"Meanwhile, on this thread.. Teribus reckons that the early accounts, fresh and by many caught up in the war are all lies and only the more recent ones are accurate. "

More lies, more misrepresentation.

The early accounts, written by those who actually took part I have described as being personal memoirs and as such they are factual accounts of personal experiences and are totally one-sided, giving only snap-shots of what was going on. The writers of those memoirs had no access to material that was classified and would remain secret for 50, 60, 70 and 100 years, they had no idea of what drove events from the point of view of their own side let alone what drove them from the perspectives of their French allies and the German enemy.

Jom and Musktwat then invented atrocity stories and made extremely serious allegations against those in command of the British Army, first it was the Military Police and then it was officers who were ordered to summarily execute British Soldiers for not getting out of their trenches quickly enough, then according to Musktwat it was a crowd that he laughlingly referred to as "The REDTOPS" what did it, then Jom's "Special Groups of Military Police" whot dun it. Oddly enough to substantiate this all they (specifically Jom) can offer up are verbal accounts by two veterans - one of whom was definitely a veteran but who contradicted what he said he saw, and another who Jom did not not even verify and satisfy himself that he even ever served in the Army at all. Having made the allegations and presented them as indisputable fact on this forum, I spent a great deal of time researching for ANY evidence of it - I FOUND NOTHING. So are all those accounts "written by those who actually took part" in the immediate aftermath of the war all wrong? Are they all liars? You see GHOST in all those memoirs there are no accounts of any such summary executions - And before you quote Harry Patch at me remember his recollections, far from being "fresh", were given to the BBC when Harry was over 100 years old - nearly 80 years after the event.

If you do not find it strange that men of a particular platoon did not know each others names - I DO. If you do not find it strange that men of a particular platoon did not know the names of the officers and NCOs that they would have to report to every single day - THEN I DO. If you do not find it strange that those giving accounts of such summary executions cannot name a single victim or the name of a single officer who was supposed to have carried out such an execution - I DO. If you can look at a picture of a front line trench (Make sure you are looking at the trench from which attacks are mounted) and tell me where there was room for a line of Military Policemen, or indeed ANYBODY, to position themselves behind those about to go over the top then you will have found a rather unique photograph. Keith A and myself are accused of always slavishly accepting the side of the establishment, well it would appear from the above that while you are prepared to accept any cock-and-bull story because it feeds your prejudices and bias, Keith A and myself challenge stories told to us and demand proof - proof which so far has yet to be offered.