Just wanting to know, what will you all be doing this Sunday the 11th November.
Serious question !
I myself have always respected armistice day, the actual 11th.
Just a few seconds of thought at 11 am.
When I lived in the UK I always bought a red poppy.
Can only do it now if I’m there in the UK on the run up to remembrance Sunday.
But this year ? 100 years on ?
Will you take notice? Take a look at archive films? Spare a thought for those that lost their lives?
Here in France there have been untold TV documentaries showing footage of the carnage. There have been all sorts of programmes showing footage of the Somme, Verdun etc. A real eye opener.
I hear that this year they have lit thousands and thousands of candles at the Tower. Nice touch, won’t beat the poppy thing though.
This Sunday here in France, will be a day of remembrance to surpass all others.
I always observe the silence on the 11th and buy a poppy, my granddad and great granddad fought in the wars so take the time to remember them and others.
Here in France there have been untold TV documentaries showing footage of the carnage. There have been all sorts of programmes showing footage of the Somme, Verdun etc. A real eye opener.
I hear that this year they have lit thousands and thousands of candles at the Tower. Nice touch, won’t beat the poppy thing though.
This Sunday here in France, will be a day of remembrance to surpass all others.
I’ve always had my doubts about WW1 and the motivation behind us getting involved in it.Let’s get this right.There’s an argument between Serbia and the Austro Hungarian dictatorship which is very similar to that between Ireland and UK.France decides that its alliance with Russia in that regard is more important than staying well out of it.Churchill decides that it’s better to support France in that regard ( France being the aggressor here not Germany thereby making Belgian neutrality untenable to defend ) than to stay neutral.Then right to the end they all keep on fighting and killing and sending people to their deaths right up to the final minute of the final hour of the final day knowing that the decision had already been made to end it.
WW1 and particularly the Somme are something that I have an interest in, it’s something I like to read about and study the history of. I should’ve been going to Belgium this weekend to Ypres for the last post ceremony at the Menin Gate but other commitments have got in the way.
I was at the ceremony at the Thiepval memorial on Somme a couple of years ago which marked the outbreak of WW1. I was also there a few weeks ago along with visiting Tyne cot cemetery and Ypres for the last post ceremony at the Menin Gate
Couple of photos taken, whilst waiting to load around the Somme, it’s very humbling when we use to load at various locations in picardi(Somme, how many cemeteries there are.
This Sunday I shall do the same as I’ve done every Remembrance Sunday for years; I shall be stood in the market square sporting my poppy and my veterans pin. I will not be wearing my medals or old beret as it’s not about me, it’s about others and I refuse to get into a petty big ■■■■ competition about who has the most medals/.prestigious cap badge etc. I shall take a while to remember and reflect upon fallen brothers and sisters that I knew and even more that I didn’t.
I shall offer no criticism whatsoever on how others choose to remember or even if they choose to ignore the occasion, that is their right and that is the right that others fought and died for.
I remember and support our armed forces every day especially those who CHOOSE to put their lives on the line for us so to have one ‘special’ day makes no sense to me on a personal level
That is remarkably sad for Pte Ellison to be killed so near to the ceasefire. He was a member of the original British Expeditionary Force which went to France in 1914, better known as ‘The Old Contemptibles’, famous for fighting at Mons. By the end of that year they had virtually been wiped out.
ROG:
I remember and support our armed forces every day especially those who CHOOSE to put their lives on the line for us so to have one ‘special’ day makes no sense to me on a personal level
Well said.
Personally I think that respect/rememberance should be built into your everyday life and attitude.
Most public ceremonies are basically self indulgent, people clammering to show that they care more than others, whilst looking down on those who don’t conform.
Also, 100 years has no real significance in nature, just a number in the decimal system we happen to have adopted.
Don’t get me wrong, I have huge respect and awe for these heroes, they were far braver people than me. But there is something odd about being told to show your respect in a particular way at a particular time.
It’s been ramped up in recent years along with the public outpourings of grief at any hint of tragedy. People crying in the street over “celebrities” etc. The standard response on social media of “my thoughts and prayers are with you” is neither a thought nor a prayer but a glib token for public consumption.
My son lost a friend in the Manchester bomb recently. He went to her funeral, the school had a number of seats reserved in the church. I was really quite proud though when he and his friends refused to go to a public memorial in the town centre, awash with candles and teddy bears and selfies. They had a private gathering at a memorial tree they had set up for her where they would regularly meet and remember.
Again, just my opinions and I mean no disrespect to those remembered or those who choose to mark these events for genuine reasons
ROG:
I remember and support our armed forces every day especially those who CHOOSE to put their lives on the line for us so to have one ‘special’ day makes no sense to me on a personal level
Well said.
Personally I think that respect/rememberance should be built into your everyday life and attitude.
Most public ceremonies are basically self indulgent, people clammering to show that they care more than others, whilst looking down on those who don’t conform.
Also, 100 years has no real significance in nature, just a number in the decimal system we happen to have adopted.
Don’t get me wrong, I have huge respect and awe for these heroes, they were far braver people than me. But there is something odd about being told to show your respect in a particular way at a particular time.
It’s been ramped up in recent years along with the public outpourings of grief at any hint of tragedy. People crying in the street over “celebrities” etc. The standard response on social media of “my thoughts and prayers are with you” is neither a thought nor a prayer but a glib token for public consumption.
My son lost a friend in the Manchester bomb recently. He went to her funeral, the school had a number of seats reserved in the church. I was really quite proud though when he and his friends refused to go to a public memorial in the town centre, awash with candles and teddy bears and selfies. They had a private gathering at a memorial tree they had set up for her where they would regularly meet and remember.
Again, just my opinions and I mean no disrespect to those remembered or those who choose to mark these events for genuine reasons
Both the above points are equally valid and reinforce my point that remeberance should be a personal thing and the choice as how to and if to is exactly the reason these people fought and died.
In a local cemetary to where I live “Woodlands Road”, there is this mass grave for the shiphands who perished from two seperate explosions in what these days would be called a “RIDDOR” incident.
The loss of both ship’s complements, along with dock workers, local residents, and members of the public - was staggering at over 1000 lives lost.
The youngest victim is thought to be a young girl of 9, killed by flying debris on the Isle of Grain.
We should not forget those who perished in the war, not from enemy action - but from the very fact that a “war was on”.
Although this site preports to be regarding “Mitcham” district in London, it is quite extensive as a “news in pictures” of the Great War in general - and for fans of “picture-heavy” diaries like we like to read on this very TNUK website - it is well worth a look, even if you don’t live in London.
My Mum’s family come from suburban Surrey, hence my local interest
My Mum’s dad fought at El Alamein, and lived to 82 beyond the war, born 1900.
That is remarkably sad for Pte Ellison to be killed so near to the ceasefire. He was a member of the original British Expeditionary Force which went to France in 1914, better known as ‘The Old Contemptibles’, famous for fighting at Mons. By the end of that year they had virtually been wiped out.
The fact that people were being sent to their deaths ‘after’ the ‘ceasefire’ had been called just adds to my own reservations that WW1 was a big conspiracy to get rid of a surplus of working class people.Who the establishment had no intention of employing in well paid jobs and as a result creating the perception/panic among the class driven establishment of the day that they could potentially turn to revolutionary solutions along Bolshevik lines.
On that note in addition to the obvious pre planned cut off date and time,which I for one believe had been in place long before 05.00 on the morning of the 11/11/18,( probably either to give those behind all this some moral excuse if not just to make sure that they didn’t take out too many of the workforce ),we can also add to that examples of men being ordered to walk slowly into machine gun fire in ordered ranks and the unbelievable excuse given after the inevitable massacre that artillery couldn’t/didn’t manage to take out machine gun emplacements.IE was WW1 actually a deliberate act along the lines of a controlled kull ?.Also bearing in mind that all logic defies any attempt to explain why us and France actually needed to go to war with Germany over the Serbia v Austria argument.The result of the ensuing war always going to end up with a worse situation after it for Europe economically let alone societally than the choice of both us and France at least staying neutral and telling Russia to do one.
i dont have any immediate family who got killed in the wars so ive no emotional issues there.
ive been all over france and seen lots of those similar graveyard memorials covered in crosses which hardly compares to the amount that actually died.
i can only imagine how brave some guys must have been from films and documantaries and the ridiculous conditions they had to endure,so on sunday il do as i usually do and make a point of imagining/remembering though at the same time in recent years i always remember the guy in an english prison when at 11-00 stood up and took away the pool balls from the taliban who wouldnt stop playing pool during the silence and think,good for you mate whoever you are considering the officers wouldnt intervene.
An interesting point about sailors in WW1, suprisingly I found out many where killed on the Somme battlefield, became once the troops had landed the sailors where drafted in as additional labour bringing supplies and ammunition to the frontline. So if you visit the commonwealth war grave sites you frequently seem names of some, and their rank listed as “Stoker”.
There’s also a German cemetery on the Somme at Fricourt, where the graves of the dead are marked with black crosses imgur.com/gallery/thZq2hF
idrive:
Most public ceremonies are basically self indulgent, people clammering to show that they care more than others, whilst looking down on those who don’t conform.
Don’t get me wrong, I have huge respect and awe for these heroes, they were far braver people than me. But there is something odd about being told to show your respect in a particular way at a particular time.
It’s often easy to view it from the point of view of later generations only knowing a professional forces.It all gets less clear cut when it’s wars based on conscription.The reality was they got their call up papers and had to go whether they wanted to or not and even though in most cases they were understandably as scared as anyone else.In many cases the wish to forget the horror afterwards often being stronger than wanting to remember it all and in many cases not being that keen on the militaristic glorification of the cenotaph parades as part of that.On that note I do know that my Father liked to watch the proceedings on the tv but had no inclination to want to go to it in person and even wearing a poppy or not never being a big thing for us often bought and then just left on the shelf at home.He also luckily advised me against joining the forces when I wrongly thought that it might be a good stepping stone into the road transport industry as a driver and more likely would have ended up facing a pointless end on the streets of Ireland.Just as he was happy to be demobbed after the war while in Austria rather than be shipped to Palestine like many others around him at the time and then again luckily avoided the call up for the Korean fiasco while working in a reserved occupation at that time.All of which taught me that there is no glory in or anything glorious about dying in war.
That is remarkably sad for Pte Ellison to be killed so near to the ceasefire. He was a member of the original British Expeditionary Force which went to France in 1914, better known as ‘The Old Contemptibles’, famous for fighting at Mons. By the end of that year they had virtually been wiped out.
The fact that people were being sent to their deaths ‘after’ the ‘ceasefire’ had been called just adds to my own reservations that WW1 was a big conspiracy to get rid of a surplus of working class people.Who the establishment had no intention of employing in well paid jobs and as a result creating the perception/panic among the class driven establishment of the day that they could potentially turn to revolutionary solutions along Bolshevik lines.
On that note in addition to the obvious pre planned cut off date and time,which I for one believe had been in place long before 05.00 on the morning of the 11/11/18,( probably either to give those behind all this some moral excuse if not just to make sure that they didn’t take out too many of the workforce ),we can also add to that examples of men being ordered to walk slowly into machine gun fire in ordered ranks and the unbelievable excuse given after the inevitable massacre that artillery couldn’t/didn’t manage to take out machine gun emplacements.IE was WW1 actually a deliberate act along the lines of a controlled kull ?.Also bearing in mind that all logic defies any attempt to explain why us and France actually needed to go to war with Germany over the Serbia v Austria argument.The result of the ensuing war always going to end up with a worse situation after it for Europe economically let alone societally than the choice of both us and France at least staying neutral and telling Russia to do one.
You need to cut down on the wacky backy. Think everything you’ve written here is a ■■■■■■■ disgrace. You sit here spouting your ■■■■ on here, being able to because if the ultimate sacrifice paid by so many brave service personnel.
If you can’t say anything nice, do us all a favour and shut the ■■■■ up. Bell end!
Carryfast:
The fact that people were being sent to their deaths ‘after’ the ‘ceasefire’ had been called just adds to my own reservations that WW1 was a big conspiracy to get rid of a surplus of working class people…
Couple of photos taken, whilst waiting to load around the Somme, it’s very humbling when we use to load at various locations in picardi(Somme, how many cemeteries there are.
