tommy ricketts

who would say no?

What's so great about joining the army at 15?

Pannekoek wrote:

What's so great about joining the army at 15?

its not only that, its also how brave he was

How was he brave?

Pannekoek wrote:

How was he brave?

During the advance from Ledgehem the attack was temporarily held up by heavy hostile fire, and the platoon to which he belonged suffered severe casualties from the fire of a battery at point blank range. Private Ricketts at once volunteered to go forward with his Section Commander and a Lewis gun to attempt to outflank the battery. They advanced by short rushes while subject to severe fire from enemy machine guns.

When 300 yards away, their ammunition gave out. The enemy, seeing an opportunity to get their field guns away, began to bring up their gun teams. Private Ricketts at once realized the situation. He doubled back 100 yards, procured some ammunition and dashed back to the Lewis gun, and by very accurate fire drove the enemy and their gun teams into a farm. His platoon then advanced without casualties, and captured four field guns, four machine guns and eight prisoners. A fifth field gun was subsequently intercepted by fire and captured. By his presence of mind in anticipating the enemy intention and his utter disregard for personal safety, Private Ricketts secured the further supplies of ammunition which directly resulted in these important captures and undoubtedly saved many lives.

Pannekoek wrote:

How was he brave?

by being a heros dummy.

Wow, he secured ammunition, what a brave hero.

Pannekoek wrote:

Wow, he secured ammunition, what a brave hero.

its something you have to be lectured on

So who's going to lecture me? Personally I think people who join the army are retarded.

Pannekoek wrote:

So who's going to lecture me? Personally I think people who join the army are retarded.

then vote no

Not that what he did wasn't necessarily unheroic but I wouldn't exactly call him a hero.

Yeah, I agree with "olriac". But I voted yes accidentally before I read the thing.

When you look at world war one, there isn't much "heroism" at all. 4 years of trench warfare, chemical weapons, and carnage all for the reason maintaining a favorable power balance in Europe. We shouldn't glorify that.

Renegade_Kautsky wrote:

When you look at world war one, there isn't much "heroism" at all. 4 years of trench warfare, chemical weapons, and carnage all for the reason maintaining a favorable power balance in Europe. We shouldn't glorify that.

ww1 was an imperial war, the lats imperial war.

mattabesta wrote:

ww1 was an imperial war, the lats imperial war.

Not by any means.

WWI was the last reasonable war, fought against the Nazis. All others since are been imperialist.

Seriously?

Sarcasm or not I can't tell really.

Renegade_Kautsky wrote:

When you look at world war one, there isn't much "heroism" at all. 4 years of trench warfare, chemical weapons, and carnage all for the reason maintaining a favorable power balance in Europe. We shouldn't glorify that.

Even Brave SS solders (if they did not commit war crimes) were heroes
however from what i can tell world war one was also a struggle of Independence for the western Balkans.

Pannekoek wrote:

So who's going to lecture me? Personally I think people who join the army are retarded.

WTF?! This forum probably wouldn't exist because no one would have joined the Red Army and communism would have been destroyed by the Nazis. Where is your rational thought?

He captured ammo. So did Hitler.

kahnsguard wrote:

He captured ammo. So did Hitler.

well he can be considered brave, besides proving that wrong when he killed himself rather then take on Stalin.

Comrade Pollett wrote:

kahnsguard wrote:

He captured ammo. So did Hitler.

well he can be considered brave, besides proving that wrong when he killed himself rather then take on Stalin.

I'm speaking of WWI.

Comrade Pollett wrote:

Renegade_Kautsky wrote:

When you look at world war one, there isn't much "heroism" at all. 4 years of trench warfare, chemical weapons, and carnage all for the reason maintaining a favorable power balance in Europe. We shouldn't glorify that.

Even Brave SS solders (if they did not commit war crimes) were heroes
however from what i can tell world war one was also a struggle of Independence for the western Balkans.

Look, I'm not sure how to put this, so I'll say it bluntly.

Being a de-humanized killing machine (which all professional soldiers are) for any cause doesn't make you a hero. Building up a high body count doesn't make you a hero. Leading a charge to kill tonnes of people doesn't make you a hero. "Heroes" are people who make a great personal sacrifice to help a larger group of people. I don't mean someone who "helps" his people by killing "their" people.


As far WWI goes, it wasn't about Balkans independence. Why do you think Russia, Germany, England, and France got involved? Loyalty to their Serbian/Austrian allies? Of course not. They used the system of alliances as an excuse to conquer greater parts of Europe. The United States only got involved because J.P. Morgan lobbied the U.S. Congress to aid the British and French. And that was because the British and the French owed J.P. Morgan large amounts of money they had borrowed for the war.

It was an imperialist war, nothing more. The Lib-Dems even admit that.