Skipweasel I'm amazed anyone survived the Somme, we were like target practice for the German artillery.
We did a small recreation of the Somme on a school battlefields trip to Belgium when I was about 14 (about 50 of us crossed a field, each representing say 1,000 soldiers, dropping one by one onto the ground of the 'nomansland'). We also visited the big cemeteries and war memorials, heard the Last Stand played by a solitary trumpet at the Menin Gate, and generally learned a lot about the sheer bloody loss of life in WWI.
Every kid should do that trip if they can, IMO. WWI is not to be forgotten.
The thing that remains with me the strongest is the visual difference between the cemeteries of the Allies and the Axis/Germans.
For example:
Tyne Cot, white, 11,908 graves, one stone per body, many only "known unto God": http://www.firstworldwar.com/today/tynecot.htm
Langemarck, black, mass grave of 25,000 bodies under a flower bed: http://www.firstworldwar.com/today/langemarckcemetery.htm
WWII may have killed more people, but WWI was incredibly bloody, wasteful of life - and actually fought over a much less clear disagreement involving an assassin, and Archduke, and a number of treaties that dragged several countries in to protect others.
The German grave is much smaller and much more concentrated due to Belgium not wanting to give the Germans as much land as the British for their memorials. Seeing Langemarck after Tyne Cot was truly chilling and very sad.
WWI must not be forgotten. And lives being lost today in more wars must not be forgotten. I withhold any judgement on what is 'just' when it comes to war, but will always feel much saddened by the loss of lives to it.
