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Would you have been able to go over the trenches?

R

RichardE

Banned
Writing an opinion essay in regards to WW1. One of the questions is "Do you think you would have been able to go over the trenches and rush the enemy?"

I'm not totally sure, I would love to say yes, but I'm not sure really. Would you guys have been able too?
 
Yes. I think with the group mentality, you being under an authority and in a situation where you have no real choice, and other factors it would probably be easier to go than to not go. Go while nearly shitting your pants, sure, but it seems mentally easier to go if you think about what it really would be like to be in an army unit, in a muddy trench in the middle of nowhere, and to be told to charge.

edit: I should say I've never been in the military but I think what I'm saying has to be somewhat true if you can take random kids (draft) and most of them end up charging
 
i've wondered this myself a few times, not just WWI but other battles. You look at a lot of those historical battles and it's just guaranteed death. I don't know how those people did it.
 
umm... there's not a whole lot of difference between people now and then.

if you're forced into military service, there's a lot of things you never saw yourself doing before that suddenly you find yourself doing.

so, yes.
 
Well, you have to understand the situation. For instance, leading into the war, people had strong nationalistic motives, and were told things about their enemy to make them react differently than, I would like to think, a lot of people in the modern world. Its also a lot easier to get swept up in the emotion when there's bombs/mines exploding and bullets whizzing all around and you've got commanders screaming charge.

As I am now, I do not think I would be able to do it, but under those circumstances, I probably would have.
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
i've wondered this myself a few times, not just WWI but other battles. You look at a lot of those historical battles and it's just guaranteed death. I don't know how those people did it.
Click to expand...

Mel Gibson gave a bunch of motivational speeches.
 
Having been in a similar situation where the likelyhood of getting shot seemed rather high at the time, I'd say yes. There is a certain mentality and energy, and sense of brotherhood, you have with your fellow Soldiers. You can't not go.
 
Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
Well, you have to understand the situation. For instance, leading into the war, people had strong nationalistic motives, and were told things about their enemy to make them react differently than, I would like to think, a lot of people in the modern world. Its also a lot easier to get swept up in the emotion when there's bombs/mines exploding and bullets whizzing all around and you've got commanders screaming charge.

As I am now, I do not think I would be able to do it, but under those circumstances, I probably would have.
Click to expand...

It's also easier when your life was really shitty and you strongly believed in a better afterlife.

 
I'd hope I would have found a longer-term way for me to contribute to the war effort. I'm not a big fan of being shot at.
 
Fuck no. I can think of better ways to spend my life than throwing it away so that the dictatorship I happened to be born into can keep its African and Asian plantations, mines, and slaves.
 
I'd get the most beefed up machine gun and just go at it like a crazy man, one hand to hold the gun and pray and spray, the other hand to continuously throw grenades at random.

Works in halo anyway. (I usually end up dying, but also killing like 10 people)
 
Originally posted by: datalink7
Having been in a similar situation where the likelyhood of getting shot seemed rather high at the time, I'd say yes. There is a certain mentality and energy, and sense of brotherhood, you have with your fellow Soldiers. You can't not go.
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I believe this is part of the mentality that allows you to rush into circumstances where you'd normally wouldn't. The people next to you at the time were pretty much your buddies and I don't know if any of you would let your buddy charge into battle while you sat back even though you knew that they were depending on you as much as you were depending on them.

In short, it would probably suck but I would probably do it.
 
Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Originally posted by: datalink7
Having been in a similar situation where the likelyhood of getting shot seemed rather high at the time, I'd say yes. There is a certain mentality and energy, and sense of brotherhood, you have with your fellow Soldiers. You can't not go.
Click to expand...

I believe this is part of the mentality that allows you to rush into circumstances where you'd normally wouldn't. The people next to you at the time were pretty much your buddies and I don't know if any of you would let your buddy charge into battle while you sat back even though you knew that they were depending on you as much as you were depending on them.

In short, it would probably suck but I would probably do it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that makes sense. I didn't even consider the comradeship you would be part of. Sort of all being stuck in this shit hole together type thing. I imagine that would be a pretty strong magnet.
 
Originally posted by: xSkyDrAx
Originally posted by: datalink7
Having been in a similar situation where the likelyhood of getting shot seemed rather high at the time, I'd say yes. There is a certain mentality and energy, and sense of brotherhood, you have with your fellow Soldiers. You can't not go.
Click to expand...

I believe this is part of the mentality that allows you to rush into circumstances where you'd normally wouldn't. The people next to you at the time were pretty much your buddies and I don't know if any of you would let your buddy charge into battle while you sat back even though you knew that they were depending on you as much as you were depending on them.

In short, it would probably suck but I would probably do it.
Click to expand...
These lyrics illustrate what you're talking about...
From The Offspring... "HammerHead"....
Through this doorway
What's on the other side
Never knowing
Exactly what I'll find
Locked and loaded
Voices screaming
Let's go!
But I'm just doing what I'm told


Once you've built up the unit in the soldier's mind, it will supplant his familial feelings and as such, be as devoted and protective of them as his family. In that frame of mind, they will follow their leader into hell's fire.
We are tenacious creatures.
 
You think that's bad? Back in the time of Napoleon, soldiers of opposing armies would stand there in lines facing each other while shooting with muskets and artillery. And they just stood and took it.
 
<-- 13 Foxtrot
Sure I would have been able to. I would have called in artillery, air and naval gun fire. While they were hunkered down in their bunkers I would have skipped accross the trenches.
 
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