• dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    What was stopping them from just hucking grenades over to the Germans to begin with? You don’t typically have to exploit trust of the enemy on the battlefield to throw a grenade.

    • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      If you’re in a trench in wartime and fist sized object comes flying in from the direction of the enemy forces you’re going to dive away from it and take cover. But then the thrown object turns out to be a can of food, not an explosive.

      So how do you respond to the next thrown item? Do you still dive for cover?

      The rational answer is “yes.” The starving soldier desperate for a break from the fighting answer was not.

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Plus trenches have dugouts and the like. You can imagine that after the first round of corned beef, people were probably waking their mates up, yelling at everyone to get out here and see what’s happening.

        It’s ingenious, in a horrifyingly cruel way.

    • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      It’s much more effective if they are grouped together waiting to catch the grenade. It also reveals the position of the soldiers in the trench.

      Grenades aren’t very effective in trenches, unless the victim is close by. The narrow shape and curves of the trench can shield a person from a nearby blast.

    • cynar@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      British politeness developed mostly so we didn’t turn our aggression inwards. Given how large the British empire got, it was quite effective.

      Canadians seem to have taken this further. Impeccably polite, but that rage needs to go somewhere. The only thing worse than an angry Canadian is a “disappointed” Canadian. That’s when you know you need to find cover!

    • sbv@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      wait til you hear about the mounties

      There’s a lot to love about Canada, but our closets are overflowing with skeletons.

      • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        They’ll taze ya all the way dead in the airport you’re stuck in. Absolute templates for ACAB.

    • meep_launcher@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Especially since it was WW1. I wouldn’t feel so bad if it was WW2 and Nazis were being unalived, but nobody deserved to die in WW1.

      • Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        WWI - yes, not necessarily specifically bcs of Nazis (one solder is just a human, exactly like the enemy solder), but because WWI was much more contained in fixed fronts, soldiers vs soldiers. Back then they still avoided civilians (but then tech advanced).

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        8 months ago

        Eh.

        Wilhelm II kind of deserved to get executed. The deeper you look into that guy the worse he gets. Obviously there were bastards all around but that shit was genuinely his fault.

        Didn’t happen, obviously, because consequences are for peasants.

        • cynar@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          In WWI, Neither sets of soldiers wanted to be there. Neither wanted to fights, and neither had been conditioned to see the enemy as subhuman.

          This led to numerous examples of comaradary. The most famous example being the Christmas football match.

          WWII was the first example of industrialised propaganda. The Nazis were conditioned to believe they were truly better, and so capable of doing the horrifying war crimes we now know happen.

          WWI, the command was fairly evil on both sides, but the grunts weren’t involved.

          WWII, 1 sides command was particularly evil, and the grunts were convinced to agree with them.

  • DoctorSpocktopus@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Know what a Grizwald is? A grenade. About the size of a battery. Responds to pressure. Our platoon was stuck in a trench outside of New Kasmir during the winter campaign. More’n a week, completely cut off, and the Alliance entrenched not ten yards away. We even got to talkin’ to 'em, yelling across insults and jokes and such, 'cause no ammo to speak of, no orders, so what are you gonna do? We mentioned that we were out of rations, and ten minutes later, a bunch of apples rained into the trench. Cap said wait, but they were so hungry. Don’t make much noise. Just little pops and there’s three guys that kind of just end at the ribcage.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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      8 months ago

      I mean, one could argue this was a beautiful moment of humanity amidst unrelenting savagery, shattered by a callous pack of assholes.

      Or

      You can say “Lol, get fucked Krauts. Btw we know Wilhelm was planning to Manifest Destiny Africa.”

      • Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        Canadians have always taken the approach that war is a bad thing, and trying to pretend otherwise is stupid.

        You don’t try to be a gentleman to the man who is trying to kill. You kill him first. That way you get to go home.