1917 Thread

Did British Empire really have racially mixed units in the Western Front as implied by this film? I thought all the Indians were kept in their own regiments in order to satisfy their religious dietary requirements, and I was not aware that the British employed black African combatants on the Western Front. I know the French used black Africans in the West and the British used black Africans in the East African theatre, but in both cases they were kept segregated from European units. And even the South African Brigade that fought in the West was all white, no blacks.

The only other nitpick is in the beginning of the film, where they each reload their Lee-Enfield rifle with a single 5 round stripper clip when the magazine will take 10 rounds (ie 2 clips) total. Also they get issued with grenades but never use them, even though after the bridge/canal sequence, there's a couple good opportunities to use the grenades for distracting or dealing with the sniper.

Also a possible geographical nitpick (my geographical knowledge of the Western Front is a little hazy) : in the beginning of the film, they are in a water-logged, high-water table area, something like the Flanders/Low Country locale, but by the end of the film, they are in the chalky limestone soil of the Aisne/Chemin des Dames region of northern France. Is that some artistic license to transition between those two regions in the course of a day's walking distance, or is it really that close together?
 
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millais said:
Did British Empire really have racially mixed units in the Western Front as implied by this film? I thought all the Indians were kept in their own regiments in order to satisfy their religious dietary requirements, and I was not aware that the British employed black African combatants on the Western Front. I know the French used black Africans in the West and the British used black Africans in the East African theatre, but in both cases they were kept segregated from European units. And even the South African Brigade that fought in the West was all white, no blacks.

The only other nitpick is in the beginning of the film, where they each reload their Lee-Enfield rifle with a single 5 round stripper clip when the magazine will take 10 rounds (ie 2 clips) total. Also they get issued with grenades but never use them, even though after the bridge/canal sequence, there's a couple good opportunities to use the grenades for distracting or dealing with the sniper.

Also a possible geographical nitpick (my geographical knowledge of the Western Front is a little hazy) : in the beginning of the film, they are in a water-logged, high-water table area, something like the Flanders/Low Country locale, but by the end of the film, they are in the chalky limestone soil of the Aisne/Chemin des Dames region of northern France. Is that some artistic license to transition between those two regions in the course of a day's walking distance, or is it really that close together?
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I believe the British did race mix in WW1, but there was heavy discrimination.

While the Lee-enfield Rifle shindig is true, It didn't distract from the experience. Also the guys are clearly naive in the movie, I'm sure he forgot about them when he was under fire.

As for the distance thing, it didn't bother me, I thought they were using temporary trenches tbh.
 
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xr95 said:
I believe the British did race mix in WW1, but there was heavy discrimination.

While the Lee-enfield Rifle shindig is true, It didn't distract from the experience. Also the guys are clearly naive in the movie, I'm sure he forgot about them when he was under fire.

As for the distance thing, it didn't bother me, I thought they were using temporary trenches tbh.
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I guess the black British soldiers could be West Indians living in Britain and then conscripted into regular British regiments. I'm not seeing anything about British colonial black Africans being sent to fight in the West though.

They both "underload" their rifles in the very beginning of the film when they are getting ready to leave the British trenches, even though the one guy is supposed to be a grizzled veteran of the Somme and they are not yet in a rush to leave at that point.

Yes at the end of the film, they are in freshly dug slit trenches, but the chalky limestone soil is really different from the watery mud from the beginning of the film. Again, my knowledge of the geography is highly imperfect to say the least, but I always assumed it was a pretty long walk to get from the muddy swamps of the more northern "British" sector to the chalky limestone of the more southern "French" sector of the front.
 
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millais said:
They both "underload" their rifles in the very beginning of the film when they are getting ready to leave the British trenches, even though the one guy is supposed to be a grizzled veteran of the Somme and they are not yet in a rush to leave at that point.
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The somme was arguably a year before the events of this film, I doubt he doesn't want to go through that shit again. My Dad was a veteran of the gulf war and he seen veterans make mistakes in the Navy/Air Force.

millais said:
Yes at the end of the film, they are in freshly dug slit trenches, but the chalky limestone soil is really different from the watery mud from the beginning of the film. Again, my knowledge of the geography is highly imperfect to say the least, but I always assumed it was a pretty long walk to get from the muddy swamps of the more northern "British" sector to the chalky limestone of the more southern "French" sector of the front.
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It did took him a day, and he did hitched a ride for a undisclosed amount of time (like a hour or two.) He also did jump in a fast river and
rapids can cut time and a half. I did some white water rapids in HS in CO(for vacation), and you can do 10 miles in under a hour, depending on your taste for danger.
 
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xr95 said:
The somme was arguably a year before the events of this film, I doubt he doesn't want to go through that shit again. My Dad was a veteran of the gulf war and he seen veterans make mistakes in the Navy/Air Force.


It did took him a day, and he did hitched a ride for a undisclosed amount of time (like a hour or two.) He also did jump in a fast river and
rapids can cut time and a half. I did some white water rapids in HS in CO(for vacation), and you can do 10 miles in under a hour, depending on your taste for danger.
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Yeah I figure there is some artistic license involved in the "time scale". Even though it is ostensibly one unbroken continuous shot, in the logic of the film, the truck ride is probably supposed to be something like an hour or two, even though in realtime, it is like 5 minutes of the movie. Similar thing with the river.
 
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