In answer to Toesy, yes my wife and I lit a candle on 4th at 10.00pm. Both of us have grandparents why were lucky enough to survive WW1 though her grandfather was injured on at least one occasion. We are also going to see his diaries etc at the new museum of the Oxon & Bucks regiments at Woodstock.
On other points, I agree with Cheshirechappie that a higher proportion of offices died, other ranks. Most, but by no means all, were junior officers, but you also need to consider the navy and air cops in both of which there were significant numbers of deaths of ALL ranks. I do believe that ‘Oh what a lovely war’ was a complete travesty of ALL involved, though it is clear that some British and French troops were badly lead at times. One of the issues was I think down to the fact that once an advance was started, there was no easy means of communications so either troops were not reinforced or they went further than was anticipated and were then easy prey to a counter attack.
Finally, if you haven’t been to Verdun and the area surrounding, you really should. The museum on the hills overlooking is amazing with photos of villages that no longer exist. In addition, the Douaumont cemetery chapel and ossuary is quite spectacular looking out over thousands of graves of French and German soldiers, including a number from French territories.
Phil
