What you watching?

[Rossgo]

It's amazing isn't it Blade. These men (boys in some cases) fought for us even now. It's unbelievable how much we take for granted and how many people just take take take , theses guys only wanted to protect their family's

[kiwikrasher]

I'm just up and my missus is watching desperate housewives...their fit so I'm not complaining!!

I've had to do the same a few times.. One of the houses in that show the street number is the PIN number I've had for every eftpos card for 25 yrs!

[Blade]

It's amazing isn't it Blade. These men (boys in some cases) fought for us even now. It's unbelievable how much we take for granted and how many people just take take take , theses guys only wanted to protect their family's

Yes your very right Rossgo. Some boys were as young as 15 as they lied about their age.

At the opposite end of the scale the oldest person killed in action I believe was 67 who also lied about his age to enlist, stating he was in his forties on the paperwork. Apparently alot of fathers volunteered to go and look out for their sons, which as a father I think I would too. Can you imagine the letter home to tell your husband and son had been killed in action together, which did happen. Tragic tragic time and the scale of the loss is insane. In the Somme alone 500,000 killed on both sides and that was just one battle.

Today its very bad news and rightly so to hear of a single service man killed by an IED. On day one of the Somme over 20,000 British dead its mental the scale of the slaughter and how both sides accepted it.

[Rossgo]

It's amazing isn't it Blade. These men (boys in some cases) fought for us even now. It's unbelievable how much we take for granted and how many people just take take take , theses guys only wanted to protect their family's

Yes your very right Rossgo. Some boys were as young as 15 as they lied about their age.

At the opposite end of the scale the oldest person killed in action I believe was 67 who also lied about his age to enlist, stating he was in his forties on the paperwork. Apparently alot of fathers volunteered to go and look out for their sons, which as a father I think I would too. Can you imagine the letter home to tell your husband and son had been killed in action together, which did happen. Tragic tragic time and the scale of the loss is insane. In the Somme alone 500,000 killed on both sides and that was just one battle.

Today its very bad news and rightly so to hear of a single service man killed by an IED. On day one of the Somme over 20,000 British dead its mental the scale of the slaughter and how both sides accepted it.

I learnt a fair bit about the 1st and 2nd world war as my mum and dad always tried to show me what has happened in the past, so took me to museums and watched a fair few documentaries.

My mind boggles every time about these situations. The Great wars battle plans, for example were huge mistakes. unbelievable how our Field Marshall allowed such stupidity. However I believe I'm right in saying that when it all 'kicked off' England thought Germany would back down due to pissing us and our family of nations off - we were too big for our boots at the time, we clearly didn't realise the extent of their cleverly thought out trenches. Isn't the great war the first war to kick off due to oil? I remember watching something about it.

What really shocks me is the number of 'cowards' there were...when I say that I mean PDSD that they believed were men who were cowards. There was a statue of a man blindfolded and tied ready to be shot with a plaque of shot soldiers for running away or pretending to get out of their soldiering duties. It was only fairly recently that the symptoms these men showed were PDSD symptoms. Shows how much we have learnt from our mistakes and from these situations.

We always say these men/ boys were volunteers but it's scary how desperate we were and how the recruiters just walked down the street grabbed hold of them took them to the enlisting offices and made them lie about their ages etc. Could you imagine that happening nowadays? We would have a riot on our hands over something like that. Its really scary thought.

As for the Somme. That was a mass murder. On the British lines we had artillery bombardments however the problem with it was the fact it was only at selected times. I bekeive on the French lines they had a flexible outlook on it and their bombardments was when required. Through out history Britain have always had a book and played by it. It used to work I guess against tribes and unorgainsed armies but with a army that had months of digging in and thought it was never going to work out well for us. My mind really does boggle over it all

[Rossgo]

Today I'm watching the purge anarchy. Just a load of legalised murdering, you know as you do!!

[Blade]

Rossgo your obviously well informed on the subject.

I heard from a WW1 Historian when staying on the Somme battlefield last week some of the German bunkers were 40 feet beneath the ground in Chalk Stone.

[Kwacky]

Family Guy. One of my favourite episodes where they're locked in a bank vault.

[Rossgo]

Blade. Yes Germans dug properly in. Compared to us we were a mere child's hole. When we bombared them for days they just hid. when we went over the top we expected just to walk across with little to no resistance. Obviously that didn't happen. It was all flawed anyway. We basically told the jerries when we would attack just by stopping the artillery shells!

When I was younger I would of known a lot more as at weekends and on holidays my parents would fill the time up with documentaries and museums - I think it's very important that every child/ teenager should learn about this. not the fact of scare mongering. But to know what happened so we can learn from mistakes, so we don't have to go through any of it again. My recent family has a history in the armed forces, my great grandad fought in first world war along with many others I realise but I remember something my nan and mum told me a long time ago. When he went to the trenches he went with a good coloured thick hair, when he came back it was as white as a sheet of paper. I couldn't imagine what he saw / had to go through to get his hair like that. Scary thought...I get nervous about driving in the snow/ ice because I don't want to smash my car up and have to claim. Totally different world nowadays.

[Rossgo]

Family Guy. One of my favourite episodes where they're locked in a bank vault.

Love that episode!! You got to love the writters where they can have a episode only featuring 2 of the charters and the audience still loves it. Can't understand how people don't like family guy...my missus can't stand it!!

[Rossgo]

The equaliser with danziel Washington in it. Pretty good, usual story line, bad people hurt good person. Another good person shoots and kills all the bad people! Haha

[Blade]

You great grand father was a hero Rossgo and all to common these brave brave soles won't boast or even chat about the great deeds of bravery they did on a day to basis. The powers that be tell us they did it for queen and country, for national pride and other pomp. Personally I don't believe that. They did it for the man, the friend, the solider, the brother in arms stood next to them who they shared the horror of war and friendship of extreme hard times with. They did just do it to win they did it to survive and go home to loved ones.

[Blade]

Ever heard the saying "Fook this for a game of soldiers" comes form the fact that soldiering is bloody hard and bloody horrible when the sh1t has hit the fan and tbh there is few if any things worse.

[Rossgo]

I heard from a WW1 Historian when staying on the Somme battlefield.

Can I ask Blade when you visited the Somme, did you have to book the visit, what's it like when you were there? I guess it quite a emotional environment

[Kwacky]

Rossgo. I'm thinking of doing a Northern France/ Somme etc tour next year.

It'll be open invite so the rest of the forum can come if they like.

Details later on this year.

[Rossgo]

Cheers for the heads up Kwacky

[Deegee]

It's currently a toss up between Invictus and Westworld, the jury hasn't retuned a verdict yet.

[Rossgo]

Saving Private Ryan. Haven't seen it for years but it still is just as good now as when it first came

[Kwacky]

That is a fantastic film.

I've been told Banshee is good TV, so today I watched the first episode. Looks promising.

[Jack]

my mate says to me " Have you seen Dark Matter ?"
my reply was " Nobody has "

watched the first two episodes looks like it might be quite good.

[kiwikrasher]

That is a fantastic film.

I've been told Banshee is good TV, so today I watched the first episode. Looks promising.

It's a top show Kwacky. I've watched the first three series, eagerly awaiting the fourth. The main actor Anthony Starr is a kiwi that was in Outrageous Fortunes, a great kiwi made show. He is also close friends with a good mate of mine which is how I got put onto it in the first place.

Just make sure the kids are in bed, it's pretty full on. Sex scene about 2 mins in on the first ep!