the last day of WW1
 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...8869456988957#


pretty damn shocking really - how the famous General Pershing could throw away at least 3000 lives on the final day of WW1; very sad of those who died in the final minutes , and those who suffered from wounds recieved on that day for days/weeks and months - or even till the end of their lives - afterwards.

I haven't watched the video yet, but was in on earlier in the week? Pretty sad about the guys being killed by people who didn't even know the war had ended. An incredible number died within the final days. Very sad.

aye it was on last weekend on BBC2 and BBC HD

I didn't click the link but I presume it was the show that was on tellie the other night.

While it's sad that so many died on the last day, and something like 300 died because a General? (I forgot which rank it was) wanted to capture the baths in the town for his men to clean up in after the war.

It does make a good point, was the lives lost on the last day anymore sad than those on any other day, or even the first?

And the Generals answer as to why so many died on the last day was not a bad one. They didn't want the war to stop and rather prophetically they said the war would just start all over again because Germany wouldn't believe they where defeated. so they did all they could on the last day to try and show Germany they where beat.

Sadly it didn't work and we then had WW2. Lesson learned though.

I've watched the BBC documentary about it, it's really shocking and sad how some of the other soldiers lost their lives even when the war was already over.

I just find it rather insane that you can "end" a war by signing a piece of paper, makes you wonder why the hell they were fighting for in the first place.

Well it proved to a be a decisive mistake, as it ended nothing, just delayed the war. Longest ever cease fire?

Would you rather enslaving the populace or exterminating them outright in order to win a war? I prefer the piece of paper.

Nope, but marching into Berlin might have prevented the millions from being killed in WW2.

Agreed. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

True. It was largely the debt that was imposed on Germany as punishment that lead to the discontent and Hitler coming to power

We'll never know, but marching on to Berlin in WWI could possibly have entailed the deaths of hundreds of thousands more people (Allies and Grand Alliance alike), and WWII may have happened anyway, although a total military defeat in WWI would have put paid to a lot of the 'stab in the back' and other Nazi myths.