battle of pachendale ww1 new mnovie

[Trussman]

I love reading and watching movies of the World Wars. I remember reading a book I forgot the name of it but the allies was in a trench everyone had there patch like USA had the northern bit Briton and France had middle and Canada had south. Anyway the germans broke through the British and French trenchs and the operation was about to fail and the Canadadian troops took the job on in filling back the hole that was left in the trench and beat the Germans back again.

 

Again what an effort to do that saved the British-fFranco from humiliation.

 

Great effort by all coutries that thought for Freedom.

 

Df

 

I'm sure all them German lads thought they were fighting for freedom as well.

most of those german lads in WW2 were fighting for a misguided little corperal and his cronnies towards the final solution ?

Yes, in the Second, not the First.

[Dirty Harry]

My Grandfather landed on juno Beach on D Day.

We only found out a few months before he died that he was there on the day.

He told me that Juno was a Canadian beach and that he should have landed forst in the tanks to make way for the troops. This was not possible due to the weather and tides and as a result loads of Canadians died.

When eventually they were able to land the tanks it was a bit to late.

He found it very hard to talk about the war but I really got the impression he regretted not being able to land before the troops amd this was 65 years later.

 

Harry

[jcbruno]

Yeah i agree with trussman the 1st world war was bloody horrible with the loss of a generation and innocence on all sides for a war that acomplished nothing a war that didnt need to be faught, thats why we should always remember the 1st world war for the tragedy on all sides as i stated before how many great people never got to live on both sides so many names and could have been's

[LXX73]

How was the film?

[amateur]

Perhaps the greatest sacrifice by the "Canadians" was on 1 July 1916 at Beaumont Hamel on the Somme, where the Newfoundland Regiment was completely decimated within the first half hour of battle.

 

At that time Newfoundland was, in fact, not even a part of Canada, but a separate independent colony, however they willingly provided a Regiment who fought alongside the British with the greatest of honour throughout the battle of the Somme.

 

They were in the second wave of assault troops on 1st July, and due to the forward trenches being full with wounded troops from the Essex regiment from the earlier initial assault, had to advance over open ground in full view of the German machine guns, and they paid the price.

 

801 brave Newfoundland men went "over the top", the next day only 69 men answered the roll call, the rest were either dead or wounded.

 

Those who have studied the history of both the first & second world wars know that we could not have "won" either war without the help of the Canadian and other colonial troops, the Canadians fought like demons in Normandy and beyond, we owe them a great debt of gratitude.

 

Cat.

 

After WW1 the Newfoundlers bought the Beaumont Hamel battlefield and it is still preserved today as a memorial with the trench system and dugouts still in place - a piece of history preserved.

I saw it a couple of years ago when I visited the Somme, and earlier this year I went to Ypres and Passchendaele and saw some of the battlefields and cemeteries there.

The museum in the Cloth Hall was one of the best I've been to anywhere, and the German cemetery at Langemarke was particularly poignant, only because it was clear that after the war that nobody cared about the Germans - in comparison to Tyne Cot, the largest WW1 British cemetery which is very well looked after.

A sad episode of history - but at least I found my great-uncle's final resting place

Edited October 30, 2008 by amateur

[TheDodge]

I dont think the group known as ANZAC's came into being until the second world war ANZAC Australia NewZealand And Canadian were combined units who fought brilliantly.

 

About 18 years ago I visited a war grave on the island of Crete, it was made up of mainly ANZAC troops. The place was Sueda Bay and despite the island being scorched to beggery this place was lush green grass. The Cretans employed guys to keep it watered and the grass cut neatly. I hadn't been there long when I noticed the ages of the soldiers lying there, the oldest one I saw was 34 and the youngest was just 15 (he'd lied about his age to enlist), in the main the ages hovered around 22. They were so young.

 

There was a German graveyard too, equally as well kept, I didn't go inside that one but I did ask a Cretan chap why was the German grave as well kept as the Allies graves.

 

It seems the invasion of Crete to re-take it from the Germans was a complete mess. The Germans did indeed invade the island but they didn't cause the havoc and mayhem as was caused on other Greek Islands and had a decent relationship with the Cretans (despite the Cretan resistance in the hills). The job of re-taking Crete was given to the ANZAC forces who were to be dropped by the USAF, as the story goes, the American Air Force met heavy gunfire over the island and kicked the troops out without care of where they were. Troops were dropped in the sea and in the mountains where they all perished. Troops that survived the drop were heavily outnumbered and were on the Northern shallow side of the island, there was no way a ship could get in to rescue them. So they set off in good order to march across the mountains to Sfakia where the steeper rocks allowed deeper water for ships to get into the coast close enough to pick them up. They were harried all the way across the mountain range and mant were lost to german attacks. Finally they reached Sfakia where they waited to be picked up. They threw their weapons into the sea after taking the bolts out of them and rendering them useless.

 

The Cretans will never forgive the US for their cowardice and not flying over the drop zones. Even now they daub slogans on the wall of the US naval base there on Crete.

 

I dare say that Pachendale did see the Canadian troops and maybe the antipodean troops too but I'm not at all sure they were called ANZACS

[LXX73]

Come on then JC is the film worth checking out?

[Trussman]

I dont think the group known as ANZAC's came into being until the second world war ANZAC Australia NewZealand And Canadian were combined units who fought brilliantly.

 

About 18 years ago I visited a war grave on the island of Crete, it was made up of mainly ANZAC troops. The place was Sueda Bay and despite the island being scorched to beggery this place was lush green grass. The Cretans employed guys to keep it watered and the grass cut neatly. I hadn't been there long when I noticed the ages of the soldiers lying there, the oldest one I saw was 34 and the youngest was just 15 (he'd lied about his age to enlist), in the main the ages hovered around 22. They were so young.

 

There was a German graveyard too, equally as well kept, I didn't go inside that one but I did ask a Cretan chap why was the German grave as well kept as the Allies graves.

 

It seems the invasion of Crete to re-take it from the Germans was a complete mess. The Germans did indeed invade the island but they didn't cause the havoc and mayhem as was caused on other Greek Islands and had a decent relationship with the Cretans (despite the Cretan resistance in the hills). The job of re-taking Crete was given to the ANZAC forces who were to be dropped by the USAF, as the story goes, the American Air Force met heavy gunfire over the island and kicked the troops out without care of where they were. Troops were dropped in the sea and in the mountains where they all perished. Troops that survived the drop were heavily outnumbered and were on the Northern shallow side of the island, there was no way a ship could get in to rescue them. So they set off in good order to march across the mountains to Sfakia where the steeper rocks allowed deeper water for ships to get into the coast close enough to pick them up. They were harried all the way across the mountain range and mant were lost to german attacks. Finally they reached Sfakia where they waited to be picked up. They threw their weapons into the sea after taking the bolts out of them and rendering them useless.

 

The Cretans will never forgive the US for their cowardice and not flying over the drop zones. Even now they daub slogans on the wall of the US naval base there on Crete.

 

I dare say that Pachendale did see the Canadian troops and maybe the antipodean troops too but I'm not at all sure they were called ANZACS

 

The Ac in ANZAC stood for army corps.

[Fisherman Mike]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANZAC_Day

 

FM

[LXX73]

Right JC ive caught you online so give us a review of the film.

[jcbruno]

sorry lxx73

 

I personally thought the film was well done the first hour of the film was a little boring and focused on life back in Canada before the battle not that it wasn't interesting i just thought it dragged on a little to far and of course there was a love story that went along with it, The battle scenes were very well done and it showed the true face of war i would say it was definatley worth seeing. Has anyone in the UK seen the film?

[jcbruno]

yeah i didnt think canadians were ever under the banner of the Anzacs, The ANZAC were also a very fit soldier they aswell as the Gurkas were probably the best the allies had in the war with Japan, some of the US Marien Corpes units were pretty close aswell

Edited November 15, 2008 by jcbruno