Text 14646, 65 rader
Skriven 2014-04-26 09:53:12 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
  Kommentar till text 14645 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Re: Lest we forget ... A
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Dale,
 
DS> Any such loss is a tradgedy, but I wonder at the statement that it was
DS> the most bloody battle ever.   FWIW, the WIKI figures for a three week
DS> period of that battle shows about 19,000 casualties (no break down as to
DS> dead vs. wounded).  The three day battle at Gettysburg during the
DS> American civil war had just under 8,000 dead, 27,000+ wounded and
DS> another 11,000 or so missing or captured.
 
You are not wrong of course.
 
Often in the world the American Civil War is regarded as a local thing and the
magnitude of it is not fully understood. It is on my bucket list to visit
Gettysburg one day. Also Manassas, the Hunley submarine, etc...
 
I think one cannot compare Gettysburg with Passchedaele and it would show
little respect for the deceased to start a discussion about yes/no. Every
individual victim is a drama.
 
Gettysburg was fought in an era where 'as a matter of speech' a battle started
in the morning and by evening you knew who the winner was.
 
Passchendaele lasted from July 31st through November 10th 1917. The casualty
list (killed and wounded) shall never be really known and is disputed between
400,000 and 858,614 as the extreme numbers, including 24,065 German POWs.
 
I think the extreme brutality of Passchendaele has to be remembered, the
habitual bayonetting of adversaries, gas attacks by both sides. The summer and
autumn of 1917 were extremely wet. The continued bad conditions were beyond
comprehension.
 
Both my grandfathers fought in, and survived, WW1 and I had the good furtune to
know one until my 25th birthday. The conditions he described of life in the
trenches for 4 years are beyond one's imagination. The unhumanisation of people
where individual minds are blurred into trigger-machines. The water, rats,
feces, urine, lice, mud, rotting corpses, ... it was more than just weaponry
and fighting.
 
Therefor, Dale, the "most bloody battle" statement is not about a number of
casualties but about the totality of what I described above ... let's not
compare.
 
Every single casualty is a drama somewhere. It's always a father, a son or a
brother ...
 
Whenever I visit the cemetaries of "The Great War", sometimes also stupidly
described in those days as "The war that will end all wars", it is difficult to
find words to describe it. Chinese, Africans, Honduras, India, Pakistan, Siam,
Canada, USA ...
 
There's nothing that can be done for these men other than maintain their
gravesites and honour their memory, whether it happened a 100 years ago or 151
... the best statement comes from Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address":
 
        But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not
        consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men,
        living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it,
        far above our poor power to add or detract.
 
It is true for all wars and all battle sites.
 
 \%/@rd

--- D'Bridge 3.99
 * Origin: Many Glacier / Protect - Preserve - Conserve (2:292/854)