Comments by "John Luetjen" (@jehl1963) on "What most people get wrong about the Battle of the Somme" video.

  1. Speaking of "What most people miss about the Battle of the Somme", I find it curious and frustrating that even after 100 years, one-sided "histories" like this are still being created. It takes 2 sides to have a battle. In this video the German contribution to the battle is reported with about as much interest as the weather. Throwing out a round half-a-million casualty figure for the Germans when most German sources give a smaller number doesn't put the historicity of this video in the best light. The German regiments at the Somme are known, many of their histories are even available on-line, and many of them report the names and dates for their casualties. For example the German Marine Infantry Regiment fought at Courcelette during the month of October 1916 after being pulled out of the line in on the coast to reinforce the German troop resources at The Somme. They suffered 180 seesoldats killed, out of a 16 companies with a total nominal strength of most likely a bit less than 4000 men. The names, dates and places of death for those 180 men are are reported in the back of the regimental history. From a Historical Scholarship perspective, it would be good if the English would compare notes with their French and German counterparts so that a more complete historical picture could be compiled. At this point in time, I really expect more from an institution with the status of the Imperial War Museum. I'd say that this oversight is a "pretty big miss" on the part of the Imperial War Museum. On the plus side, the production quality of the video was well done.
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