Flair? You want flair? Here’s your flair!
In the movie, the order didn’t come from high Allied command, but from a general on the ground. Perhaps he felt that if there was a chance of saving 1,600 lives, he should risk two lives to do so? Seems believable to me.
The issue of the planes not being Firth’s to command had not occurred to me, though it admittedly makes a great deal of sense.
This is ME expressing MYSELF.
By 1917, the Royal Flying Corps had organized itself mostly along the lines of what we see today- squadrons, wings and brigades (which fulfilled the role of today’s groups).
And there were basically 4 brigades for the entire Western Front at the Battle of the Somme, so it’s likely they were commanded from the Army level.
Firth’s general was probably a Major General commanding a division, which wouldn’t have had any control over any flying assets. And the reason he would have been involved at all is probably because the two runners and the battalion that they were trying to rescue were from different brigades within the same division.
Otherwise the brigade commander (probably a Colonel) would have just communicated directly with the battalions in his command.
Might there also be an issue of authentication? If the British advance were actually the sound tactical move it appeared to be, then the Germans would want to prevent it. If all it takes to stop them is getting one plane in the air above the Brits and dropping a capsule with a piece of paper in it, they just might do that. So the British officer in charge of the advancing troops has no reason to trust a letter delivered that way. But when the message is hand-delivered by a pair of fellow Brits, who speak flawless English and are fully-equipped in the British style, and who may even be known personally to some of the advancing soldiers, then the advance officer knows that the message is genuine.
Okay. Great. Great. That’s all I ask.
Isn’t one of the messengers picked because his brother is in the other battalion?
AFAIK no units in any army in WW1 ever flew any planes from the other side. So why would a British officer trust a message dropped from a German D.III Albatross? Or distrust one dropped from an S.E. 5?
It’s not outside the realm of possibility, though, is it? False flag operations—that is, ruses involving soldiers donning enemy uniforms, or making use of the enemy’s captured equipment, vehicles, and communication lines—must be as old as warfare itself. Just because the Germans never in fact used a captured British plane in WWI doesn’t mean the British at the time would have discounted the chance that they might try it.
Gallipoli, from Wikipedia “Frank sprints back to convey this news, but the phone lines are repaired and Colonel Robinson orders the attack to continue.”
There was continuous difficulty maintaining the telephone lines and courier services along the western front, but yes, ‘1917’ is one giant plot hole.
The Gallipoli film example, where the phone lines were just fortuitously down as a plot device, is a-historical, but isn’t central to the idea of the film. It adds tension, but it’s contrary to fact because the soldiers would not have been withdrawn with better information. British soldiers were dying in larger numbers down the coast by attacking entrenched positions: then and later soldiers were dying on the western front by attacking entrenched positions.
In ‘1817’ the loss of communications isn’t just a plot device to add tension: it is the plot. In that respect, this is the ‘U-571’ of WWI films.
Gallipoli, from Wikipedia “Frank sprints back to convey this news, but the phone lines are repaired and Colonel Robinson orders the attack to continue.”
There was continuous difficulty maintaining the telephone lines and courier services along the western front, but yes, ‘1917’ is one giant plot hole.
The Gallipoli film example, where the phone lines were just fortuitously down as a plot device, is a-historical, but isn’t central to the idea of the film. It adds tension, but it’s contrary to fact because the soldiers would not have been withdrawn with better information. British soldiers were dying in larger numbers down the coast by attacking entrenched positions: then and later soldiers were dying on the western front by attacking entrenched positions.
In ‘1817’ the loss of communications isn’t just a plot device to add tension: it is the plot. In that respect, this is the ‘U-571’ of WWI films.
And would the forward officers even necessarily recognize the different models of airplane? It might just as well be “one of them new-fangled contraptions”.
Gedankenexperiment: Imagine if you will that you have only been flying for a few hours. Total. So few that in any other profession it is your first week of your apprenticeship. Flying on the deck in a barely glorified box kite is incredibly dangerous by itself, and now everybody, including your guys, is shooting at you. Does this really seem like the walk in the park many of you are calling a plot hole?
The big bullseye or cross is kind of a giveaway. This hole was plugged in post #35. The orders had to be delivered verbally in front of witnesses so the CO didn’t just ignore them.
No, it certainly wasn’t easy being a WWI pilot, but I’m not clear on how that addresses this issue with the plot.
It wasn’t a plot hole to not do an air drop. Delivery by runner was not quite as crazy suicidal while being the conventional method the Melchetts in the rear were accustomed to. And far more reliable.
Sending runners to deliver orders is not so strange.
(although both the main army body and the forward battalion would move heaven and earth to restore that broken cable!)
Placing the scenario in WW1 trench warfare, and having a mere 1600 men advance several km into enemy territory in one move, without support, is ludicrous.
An advance of several km would be the action of a whole army, not one battalion.
And even if it did happen, then sending a mere 2 men to deliver the massage would be downright criminal.
So yes. A movie based on a rather preposterous premise. It’s sheer nonsense. But it is entertaining, well-filmed nonsense, so that’s fine.
Nah, if 1917 were really the U-571 of WWI films, all the British characters would have been inexplicably replaced with American ones. 
And the Brits by Poles. 
Let’s just say that Enigma was a group effort. 