They where a dirrerent breed of people back then to the people of today. May they always be remembered for all they and their famillies endured and sacrificed.
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They where a dirrerent breed of people back then to the people of today. May they always be remembered for all they and their famillies endured and sacrificed.
Here is a great site [1] to flip through when you get some free time ...
[1] The Memory Project
About
Anybody know of any sites that contain information such as this for other veterans from the other countries that were involved ??Quote:
The Memory Project Archive, an on line database that houses the oral histories and artifacts of more than 350 Canadian veterans, complements the Speakers’ Bureau.
B.T.W. thanks jinxy for providing that link....
In the weekend newspaper there was a big spread about the survivors of WW1. Out of the 6 million Brits who fought and died only 9 are left. All well over 100 including Britains oldest man at 109.
Quite scary that only 9 are left and that it's quite likely that in a few years all the WW1 vets will be gone.
Quote:
Wilfred Owen
Dulce Et Decorum Est
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Quote:
Anthem for Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
-Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
I've never been one for poetry but WW1 war poems always stuck in my mind from school.
Must have been hell on earth.
Well if you're interested ... THIS SITE has some great info and is very tourough. Lots of pictures and links to some trench-art and poetry from that time.It's worth checking out in my opinion, I learned quite a bit.Quote:
Anybody know of any sites that contain information such as this for other veterans from the other countries that were involved ??
C.
For those who would like to have a better knowledge on the causes of the first world war and its chronology here is a fairly good site .. soruce
Other than that i join with everyone else in silence.
I think it was in 1985, I was volunteered to be on parade for rememberance day, and thinking what a sh**ty day, here we were all lined up downtown waiting for the dignitaries to get sorted out, and the cops in place for traffic control. I was wandering why we were doing this particular route, when someone informed us, that we would be passing the memorial for the men who went and served in the Boer War, and that we were accompanying the last known survivor for that war.
I am a small time History Buff, so I was definatley impressed when this gentleman showed up, you do the math, the war was from 1899 to 1902, so here it is 1985 and this guy must have been pushing 100.
So to expand on what Aspman is saying, not only are the ranks for the WWI's getting pretty thin but so is the veterans of WWII, sad to say but in about 15yrs there may not be anyone left from the last big one WWII.
I will miss sitting in the legions and listening to the veterans, who have some really good stories as well as the nightmare ones, and who only want to be heard and listened to as well as appreciated. :)
I remember a Mr Bailey, Volunteered in 1914, he survived the Somme, amongst other battles,
yet the reason he caused eyebrows to be raised was that he ran off with his secretary in the 50's [do the math] :) He kept a diary, he wrote in extremely small perfectly formed copperplate, he lived to be well into his 90's, he was a daily visitor, with his [2nd] wife, to the local pub right until the day he died. he was always at the forefront on rememberance day, He never said anything about his experiences in WWI, never complain, never explain. He was a strangely comforting person to be around, the world will never see the likes of the "Mr Bailey's" again.
And no, he was not a relative, just someone I knew, a family friend, the reason I wear my poppy with pride.
Dalek has tripped my memory. I did a few Rememberance Day parades when I was a cadet. The last yesr I did it I was an escort to the flag. All blanco'd gloves and belt, up the night before polishing brass and shoes. It was a big thing to me (I'd have been 16/17 I suppose). It's something else to be getting your orders from a professional Sergent Major then marching at the head of a parade.
There is quite a big turnout in our town even though it's quite small. Most people are still pretty respectful on the 11th.
11/11
OK rever the guys who fought in wwII. No problem. But WWI??? a war of colinization, a war of agressor vs agressor/???? what fredoms did they protect, our freedom to opress third world nations?
Where the soliders brave, yes. But lets not pretend that they died protecting freedom they died protecting the colonial assets of their homeland