If I were about to go over, I would pretend to get hit so I would not have to run. Same for if I was participating in the Invasion of Normandy, lie down and play dead in a bomb crater.
"Nobody is free, even the birds are chained to the sky" - Bob Dylan
you do know that soldiers are trained to go and shoot bodies to make sure they are dead
carpe diém
Yeah but if they were in the other trench, or in Omaha beaches case, in a bunker on top of the hill you wouldnt waste bullets shooting bodies so its a win win situation. Now if you were ambushed by a enemy patrol thats a different story, there I would just run away.
"Nobody is free, even the birds are chained to the sky" - Bob Dylan
You sure are a better runner than those two, lol.
well, your options once you've gone over the top would be:
1. actually die before you have a chance to play dead (this is very possible since many of them got hit just as they were climbing out)
2. lay there playing dead until everyone goes home (good luck, hope you brought a few magazines with you)
3. try turning around immediately and jumping back in the trench whereby you will either be shot by the Turks as you try, or be apprehended by the officers back in your trench and be arrested and shot or hanged for dereliction right after saying "oh snap sarge!"
4. try to shoot yourself out in No Man's Land, which will almost certainly bring the attention of Turk machine gunners who will be happy to help you shoot your knee....and your leg, and your stomach, and your chest, and your head.
Overall, your chances aren't ultimately all that much better than your colleagues. But best of luck!
The Turks shot anyone moving AFTER they been shot, so play dead may get U dead.
shareHow heroic of you- while all your comrades are storming and dieing, you lay down like a coward. I would hope that you did survive just so the guilt would consume you later in life.
shareMaybe on one of the larger battlefields you could hide out in a crater or old trench, but there it was like 40 yards to the Turkish lines, no cover at all.
shareAlthough it is not in any way depicted in the film, several accounts of the Battle of the Nek record instances, during the third wave of the assault, where the attackers jumped out of the trench but then went straight for cover in an attempt to save themselves.
It is thought that they did this in recognition of the fact that what they were being asked to do was effectively suicide, but did not want to be punished for disobeying orders - the penalty for which, at the front line was, invariably, death.
This goes some way to explaining why the 10th Light Horse regiment, who made up the 3rd wave, had a lower casualty rate than the regiments in the preceding attack waves.
I would pretend also. Or run away.
The only way I would really go for it seriously was if the president and all politicians were in the front line also side by side with everybody.
No. They had to be the first ones to get out of the trench.
They are the cowards, not the soldiers.
No you wouldn't do that. Do you know why? Because the guys surrounding you are your best friends, they'd be watching, and even if they weren't most people would simply not want to let their friends down. Of course, there are utter cowards or value their lives above all else. Easiest thing to do is not enlist or head fore the hills if you;re drafted. But once you're in battle, there's no running and no hiding. Those who do and get caught are often shot for cowardice or end up as POWs or worse.
shareBy far the most intelligent post in this thread. Well done, sir!
shareThe campaign was already doomed, imagine how much worse it would have been if your whole unit did what you propose? None of the soldiers were drafted, they were all volunteers. And don't you think the Turks would have eventually walked over and finished you off knowing good and well that you're nothing but a bunch of cowards?
And ask anybody who survived a war, they would tell you that they would have rather been the ones killed, as long as they didn't let their mates down. Now imagine how'd you feel knowing all your mates died doing their duty while you weaseled your way out of it by playing dead? I guess there are reasons they break you in for 3 months before they send you into battle. In those 3 months you're taught that disobeying an order could be worse than death.
None of us have faced certain death so I don't know how we would react, but saying that you'll cat your way out of it before you're even there says a lot about you.
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