They Shall Not Grow Old ~ Documentary

[Deepest Blue]

Will watch it on catch up, looks great.

 

[Inter Me Nan]

Heads up for anyone interested, this is on TV tonight, BBC2 9.30pm

Cheers chief.

 

[Magicpole]

I always loved this. It’s a quote from an American Major in Nam. They used it at the end of Hamburger Hill.

If you are able,
save for them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have thaught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind "

Major Michael Davis O�Donell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

 

[Bozo]

This is an incredible watch. If you've missed it, watch on catch up.

 

[thismustbetheplace]

Just watched on BBC iPlayer. My word, what those guys went through was horrific, in fact there isn't even words to describe it.

Really touching to see the German POW's being treated with upmost respect, after they had just been slaughtering each other. Both just poor lads following orders, and had a lot more in common than the people sending them to war.

 

[Ban-jani]

Just watched on BBC iPlayer. My word, what those guys went through was horrific, in fact there isn't even words to describe it.

Really touching to see the German POW's being treated with upmost respect, after they had just been slaughtering each other. Both just poor lads following orders, and had a lot more in common than the people sending them to war.

Absolutely this.

I was shocked at how many narrating, who were there, had the upmost respect and even some level of admiration for the Germans they were fighting.

As you say, just poor young men doing the deeds of idiots who sent them there.

The fear, determination, resilience and courage must have been to unimaginable proportions.

One saying that watching several young lads drowning in the mud, that they couldnt get to, nearly finished him off mentally... that really got to me.

We must never forget what these men did and went through.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Dulce et decorum est
By Wilfred Owen (who lost his life a week before armistice)

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori

 

[bluethrunthru]

In all honesty I was a bit underwhelmed. I think it was a mixture of the hype and the fact that there have been so many Great War documentaries on TV in the last week. I intend to give it a week and rewatch on iplayer as I suspect it will have more of an impact then - today it just came across as a colourised version of what was wall to wall TV - shame really.

 

[Magicpole]

Dulce et decorum est
By Wilfred Owen (who lost his life a week before armistice)

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori

At school we covered WW1 in history and it included this poem, it is my favourite of all the war poems of that war. Even as a kid I was shocked at how Haig could be such a fucking arse with tactics that ensured so much carnage.

This poem for me sums up the futility and utter waste of the war to end all wars.

 

[mancityvstoke]

Great piece of work...brought WW1 to life.....the horrors

Great song at the end.