And we have such gullible people even today doing and believing exactly what the government tells them. Ukraine is a perfect example with us in the west beating our chests to Russia. I mean why would we want to send a young man from France or the U.K. to die for a fight between Ukraine and Russia yet that’s the way it’s going. And no one dares says ‘no’ and no dares tell the media to stop stirring. It was the same in WW1 - fight for what. Germany never threatened the west and only did so when we threatened it because the elites ego was put out of joint because they thought they should rule the waves.

No, it started with Charles Chiltern simply taking a note of the songs, the voice of the men. Joan Plowright then used it as a history of the war, which nearly got censored by the Establishment, on a shoestring budget at the Theatre Royal Stratford - she used end-of-the-pier pierrot costumes as they were what she had, rather than uniforms, and that got caught up in the Summer of Love anti-Vietnamse War movement. In the autumn of 69, Dickie Attenborough got the necessary rights together to make the film, and a cast of the whole UK theatre establishment. I'd just joined the CCF battalion at the school which had founded the National Youth Theatre movement fourteen years earlier, and had spent the afternoon sorting the stores in search of a battledress my size - an the bottom of a pile of kit about eight feet high was a box, different cloth and cut, I looked for a label - 1917. I finished off, left the box where it was, and reported back to Admin. The guy was on the phone, retired RSM, "No, Dickie, sorry, I'm pretty sue we don't have any WW1 uniforms. What is it, Rahere? We do? Well, you speak to Mr Attenborough then." That solved the issue of the box - and irritated Mrs Plowright considerably. A couple of months passed, basic training complete, orders from Admin, be on parade in uniform 0630 outside the school gates on Saturday. That meant the milk train. So there I was, feeling a right lemon, when a parp-parp came from down the road, a charabanc rolled into sight with the cast on board. That's how I took my first salute from Olivier and Gielgud, the High Command of the stage, they'd partied the night at Stratford and were now en route to Clapham Common to join the London-Brighton veteran car rally, ahead of filming in and behind the town. A lifetime later, I was a Staff Colonel, beating militarism into Peacemaking, and realised there was a hidden message to the cast. Then as now, it's the teens who die. At least the reintroduction of National Service has faded with the election. It is, certainly, something a citizen must do to defend the Nation, and that requires training. But it's not the right of the feudal rump to demand it, and at long last the end of the Hereditary Peerage is in sight.

Really? There were some very, very good officers in the Great War. The problem with this film is that it is as much an artefact of the 60s anti-establishment as it is an accurate portrayal of many elements of the War - not least because of the huge inaccuracies of "The Donkeys" - the book that was the spur to this and other protrayals.

What's so terrible about the whole thing was WWI is overshadowed by WWII. Despite more people dying in WWII, I find WWI was much worse since it was literally a meat grinder where people died for nothung

Correct, it's a disgraceful lie, there are very good reasons why the British Army, alone of all the major combatants, never mutinied or indeed had any notable disciplinary issues throughout the whole war.

Yes, that's true. But it's out of the subaltern's hands here. I think what's being shown is how the number of unexpected casualties swamped the home country's resources. The War is already growing into a monster.

In what way...??? we need some more than a pithy comment! makes you you sound like a d!ck...!

You certainly are.

You obviously know a lot about bullshit - or perhaps you don't, because this isn't.

Complete bollocks of course, never happened and more to do with the hard-left, anti-establishment obsessions of the late 1960's. That you're prepared to take this snippet at face value says a lot about it's effectiveness and your own credulity and lack of curiosity. The whole film is full of crap like this.

If you believe that you obviously know nothing about the British Army.

Officer casualties as a proportion were higher than other ranks and I write that as the grandson and great grandson and great great nephew of many who served on the Western Front as rankers in front line infantry units .German soldiers sought out officers as targets to the point where officers went over the top wearing private's tunics and carrying rifles to avoid being targeted .

I surest you spend a bit more time and look at the contemporary film made at Southampton. You can find it if you search shell shock.

It's a film mate, not a documentary or a newsreel, they're ACTORS!

@@paddy864umm it’s an observation and actually the truth.

My Great Grandfather was also a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. He was killed at Ypres. RIP.

It gives me the chills too. Total stupidity. Sending all our young men to be cannon fodder for the upper classes.