My German immigrant grandfather fought at Verdun. He had great respect for French soldiers.

John Keegan wrote that the  level optimism in British public life has never returned after the Somme.

Its crazy to think that 60 million men fought in 'The War to End All Wars', It ended nothing....However the world changed and its amazing how much the world changed during that short amount of time.

My day is made VTH posted. Also this is when his FAVORITE President was in office! Woodrow Wilson!

I think this is the first time you’ve done a reaction to a more recent Great War video from after Indy left. The new version of the Great War channel does a lot of great work, and Jesse is a great host, so I’m excited to see more of this

29:48 People underestimate what happened in 1915. There were a lot of attempts to pierce the front at single points: In Artois at Lens or Vimy, at les Éparges South of Verdun, at Hartmannswilerkopf in Alsace. There are more casualties per square meter there than at Verdun. In 1916 all parties attempted larger breakthroughs on a wider section of the front.

A truly brilliant book, 'The Great War and Modern Memory' considers what is remembered about WW1, and how it is remembered.
Warmly recommended.

26:20 crazy paradoxical WWI statistic about artillery:  it killed more soldiers than any other weapon type, but also, any given artillery shell was far less likely to kill anyone than a bullet or grenade. It was wildly inefficient in terms of kills per round, but all sides shot off so much of it that it made it up in volume. So from one point of view it was the deadliest, but from another, one of the least dangerous. (I first heard this from a Lindybeige video, but now that I think about it, VTH has probably mentioned it too)

The Great War is my favorite WW1 channel besides Chris 😊but they rule!!

The battle of Borodino also beat the Somme as far as casualties if we compare it to the first day alone. The Somme of course lasted way longer than that so it was bloodier overall. Still crazy to me that a full century earlier a battle at that intensity was fought. The scene at the end of Borodino must have been hellish.

I listened to this on my way to some football in Stockholm today and the attendance was 19,000. I was thinking, all of these people here and some more dead in a single day of war. How horrifying😢

Thank you SO much for highlighting the contribution of the French forces in WW1!

I've heard it mentioned that the French offensives in late 1915 had an effect that they disturbed some of the German commanders such as Falkenhayn because they came pretty close to breaking through, thus convincing Falkenhayn of the necessity of their Verdun attack

Thank you for posting this video, Chris. My great-grandfather was a casualty of the 25th September 1915 - he was a soldier in the 6th Battalion Wiltshire Regiment at Loos and was gassed and wounded on that awful day. Like you, the suffering of the French army always grips me and I have to repeatedly kick back on social media against those who post dreadful and ignorant slurs against the brave men of the French army. I hear a rumour that you are heading to the UK in September for We Have Ways Fest and if so, I would be delighted to buy you a drink or two as a sign of my appreciation for your work.

I doubt you will want to react to this video because it's so long, but Old Brittania recently made an exhaustive 3hr video detailing the diplomatic scene leading to the Great War in grand scale that you'd probably be interested in.

22:54 agreed. I don’t subscribe too too much to the otherworldly stuff, but man, that is one place that just makes you feel “off” or “uneasy”

I imagine the artillery to be like fireworks be it some point in the middle or the finale only much much longer.

The massacre at Beaumont-Hame, Battle of the Somme, July 1, 1916.

The Dominion of Newfoundland started that day with 780 men. At roll call the next day there were only 68.

Less than 10% remained active.

If you know anything about Newfoundland and Newfoundlanders, it is hard to hear anything about what happened at the Somme without getting teary. Such great people with a wonderful culture. Not to take away from people from anywhere else, but the Newfoundlanders get me every time. I'm from Ontario FWIW

Jesse Alexander (Realtime History, The Great war and more) is an amazing history presenter.
Thank you for a good reaction man