When did World War I actually start?

[DT Ralge]

Oh please don't get me started on Haig because I will get banned again . I hate that waste of space .

 

Oh boy, was my reaction to the name, as well.

My Grandfather fought and surrendered/was captured in no-man's land in the Somme. He spent the rest of his time being shipped around Europe's salt mines in cattle trucks. Consequently, he didn't think much of the Germans.

But worse than that, after the war my Granddad would have swung quite cheerfully for Haig such was his utter contempt for him during the battle(s) and after the War.

To give some perspective on the aftermath of the War, imagine returning to your home town and finding the road on which your Methodist church stands (some 90 houses) where each and every house has lost at least 1 man, and more than a few more of course.

It will be interesting to see how much sanitising of Haig and the others can be done by the BBC.

 

I feel compelled to recall my occasional trip with my Granddad to Norwich's castle keep - the book of commemoration that lists the names of those who died from the Norfolk regiment is a huge wooden-leafed "book".

My Grandfather, a fine upstanding, proud and very decent bloke would turn to the P's and find, from my memory, the Palmer brother he went off to war with and then a second name, then a third. But he never got any further than the third name, his eyes would well up, he'd turn away and then comment, later, on the inhumanity of the trenches. (This is mid-1960's, bear in mind). He never spoke of the blood and gore (he spared me the details) but commented that, after a while, you didn't bother asking the bloke's name next to you because ... you sat/stood and stared, waiting for your moment utterly convinced that it would come, but for what? Nothing.

[Mecky]

So: 4 August, then?

 

According to your own post (post number 1). The first declaration of war was on 28/07/1914, does that make it a world war? The war started for different countries on different dates.

[Hillpig]

The 1st and 2nd World Wars were ones we could and should have stayed out of.

 

It is true that Germany was trying to build an Empire and a navy to match the British. More prudent and selfish decisions by our government would have led France, Germany and Russia to cancel each other out and saved the lives of a million British and Empire service men.

 

It is quite possible that with us out of the war it would have come to an impasse, with no clear winner or loser. Assuming reasonable terms, the 2nd war could have been avoided altogether.

 

That said, we should honor the glorious dead. The best of our nation, the loss of whom we have never really recovered from.

[buck]

I think we tend to think that the word great means wonderful. It doesn't, it means very big, and that war was certainly very big.

 

---------- Post added 28-08-2013 at 15:58 ----------

 

Oh boy, was my reaction to the name, as well.

My Grandfather fought and surrendered/was captured in no-man's land in the Somme. He spent the rest of his time being shipped around Europe's salt mines in cattle trucks. Consequently, he didn't think much of the Germans.

But worse than that, after the war my Granddad would have swung quite cheerfully for Haig such was his utter contempt for him during the battle(s) and after the War.

To give some perspective on the aftermath of the War, imagine returning to your home town and finding the road on which your Methodist church stands (some 90 houses) where each and every house has lost at least 1 man, and more than a few more of course.

It will be interesting to see how much sanitising of Haig and the others can be done by the BBC.

 

I feel compelled to recall my occasional trip with my Granddad to Norwich's castle keep - the book of commemoration that lists the names of those who died from the Norfolk regiment is a huge wooden-leafed "book".

My Grandfather, a fine upstanding, proud and very decent bloke would turn to the P's and find, from my memory, the Palmer brother he went off to war with and then a second name, then a third. But he never got any further than the third name, his eyes would well up, he'd turn away and then comment, later, on the inhumanity of the trenches. (This is mid-1960's, bear in mind). He never spoke of the blood and gore (he spared me the details) but commented that, after a while, you didn't bother asking the bloke's name next to you because ... you sat/stood and stared, waiting for your moment utterly convinced that it would come, but for what? Nothing.

My Grandfather joined up as soon as the war started. He spent the whole war on or near the front line. While he was in France my Grandmother died leaving six children in the care of his eldest daughter who was just sixteen. He asked for compassionate leave to attend to the problem and was refused. Along with the shell shock and worry, he ended up in Middlewood hospital until he died in 1938. I was very young at the time, but I remember following the hearse in a Rolls Royce, while the Veterans we passed stopped and saluted him, his coffin draped with the Union Flag. I cried then, I could do it now.

[Hillpig]

I think we tend to think that the word great means wonderful. It doesn't, it means very big, and that war was certainly very big.

 

---------- Post added 28-08-2013 at 15:58 ----------

 

My Grandfather joined up as soon as the war started. He spent the whole war on or near the front line. While he was in France my Grandmother died leaving six children in the care of his eldest daughter who was just sixteen. He asked for compassionate leave to attend to the problem and was refused. Along with the shell shock and worry, he ended up in Middlewood hospital until he died in 1938. I was very young at the time, but I remember following the hearse in a Rolls Royce, while the Veterans we passed stopped and saluted him, his coffin draped with the Union Flag. I cried then, I could do it now.

 

Truly awful story, when you listen to the whingers and whiners about what terrible lives they lead it is a story like this that brings home what our forebears really had to put up with. God bless the man, if there is a god in heaven I hope he is with him.