Over the Top

Tagging onto JED's post, I'd have to agree that the military tactics in WWI seemed utterly ridiculous. In fact, they seemed "over the top." Ever obsessed with etymology, I wondered if there was perhaps a connection between the colloquial phrase and the battle term in which men were supposed to haul themselves out of 6-8 foot deep trenches and run headfirst at the enemy. Unsurprisingly, there was.

To quote from this webpage:

Meaning: To an excessive degree; beyond reasonable or acceptable limits.

Origin: In the First World War the phrase was used by the British to describe the infantry emerging from the safety of their trenches to attack the enemy across open ground....More recently, with allusion back to the WWI usage, the phrase has come to describe excessive or foolhardy actions."

Excessive of foolhardy indeed! The "over the top" tactic utilized in the trench warfare during WW I makes little sense to me. In theory, sure it could work, but after the first few thousand soldiers died, shouldn't the generals have caught on? It's hard to fathom exactly what their reasoning may have been, actually impossible for me. But, to borrow Jonathan's expression, foot soldiers certainly composed "an army of lions." While I'll hold my judgment on the leaders being "sheep," I can't help but think back to the clip of the movie we watched in class today. The men, in the trenches, the generals sitting far away from the attack trench saying something to the effect of:

Person 1: "The village is heavily armed with machine guns."
Person 2: "They're a good regiment. They'll get through."

No wonder troops eventually became demoralized. If they were dying, being picked off by machine guns and flying shrapnel, was it only because they weren't good enough?

There was something oddly captivating about the short clips we watched. Despite the constant explosions and black smoke flying up, despite the minutes of watching men lying low in their trench, it was the moment when the clock hit 9 (I think?) and it was time to go "over the top." 50 yards to 1 mile is what Western Civilizations said. That distance filled with barb wire, with no shelter, just one long armorless sprint towards your enemy. Now, that's over the top.