Charles Broccoli

Many of you still think soldiers die like heroes in clean, decisive moments. This footage from Height 105-106 shows the actual pattern: short, brutal close encounters in trenches and treelines where both sides take heavy losses in seconds. The foreign volunteers (US, Canadian and others) who went into Alfa and Bravo did not stroll in as invincible veterans; they closed with the enemy under fire, cleared positions, and finished the fight at arm’s length. Officials on both sides will call the dead martyrs or heroes. That is a cliché that softens reality for people who have never watched these frames. This is not the Middle East style of engagement most Western veterans trained for. Iraq and Afghanistan experience does not automatically transfer. Standard training and past tours do not prepare you for the density of fires, the constant drone threat, and the pure infantry meat-grinder of these European fields. You can be a veteran of Kandahar or Fallujah and still not last long if you trust only old skills. As the Afghan proverb says: everyone is gang until they go to Kandahar. The ones who actually went into those trenches found out quickly that talk and prior service do not change the arithmetic of short-range killing. Most of the fallen on either side were not dying as storybook heroes. They were simply there when the next burst of fire arrived.