My grandad was only in the home guard in ww2 as he was a farmer but I have his helmet under the stairs.


I did make sure that we all stopped the machines at work at 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month I feel it the least we can do.


RESPECT :cool::cool::cool:

Never forgotten
 

On a similar theme, This saturday 12th

Venue; Southend High steet, Outside Maccy Ds

Two very proud veterans In full Medal's with colleting tins and poppies

with a queue forming of local yoof's waiting to put money in !!
Nice to see!

May be the youngsters now are better informed and Now Do realise what those people gave for freedom so long ago.

We should never forget the sacrifice others made. Its a shame that we as humans don't learn from it. Today was a very sad day for many millions including myself (lost 2 great grandfathers in ww1.

All very interesting and good post here. Ains, you mention a trip that I plan to do myself, a trip that I have for a long time felt that I have to make on my own, be interested to know if you guys that have been have also done it that way.

My Grandfather never spoke of WW1 to anybody other than me and he only did that when he was on deathbed, the night before he died. - I was 11 at the time and did not fully understand what he was telling me. I also could never understand why as I grew up he would silently walk away shaking his head when I was playing with my soldiers or making the machine gun noises with anything that resembled a gun. A few years on and I was reluctantly sitting there in my English Lit class when the subject switched to war poetry of WW1, - I was hit by a bolt as things fell into place.

A few years ago I spent a day in the Imperial war museum, after booking my time in their library a really helpful person bought me a pile of books with references of my grandfather’s regiment. I traced where he had been on the day he got blown up; Hill 41 Ypres, - I also discovered and put into place what he had told me of a tour of duty; a tour that took them behind enemy lines on reconnaissance immediately before The first Battle of the Somme. A tour of Duty that so decimated his regiment that the few became "lucky" enough to be rested on that first day of the battle of the Somme as they waited for new recruits.

I still have his medals, - and his spurs, he was in The City of London Yeomanry, I have the pieces of shrapnel that were removed from his back, the letters and the Christmas cards home, including the one written the day before he was injured, and dictated letters written by nurses from Bolougne field hospital. I also have photos of him with all his friends, smiling back at the camera, sitting perched on straw bales taken somewhere in Northern France. . I guess I was very lucky that he came back, (would not have been born otherwise!!).

If any of you have not read Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes I would say go buy it tomorrow, - it is fiction, starts a bit slow as it paints the picture of the summer of 1914 pre war, but when it gets going it is very atmospheric.

Being a Yank I am not really in touch with your Remembrance/Commonwealth days, but an Ozzie associate here with me in Japan attended the ceremonies on Sunday (very surprised he wasn't out drinking). There is a very well kept graveyard here and the event was attended by military liaisons, diplomats from a variety of countries including Cameroon for one, and a whole slew of folks. Piper played for about 10 minutes, Last Post (?) by 4 buglers, and a benediction I guess by four reps of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Most of the graves are from the fall of Singapore era with a separate section for Ozzies under a gum tree. he was impressed and showed me pictures and I was happy that there were so many attendees, such well kept grounds and so many fresh flowers left. Many left there lives behind to keep us from Fascism and militarism. They deserve our thoughts.

When I was a kid I watched "All quiet on the western front" and was so affected I became fascinated by the people who fought in that and other wars. I used to look at old photo's for hours of the soldiers smiling at the photographer and wondering who survived. I used to think, how could they smile knowing that it could be their last day on earth. I was amazed at their bravery.

Then it was my turn. In December 90 I was sent to Iraq and I became one of those happy smiling soldiers preparing for the war. I was constantly reminded of my heroes of all the previous wars and drew great inspiration and strength from them. On the 23 Feb 91 we went over the border. For 3 days, with about 4 hours sleep we fought until Kuwait was free. I don't talk about it much but it was like being involved in an drunken orgy of power and death, were the hangover you have after, you never recover from.

I was watching "Saving Private Ryan" with a friend who has worked for HP most of his life and is a mellow person by nature. After about 10 mins into the movie he stood up and walked out saying things like; these people must have been stupid, how can they do it etc. After the initial anger had die down I realised how ignorant most civilians are as to the mindset of the soldier. Soldiers follow orders but mostly they don't want to let their country, their comrades and most of all themselves down. It takes a special person to be a soldier and I'm glad we still have a special day to remind us of that.

.....and I also happen to think that Birdsong is one of the best books I have ever read. I strongly recommend it;)

Dulce et decorum est propatria mori

Ian,
I've done from Dunkirk down to Verdun and most of the places in between. Including Mons, Hill 60, Mesnes Ridge, Vimy Ridge, Loos, Lens, Sedan, etc. Also D-day beaches and Pegasus Bridge.
If you need some info' let me know.

Next year is the 80th anniverssary of the Battle of the Somme. If I can possibly make it I will be doing a trip there.

It's a 2 hour pad down to the battlefield from Calais.
What about a show of hands; who would do that trip to Lochnegar Crater for 07:30hrs, 1st July 2006?

At that time on that date in 1916 was when the first wave went over. Lochnegar crater is what resulted from one of the mines that the Brits blew at 07:20hrs under the German lines.

I went in 1989, and was standing next to a bloke who I knew I should have recognised, his face was familiar but I couldn't place it. It should have struck me as he was also wearing the VC. It was Grp Capt' Leonard Cheshire!!!

Ains.

I went to the Somme with a load of friends a couple of years back, and it is an amazing place. We visited the Canadian memorial at Vimy and the memorial at Thiepval which is truly awesome, to think its only the missing. Also went to Verdun too.

As for me, my grandfather and his best mate had read in the paper about a war going on in Europe and thought that it sounded like a change from being 16 and living in Argentina, so he told his mother he was going to a basketball game in the next town and got on the first boat to England.

The British army wouldn't take them due to age and nationality, so they joined the Belgian Royal Free and fought through France and into German, liberating Belsen along the way.

He never talked about his experiences, and I'm sure as a teenager in a foreign country fighting a war that he need not have been involved in was a very frightening experience. Unfortunately he died when I was quite young and I only got the full story when my grandmother died a couple of years ago and my father inherited a lot of his passed-down posessions.

My Grandad was the sub-postmaster at Barton-le-Clay in Bedfordshire for many years. All us kids used to call him "Old Stamper" because of the way he used to frank all the letters. He was a gentle old man, and a little henpecked by the time I got to know him. He died when I was 15, but it's only a few years ago that I got to know a different side of him.

He joined up as soon as he was old enough (and may have even lied about his age) to fight in the First World War. He was a 'runner' who's job was literally run with messages and orders down the trenches and through the lines to various officers - other forms of communication were in their infancy and unreliable. It was a dangerous job, enemy snipers knew the importance of breaking the means of communication and the runners were a constant target. But he survived all of that danger until the second battle of Ypres in April 1915 when the Germans used poison gas for the first time (Chlorine, which quickly destroys the repiratory system when inhaled). My grandad got on the edge of one of these attacks and was gassed. He didn't die, but he copped enough of it to be invalided out of the army.

He could've just sat out the war, but once he'd recovered sufficiently he managed to bluff his way through a medical and re-enlisted - just in time to go back to the Somme.

Like many people he was traumatised by the things he saw and experienced the first time he was out there, I can't begin to imagine the sort of bravery it takes to go re-enlist and volunteer to go back to that sort of hell - especially when you've already fought an honourable war and you don't have to go back.

So, I didn't go to a memorial service. I went and rode my bike with my mates instead because people like my Grandad made those sort of sacrifices and many of them gave their lives so that I would have the freedom to do that - Thanks Old Stamper.

[Edited on 14-11-2005 by Jools]

crunchy, that was a nice post. Thanks for going to Kuwait. i have buddies who went as well and I have told them the same. As for Pvt. Ryan, other folks have told me they did not like the movie for various reasons such as the short shrift Brits got, the blood and gore, the stupidity of it all, etc. But I am sure there were similar stories in Juno and Sword, the blood and gore was there for a purpose (graphic telling of the sacrafice our fathers made) and that our move to open a western front helped to topple that madman intent on ruling Europe and perhaps the world. Grunts need to be remembered for all the slogging they have done for us in the past.