Flanders Fields and the Somme

[Deleted]

I usually don't give Churchill much credit for anything but I'm inclined to cut him a little slack over Gallipoli , things on the Western Front were going no where except whole generations being wiped out , a flanking move was a good idea and the only flank open to the Empire was up through the Ottoman Empire , I don't how much thought went into this move but something happen and what happen was the Turks the Turks proved to be a much tougher opponent than anticipated compile that with some bad moves by the Empire and it spelled disaster .

[Sir John]

I blame the pommy generals (etc) myself.

Good idea stuffed up by incompetence.

I had 5 great uncles in France. Spent most of their time trying to teach the Yanks how to fight, but they were hard to find, and arrived at the "11th Hour", as usual.


SJ

[Sir John]

...they all fought at Passchendaele in Oct 1917, about 8 months before old "Black Jack" got off the boat.

[Deleted]

When I think of Gallipoli I think of all the Jolly swag men buried there yet the men from OZ continue to claim ties to the Empire . The Americans tipped the balance of the main effort on the Western Front , as for who taught who perhaps some of both the Brits showed the Americans how to get slaughtered and the Americans showed THE Brits how not to get slaughtered .

[Sir John]

Actually, it was Sir John Monash who finally convince the poms that charging over open ground is stupid.

Even Gen Picket knew that - eventually.



SJ
SJ