Quite the revelation, with 100 years of 20/20 hindsight.
A brand new conclusion that is.
BartSimpson
CKA Moderator
Posts: 65472
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 2:54 pm
And that's why General Pershing was correct when he told the French and British to go fuck themselves when they demanded control of US forces.
Thanos
CKA Uber
Posts: 33561
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 3:11 pm
Yup. And if Canada had done the same thing the later on the waste of our guys at Hong Kong and Dieppe might not have happened.
herbie
CKA Uber
Posts: 11825
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:42 pm
Beaumnt-Hamel. Gallipoli Dieppe.
The glory of the British Empire. That's what 'colonials' are for.
Thanos
CKA Uber
Posts: 33561
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 5:49 pm
Considering that British-born troops from Old Blighty herself suffered even worse at the hands of their own leadership at all those battles you listed, and as well at uncounted hundreds of other battles where no colonial soldiers were involved, I'd say it was a cross-spectrum contempt for anyone who wasn't in that god-awful gaggle of upper-class-twits-of-the-year where the Brits loved to select their officers from. They simply didn't care because, just like the Russians thought about their guys they happily fed into the meat-grinder, they could "always find another Tommy somewhere". Just contempt and total disconcern for the lives of any of the underlings unfortunate enough to have them as their leaders.
Sunnyways
Forum Super Elite
Posts: 2221
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 7:04 pm
In fairness, I think the junior officers had a high fatality rate as well.
The segregation of war into limited periods of industrial slaughter has changed how we see it. WWI was a big turning point in that regard. And the lies told were whoppers.
Quite the revelation, with 100 years of 20/20 hindsight.
A brand new conclusion that is.
Yeah. What the hell would a general know about infantry tactics?
Thanos
CKA Uber
Posts: 33561
Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:05 pm
Someone way back when should have asked Douglas Haig that same question because as late as 1918 he was still dreaming of the shattering offensive that would enable a grand horse cavalry charge into the enemy's rear. The closest they ever came to that was the massed tank attacks at Cambrai but apparently they didn't see the need to follow up on that kind of thinking no matter how successful it was right in front of their own eyes.
CKA Uber 
CKA Moderator 
