Myths of the First World War

[????]

,,,some interseting 'truths' debunked in here - not by Michael Gove :)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25776836

[uncleglen]

The most interesting part of that is that the upper class did not get off lightly since most lefties these days would have us believe the complete opposite and for the most part have brainwashed the 'downtrodden working class' into believing it.

[steveo]

All of it was interesting

I read some equally interesting stuff about the second war: that we were far from outclassed. We had overwhelming naval strength while the Germans did not.

Our airforce was run by professionals whereas the Luftwaffe had Goering who despite being a fighter ace was a terrible officer, and a drug addict.

A lot of the German srmy was run by dilettantes and amateurs

And other stuff

[El Pibe]

The most interesting one is the indeed the bit that bit that quids cites, though lets not kid ourselves there was some sort of class solidarity going on or that policy wasn't executed with a total disregard for human life.

What's most interesting about it is that in today's world that divide between political class and joe schmo is much starker. Not a single serving MP has a child in the armed forces (or at least didn't during the iraq invasion).

As for were we outclassed in the second, clearly not, we won. But we were better supplied, had more artillery and from the latter part of '42 onwards had clear air superiority, and we did always have the preponderance of power on the seas, though the u-boats damn near made up for it in the first half of the war.

And yet were were generally outclassed pound for pound to borrow boxing parlance, with the germans having better equipment and incredibly well versed in effective couterattacks to keep your opponent off balance. German officers after the war said they had much more respect for the russians and the americans who fought more like them and found the British too plodding.

Of course there was good reason for that. We had in fact learnt the lessons of the first war and no longer considered soldiers fodder. Conservative tactics, not launching offensives until there was a superiority of men and materiel (in general, there were some appalling pointless battles fought by monty in Tunisia for instance in a futile race for glory) all reflected the value placed upon human life in ways that was unthinkable in the red army and wermacht, and to a surprisingly large extent in the us army (more so in the first war where there was a callous disregard for life and desperately costly offensives launched when the war was over in all but name).

Aaaanyway good linky quids, I do like a bit of mythbusting.