Warwick’s review of Six Weeks: The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War > Likes and Comments
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I don't often agree with Michael Gove, but his comment about the Blackadderisation of WWI had some merit. Other narratives seem to have been forgotten. How many kids now even know about the Battle of Jutland or Laurence's campaigns against the Ottomans, let alone the Italian campaigns? And what about Ernst Junger, who fought for four years on the Western Front – on the losing side – and wasn't remotely traumatised?
Lewis-Stempel makes a similar point about Junger, and also points out that even people like Siegfried Sassoon, who made his famous public statement against the war, still demanded to return to active service after his medical treatment was over. It's not that it wasn't traumatic, though, more that most of those actually involved in the front-line fighting felt that the trauma was in some sense worth it for what they were achieving. Whereas nowadays the idea that the war was pointless and unnecessary is almost a cliché.
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Patrick
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Oct 23, 2025 02:31PM
I don't often agree with Michael Gove, but his comment about the Blackadderisation of WWI had some merit. Other narratives seem to have been forgotten. How many kids now even know about the Battle of Jutland or Laurence's campaigns against the Ottomans, let alone the Italian campaigns? And what about Ernst Junger, who fought for four years on the Western Front – on the losing side – and wasn't remotely traumatised?
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Lewis-Stempel makes a similar point about Junger, and also points out that even people like Siegfried Sassoon, who made his famous public statement against the war, still demanded to return to active service after his medical treatment was over. It's not that it wasn't traumatic, though, more that most of those actually involved in the front-line fighting felt that the trauma was in some sense worth it for what they were achieving. Whereas nowadays the idea that the war was pointless and unnecessary is almost a cliché.
