The Massacre of the Innocents - Langemark German Cemetery

[@nickbell4984]

I really appreciate you telling some of the stories about the aces. I think it's really important to talk about the personal experience of the war because most of these men were just normal guys living their lives until something came along and swept them up. Showing the personal Stories of a few serviceman really shows the scale of the tragedy this war caused. 25,000 men were buried here and every single one of them, behind the statistic, is a human being who was like us, had feelings, and had a family.

[@fingerprint5511]

This is why we remember them and why still today new connections and revelations are recorded

[@douglasdde376]

Another excellent presentation, my father served in the first Canadian expeditionary force, he was a member of the 48 th Highlanders from Toronto, Canada, he was trained as a semaphore , during second gas attack at Ypres he was captured April 1914, he was 17 at the time, he came home to Canada in 1920. We his 8 children were adversely effected, thanks for filling in history around the war.

[@markbell9135]

My great grandfather fought at Ypres and returned home injured. I never knew him or met him but watching videos like yours about the infamous battles that took place there give me a sense of what he must have gone through. They’re brilliant videos thank you for sharing them

[@platinumtrophymontages3749]

Hi Chris, I know your vlogging video's don't get as many views as your reactions but they truly are amazing video's. You are able to capture the tragedy and horrors of the first world war eloquently and are able to shine a light on stories that I have never heard before. Seeing that mass grave of 25,000 Germans was truly eye opening. If you visit Australia one day you need to check out the war memorial in Canberra. In the main section we have listed all the names of every Australia solider who passed away fighting for our country and the list just goes on seemingly forever. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is also breathtaking, every time I go I can't help but get emotional, especially when I read the names of the fallen who were only 16 years old. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@fingerprint5511]

You've done a terrific job in this playlist thank you

[@DoNkEy_LoVE]

Man your original content is great I can't believe I've missed out this long I didn't know that you were a great narrator like that keep up the great work and thanks for keeping history alive

[@jamesbros7682]

Loved the video! I traced my family heritage (Vierstraete) to the Langemark area, so being able to see it in your video is awesome! Keep up the great content VTH

[@GutenTag231]

Your videos are really well produced! Thank you so much! The sheer number of human life that was lost because of the world wars is absolutely incomprehensible. 25,000 dead in such a small space alone. I just can't wrap my head around these numbers.

[@msspi764]

I really appreciate your posts. Your Ypres series is by far the best. I love how you dissected the myth while respecting the sacrifice behind it. The number and scale of those cemeteries is something we just don’t see in the US

[@dunk856]

I went this year. It’s a somber and reverent place. War is never the answer, may the souls of those men and boys rest forever in peace. It should be noted that the CWWGC do a fantastic job and I was also amazed at the Menin gate ceremony every evening attended by so many young people who were so respectful. A trip worth making to anyone considering it. Thanks for your great commentary

[@arnegreve1019]

Hello Chris, every of your videos are full of respect. Thank you very much!

[@alex4833]

Great video, Chris. It's one thing to read about historical events, but it's definitely another to visit the battlefields and cemeteries. I haven't been to battlefields or cemeteries (for those killed in war) but would like to in the future. Informative and great video again.

[@Team-fabulous]

Out of all the cemeterys I visited while at the Somme I found Langemark to be the most haunting. From the bronze effigies of German soldiers to the flat granite grave stones each with hundreds of names... Just young German lads doing what they thought was right....

[@Mr.Janitor]

"older men declare war, but it is the young men that must fight and die." I think that phrase is very apt for the men who fought there.

[@anthonyeaton5153]

Thus it always was and always is.

[@johnbruce2868]

What is your general inference? Old men bad and scheming? Young men good and innocent? That's simplistic, binary, thinking. A declaration of war is only that. A declaration. It is neither its cause nor its design nor is it the motivational force which drives, directs and maintains its energy. That force is largely an ideological young man's mentality well beyond the physical capacity of ideological old men. Aside from the incongruence that it is the young men who survive, and who maybe could know better, who become the old men you criticise, I'm sure there's many an old man who's signed a declaration of war with a very heavy heart. Try Neville Chamberlain for one, President Franklin D. Roosevelt for another.

[@hoshinoutaite]

James McCudden, one of the British aces that Voss was fighting, had this to say about him. "As long as I live I shall never forget my admiration for that German pilot, who single-handed fought seven of us for ten minutes and also put some bullets through all our machines. His flying was wonderful, his courage magnificent, and in my opinion he was the bravest German airman whom it has been my privilege to see fight."

[@anthonyeaton5153]

Those Aces did very little to advance the front line. Individual dogfights had no bearing on the winning of the war. The recce pilots were the real heroes. Only when AirPower was used in a ground attack role in 1917/18 did it prove its worth. Those Aces were brave but that is all.

[@Crytica.]

Well done video, very respectful and well told like usual. Can't wait for your next original work!

[@nickshaffer9961]

Love your on site videos!! Love hearing the stories and they are always presented so well

[@stephenparker6362]

Hi, Chris, another very emotional original content video. You do them so well.

[@dresden_slowjog]

For decades I've wanted to see the fields of Flanders. Your journey inspires me even more. Like in the UK, every single village/city quarters here in Germany has memorials with SO MANY names and dates of young men on them from WW1 and/or WW2, the number is infathomably. I wonder If there were any able-bodied and able-minded men left alive at all after all of this. My small town had a large apartment complex nicknamed "spinsters' fortress" (Jungfernburg) when I was a kid in the 1980ies. Full of little old ladies who simply found no husband after war. // Regarding the intro song "Drei Lilien, drei Lilien" (three lilies, three lilies): “Blooming flowers on the graves of those who died early are mentioned at the end of numerous songs. According to old folk belief, the souls of departed loved ones turned into flowers (lilies), which no one was allowed to break off. Drei Lilien, drei Lilien die pflanzt´ich auf mein Grab Da kam ein stolzer Reiter und brach sie ab. Mit Juvi valle ralle ralle ralle ra da kam ein stolzer Reiter und brach sie ab.

[@Dav1Gv]

The Langemarck Cemetery is just as moving as the British Cemeteries. Thank you for commenting but, in fact, there are a few villages, one near where I live in Wales, did not lose anyone in WW1. They are known as 'Thankful Vullages'. There are even very few who also lost no one in WW2.

[@mikesandate3222]

The font on those walls was so small. Such a sad time in human history for everyone. Thank u for sharing as I would have never known of this place without you.

[@slade7490]

Hey VTH, I love your reactions! I wanted to recommend to you a series of videos by Kraut (the one who made that series on Turkish history) called "A Tale of Two Colonies". It's about the US and Mexico, and the differing histories of the two countries. I think you would especially like it since it explores that early part of American history which you seem to be interested in. Your reactions make my day!

[@sugmabalz]

I just finished reading The Wright Brother’s by David McCullough and it’s crazy to see how fast aircraft evolves from the short flights of the early 1900s to dogfights and aerial battles only a decade later

[@TDNStacticalronto]

Chilling, but really informative. I like these on site videos.

[@Bruce-1956]

I've been to both Langemark and Lommel German cemeteries. Both are very sombre compared to CWGC and US cemeteries. The mass grave is where the remains of German soldiers who are still being found are laid to rest. There is a 'peace tree' at the entrance to Langemark that looked in pretty bad condition.

[@timfrye3586]

Fascinating! Well done and informative, thanks for posting

[@historyinyourhand1787]

A great video - I've never visited Langemark, now I need to

[@KinsellaHistory]

I love your visits to historic sights.

[@kanel6426]

The Langemark Cemetery is something else.. i went there a couple of years ago. the mass grave is crazy to see irl

[@kevinmembreno7565]

I wish my school would teach me about this, I have never heard of this till now, but at least there are people like you that teach us things like this. Thanks for the great video, God bless.

[@AWOLCHRISTIAN]

Have had the privilege to visit this special cemetery twice during our pilgrimage to the battlefields of The Western Front. As British visitors, we were most profoundly moved by the realisation that there were no enemies sleeping there amongst the headstones and the rustling, shady trees. They were boys and men who had lived and loved and dreamed..... May they rest in peace until their questions are answered in eternity. Beautiful, sad and peaceful place. We would highly recommend a visit if you are in the area. Greetings from the 🇬🇧

[@j.kielkiel1144]

Your original content is pretty cool and kinda underrated. The first world War was just something else.. The people participating in it grew up in a world that had no idea how horrible that war would be.. These kids thought they would be in Paris within a few weeks or months like there grandads did in 1871... Why did they fall so easily for the this nationalist fallacy...? Can't help but think about the firey speech by these old men in the movie "all quiet on the western front" and how Paul and his buddies got tricked into dying for something that would turn out to be a catastrophe for everyone involved... But hey in hindsight everyone is wise and would claim that they would have acted differently in that situation

[@Dav1Gv]

Thanks yet again.

[@Benji-jj2bg]

very touching video, thank you.

[@raiskis1]

I visited Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) where the Piskariov cemetery has about 500,000 people in mass graves. Shows the scale of the Eastern Front.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Wow. That must have been something.

[@walteropanasets9178]

I visited there - I believe there are more than 900,000 soldiers and civilians buried there

[@alexamerling79]

I always found this story fascinating. Not sure if the story of them singing "Deutschland ueber alles" is true or not but I find it a very fascinating legend. Ruhe in Frieden.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

There are multiple reports that they did sing that song, so I tend to believe it happened.

[@folppki2256]

​@@VloggingThroughHistory with good Friday approaching have you ever thought about recreating the Lincoln assassination and seeing the locations as they exist now? Might be an interesting video to see and how the site are today

[@TheHistoryUnderground]

Man, that quote at the end.....

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

It was tough to find a good quote from a German source. That one is from the book All Quiet on the Western Front. Brutal.

[@LeonardCooperman]

Those boys died because of family disputes. What a tragic waste of humanity. It’s sickening to think of generations wiped out.

[@sugarkane4830]

No actually they didn’t.

[@TheKahlez]

My grand grand father is buried in that mass grave together with too many other poor souls. I read his diary which he left home before he went to fight. He believed in the cause and was ready to give his life if necessary. We will never learn if he changed his mind but I think he didnt. His Diary told a story of very dedicated man, maybe toward the wrong goal but for me he died for his country he believed in. Hopefully one we may learn that weapons are not the answer but given that currently there is a war again my hopes are not that high.

[@michaelaburns734]

The Central Front is a story of itself from The Great War is a sad realization of how cost on both sides took on all of the men.

[@timbigelow6018]

Do they have any ideal How many missing are still on the battlefield

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Easily tens of thousands just in the Ypres salient.

[@Gravelgratious]

Extra history's John Brown series has begun.

[@pierredelasalle4731]

😂 i swear i just opened the video and then the German music made my roommate think that i started some documentary about the the N@zis, 😂😂😂

[@infamousfalcon588]

Sad that we live in a world where generic German military songs are instantly termed as N@zi media.

[@AmericanImperium1776]

An unfortunate side effect of living in a world where any hint of militarist music is called N*zi.

[@pierredelasalle4731]

@@infamousfalcon588 i agree.

[@robs257]

if you ever want to visit remagen and need a local to show you around the ww2 sites. hit me up

[@anthonyeaton5153]

Fighter Aces in WW1 are over lionised. The victories made almost no difference to the advancement of the front moving forward. It was pilots who strafed and bombed enemy troop concentrations and artillery positions especially in 1918.

[@fultronn8197]

Hey VTH! I’ve watched your videos forever and I love your reactions:) If possible can you react to the armchair historian? His content is really high quality and super entertaining

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

I've done quite a few of his.

[@bertcert991]

How different would the 20th century have been had the name of a certain young German corporal been in that cemetery

[@mitchellhedden1978]

I hope you don’t get demonetized for using the name of the Austrian painter with the little moustache.

[@VloggingThroughHistory]

Even showed his picture! Surprisingly no dings so far.

[@steveclarke6257]

I prefer "The Charlie Chaplain impersonator"

[@hansakermann]

Once again you tell individual stories. Tht is what seks you apart from many other content creators. That is why your channel is much more interesting than them

[@mariorossi3898]

Thank you for this great video. I have visited the German cemetery today and I did it also with the information you provided. Thanks

[@bendikakre9800]

For the algorithm

[@juouf16]

im the 735th view 142nd like

[@blowofftop]

Hitler visited this cemetery during WW2

[@greggilmour7671]

Sing your hearts out, young men. Your country will remember that you sang as your heart filled with lead and the sod filled your mouth. Your name will be inscribed in 5mm high Font. But the years you sacrificed are as nothing to your glory. Yes?

[@kevinkards]

let's not forget how the invaders where