ANZAC day

[Sportsman]

With ANZAC day coming up in a couple of days it seems appropriate to listen to what is, in my opinion, the greatest song about war ever written.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8YLUZgzEnE

 

"They turned all their faces away"

[Ken L]

It's a fine song and it was the subject of that rarest of tributes - a cover version that was better than the original.

[Tony U]

With ANZAC day coming up in a couple of days it seems appropriate to listen to what is, in my opinion, the greatest song about war ever written.

 

 

 

"They turned all their faces away"

No Man's Land also by Eric comes pretty close! Edited April 23, 2015 by Tony U

[Huge_Vitae]

And in memory of all my relatives and their friends, and the relatives of my friends who lost their lives there, Princess Beatrice's Isle of Wight Rifles. Amongst the, if not the single most loss of lives per second in any assault in history, hopefully never to be repeated.

[Dave H]

It is quite amazing that Winston Churchills naval attack on the Dardanelles was a complete disaster which led to the slaughter on the beaches that he became PM in WW2 which is why at the time relatives of the Gallipoli dead wanted his head on a pike not in no 10.

[chesters1]

Its always strange its only australians that are remembered ,there were three times more brits that died than australians

 

Disaster it was but if the fleet had come back the next day even the turkish military leaders told everyone to head for the horizon ,as they didnt the turks had time to reinforce the headlands causing the problem.

Not the best planning ships are best with room to turn and as the turks were on both sides long range pummelling of the coast impossible

 

Gun boat diplomacy was now on the decline but america sent one to threaten us not so long ago to make us toe the line regarding europe so its not totally gone

Its laughable our navel lords think we can still do it ,some matelot rented from G4S in a dingy waving a red ensign isnt going to make anyone toe the line in overseas political shenanigans nowadays

Edited April 27, 2015 by chesters1

[Puzzled]

There were also just under 10,000 French dead on our side too (more than the Aussies) which never seems to get a mention.

 

I suppose that of the numbers of young men slaughtered (on all sides) the proportion relative to the total male population of their countries was much higher for the ANZACs. And it would have been the first major overseas conflict that they were taking part in on behalf of the British Empire. And what a place to get involved!

 

Churchill was vilified for the whole campaign which, had it been executed with any degree of military skill, would have been far more successful. The strategic objectives made sense (it had the backing of parliament) it just wasn't carried out very well. That's the most frustrating aspect of Gallipoli - far too many lives were needlessly wasted as a result of incompetent leadership. And nor did we heed the folly of just throwing vast numbers of brave men against machine guns and cannon - they did exactly the same on the Somme a year later.

[Huge_Vitae]

My memory might not be correct here Puzzled, if so someone can correct me I am sure! The ANZAC troops were heading somewhere else after their brass were shown the assault plan but refused to take part, Churchill went behind their backs and diverted their troop ships there, it is true that proportionately other nations lost more troops but I recall one stage of the early assault that literally thousands of ANZAC troops were lost in seconds when they moved into the cross fire of heavy machine guns that were unreported positions.

[Dave H]

Churchill was a wartime leader but in peace time was a pompous idiot. The east end hated him with a passion and just about all working classes. When the east end cranes dipped their heads at his funeral they had to pay triple wages to the men to do it as they refused to show any respect for him.

Thatcher was along the same lines a good wartime leader but an arrogant peace time one and at her funeral the working classes celebrated especially the miners families even a generation on from the 80's.

 

But going back to Gallipoli Churchill was really at fault and so making him PM away from any strategic battles was a good idea in ww2. If you want to pick a WW2 cock up in compararism to gallipoli it was Montgomery on his suicide mission 'Market Garden' and worse the best crack British paratroopers who were the SAS equivelent of their day all got cut down, the only reason Montgomery got the upper hand in the east was that Rommel was sick back in Berlin or the Alamein would have never of happened. Montgomery was the most over rated british general in history.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Dave H

[chesters1]

We never had a war under maggie ,we had a "conflict"

 

Its interesting that if Churchill had died at 60 he would have died relatively unknown ,its true he was knowledgeable about war (having been a war correspondent ) but only politics made him creep higher ,his mum was a wiley women and no doubt used all her sexes charms to help him get on LOL

Like maggie dropped like a stone when they wernt needed ,wars are generally won with good luck and lost with a series of bad luck ,why would the politicians care how many died so long as it wasnt them ,they will send every person to die in the most horrific way known to further their agendas ,they always have generally its only them with the power to start one and unlike america the prime minister can start one with or without parliaments blessing

Edited April 28, 2015 by chesters1