Advanced World War I Tactics with General Melchett
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- čas přidán 2. 05. 2016
- General Melchett shares some of his wisdom en gives an insight in the life of a British general during the first world war.
Behold as grand tactics unfold beneath your very own eyes and grasp you with this A-historic comedy.
"He fails to understand or comprehend the basic concepts of modern trench warfare and is totally unable to come up with a new strategy that would suit it. Instead he continuously sends men to a senseless death with seemingly no tactics at all." - Zábava
Best line in this whole series was
"What should be do if we step on a mine sir?"
"Well, usual procedure is to jump 20 ft into the air and then scatter yourself over a large area"
🤣🤣
True to life
@@Vizzini_ Russian soldiers should be told Putin is right behind them. "About 35 miles behind you in a palace."
@@patriceaqa288 35? More like 350
Potential addition:
“What of we forget, sir?”
“Not to worry, the mine will remember for you!”
@@patriceaqa288 lmao, uff clown
" Our battles are directed Sir? " best line ever......
WW1 in a nutshell
"Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone is dead except Field Marshall Haig, Lady Haig and their tortoise... Alan?"
Joseph Harrison Great Scott even you know it
Management in general
@@podemosurss8316 That line, my dear fellow, is in fact the core principle of the war.
That one to one scale map is genius
I loved the barren featureless map even more
He probably lost an extra 2000 men trying to dig up the captured tiny patch while under fire so he can place it on his desk.
Yeah, but it was also outdated.
And it was planted there beforehand by Marschall Fritzmeyrs special "Blumen-Arrangeur"-unit as a strategic deception!
It's also not very accurate as the very land it supposedly maps doesn't have any grass on it and is curiously 2 inches lower than the land around it.
"About 35 miles behind"
I died 😂😂
Darling’s bloody face when he said that. 😄
He however didn't;).
84 British Generals including the 2nd in command of the whole British army were killed in the trenches - as long as you take Blackadder for what it is = a Comedy and Not History - that's fine but don't confuse fact with a fiction
I’m presuming that the other 885,058 British soldiers killed were below the rank of general 🤔
@@Round_07 No over 100 Generals, including the second in command of the British Army, were killed in action and NOT 35 miles away in a Chateaux
"Seventeen square feet, sir."
"Ah, you see... young Blackadder didn't die in vain after all."
That line is heartbreaking.
The worm is perhaps the only bright spot in the entire sorry saga.
Ok. I was wrong. I forgot that tortoise, Alan. Beh....
Agreed, that and “however, there is one small problem..”
“That everyone gets slaughtered in the first 10 seconds.”
He actually survived, Blackadder pretended to die but he survived the battle
@@seliamila1005 It was originally intended, but later they decided not to include this scene. In my opinion it was great decicion.
"A German spy is giving away every one of out battle plans."
"You look surprised, Blackadder."
"I certainly am, sir. I didn't realize we _had_ any battle plan."
“Our battles are directed, sir?”
"well, of course they are, Blackadder. they're directed according to the Grand Plan."
"would that be the plan...to continue with total slaughter until everyone is dead except for Field Marshall Hague, Lady Hague, and their tortoise....Alan?"
"Great Scott!!! even YOU know it! bolt all the doors! hammer large pieces of crooked wood against all the windows! this security leak is far worse than we'd imagined!"
@@urosasin8979 oh of course they are Blackadder directed according to the grand plan
@@sprinterofficial8457 Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone's dead except Field Marshall Haig, Lady Haig, and their tortoise, Alan?
@@TheLemonDrop23 Great Scot, even you know it. AH AH bolt all the doors, have large pieces of crooked wood against all the windows, this security leak is far worse than we'd imagined
"God, it's barren featureless desert out there, isn't it"
lol
bbhhhhaaaa
Not bad description of No-Man's-Land actually.
probably wouldn't have made any difference which side of the map they used incompetent to the end ask the Anzacs lions led by donkeys
and cold as fuck. czcams.com/video/bq7gkQ7UkzI/video.html
Other side, sir
what a tactically sound fellow!
Kid, if you say that World War I was just trench warfare you're clearly mistaken. WWI was way more hectic than shown above.I love how you act like you know what you're talking about but actually don't. You're young and dumb, I'm sure you've never learned more than the basics of WWI. It was extremely hectic and more than just trench warfare. Get it right before you act big
Huh? I know he was kidding, but are you? Anyway, one of the best places to learn about WWI is right here on YT. There's a channel called The Great War that is doing a week by week view of the war in real time... 100 years later. Great stuff, and very balanced.
My condolences if you lost family. If you don't mind a serious question amidst the mirth. Do you think the democratic vote of the people might have avoided the experience of WWI for the UK? Do you think worldwide democracy might reduce war in the future, increase, or make no difference?
Snot 486
Thank you for your return comments, and (the insightful) humorous quote. You are probably right. It was a hope. Writing earlier, I was reminded of Tolkien's thoughts that the common people (hobbits) don't care about amassing power only about their families, the simple pleasures, and living life in peace. If true, maybe utopia is a world ruled by "hobbits". During a good part of my early life I wondered if the world would ever find peace, or would it destroy itself up in some fashion. Remembering now that JFK, Reagan, and others used the Cold War to gain and hold elected political office doesn't inspire hope for peace. Maybe you are correct. Thanks.
There's an Austrian fellow by the name of von Hotzendorf you should meet. I have a feeling the two of you would get along spectacularly well.
Italian Generalissimo Luigi Cavorna was sworn to this method. His first battle of the Isonzo river failed, so did his second, and his third, and his fourth, and so on until the 11th, when he once again tried the same tactics he had used the previous ten times. This is not a joke. General Melchett's words were made for him as he lost for the 11th time at the Isonzo.
Most WW1 generals were like that. Look at Conrad Von Hötzendorf in the Carpathians or Falkenhayn in Verdrun, or Joffre in Champagne...
But only Cavorna repeated the same mistake 11 times
@@geoffmelnick1472 are you sure he was at the right river?
Cadorna
Hi I'm Indy Nidel, welcome to the Great War.
We need a Blackadder DLC for Battlefield 1.
Finally, a map where you get to walk into machinegun fire with ONLY a baton and revolver.
I wish they included little eastereggs about blackadder in bf1 tbh
@@dandydasyt4766 wouldn't want to face a machine gun without this
Would love to give a Squad Order followed by a General Melchett ‘eyyyy’.
"Wheres me map? Come on!"
"sir"
"thank you.....GOD ITS A BARREN FEATURELESS DESERT OUT THERE ISN'T IT"
"other side sir"
I still think about this line every time I read an actual military map 😂
Rowan Atkinson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry - the Holy Trinity of British comedy.
You should try out the trinity in Yes, Minister though
@@raylake6611to be fair, I've watched both shows and hugely enjoyed both of them.
What about Tim McInnerny? Hugely underrated.
I love Jeeves and Wooster, I just had to buy the entire work
Dont forget Rik Mayall
As an uncultured American, I just discovered this show this morning and am already obsessed. It's brilliant stuff, especially since the joke is always the pointlessness of the war itself. Far from disrespecting or demeaning the tragedy of it, the humor is in fact a moving tribute to these men's sacrifices. It's the humor of coping, the humor of empathy, the humor of human beings trapped in a superhuman, terrifying time.
@Dalle Smalhals They did. They entered the war on 6th April 1917.
You should watch the whole series, the ending to this one is actually very sad for a comedy but brilliant
audience2 The sad part is, we (the US) refused to listen to the experiences of British, French, or even the Germans regarding the futility of trench warfare + mad dashes across no man’s land, and insisted the our “good ol’ boys” could do it better and more successfully than anyone else.
Same sh!t, different uniform.
I think you're missing the point that these men's sacrifices were pointless and accomplished nothing. This was a war between the rich fought by the poor. As always.
@@Name-ps9fx We also refused to listen to common fucking sense which said we had absolutely no reason to be drawn into that meat grinder but our masters in Big Business said otherwise. The whole war was a fraud. Like 90% of all of them.
"would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone's dead except Field Marshal Haigh, Lady Haigh and their tortoise, Alan"
one of the best lines ever lol along with:
"you're a girl with as much talent for disguise as a giraffe in dark glasses trying to get into a polar bears only golf club"
and
"We've been sitting here since Christmas 1914, during which time millions of men have died, and we've moved no further than an asthmatic ant with some heavy shopping"
We're in the stickiest situation since sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun.
It's the worst plan since Abraham Lincoln said "Oh I'm sick of kicking around the house tonight, let's go take in a show!"
Another gargantuan effort to move General Melchett's drinks cabinet 6 inches closer to Berlin
Funny note, JRR Tolkien convinced CS Lewis to dress as polar bears for an high society academic dinner
Magical tiny pause before Alan
Rowan Atkinson can make the word 'Alan' hilarious
You should have seen him on Top Gear: Bob!
Wibble.
***** ooooh fail I'm afraid
***** good recovery :-)
Not as hilarious as... "Bob"
"this is exactly what complete idiots would do. And the enemy knows...that...we are...not.. complete idiots. Therefore..." This was how the top brass came up with The Gallipoli Landing.
chf gbp That is WW1 in a nutshell
FUN FACT: The Gallipoli campaign, which was a huge disaster, was planned and executed by the "great war leader" Winston Churchill. The U.S and U.K didn't win WW2. The Soviet army did. British and American forces faced 8 divisions of the German army. The Soviets faced down over 200. Little history lesson.
@@jamesmcnamara2373 Gallipoli failed because the ANZAC's were landed in the wrong place and at the British end ,when the way was open and only lightly defended they did not move inland quick enough and waited 2 days,to late then the door was shut.The British and American's faced far more than eight division's.The Russian idea of attack was to use large amounts of artillery and keep sending in soldiers until the Germans ran out of bullets,which is why they lost about 11 million killed.
And the Dieppe landings in WWII.
@@terryharris1291 Not sure about the exact number of divisions, but I know that during the Western Allied invasion of Germany, the western allies sent 4,5 million troops (91 divisions). Whereas the german defenders had around 1 million. So about a quarter the number of the Western Allied invaders.
During Operation Barbarossa however, the germans sent 3,8 million men, while the Soviets only had 2,9 million.
Meaning: americans and british could only win by outnumbering the germans 4:1. Whereas the Soviets beat the german invaders, even though the germans outnumbered them.
Let's face it: By the time the americans and the british got stuck in, they only had to deal with the numerically inferior left-overs. Hardly comparable to what the Russians had to face.
This series is what you get you when you put together a perfect cast with a perfect script. It cannot be topped.
I agree. My only quibble about the show is that I thought the dynamic between Blackadder, Baldrick and Percy worked much better in the first series where BA was kind of dense. They made Baldrick way too stupid in the last three shows, and BA a little too clever. And it really cut into the amount of physcom Rowan could pull out.
This is suspiciously similar to how I play HOI 4.
Same xD
ajsb1986 only as China as everyone will run out of manpower before I do
Alber Un it took time but my 2000 division strong army, armed with basic sticks and potatoes managed to swamp the Japanese by 1947. With over 50 million casualties I finally won. As for factories I had previously invaded other Chinese states and when other China surrendered to Japan and became a puppet I just invaded the puppet while it had no units. However I agree the Soviet Union is the master of mass productions units
Preston Zhukov russia
Preston Zhukov I was once a liberated Ukraine (for some reason) I think and both germany and russia were running at me as I was their last practical opponent. They threw wave after wave after wave. They lost so many ten millions of men just pushing against my defences. I lost eventually but what am I supposed to do with such little Recruitible population?
General Melchett: 'Err what's the actual scale of this map darling??' Darling in response: '1 to 1, sir' ...brilliant. That scene was used by my year 9 History teacher to illustrate the absurdity of the stalemate on the western front during WW1 many years ago.
Despair then your year nine history teacher knows as much about world war 1 as you do..........nothing. It’s so sad the idiotic things taught in history up to gcse. It’s, for the most part, complete and utter nonsense.
Your teacher should teach facts not propaganda.
@@audience2 How is a it propaganda?
Its a bloody comedy show.
Can I ask what's the actual objection to the illustration here? Was WW1 actually instead very successful in terms of gaining land, is that what you're saying? Good way to be unconvincing is to fail to actually say what your issue is, but I'm curious to know nonetheless.
@@Torthrodhel Don't worry he from an alternate universe where General Haig won the war by 1914.
I always loved Blackadder's really dark, on the nose humor. The final season in particular hits really hard, both in laughter and tragedy. It's brilliant.
Its almost as funny as englands immigration control
"I’m as excited as a terribly excited person who has a really good reason for being terribly excited".
All the while Blackadder is staring at George thinking “you fool you had an out and you wasted it.”
"His resignation and suicide would seem the obvious solution."
"Interesting thought! Make a note of it Darling!"
Darling: Wtf
Captain Darling to you Blackadder!
Blackadder was exactly right.
Worth pointing out, that Generals were not born into that rank. They had served as field offices in previous wars, such as the Boer war, earlier as junior offices in conflicts such as Sudan.
"Wtf"?
There's no "wtf" about it.
Darling is his name.
He is Captain Darling.
What's your name? Corp[oral Dimwit-Moron?
@@Bodragon I think he means Captain Darling's reaction being to look confused
The Grand Plan:
Continue with total slaughter until everyone's dead except Field Marshall Haig, Lady Haig, and their tortoise Alan.
-Signed by Field Marshall Haig
-Signed by His Royal Majesty King George V
-in London, May 3rd, 1915
Aquatic therapy
Aquatic therapy
Aquatic therapy
WHERE DID YOU GET THIS???
Damn the Hun has stolen are plans and posted them on this infernal device. Well it's back to the drawing board old chaps. Suggestions?
Blackadder 4 was hella funny but also with more serious, dark undertones. Because this is actually quite accurate portrayal of stupidity and utter disregard for life with which WW1 was conducted.
Very similar theme to Catch-22: Black adder's unique free-minded sanity is what keeps him wanting to run away from the enemy, while everyone else wants him to run towards them
And there is the ending, the most brilliant, sad, depressing, perfect endings ever in the history of television.
@@greebj outdated tactics that worked in previous wars but not in ww1 where machine guns exist
@@cov9290 the major European powers have been crushing colonial up rising rather Then fighting countries with equal strength. What is funny though is Germany (well Prussia) had fought other major European powers a couple decades earlier and had won because the general, general moltke had realized that a lot of old tactics like a head on charge were useless because modern guns. that you should split your soldiers into small groups and outflank your enemy, Decentralize your command structure so your army doesn’t become bureaucratic. and other things that generals in the First World War including moltke’s nephew seemed to totally forget lol
if you consider this accurate the only one stupid here is you and the fellows who think like you , of which there are many in this comment section
Melchet is really based on General Haigh, chief of the British Army. He who, when retired , wrote his memoirs in 1924. In which he said,'The Tank is a wonderful invention, but it will never replace the Horse'',nothing madder ever passed someones lips.
Field Marshall Haig (Butcher Haig) was resposible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of young men.
They mentioned field Marshal Haig a couple of times in the video, I think Melchett is based on Lord Kitchener and other commanding officers behind the battle field in general
Didn't Haig also deride machine guns as"ridiculous and un-military?"
Philip Croft and wtf was haig supposed to do? Noone else had any better ideas. And the tanks he was referring to were in fact no substitute for cavalry. Cavalry were there to exploit a breakthrough. Tanks at that time were NOT designed to exploit. They were designed to break through the lines. They were designed to capture trenches, and support infantry.
The blitzkreig concept of tank warfare came about many years later.
Dellacondan True, I did some research on the battle of Cambrai and the tanks of their time were very limited in what they could do. Part of their job was to clear barbed wire so horses could get through to pursue the enemy. Still, it's fun to look down on the leaders of the past.
To repeat the same action and expecting different results is madness!
WW1, perfect example of that
There was no large scale trench warfare in WW2
Andi Rain My great-grandfather came home. Same condition. Still, spending a month in a trench is not necesseraly trench warfare. The fronts were moving. Sure, trenches were used, but it was faar from a standing war.
Andi Rain That is very true. The russian sollution to any tactical challenge was to throw more men at it. Any generals who had epxerience, were executed by Stalin before the war, so the ones who remained were the untalented "Zerg Rushers".
This is comedy based on a pop history interpretation of WW1. It's supposed to be funny, not accurate. In reality, all armies were CONSTANTLY trying new tactics, weapons and methods throughout WW1.
Andi Rain Soviet archives were secret, therefore they weren't used for propaganda and they're considered to be very accurate.
Can't believe this is 27 years old. Still waiting for a new series.
I can only imagine what a show featuring Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie would cost today.
The hard part would be picking a suitable time period to set it in. It would have to be post-war 20th century, and there's only so much you can do with that.
There have been wars since. The Falklands, for example.
CSxDeity Err, No. You just failed your British Citizenship Test.
Wasn't actually in reply to you, my fault.
My maternal grandfather was in the English Army during this war. Four years in the trenches. This season of Blackadder was one of the best commentaries on war. The ending was both surreal and sad.
There hasn't been an English Army for approximately 400 years
He must have been so incredibly shocked to have encountered the South Wales Borderers, The Black Watch and the 36th Ulster Division in the 'English' army.
As a student of the Great War, I concur. Anyone familiar with the Haig plan can see the humour and utter ridiculousness of trench warfare.
@@rb8649Sad you were confused by the original post.
Butt hurt, jocks, tacffs and paddy alert 😱
Blackadder Goes Forth is my favourite ever sitcom. Every episode so cleverly written and every cast member played their roles to perfection. But once you scrape away the laughter it's so achingly sad.
"God it's a barren featureless desert out there, isn't it?"
WWII Channel “The other side, sir.”
The General who was in charge of the offensive at The Somme, where this is set, was called Henry Rawlinson. He was responsible for the biggest military cock-up in British history where vast numbers of our soldiers died. To illustrate just how much the class system was in place at the time, this tool was given another operation to run afterwards and was knighted for his ‘service’ some time later. Sir Henry Rawlinson enjoyed his life for ever more and was no doubt given a large tax-payer funded pension aswell.
It was largely because of haig it was a cock up. Rawlinson wanted to systemtcially destroy each line of defence, storm it, then do it all over again. Haig wanted to do a large offensive that would smash the German lines and sweep onto open fields.
Haig got his way, a way the French had already tried and it lead to heavy losses with fighting defending into the type of combat that rawlinson wanted to pursue from the get go as he, like the French, realised that it was the only way to make steady gains while also minimising losses as much as they could.
@@thescottishanimeguy9946 And it was the French Pressure to relieve the forces fighting at Verdun that Haig was forced to attack on a large scale
WW1 in general was such a cluster. Absolutely unnecessary European war of "pride" and ego. It was too late by the time everyone realized how the industrial revolution had so changed warfare.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Somme was by no means the biggest cock-up in British history. Let me ask this, what would you have done differently? Without foreknowledge I find it hard to believe you would come up with a better idea
@@tomasdawe9379 I'm not a military strategist, then again nor were many of the senior people in the Army at the time - they were just over privileged people who were in their roles because of nepotism, background, attendance at a certain school - and in a lot of cases many had bought their commissions. If I was a trained military strategist I'm sure I could have come up with something better than demanding the soldiers climb out of their trenches and walk towards the heavily armed enemy. It was kind of inevitable and obvious that they would just be shot to pieces in huge numbers.
It's a matter of opinion but for me Blackadder Goes Forth is not only a masterpiece, it is arguable the funniest and cleverest comedy series in the history of television.
This is why we need to teach history better in school, so the students can appreciate good satire like this. Someone who knew nothing about the Great War would not get the humor of these clips.
Satire isn't the only reason people should learn history, I would hope...
Asserius -- Good point. Perhaps I should have said that being able to enjoy something like this is another benefit of knowing history.
''Someone who knew nothing about the Great War would not get the humor of these clips.''
And assume that it was a true reflection of life.
It perpetuates a lot of the lazy myths that have made it into mainstream perceptions of the war from the 1960s onwards and which are often assumed to be factual. It's hilarious satire but the satire reinforces preconceptions as well as creating caricatures.
Andi Rain It's lazy because it is accepted without question or investigation. Devoid of fact. Your answer actually proves the point. If you are not quite so lazy, here are a FEW of the myths.
Tactics and technology evolved throughout the war in different ways to cope with the deadlock and defence advantage. The idea that the western front never moved by more than four miles for four years (sometimes still found in school history books) is a myth based on simplification. As is the idea that the same tactics were followed from start to finish until nobody was left to fight on one side through attrition.
The idea that generals sat many miles from the action and had no idea what the war really meant is a myth. Some 60 odd Britsh generals were killed in action. Colonels were always expected to lead with their men and their numbers were naturally higher. Overall the casualty rate of officers was higher than for lower ranks. The notion that the upper class was sending the working class to death owes more to the left wing precepts of the Oh What A Lovely War generation than it does to history.
The idea that Haig was an incompetent butcher owes as much to saving Lloyd George's reputation as it does to destroying Haig's. Haig's failure in 1916 / 17 needs to be balanced against his success in fostering changes to tactics and being central to the success and eventual victory of 1918. Total war with modern industrialised mass armies in Europe was new and all participants were searching for solutions.
Take the 1916 Somme battles for example. The main problem for battle direction was technology. Artillery power should indeed have destroyed the wire. The experience on the Russian demonstrated it as Russian front line positions were often annihilated by German artillery and led to horrendous defeats. Many of the British shells were supplied as shrapnel which was for anti personnel and had no effect on wire. Many shells did not explode at all. German estimates were 25% plus duds.
Once an attack had started the generals were blind as new telephone cables had to be laid across a devasted battlefield. Messages were taken by runners through crowded trenches or by pigeon. Breakthoughs could not be exploited because of the length of time it took to react. The British tactical solution was the development of all arms co-operation of infantry, artillery (the creeping barrage and no advances out of artillery range) and aircraft for modest advances made progressively. It came to full fruition in 1918. These myths treat the Germans as passive or invisible. They were not. The Somme defeat owes as much to German tactical innovation as British technological weakness. They invented zonal defence in place of linear defence.
The myth that the war was won when the number of allies simply outnumbered that of the central powers through the arrival of the Americans. The US numbers made little difference in 1918 though they WOULD have done if the war had lasted into 1919. Their main contribution was to encourage Ludendorf to launch his sprig 1918 offensive when he should have been planning a fighting withdrawal.
There are many more but that belongs to real history as opposed to popular perception fostered by mass media entertainment.
general: dont worry son captain darling and I will be behind you,
blackadder: about 35 miles perhaps :D
My favourite line.
Stephen Fry was perfect for this role! Nobody but him could have delivered these lines as skilled and as funny. Never mind the fact that he was only about 32 when he played Melchett!
'They'll never expect us to stage our troops on Chornobaivka airfield for the 18th time after they blew us to shreds 17 times already.'
Well, for Western Front tactics, this seems fairly accurate, but nowhere near as creative as the Gallipoli Front tactics: Instead of walking slowly straight towards the enemy, we'll instead walk slowly straight up a hill towards the enemy. Why, nobody could predict any kind of disaster from that, eh?
You forgot the best part. Unload the general and he'll just demand they stay on the beaches on a heaven sent day where the hills were empty. The Australians and New Zealend men had one chance to possibly knock the Ottomans out ofthe war and it was wasted
For the people behind this they were still thinking back into those romantic glory days of war while not seeing the changing times with machine guns, poison gas and airplanes. Also if those old generals saw the warfare now lets just say it would make this WWI look like a picnic. I mean with machine guns having portable versions and carried along, missiles and other weapons that weren't available then or now modified for times now.
Retep Ramit Yes. What a twat Churchill was.
It would be great if people got their history form history books and not movies.
+Jonathan Williams I feel like I see you everywhere.
Having recently visited the Menin Gate, and Tyne Cot...the scale of slaughter and loss gives an overwhelming feeling, and the last post sounding..sadness. But satire like this was so well written, and was also used as a way to honour those fallen. The last scene of the series particularly striking home. RIP all those who gave their everything.
Love how the series ended. Poinant and respectful of the horror and sacrifice.
To die for King, God and Fatherland is the greatest honor and the most sublime moment in the life of any loyal citizen!
also, the last scene is the only take they did of it: the director wanted to re-shoot it, but the cast refused (well done to them). [el'sda2].
02:06 i fecking love this show
yeah same
Haha ....black adder at its best !!
One oft he funniest parts IMO
It's such a stupid joke, but Stephen Fry's brash acting makes it work.
hilarious and tragic at the same time
you should watch the end episode of this season - the last scene is very sad .... especially if you have seen the proceeding ones . It builds up to a pinnacle .... You do actually think WW1 was lunacy. Another good BUT tragic film to watch is "gallipoli" with a young mel gibson ..it's about the Australians during world war 1 and again the lunacy of trench warfare
I hindsight the stupidity of WW1 is hilarious for us who don't have die in trenches.
The "myth " that men were sent to just die on the battlefields of the First
World War, especially in Europe, specifically on the Western Front, is
unfortunately more true than not. The "GREAT WAR" was considered modern
warfare at that time and was undeniably a new style of fighting that many of
its leaders, officers and politicians were unprepared for. The concept of
full blown trench warfare was unprecidented and a number of these "leaders"
were simply outdated, ill-prepared, or just plain lacking in their approach to
fighting trench-based, industrialised, siege warfare.
Some of the operations and tactics used are quite sickening in retrospect and
others blatantly just slaughter fests. There were many inept commanders on
both sides that really, if you look it at, had a lot of blood on their hands.
Names like "the butcher of the Somme" aren't just coincidence.
I think the characters of this show are a perfect fictional example of these "leaders".
That's not to say every person of a higher rank was inept in their command or
indifferent to their soldier's lives, and in fact there were many competent
leaders and even heroes on both sides, but the fact remains that the blunders
committed were of an atrocious level in a war so unfathomably taxing in
human lives.
The final episode of this series actually is quote poignant, and if nothing
else serves as a reminder of those that came before us and gave everything
they had, in a war that could be seen as really quite pointless. Who wins at a
time like that? I personally think the series tries to convey this message -
the absurdity of war. And war is absurd.
Also, if you don't get the humour of this show you probably shouldn't be watching it
They're not trying to make ww1 funny, they are making light of a historical event which was so serious the notion of making fun of it is in itself funny. Humour is hard to grasp.
Part of me wonders if George didn't know exactly what he was doing when he refused to go with Melchett. I mean, he admits to Blackadder that all his friends from back home are dead, and he genuinely is scared when the moment finally comes. Maybe he thought he had nothing left to live for other than do die alongside his last few friends... 😦
The character knows exactly what is going on, he keeps face to show his bravery and set a good example. He finds it easier to treat it like a rugby match. If Blackadder thought he did not know what he was getting himself in for he would have pushed him to go.
Oh dear! Stop trying to analyse it and just accept it as brilliantly-written and performed comedy.
Blackadder was be both a comedy and a social commentary, that is what made it so good, I think they wanted people to analyze it.
How could he not know? Go over the top and more than likely get killed or fuck off in the car with Melchett and watch the results come in. Get real.
I doubt it. The dim-witted aristocrat is a Blackadder stock character. In Blackadder 1 and 2 it was Lord Percy, in Blackadder 3 it was Prince Regent George.
British comedy is the best comedy - fact!
Just wondering ... what other languages do you understand/speak?
Hi I speak french, english, serbian and greek very well. And I do believe that English comedy is the best
I sometimes think that too....
....and then I see things like Home Movies, Dr. Katz, Metalocalypse, Archer, Kids in the Hall (Canadian), The Amazing World of Gumball (perhaps an internatiional effort?), Gravity Falls....and so many others.
But there is probably a disproportionate number of great British comedies comparatively, it's just not "THE BEST" in my opinion. I can't pick a "best".
Thomas Norgate I'm British and find what you have said to be very Un-British. We are a modest people who don't bang on about how great we are (that's America's job)
Reb Brown We're the kindest, most modest people in the world.
Stephen Fry really nailed the “arm chair bound and moustached general” voice.
You know you have some great actors and writers when you can turn WW1 into a comedy AND make the final scene absolutely heart wrenching.
VDV high command before dropping another 5 waves of paratroopers on an airport unsupported in contested airspace (2022)
Edit: basically the entire Russian high command by now
Or staging another forty aircraft at an airfield for the eighth time after seven prior occurrences where the site and almost every single airframe on it got plastered by accurate artillery.
OR THE NINETEENTH TIME
THE ACTUAL FUCK
@@lurkingcarrier8736 I'm pretty sure it's over 20 now, but at this point i've lost count.
@@biggiec8224 Who the fuck trained Russian strategic officers, Luigi Cadorna?
Marshal Melchettski of the Russian High command.
You may laugh but this wasn't far from the truth on how WW1 was run by the generals
The beauty of British satire.
+Andi “CRIMSON” Rain Hitler only attacked that city to get at Stalin, so I read, was some brutal Street fighting there.
+Andi “CRIMSON” Rain absolutely, a blood bath. Impossible to even imagine the horror. Stalin wasn't far behind Hitler in the genocidal stakes.
TheGodParticle At the start of the war yes.
But we already know that. I can imagine the themes behind these sketches here being the imaginings and private doodles of newspaper cartoonists of the day, who would have irked or rebuked the generals in a most effective public way by employing a caricature using drawn lines, the picture worth a thousand truthful words, in the national newspapers.
But why dent or damage the morale of troops in that way? is perhaps the viable excuse to repress such criticism. Is that moral or ethical, though? Maybe cartoonists in Britain, during WW1, did have a 'field day': I need to investigate.
Series 2, 3 and 4 of Blackadder were arguably the finest television comedy ever made.
Blackadder goes Forth (Series 4) was a masterpiece. The final scene of the final episode was heartwrenchingly sad but quite unforgettable.
1 why not? 1 NAME: Brian Blessed! ♥
@@dallesamllhals9161
Not even Brian Blessed's voice could save the first series. And without his voice there's not much of an actor there.
@@redsquirrel1086 BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH! (in a loud and booming voice) ;-P
Black Adders remarks are absolutely brilliant.
The fact that I love this kind of humor so much might partly explain why I regularly score 10/10 for cynicism in all possible test.
This is TV comedy of the highest quality.
-We have deviced a brilliant tactical plan to win a decicive victory against the heathen Haji.
-Would this plan include us driving around in lightly armoured vehicles, until someone detonates a half tonne IED under us?
-How could you possibly know, thats top secret?
-Its exactly what we did yesterday and the previous days before it for the last 17 years.
How could you possibly know that, Private? It's top-secret information..
Lol
0:29 Russian command planning another attack on Bakhmut while the other fronts are collapsing.
And that's what's so brilliant about it.
Suddenly i want a tortoise named.. Alan.
Best of luck in finding a tortoise named Alan
Twas a parrot, not a turtle.
Sou1defiler it's simply the best name for a tortoise
I have a tortoise named Field Marshal Haig
I shall have a carrier pigeon named Speckled Jim
"Good-Morning! Good-Morning!" the General said,
as we passed him last week on our way to the line
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of them dead,
and we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine
"He's a cheery old bloke" grunted Harry to Jack,
as they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack
But he murdered them both by his plan of attack
-Siegfried Sassoon, 1917
Was he a relation to that famous Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon ?
good old Siegfried
Sassoon, Owen, Rosenberg summed up WWI for me... Nothing conveyed the voice from the Western Front than those war poets who had a first hand experience of the war and who could feel and think and write about it...
"supplying war" is a good book. makes you realize that the problem was the inability to push supplies and reinforcements trhough breaches like at the Somme offensive- when you count the amount of cranes and realize that battles were lost due to the inability to unload trains, you see that logistics wins or loses wars
yeah, this put the final nail in the coffin of germany when they started to regain ground. destroyed moral when they began overrunning supply dumps of stuff they hadnt seen in years
Kirothe Avenger that book actually mentions that- the full british supply dumps.
By taking the equipment the Germans were using thr old method of military logistics- "fleeing forward," that is, moving forward and taking the enemy and local supplies.
WW1 represented the first real shift to modern logistics were supplies are almost completely brought from home in constant supply trains (supply trains have always existed but represented a reletivly small portion of mostly critical supply- armament and horse feed)
The germans could take the supply dumps, but then what? That will run out. They couldnt get their own supplies from german trains over the trenches to french land because the equipment and infrastructure wasnt there.
i highly recomend the book "supplying war," you may enjoy it.
Communications too. Half the time when ground was taken the echelon didn't know whether the attack was a success and to send in supplies to hold it or not, while the guys in the newly created salient, having met their orders had to wait for new ones to know what to do next and thus were extremely vulnerable to counterattack. Both issues were solved by General Monash's innovative integration of tanks with infantry; using armoured vehicles to spearhead an assault and then move back behind the lines once the infantry had taken up forward defensive positions in order to bring up food, water and ammunition, and to facilitate communication with command. This played a huge role in breaking the stalemate.
Martin van Creveld had some interesting points. Made me understand renaissance and pre-Napoleonic warfare much better.
*****
Sounds about right
Not my idea- from the book i mentioned
I don't know a lot about Stephen Fry, but he was absolutely perfect in this role. He does the best personification of a clueless upper-middle class British military officer I've ever seen. It's too bad they don't give out Oscars for TV actors.
WW I tactics nailed! (sadly enough, though)
*snailed*?
Of course, this walking slowly at the enemy by the British would be preceded by a several days artillery bombardment. The British felt that there would be little left of the German lines after such a bombardment. They were wrong, of course. But by the end of the war, the British infantry were advancing right behind rolling artillery barrages, often times behind tanks, which was extremely effective. The British were rolling back the Hun with fewer casualties than the Americans or the French.
Well after all this is set around the era in the war of the Battle of the Somme which is one of the textbook examples of a horribly executed battle with unnecessary casualties
I agree. But it wasn't really that the generals were really dumb. It's just that technology had overtaken tactics. It wasn't til near the end of the war that new tactics were developed.
If you take the 'Oh What a Lovely War' school of history at face value, then yes.
We all know how smart Stephen is and we all know he is a national treasure. Often overlooked is his comedic gift. Time and again I see snippets of Blackadder or "A Little Bit of Fry and Laurie", all featuring a moment created by Stephen that wasn't on the page. It could be the smallest thing, like 'problim". He is magical.
"Our battles are directed, sir?" Loved all of The Black Adder, but the 4th season was pure gold!
This would be funnier if it weren't so fucking true.
It's as funny as it is because it's true
katey1dog That is his point. it's sad, depressing even that it is true and it isn't a joke.
Lions led by donkeys.
considering that there are no surviving participants of WW1 I think its alright to have alought about one of the most retarded affairs Europe started 100 years ago
a_slight_veneer_of_privacy well, Blackadder is an officer and so is George. They are satirizing the generals, who did not do any fighting.
Melchett is one of the most terrifying and monstrous characters in fiction rivaling Thanos and Palpatine as the greatest villains that have ever existed
But far more loveable, somehow... what a charismatic human Stephen Fry is...
The irony being Melchett is just monumentally stupid & not actually evil...😉
@@darania1 only thing worst than evil is stupidity
Russian high command: "WRITE THAT DOWN! WRITE THAT DOWN!"
How is that Ukrainian counter offensive going.
@@robshepherd3782 the first russian defense line has been breached and ukraine already took more territory then russia took in their offensive in Bakhmut and vuhledar.
This comment was written 4 days after the start of the offensive.
Opsec is currently in place so I don't realy care ether, I will just wait for the results as soon as it no longer endangers ukrainian soldiers to talk about it.
@@jakobc.2558 In your head maybe but in reality they have simply died.
@@jakobc.2558 I hope the total collapse of Ukrainian military strength causes a total collapse of your mind.
@@robshepherd3782”you see, the counteroffensive was made up by the matrix and the reality is russia won in 3 days, as projected.”
This series was a masterpiece of television.
"Our battles are directed sir”””???!!!!
Little short of absolute brilliance !!
+Dermot Jordan By Jeeves I could not agree more!
This is the best show I've ever seen. Black Adder series is my favorite by far.
Fuck me, THIS IS HOW BATTLEFIELD 1 PLAYER PLAY!
Russian soldier: Our battles are directed, sir?
Commader: oh of course they are soldier, directed according to the grand plan
Russian soldier: Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until everyone's dead except Putin, Shoigu, and their tortoise, Gerasimov?
Great Stalin, even you know it!
"You know our plan? Off to gulag with you!"
"But sir, all of our recruits come from gulag."
"Yes. Back to front line, mobik!"
@@salt_factory7566
Stalin didn't do that. Nor does modern Russia, nor anyone in the world as of now.
@@jackbaxter2223
What the fuck are you on bro 💀
Prisoners made 10% of the Red Army at best
@@throwfascistsintopits3062 Uh...
Never tire of this particular series!!
Rewatching these clips made me realise how clever the writing and indeed casting in the Blackadder IV actually is. Granted it does perpetuate some myths about the first world war. Highlights the futility of what was going on, Lions led by donkeys would be key mantra from clips shown.
The problem with the first world war was that lessons from the American Civil War and trench warfare were never learnt until several million people had already had their brains blown out for blighty. Ancient line tactics versus machine guns... rest in peace lads. Lest we forget.
This is actually not accurate I think. There were people who had figured them out, like Rommel. It was just that he wasn't being listened to. There were no trench battles, at least not long lasting ones, in Italy. And that was largely due to Rommel using advanced infantry tactics and various trickeries and shenanigans to roll up lines and things like that. For some reason though the Germans don't seem to have cared much how he won those battles. They just wanted to give him medals for it.
And of course in Britain there was Lidell Hart, although I don't think he actually wrote much until the 1920s. He might have done, but if he did it wasn't widely read or known I think. But he reached many of the same conclusions the Germans did a little earlier. Well, some of the Germans I should probably say. No one on the western front seemed to have given it much thought on either side of the front.
And when you think about the fact that any organized mass production and deployment of tanks, even primitive as they were back then, might have won the war in a week at any point pf its duration it really sinks in what a senseless waste it all was. But the Brits only used theirs for reconnoisance in ones and twos. Not even sure what the Germans did with theirs if they even had any. Hurl mustard gas and things I suppose. I guess it's just hindsight though. It's just weird that no one thought to at least try it and see what would happen, particularly when what they were doing obviously wasn't working.
The show was hilarious. The finale just about made me cry.
Poor George and his innocence! Sad and funny at the same time.
a great example of the attitude of a lot of people sent to that war i feel
truly believed it was for their country and the world, the war to end all wars, horrible they were sold this lie
the wrong people died in this war thats for sure
Glasgow2k6 More sad than funny. This is the last episode. George has finally had the scales fall from his eyes and realized the lives of the common soldier mean NOTHING to the higher ups; the full scope of how apathetic they were to the suffering they caused.
George was naive, and something of a fool. But more than believing in the cause of the War, he believed he had no right to ask the men to do that he was unwilling to.
He was lying to the General about his enthusiastic intentions, because he knew otherwise he'd have ordered him to the back lines or convinced him to do so by appealing to his simple nature. He knew every man there was probably going to die in a charge, and he hadn't really tried to stop it when he could have. So he tied his fate to Black Adder's.
Uttam Paudel Also it's a testament that Hugh went on to be the best actor out of all of them. His speech where he says 'I don't want to die' and is finally realising the inevitability of his fate whilst still sprinkling in some humour is masterfully written but also played 👌 PERFECTLY by Hugh. British comedy has never been done better since
Thing is it's a massive misconception that the top brass were miles behind the front in ww1 that was ww2. there were more high ranking officers killed in ww1 then in most pervious wars. Officers went over the top first so were killed almost instantly which is why most battles ground to a halt from a lack of direction. Also the death toll in the upper to higher classes who took officer rolls in the army was horrific. A whole generation of Britain's ruling class died in flanders.
If you die out of a trench you're not the ruling class, you're among the deaths.
If they died more it's probably because they less common sense than common soldiers.
@@2adamastThe deal with the upper class was "noblesse oblige". You had your privileges, but when the time came, you had to serve and lead. The famous "lions led by donkeys" quip is revisionist and as bad as "Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton". Both are far too simplistic:
As in Ukraine, stalemate can be an unavoidable consequence of the realities of logistics, and take bloody years to break. It is very easy to blame failure on class rather than on complexity and protracted periods during which a war can't be won - but it can easily be lost.
And "the only thing worse than a battle won is a battle lost".
The consequences of losing a war can be far, far worse horror than the slaughter of stalemate, which is why Ukraine and Israel are both unable to stop. In war you can't rely on the world to stop because you want to get off. It is all-in fighting, no matter what your good intentions may have been in peacetime, and nobody is untouched by it.
This show is timeless and you can apply stuff from it to everything like how the "advanced tactics" remind me so hard of most of the noob teams in battlefield games.
I love Stephen Fry's enunciation. The way he moves his lips makes me think of the stereotypical WW1 British General with a fancy for Safari hunting. He's such a treat.
One of the finest military minds ever.
Putin discussing his advanced battle plans to invade Ukraine. “The VDV was repulsed from Hostomel Airport 17 times. Therefore the Ukrainians will not expect us to attempt an 18th landing and be caught totally off guard.”
a blackadder serial on ukraine war is something i'll definitely would want.
but may have to wait until after putin's been dead for 10 years first...
Blackadder Goes Forth ..one of the finest comedy series ever
Probably THE finest. Some of the Monty Python stuff was equally genius.
The second series was pretty good but far less poignant.
Hang Crooked pieces of wood at all the windows. CLASS , PURE MAJIC.
Hammer large pieces of crooked wood........
John Clark I know it's genius isn't it...little lines like that just make it so funny
+rob sim Baahh.see you in Berlin for coffee & CAKES.
Only fools & horses and Black Adder are the best series of BBC in the 20th century !
Looks like a VDV training video
I can't tell if I want to laugh or weep. On one hand, this is fucking hysterical. On the other hand, it's also depressingly accurate to the incompetence of high-command during WW1.
This was my favourite season. So funny and at the same time so accurate and sad. Especially the end of the season was a masterpiece and one of my favourite scenes.
Even as a relative layman, i get the feeling this is one of the most accurate WW1 video documentaries ever made.
It's really not.
"God it's a barren featureless desert out there isn't it"
I'm dying! 😂😂😂
If you should falter just remember captain darling and I are right behind you....about 35 miles behind you. Couldn’t relate to this any stronger as a student nurse being forced to go work in a covid-19 ward very very soon.
Watching this show as a kid prepared me for the slew and rise in interest of World War 1 games and movies that would come out in the last decade and it's been immaculate.
One of the best shows of all time, I love every second from it. ✌️☺️
This is painfully accurate.
Well you gave the soldiers trenchfoot and all thst so you should know
Yes . A war fought with outdated tactics
I could never take Hugh Laurie seriously in House after watching his performances in these series.
“…and their tortoise, Alan?”
😂
"God its a barren, featureless desert out there isnt it?"
I died
Very funny, Stephen Fry is excellent as Melchett
One the best TV comedy's in human history ... brilliant.
This show was so damn funny! Seeing these clips makes me want to watch it all over again!
Blackadder Goes Forth has the greatest ending of any historical comedy.
Change my mind.
This is about right - Haig's leadership was just about at this level.
I'd love to see the view count history for this video since it got uploaded. I imagine there's been quite the uptick in the last two months.
Outrageous bit of comedy... Fry is superb... but what a subtle actual send up of British generalship in WWI !
I've seen these clips more times than I can count - and I've only just noticed that General Melchett has been awarded the VC and bar. Even the wardrobe department were comedians.