956) served in the Great War. He was wounded and his dog tags were taken as they thought he stood no chance. Affected by drifting gas as he lay there, and blinded by blood - his injuries were to his throat and face - he started crawling and ended up in a road, where a passing ambulance had to either stop or run him over. They stopped and put him in the back, and he survived to be evacuated back to England. Back in Southampton facing surgery they thought his chances were so low they let him have a few puffs on a last cigarette as they took him down to operate. He lived. His speech was affected, my Mum says, and he suffered terribly with his sinuses and the damage to his lungs from the gas for the rest of his life, spending weeks, sometimes months in hospital each winter. He made it to the age of 64 though, many times over the years my Gran thought she'd be widowed. She said he wouldn't really talk about the war, but he sometimes woke up in the night screaming, and he always insisted that when he died he be cremated (still fairly unusual in the UK at that time) as he had a horror of being buried. He said he'd seen injured men buried alive in the mud in the war...
I pray these accounts of this damn war never get lost. The industrialization of mass killing and the sheer scale of death in WW1 is disgusting to even view. I know it’s inevitable but I pray another war like this never happens again. This shi don’t compare to WW2.
It doesn't have to be inevitable. We just have to learn not to "play war." There are better ways to enjoy our lives and beautiful earth than destroying them.
Here I sit in November of 2023 watching images on the internet, and because they 'know better', some people think it is perfectly right and acceptable to desecrate cenotaphs and war memorials. These ingrates couldn't hold a candle to those extraordinary interviewees and indeed, ALL who went through the depravations and carnage that was the First World War. God bless them all and may they rest in eternal peace.
Brave men and women serving and many dieing or being badly wounded. This was a terrible war, that actually just served to kill and maim so many. Such a waste. And from this terrible war, the seeds of WW2 were sown.
Im a veteran and i am humbled by watching this those people were truely the bravest souls who ever lived now that they are gone i feel the lack i hope they found peace at last cause they were the real deal they are my heroes and i salute them ❤❤❤
I have the journal of an American nurse anesthetist who was serving at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917; she tells of being shelled during this period.
this doco was first shown in 2000....but looking at the birth/deaths dates of the interviewees - the footage must've been taken approximately between 1996-98
People interviewed as listed at the end: first 1896 - 2000 @104; second 1895 -1999 @ 104; third 1895 - 2000 @ 105; fourth 1898 - 1999 @ 101; fifth 1899 - 1996 @ 97; sixth 1894 - 1999 @ 105; seventh 1898 - 2000 @ 102; eighth 1894 - 1998 @ 104 What an incredible track record!!! Obviously the interviews had to be conducted before 1996, when the first one of those listed here died, then not broadcasted until after 2000 for them to know the dates for 3 of them to have died. One of these comments is about a woman who lived to be 106. Another comment stating news or notification of the last WWI veteran to have passed away, but not giving any date for that, can't believe that occurred recently - can't be many WWII veterans left. I'm sure this has been broadcast many times . . . it could be broadcast every Memorial Date they think is appropriate. . . WELL WORTH WATCHING EVERY TIME!!!
My maternal grandfather got his medical degree from the University of Iowa and was practicing medicine in Iowa when the war broke out. In 1917 he joined the Canadian Army and was attached to the B.E.F. where he served as a battle field surgeon until the United States entered the war. He then transferred to the US forces and served with them until the end of the war. He undoubtedly had PTSD. He couldn't stand the sound of fireworks on the 4th of July according to my mother, and every effort was made to keep things quiet and peaceful at home. He was a heavy smoker and died of a heart attack at age 54 in 1938. I inherited his papers and letters from France as well as photos and diary documenting his unit's march from France into defeated Germany and the end of the war. It's been fascinating reading so far.
Fore sure they suffered extreme PTSD. But therapy wasn’t known or practiced back then so the nurses had to fill that capacity and did the best they could with what they had. Brave people. All of them 🫡
![แข่งเพิ่มน้ำหนักใน 24 ชั่วโมง!! [Ver 2025]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/20xn0g6k-ec/mqdefault.jpg)
They should show these documentaries in schools. These men and women are so precious and brave
100% agree. Unfortunately our schools these days are told history isn’t important anymore and it makes me sick
we watched documentaries like this in middle school and high school. don’t know why you assume it isnt
Les élèves vont pour être des être des Moutons et obéir à leur gouvernement respectif 😂
i can assure you we do show these documentaries and accounts from the great war
In the very same centres of indoctrination that prepared and used these men as cannon fodder for political purposes? Ironic. More than ever, our modern schools and universities are merely facilities for ideological indoctrination!
My great-grandfather was not spoken about much and was only remembered for two things: he was in WWI and he died as a mentally-unwell absent father. I recently did some research and I learned he was a medical officer in WWI, was stationed in France with the American Expeditionary Forces. When he came home he was not the same person and spent the rest of his life in and out of mental health facilities. I finally put two and two together to realize the war destroyed a young man that had so much promise and had many people counting on him. Family journal entries and public records showed that his family was very confused why he was so dysfunctional. Pre-war, he was a normal guy who enlisted and sought advanced training, moving from base to base to rise in rank. Very ambitious and from a good family home with no history (or future) of criminality or substance abuse. A life completely lost.
That is so sad.
My grandfather too, I never met him, he immigrated here from Norway and joined, served as a guard in France.
It was like he got killed anyway.
extremely sad.. I think of the countless recollections of those who were thrown into these unforgivable situations, so many unheard moments.. overwhelms the heart with a great grief...
Oh, how terribly sad. The poor man. War is just a wicked waste of life.
When I started in Nursing in 1993 I was working at the VA as a student nurse technician I cared for a patient who was a former nurse from both WWI and WWII. She was the nicest and the most interesting lady I ever had as a patient. She died a 2 week later in her sleep.
@@sugarkane4830 she was a VA patient at the time
At least you gave her good care to make up for the past
An old man, I am moved to tears. I served but never saw action as my dad did. We always think of our mothers when things are darkest. War is so terrible.
Thank you sir.
@rustykilt I’m a middle-aged lady and I move to tears at these handsome men, confident, optimistic, and then so tired and miserable. Who they are, what happened to them. I believe guardian angels hovered over all of them. ❤️
Tears here too...
My grandfather arrived in France in November 1915 after having enlisted in October 1914. He was severely wounded in early 1916. His two pals next to him were killed outright by shrapnel. He remembers coming to on a stretcher at a channel port awaiting evacuation to England and trying to catch the attention of somebody he knew. He still had the piece of shrapnel that severed the optic nerve for one eye. He was medically discharged in August 1916, and lived until his 80s. He was probably lucky to miss the Somme.
My grandfather (my father’s dad) was also wounded in 1916, it would have been better if everyone had missed the Battle of the Somme, what a waste of life, the stories from survivors of The Pals Battalions (the very few survivors) are heartbreaking!
I was a community nurse for 20 years and spoke to quite a few WWI veterans. Several that were wounded by shrapnel were given the lump off metal to keep. I was shocked at how heavy even small pieces were. I became an army medic and have picked up the shell pieces on the former battlefields.
God that's sobering. Normal people doing extraordinary tasks without realising they are our heroes. Makes me want to go back in time just to talk to them and offer my heartfelt thanks.
I wonder if they'd even accept it or want your thanks. An elderly Canadian WW2 veteran I thanked looked at me cynically. "What was it all for"? He said. "Look at the state of things. It achieved nothing!"
So much was lost in that war, which like most, should never have been fought. I am glad these folk lived long enough to tell their stories.
Us seeing this in 2023 allows those who never heard of any of this to appreciate the circumstances we live in now. Thank you to the women who helped the brave men of the early 20th century.
Who hasn't heard about the world wars? That's worrying to hear.
@@MisanthropicOcellus You would be surprised, or maybe not. Years ago when Saving Private Ryan came out a co-worker of mine saw it, and he was shocked by the D-Day landing scene at the beginning. He had no idea about any context, what war it was, where in the world it was, etc.
Seeing the beginning of SPR had me shaking bad. I’ve never been in the military - could not pass the physical due to being born without a right ear, and hence deaf on that side - but I’d endured enough injuries of a serious nature that I was reliving them then.
My gran was a nurse in queen alexandras nursing ,she was there from start of the war to the end , she was highly decorated also good conduct medal when she came back she had yellow fever , my grans fiancee was killed , my gran was a wonderful lady , R,I,P to all those brave men and woman
Woman like your grandmother did a service to those she cared for that can never be repaid. Bless her for her gentle service and sacrifice. There is a nurse that gave me comfort when I was wounded and she will forever be in my heart, so I can tell you with absolute certainty those she cared for carried the same gratitude I carry. I’m not ashamed to admit I was in great pain and I was scared and just the sound of a woman voice is such a reassuring comfort.
You Brit’s are a tough folk. Love to your gran and your family. Hail to the medical staff. Rowing you through the Styx or providing life with the will of Asclepius.
Thank you for sharing your story
God bless your wonderful, brave, skilled Gran.❤🇬🇧🇨🇦
Thank you for reading about my lovely gran , such a wonderful lady even after the war she was matron in Erskine hospice in Scotland, that's where we're from but just across the Clyde, se wa also a suffragette lol , she taught me so much , thank you
My grandad was wounded twice on the Somme but survived the war. All his life he suffered from flashbacks and nightmares. He was a wonderful, gentle man who gave everything with love. He once told me that the saddest thing of all was that they believed what they'd been told by the politicians and the generals that war was glorious and they were all heroes. I still miss him.
My great grandfather never really spoke of his service to this country. He used to say if you took the letter L out of glory all you were left with was the word gory and that summed up life on the front line.
He said the letter L was to represent the L you lived through every single day until your luck finally ran out.
He maintained war was merely the means a few men used to make a fortune from the blood of masses of poor men.
At least at the start of WW2 Churchill told the Brits that he could offer nothing but blood, tears and sweat. The Brits knew very well what another war meant because a whole generation of men was destroyed by WW1; with many survivors maimed and mentally ill for life. So Churchill told it to them straight and the people "stayed calm and carried on".
@@virginiasoskin9082 Just not his blood, sweat and tears.
Yes, that is what politicians and the armed services tell everyone who enlists. We know better now but people still sign up. My friend was an Army recruiter for a time but he had to quit because he felt awful telling all of these young people all the propaganda and BS. I'm so glad I grew up in a time when war is known to be anything but glorious. My Dad lost so many friends in Vietnam and he was in college so he never served. He wouldn't have anyway. Just that disturbed him so much he never watched a single movie about Vietnam. He was very clear that we were going to college and that no branch of the armed services was an option for us. Luckily, we all agreed anyway. My grandfather served in WWII and he was a proud veteran but he never wanted to talk about it when we asked him what it was like. I know of at least one relative who fought in the Civil War and one in the Revolutionary War and I doubt they found it glorious.
What a tear jerker. Having an artificial leg myself. I can feel real empathy. Thanks to these men and women. !!!!
A lot of people wonder why the mental symptoms of WW1 veterans were so severe. They categorized it all as shell shock if it wasn't a physical issue. Many people know that PTSD is the new name for shell shock, but there's more to the story. The "shell shock" of WW1 can also be partially attributed to the essentially constant CTE injuries suffered by people being shelled without adequete protection. And WW1 there was a LOT of shells. This offers some context on why the casualty rate of this was so much higher than any other war and why the symptoms can be quite different than known PTSD symptoms today. It was often a combination of the PTSD and brain damage incurred. Never before or since have soldiers experienced this intensity, scale, and duration of horror.
It's horrid to think that they had to endure those conditions, and couldn't leave. The whole war never should have happened. Another poster suggesting reading Guns of August. If only the soldiers and their families had known what lay ahead, then maybe they would have found another way to press their governments to diplomacy. Too bad the 1914 Christmas Truce didn't become permanent. It was the sanest path in the middle of the crazy idea of continuing to send men to get killed for nothing.
Many men were executed for displaying signs of shell-shock.
They almost certainly had no hearing / ear protection and the helmets were not at all what they evolved into by late WWII
Yes, there would have to be some form of brain damage to cause the tremors and shaking. That is not just mental. So, like you said some who had "shell shock" had brain damage and PTSD. I don't imagine there was anyone who didn't have some level of PTSD.
I watched an awful lot of documentaries about ww1.
One I watched told the story about the fact that when armistance day was set the powers that be ordered that the artillery shells be used up shelling the enemy positions, if my memory serves me, the figure quoted was 4 million shells laid down within a couple of weeks.
A classic example of man's inhumanity towards man, deeply and utterly senseless.
God rest and there souls for eternity
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your service. RIP. We will remember them.
My ex-husband’s grandmother was a Red Cross nurse during WWI. She was at the Buffalo Base Hospital in France. She kept a diary of her time there. She had a particular patient that she cared for, a young man from Waterloo, Iowa who had been gassed. He was doing well until one night he hemorrhaged and died. She wrote to his parents about him and was invited to visit them after the war.
She died in 1996 6 days short of her 206th birthday, the last member of her unit, the last WWI nurse, and the last WWI veteran of the Six Nations if the Grand River Reserve in southern Ontario. I was very proud to have known her.
She remained in nursing after the war at the hospital on the Reserve.
What an amazing woman your grandmother was! I am a retired VA and Indian health services RN. I was a medical professional for over 50+ years when I retired. God bless her heart.
@@sookie4195 She was my ex’s grandmother but, yes, she was amazing! She was the first NativeCanadian woman to be trained as a nurse, however, at the time, no nursing school would train “an Indian” so she applied in the US. The New Rochelle School of Nursing accepted her readily. She was working as a public health nurse when the US entered the war. She mentioned the activities, dances and things at the Buffalo Base Hospital before the fighting for the Americans heated up and casualties started flooding in.
As an amusing side-note, they had a visit from the American ace pilot, Eddie Rickenbacker to the hospital and a tea dance was arranged in his honour. He asked her to dance. In her diary she noted that he was very handsome “but a bit full of himself”!
She was a beautiful woman, btw. Her name was Charlotte Edith Anderson Monture (Monture being her married name). There are profiles and photos of her on the US Army Nursing site and on the Canadian Veteran’s Affairs website amongst others.
You mean 106th birthday? She lived a long life.
@@carolhofhine560 Lol! Yes… 106th! Silly me always typoimg.
Her sister died at 104!.
It's like these amazing people were meant to live long. To teach as many of the next generations as possible.
My Grandfather was a stretcher bearer in the 11th Field Ambulance in the Canadian Corp. He died in 1971 when I was 5. When I talk to my Father about him, he tells me he never spoke of the war. I can’t imagine the horrors he faced and the trauma it caused. We didn’t know how to care for PTSD in those days and he just had to live with it
They may know lots of more abt PTSD, but we still have to live wth it, same as they did back then. There may be treatments like therapy and meds, but it never goes away. Just like back then, you carry it around inside of you forever. But you are fortunate if you have more and better means to cope wth it today than back then.
I realize these wonderful people are gone now but God Bless them. There is no better medicine and no better comfort when you’re scared and suffering than the gentle voice and tenderness of a nurse. I know firsthand, the sound of a woman’s voice is a comfort that touches your heart, no words can ever express your gratitude, it’s a motherly type love that you can’t possibly repay that is with you forever..
There is no glory in war, just pain, suffering and death and I can only hope that one day mankind will realize the complete waste of war. 42:31
How can you not leave a comment after watching this documentary ? Was in tears a lot in this vid. Nobody was born to do what they did. , they were part of an era where “all gave some, some gave all”. There was no other way. Amazing stories, RIP
My great grandmother was a Voluntary Aid Detachment and served as a nurse on the frontline in military hospitals in France. There was constant shelling all around her but she kept working. I'm very proud of her and I look up to her enormously.
...and in the morning , we will remember them ....lest we forget
These stories are really sad but I have to commended the bravery of the Medical Teams that had to deal with more than The Great War 1914 on both sides.
My heart is with everyone who suffered, endured, survived & died.
War is cruel & ugly.
We will remember them ❤
Poppies, everyone. This documentary should be shown everywhere and always.
“In Flanders’ fields, the poppies grow…”
I was a Hospice nurse and many times a patient would wait to see that one person and then die. It was very common
I was an oncology nurse. Patients often talk to their parents, etc that have died previously. I believe that their love ones that have died come to help them cross over. This I truly believe. I also believe that when it is my turn, my loved ones will come to get me and so will some of my patients.
@@sookie4195 This is VERY interesting! Thank you!
We live in Florida. We visited my parents in Pennsylvania one summer on a fairly annual trip, and then five days after we flew home, my Dad had a stroke and died. It's almost as if his body said, "OK, you have visited with your daughter and she is doing well, now you can let go and let God." And he did.
Unbelievable bravery we must never forget
In 1989 we had the privilege of meeting two WWI veterans. Very sobering.
Today’s society has zero appreciation for all the blessings it enjoys
May God have mercy on us all, and thank you to the doctors and nurses of WW1 and WW2. May we not need them for another WW. God have mercy!
Amen to your words. As a veteran combat medic I can’t express how right you are.
Sincerely,
Doc
🙏🏽 please
God does not care for us. He’s admitted so through his administration of suffering and death of innocent children. It is up to us humans, and us alone, to care enough about one another that we prevent another world war.
Pity god let it happen in the first place.
The brave and I hope never forgotten service men and women. May they all RIP.
Amazing that most of those featured here all lived past 100 years old. Some even got to 2000 AD! They lived in 3 centuries! Wow!
This is outstanding & these "Last Voices" are indeed, the ones we must always remember🇺🇸
What an extraordinary film. I hope it is never lost. Such amazing people in such dire circumstances. Lest We Forget!😮
My grandfather was in the war and those young men have us out freedom.. Today's young men would last an hour ..Thank you for sharing ❤
lmao, ww1 had nothing to do with freedom
You don’t know how you’ll do until you are put to the test…
Sometimes, you might be surprised.
@@dennisyoung4631 I don't think so unfortunately.
My great grandfather Mac, US Army - Brookland, Arkansas, was a WWI Vet. He survived France but suffered such severe PTSD that he died in a Veterans Hospital in the 60's. He went to the Somme a handsome teenager...and returned with scars no one could see, like millions of others. May they never be forgotten. 🙏
The Americans hadn’t entered the war in 1916 though.
RIP all you good people.
Wow this was so good! Excellent!😮😢
For sure they suffered from extreme PTSD. But therapy wasn’t known or practiced back then. So nurses had to fill that capacity and they did their best they could with what they had. Brave people. All of them 🫡
It's very humbling to hear these testaments.
_The illusion of glory in war is but a fleeting dream. It is those who have never experienced the horrors of battle, the anguished cries of the wounded, who clamor for more conflict, more retribution, further devastation. War is a profound abyss of suffering. Above all, it is the soldier who yearns most fervently for peace, for it is they who endure the gravest injuries and carry the enduring scars of conflict within their souls._
_Conflict arises when peaceful dialogue falters. It is the elders who initiate war, yet it is the young who must bear the burden and face mortality. In times of peace, sons lay their fathers to rest. In times of war, fathers mourn their fallen sons. In the midst of war, there are no unscarred soldiers. Remember, war does not ascertain righteousness; it merely decides who endures._
_During conflict, civilians often shoulder the weight of suffering. They confront the constant threat of harm or death from acts of violence, lose their homes, and endure scarcity of basic necessities. Conflict disrupts their lives, and the wounds it inflicts, both physical and emotional, can leave enduring scars. Civilians, often not involved in starting conflict, end up paying the price as the silent victims of war._
_Politicians entangled in the machinery of war suppress our calls for peace. The ceaseless cycle of strife endures, as the spoils of conflict safeguard those who wield authority over its inception. So long as military-industrial complex gains bolster the positions of those who govern the when and how of wars, the dream of peace is but a distant dream._
_The military-industrial complex not only controls our government; it controls our culture, and has become a major threat to our security. It is so immense and so powerful, and so interlocked with corporate interests, that we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought. With the exception of the military-industrial complex, we all want a more peaceful world, a world where our shared humanity takes precedence over the pursuit of power._
_Let us be inspired by the dream of a world where the horrors of war are but a distant memory. Let us rise above the forces that perpetuate violence and division, and let our collective voice for peace be heard. The path to peace may be fraught with challenges, but it is a path worth pursuing, for it is the path toward a better world, a world where justice, compassion, and love prevail over the illusion of glory in war._
*By Unknown Soldier*
Man dominate Man to
His own injury! Humans were never made to rule themselves! That was our Creator’s right not man’s! The Bible shows wars will end and all the humans on Earth will live forever without war! Psalms 37:10,11,29!
@@TruthHunter707 _"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."_ - *Matthew*
The new artillery broke them to bits. Them and their horses. Barbaric incompetence to head into war when the generals didn’t even understand the need for new strategies and refused to listen to others and adjust so as to save lives. Cannot ever fathom what they were thinking…. All those young people! What a devastating waste for humankind!
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. These folks were roughly my grandparents’ age. I am now 74, and I miss that generation.
These people were the first greatest generation
One thing I noticed is that they all lived to be 100+ years old with the exception of one (97 YO). After all they went thru they went on to live long lives which I attribute to their strength of enduring the war at a young age. God bless all who endured this brutal and senseless war.
Incredible women and men.
One of my regrets is that I never got to meet, thank, and maybe chat with a World War I Veteran. There were still many around when I was a kid, but the opportunity never arose. My family had none. WW 2, Korean War and Vietnam veterans, yes, but not the Great War.
If I did meet any, I either didn't know or was too young to remember.
I nursed a few veterans and women who had survived both wars. One lady had lost her husband in WWI and her two sons in WWII. All did not want to speak much of their experience, and many were lost in thought throughout the day. But you could feel their heavy weight on their shoulders. Whatever distraction we could offer, it was short lived...
Probably going to get some stick for this in this mad world we live in now! But listening to these wonderful old women there surly can’t have been anything better to look after these seriously injured men than these ladies.. men calling for there mothers and crying whilst these women clean and comfort them!
Absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
In one of the other documentaries in this series, one of the wounded soldiers (Somme, I think) spoke of a hospital back in England - and how the sounds of women’s’ voices helped him so much.
Until I watched that documentary, I thought I was crazy to think that being around women helps *ME* as much as it does. No more.
Excllent video ... very emotive.
I believe those good people in this video who shared with us the horrible spectacle of the Great War they'd personally witnessed have now passed on. They are now reunited with their friends and loved who've preceded them onto the next realm. They'll also join those of whom they'd treated and comforted during that tragic event who sadly passed in their care. God bless their memory and may they RIP!
God Bless Them All...Never to be forgotten
Firstly. How down right disrespectful of TH-cam to allow trivial advertising during a documentary on this subject!
How much counselling did these people get? Non I'll wager. Just a very good. Now get on with the next 80 years of you're lives & suffer your flashbacks in silence.
A lot different to today. Counselling for hurt feelings. They were a much different breed. God bless them.
Thank you.
My great uncle was killed in the trenches at 23. My mum served in WW2 as a nurse to the rank of lieutenant.
I am 58 years old we must never never forget the people who lost their lives for us so we can have tomorrow thank you thank you all for giving us today from London England South East London
Thank you to all who serve. From a retired registered nurse.
There will never be a generation like this again, they were one of a kind ♥️
In war, neither side wins. One side just loses less than the other.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
14:47 what a great place to put the ad
This was so touching and showed how strong these young lads and men were made me proud
Thanks for your wonderful service and sacrifice for our freedom for humanity
What fantastic young women! They must of been so comforting to those poor young men.
This was exceptional. Amazing resilience. Not surprisingly, they each lived to an amazing age
Love your channel, great documentary
Brilliant documentary
Beautiful, poignant, and deeply touching.
Whoever did the cc needs a clip 'round the ear. My poor Dad couldn't make head nor tail of the gibberish.
What beautiful spirits, to have gone through so very much!
I think about my granddad and grandma, he, having served in the first world war.
A wonderful gentle man, who was taken from me when i was 7.
But, in those years, he showed such love and guidance. God bless them!
Thank you for posting this video. Very touching and valuable. It's important to have the voices of these remarkable people on record, hopefully for all time. They inspire us, maybe urge us, to look at what we're truly whining about in life today. Maybe a little less "give me give me" and a little more "what can I give?"
A must see mini series is ANZAC Girls, about nurses of WWI. It is in ACORN network.
ANZAC Girls was excellent.
I saw that show
Yes it’s a great series. I was at VC corner to pay my respects to Harry and the rest of the boys.
Salut and RIP all you brave people.
Thank you i found it.
I use it for assistance in connection with grieving for others. And myself.
To all the nurses, God has a special place for you in his kingdom…he sure does. I love you all!
_"The worst thing about treating those combat boys wasn't... that they had their flesh torn. It was that they had their souls torn out."_ - Edwards Simmons Sledge (The Pacific, Part 4)
You can see it in their eyes how horrendous and painful some of these memories are. And many were little more than kids themselves at the time.
Brilliant.
My Grandad (1892-1956) served in the Great War. He was wounded and his dog tags were taken as they thought he stood no chance. Affected by drifting gas as he lay there, and blinded by blood - his injuries were to his throat and face - he started crawling and ended up in a road, where a passing ambulance had to either stop or run him over. They stopped and put him in the back, and he survived to be evacuated back to England. Back in Southampton facing surgery they thought his chances were so low they let him have a few puffs on a last cigarette as they took him down to operate. He lived. His speech was affected, my Mum says, and he suffered terribly with his sinuses and the damage to his lungs from the gas for the rest of his life, spending weeks, sometimes months in hospital each winter. He made it to the age of 64 though, many times over the years my Gran thought she'd be widowed. She said he wouldn't really talk about the war, but he sometimes woke up in the night screaming, and he always insisted that when he died he be cremated (still fairly unusual in the UK at that time) as he had a horror of being buried. He said he'd seen injured men buried alive in the mud in the war...
Bravo!excellent!beautiful!!❤
Rest in peace brave souls. Thank you for what you did.
I pray these accounts of this damn war never get lost. The industrialization of mass killing and the sheer scale of death in WW1 is disgusting to even view. I know it’s inevitable but I pray another war like this never happens again. This shi don’t compare to WW2.
It doesn't have to be inevitable. We just have to learn not to "play war." There are better ways to enjoy our lives and beautiful earth than destroying them.
Excellent..
Bless them.
It's quite impressive to see these brave people , all but one, live to over 100 years old.
Outstanding documentary. 🌻
Here I sit in November of 2023 watching images on the internet, and because they 'know better', some people think it is perfectly right and acceptable to desecrate cenotaphs and war memorials. These ingrates couldn't hold a candle to those extraordinary interviewees and indeed, ALL who went through the depravations and carnage that was the First World War.
God bless them all and may they rest in eternal peace.
Brave men and women serving and many dieing or being badly wounded. This was a terrible war, that actually just served to kill and maim so many. Such a waste. And from this terrible war, the seeds of WW2 were sown.
Excellent documentary 👍👍
Nobody of my generation or my children's could possibly comprehend what these brave men and women went through. May they all rest in peace.
Im a veteran and i am humbled by watching this those people were truely the bravest souls who ever lived now that they are gone i feel the lack i hope they found peace at last cause they were the real deal they are my heroes and i salute them ❤❤❤
What a great tragedy war is
may God rest their souls in heaven ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I would hope I'd be able to perform my nursing duties as these wonderful medical personnel did through out these wars.
I have the journal of an American nurse anesthetist who was serving at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917; she tells of being shelled during this period.
There is a war museum for women that served in Virginia. This diary should be donated for posterity. I donated some items years ago.
It would be nice to have the date of when this documentary was made.
this doco was first shown in 2000....but looking at the birth/deaths dates of the interviewees - the footage must've been taken approximately between 1996-98
People interviewed as listed at the end:
first 1896 - 2000 @104;
second 1895 -1999 @ 104;
third 1895 - 2000 @ 105;
fourth 1898 - 1999 @ 101;
fifth 1899 - 1996 @ 97;
sixth 1894 - 1999 @ 105;
seventh 1898 - 2000 @ 102;
eighth 1894 - 1998 @ 104
What an incredible track record!!!
Obviously the interviews had to be conducted before 1996, when the first one of those listed here died, then not broadcasted until after 2000 for them to know the dates for 3 of them to have died.
One of these comments is about a woman who lived to be 106.
Another comment stating news or notification of the last WWI veteran to have passed away, but not giving any date for that, can't believe that occurred recently - can't be many WWII veterans left.
I'm sure this has been broadcast many times . . . it could be broadcast every Memorial Date they think is appropriate. . . WELL WORTH WATCHING EVERY TIME!!!
Very moving 😢
Almost all of them lived more than 100 years...105 in some cases. They saw everything. Went through the darkest times in history. All heroes.
real life hero's
"the old lie: Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori" 😞
It seems that the worst of times creates the best of humanity
God bless the healers and peace makers.
Heartbreaking...
My maternal grandfather got his medical degree from the University of Iowa and was practicing medicine in Iowa when the war broke out. In 1917 he joined the Canadian Army and was attached to the B.E.F. where he served as a battle field surgeon until the United States entered the war. He then transferred to the US forces and served with them until the end of the war. He undoubtedly had PTSD. He couldn't stand the sound of fireworks on the 4th of July according to my mother, and every effort was made to keep things quiet and peaceful at home. He was a heavy smoker and died of a heart attack at age 54 in 1938. I inherited his papers and letters from France as well as photos and diary documenting his unit's march from France into defeated Germany and the end of the war. It's been fascinating reading so far.
To the brave men on both sides. We wear the Poppy to remember your sacrifice x
Fore sure they suffered extreme PTSD. But therapy wasn’t known or practiced back then so the nurses had to fill that capacity and did the best they could with what they had. Brave people. All of them 🫡