Lest We Forget

[Arthur]

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

[Polly]

Yes, war casts a long shadow.

[ExSurveyor]

A long shadow indeed,

I remember my Dad who was a Royal Marine, he signed up at 15 after lying about his age, crying every Remembrance Sunday for his fallen comrades. He never spoke about his 30 years service.

When he died we found his medals, what a story they told.

The Burma Star with clasp, The Atlantic Medal, The Pacific Medal, Suez Medal, Aden Medal, 1939 to 1945 War Medal and two Good Conduct Medals.

But to me he was just my Dad.

[ranworthbreeze]

Many proud men never spoke of their experience during their wartime service or the horrors they saw around them.

Sadly their numbers are getting smaller as the years go by and they will be missed by all of us who knew them.

Regards

Alan

[retired]

"How to Die"

Dark clouds are smouldering into red

  While down the craters morning burns.

The dying soldier shifts his head

  To watch the glory that returns;

He lifts his fingers toward the skies

  Where holy brightness breaks in flame;

Radiance reflected in his eyes,

  And on his lips a whispered name.

You'd think, to hear some people talk,

  That lads go West with sobs and curses,

And sullen faces white as chalk,

  Hankering for wreaths and tombs and hearses.

But they've been taught the way to do it

  Like Christian soldiers; not with haste

And shuddering groans; but passing through it

  With due regard for decent taste.

[donnygeoff]

My Grandad and his plane have still not been found.

 

He was a navigator or bomber on a Wellington......

 

When on the way back from a mission the plane developed problems, the pilot gave the crew the option to bale out or stay with him to try and get back.....

 

They all decided to stay and not desert the pilot.......

[Polly]

My grandad did tell me about the WW1 trenches. Grandma objected, but he said people needed to know, 'because it should never happen again.' That generation went through hell..

[deebee29]

My Grandad also lied about his age to join up for ww1, he was also at Dunkirk being one of the lucky ones who came home and lived to a ripe old age of 95. He never forgot his pals who weren't so lucky. He used to tell us when we were young about some of his times in the army but there is so much he would never talk about

We must never forget what that generation went though so we can live the way we do today.

David

[BroadScot]

I am one of the "lucky" ones, my father was too young for WW1 and in both wars, was in a reserved occupation. However, I had two uncles who were blown out of the water, one twice the other once. One in the Royal Navy the other Merchant Navy. They never talked about it though. My old GP had been a MO on HMS HOOD, but was transferred to a destroyer for a suspected case of small pox. The Hood went out then, and never returned. 

 

Years later I was working at his bungalow, as you walked in the front door at the end of the hall was a oil painting of HMS HOOD. I am sure there are many stories like this, and for many the pain will never go away. This time of year must be very poignant to so many.

 

Iain.

[Beano]

I lost two uncle's in ww2both submarine's one on leave gave me my first ever banana the other my first ever bar of chocolate that's war for you

[Polly]

All of my Dad's friends went together to volunteer for the Navy. He was refused on the basis of psoriasis reducing his fitness rating from A1. They all died except him.

[Labrador]

Jon Pertwee was on HMS Hood,I can't remember why, but he was not on the last fatefull voyage. Aren't we lucky that he wasn't!

I'm encouraged that more young people are becoming aware of the sacrifice made by our armed forces.Maybe due to the very recent (pointless?) losses in Afganistan.

[CooWee]

My dad was in the Guards Armoured Division and drove a Churchill Tank, again he said very little about his experiences.  I, as a little boy, remember asking him what was the best gun and another time asked him what was the worst fighting to which he answered with, a faraway look, that German eighty-eights were a wonderful, I think that was the word.  The worst fighting, street fighting.  There was a time when he looked into a knocked out tank, they were ordered not to, he never did it again; that little snippet came from mum.

 

He also went to Korea where for his pains he caught TB, tricky in those days and he spent two years on his back.  During the course of this illness my parents asked a Labour Council for a council house we were refused, a grateful country indeed.

 

I get Labrador's point Dave and he did put a question mark after writing pointless and I think I understand you, no soldier's life is pointless, but if the Taliban take back all the land they were ousted from then the whole war and consequently the soldier's sacrifice would have been pointless?

 

My son wanted to be a Marine and I think he would have made a good Marine Officer, I also knew if I said no he would have signed up the following day so I just asked him to read the newspaper and look how badly they are being equipped. Remember the sergeant who got killed having lent his flack jacket to someone because there were weren't enough of them and then there were the ****** Land Rovers.  Personally I do not think the politicians are worth a bruise.

 

Anyway to all the armed forces a very inadequate thank you from me for all your sacrifices.  Thank you.

[Arthur]

Thanks to all who have replied on this thread.  Many with personal memories.

 

I have strong opinions with regard to politics etc but I am not going to speak of that here.

 

My original post was a simple acknowledgment of the fact it was Armistice day.    The anniversary of the end of the Great War of 1914 -1918.    The so called  "War to end all wars".

 

My Grandfather served with the East Kent Regiment during the 1st World War and was one of the lucky ones to have survived the Somme.

 

Over a million men died in that battle alone.

 

Like many of his generation he never spoke of it and it was not until after he died that I ever knew anything of his military service.

 

There can have been very few families that were not affected in some way by war.

 

Even in my own generation. 

 

When I started school I still had a grandfather.   A number of children in the class never knew their Grandfathers because they  had been lost in the 2nd word war.

 

I echo  Kieth's comments of thanks and can say  truthfully.

 

 

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

[MauriceMynah]

I know what you mean Dave, but especially at this time of the year feelings run high and sometimes things are written where the authors intent isn't made clear.

in many ways "Pointless" and "Senseless" can be synonyms, where in others they are not.

It might be reasonable to say that all deaths in war are senseless, in that war in itself is senseless. some might use the word "pointless" instead and arguably rightly so. However, nobody is saying that the sacrifices made were either pointless or senseless. Please don't let the thread disappear into the void of semantics.

 

As far as historians "re-writing history" In some cases I believe you to be absolutely right, in others less so.

 

There is a danger that many people will start to believe Hollywood's version of events unless the historians keep us on the right track. I cite Shakespeare's Richard III  as both a parallel and as evidence.

 

Many believe Richard III to have been an evil hunchback who charged around battlefields looking for horses. This is untrue in every detail. It takes historians to correct us  on these points.

 

The Cinema would have us believe that Douglas Bader was an amiable fellow liked by everyone he met.

Also untrue, he was not a pleasant man, far from it! BUT... if you were looking for a man who had guts and wasn't afraid of doing very nasty things to Messerschmidts  irrespective of being hugely outnumbered and the appalling odds against survival, he was the best. ( I wish I'd chosen "Fokkers" so much easier to spell!)

 

Facts may not be pleasant but best we know them eh?

 

If you have examples of historians re-writing history, I'd love to be aware of them. I have suspicions of some but few I  am sure of.

 

Back on thread subject, I think this year has done much to put the sacrifices made, to the forefront of most peoples minds, I think the same will happen, perhaps even to a greater extent, in 2018. There will be unpleasant truths brought to light between now and then, but even if those truths are massive, they are but nothing when compared with the sacrifice of a single soldier.