re: History Thread - WW1 Attack of the Dead Men (August 6, 1915)

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It was a meat grinder, reducing a generation to so much offal.

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The British learned that the hard way. At the start of the war, they used a buddy system. Regiments were made up of young men from the same towns/villages. The thinking was that because they grew up knowing each other and being in the same community, that they would have a stronger bond and fight better together as a unit.

What ended up happening is that entire towns lost a generation of their future, and thousands of survivors got PTSD from seeing their brothers/friends/classmates get blown up or mowed down by machine gun fire.

The British eventually abandoned the buddy system mid way through the war, after realizing what was happening and the staggering loss of life also forced their hand to recreate fighting units with men mixed from different communities.