The War

[Mice!]

51 minutes ago, grrclark said:

I understand where you’re coming from and I think your post has been unkindly misinterpreted and perhaps worded unsympathetically.

Your generation, or mine, don’t need reminding hence it seems OTT, but those younger do and for that reason the more reminders the better.

I know what your saying, one of my Grandad's hardly ever mentioned the war or what he witnessed and I can understand that.

But for those of us that have never had to experience it i feel remembering is the least we can do.

[Ultrastu]

My grandad was a desert rat in north Africa. I grew up on his stories .

We must never forget the sacrifices made .  I often think all the craziness in the world at the moment would be instantly forgotten when the harsh reality of war takes its  bite. ( veganism for example would be a forgotten  word ) 

[MirokuMK70]

I can see where you're coming from... i have a deep appreciation for the sacrifices of our forebears and a massive interest in military history. But this constant anniversaries of d day thing is starting to grate. Why not other campaigns and dates- anzio, monte cassino, the dieppe landings, kohima etc? You would think 6 june 44 was the only day anybody paid the price for freedom. I think its mainly down to lazy and ignorant journalism as d day is the only ww2 they've heard of. D day itself wasn't even that costly apart for the yanks at omaha. The later normandy campaign was particularly  grim but we wont be hearing about the anniversary of operation Goodwood in july will we...

[team tractor]

I love any stories I can hear off anyone and  think in one way you could be right as in each year it seems to be a special year 70th,71st etc and I know my mum who’s 65 hates anything to do with it.

my dad won’t talk about it as it upsets him but my uncle in his 80’s will watch films with me all day . He told me about being a young lad watching watching the spitfires shooting a bomber over his garden.

i love all the programs and I’m looking forward to the guy Martin special on Sunday. 

I used to love sitting with my grandad talking about it and watching band of brothers. I asked him so many questions 

my grandad in the picture , Egypt 1946 

Edited May 29, 2019 by team tractor

[Wb123]

Until I moved away I perhaps could have agreed. There is something unsettling though about not seeing a war memorial in the centre of every village, and no pillboxes or fortifications gently hidden in the countryside. Now when I do get home I find I think of those who died for our freedom more than ever. 

 

I rode a motorcycle up the east coast of the country to the orkneys once, there comes a point north of Inverness where all the old defences are still clear to see, and each village has a memorial for more people than live there now or possibly ever will do and the magnitude of sacrifice becomes clearer than I had ever previously appreciated. Then you visit Dublin and see how they hide that part of history...

 

I spend enough of my professional time dealing with those who only just made it out of Afghanistan and Iraq that perhaps it feels closer to home that all out war was just a few miles from our islands, but I do feel we should all take time to remember those who gave their lives to keep it the other side of the channel. 

Edited May 29, 2019 by Wb123

[Rookandrabbit]

2 hours ago, figgy said:

What they gave is debt that can never be repaid.

The least we can do is remember them.

 

Figgy you put into words exactly how I feel about our veterans. My dad was on D day landed on Juno with the Canadians.Went through Caen, three times pushed back twice, Falaise Gap, Belgium and then Holland where he was wounded. He never spoke about what he did or saw to me  until the last week of his life. Putting things into order I guess. My Uncle was in North Africa, Sicily and Arnhem he would happily speak about his experiences of seeing action being wounded and being taken as a prisoner of war. I never met my grandfathers but they were in WW1. What I think is that people are different we reflect and remember in different ways. BUT WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET, the service of our armed forces, ordinary people who do extraordinary things on our behalf to grant us the freedoms we have today! If you think this is melodramatic please read the citations in the London Gazette a lot were awarded posthumously.

[blackbird]

3 hours ago, figgy said:

What they gave is debt that can never be repaid.

The least we can do is remember them.

 

 

2 hours ago, mel b3 said:

This post says it all for me.

+1 

[AULD YIN]

Be good if they also had a day for the D Day Dodgers, my faither was one of them and i am bloody proud  of him.

[bruno22rf]

1 day a year is enough to thank the millions of victims of wars who perished so that you have the freedom to decide how much gratitude you owe them ? - your very life is a direct result of their selfless deeds and honourable actions. I HOPE YOU FIND YOUR PODIUM A VERY LONELY PLACE.

[la bala]

In WW1 my uncle was badly gassed but survived a few years. In WW2  we were lucky and lost no one but I will remember the poor souls who didnt return. Remembrance is for those wishing to remember, each to their own i guess. I will be remembering next Tuesday and will feel humbled being there, and plus my Grandson is 2 Para.

[Retsdon]

Dulce bellum inexpertis.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

4 hours ago, Retsdon said:

Dulce bellum inexpertis.

Not sure that quote is really very pertinent in this situation.

[Old Boggy]

12 hours ago, madmax666 said:

Is it only me who is fed up with remembering the war...75th D day landings shortly.  I am over 60yrs old I have lived the 2 world wars through television and war films all this time .  My father served in WW2 through Africa and Italy and my grandfather WW1 in France  they were quite happy to forget what they did and saw ...is it me...when is enough enough the 200th anniversary .

MM.

By consensus of opinion, it is only you on this forum.

We should never ever forget the ultimate sacrifices made by so many on our behalf.

OB

[old man]

11 hours ago, strimmer_13 said:

I think the problem is nowadays is there are days for all kinds of ****. It's lost its importance the ones we shouldnt forget as we get the others shoved down our throat via media 

 

👍

[henry d]

11 hours ago, madmax666 said:

I think war is a horrible thing to watch with old war footage we saw what happened, and what my father told me about the things he had to see and endure didnt sit right with me.  Yes it had to be done yes they were all brave people and some never returned which is a shame, but I think once a year for remembering is enough other wise it get too much.

MM

Yes it is a terrible thing, absolutely horrid. I have been through it and have friends who were badly affected by it but they need a method of dealing with the trauma and remembrance can help if it is done with others who went through it. I'll be at the cenotaph for remembrance Sunday until 2022, and that's it for me I think.

[toontastic]

A few years ago while appearing on x-factor the boy band one direction wore poppies, shortly after social media exploded. Fans all asking the same question why are they wearing them silly little red flowers. Some replies said it was an ill advised fashion statement while others thought they wore them because red is the colour of x-factor.

If anyone needs a reason as to why we need to keep remembering and reminding people of events then I think this is a good enough reason.

Edited May 30, 2019 by toontastic

[TIGHTCHOKE]

2 minutes ago, toontastic said:

A few years ago while appearing on x-factor the boy band one direction wore poppies, shortly after social media exploded. Fans all asking the same question why are they wearing them silly little red flowers. Some replies said it was an ill advised fashion statement while others thought they wore them because red is the colour of x-factor.

If anyone needs a reason as to why we need to keep remembering then I think this is a good enough reason.

Well that certainly brings home the need to educate people and remember the sacrifices of so many.

[pigeon controller]

It not just WW1 and 2, we have lost brave soldiers in the forgotten war Korea, Falkland, plus the various Middle East conflicts. We have also lost people who operate covertly without any glorification. 

All these people have given there lives to allow us to follow our pastimes in a free country, to put our comments on an open forum without the feared knock on the door and the youth of today to say and do as they want.

We should never  forget that sacrifice and should always inform the next generation so it never happens again. With the current population I hope they never have to go to war as a country because I believe we would fine ourselves wanting. 

[marsh man]

When I was a young schoolboy my grandfather had a drawer full of medals from the different conflicts he had been in , very rarely did he mention what he saw and what he had been through and we put it down that he had forgotten about it and was just trying to get back to normal as times were still hard.

Now I am past the three score year and ten mark I can still remember my times at school with all the good and bad times we have had from a very early age , and I now realize  my poor old grandfather could easily have remembered what he had gone through but didn't want to talk about it as it would have brought back all the upsetting images .

I was lucky in a way as just after I came out of the R N the Falklands conflict started and several people from the different forces were either killed or injured , so yes , I will always remember and I still wear my poppy with pride . 

[WestonSalop]

The saying "...that history repeats itself" is incredibly true.  There are industrialists in the U.S. who's livelihood depends on the perpetuation of war and they are an extremely powerful lobby. Unless we do everything we can to educate upcoming generations, the fear of what really happens in a war will dissipate and eventually, go away. Then it becomes all too easy for governments/industrialists to get us involved in all kinds of carp that we have no legitimate interest in.

My father emigrated to the UK in 1946 after being liberated late in the war from a labour camp in Germany. He was Polish. At the outbreak of war, the Germans entered his village, rounded up those obviously capable of work and machine-gunned the rest, including my grandfather, in plain sight of their families. My dad barely spoke about the war but it was clear that he was badly affected by what he saw.

So two things. 1. NEVER forget those that sacrificed for you and me, their lives, limbs, mental health etc. 2. Make sure that ALL future generations are educated in a balanced fashion, about the horrors of war and the threats that fascists/communists and other extremists pose to our freedoms and what our forebears sacrificed for us.

[Blackbriar]

My youngest stepson has been researching his family tree for a year or so.

He discovered that his great great uncle, Alexander Percival ******, was killed at Mons, when he left his trench to throw a grenade back. It exploded and he died instantly. He was mentioned in dispatches, and the lad even found a local newspaper article about him.

When his son was born this January, he and his wife decided to give  him the Christian names Alexander John Percival.

When that boy grows up and asks how he got his name.........

Edited May 30, 2019 by Blackbriar

[armsid]

weston salop agree with you more should be done to educate people. this may be the last chance for any ww2 survivors to honour their comrades so it is important that we remember , i watched bruce crompton on combat dealers who paid avisit to the war cemetery in normandy .he saw a lady of 80 tending a grave for a serviceman killed in action. he asked why was she doing this for someone she never met because he helped free us from german occupation and gave his life for us was the reply and i have looked after the grave since i was 11 yrs old that would not happen with all our snowflakes around        LEST WE FORGET

[Vince Green]

Go to any small village in any rural location like Norfolk, Warwickshire etc and just count the names on the village  war memorial. Then reflect on how small those villages were back then and the effect the loss of all those fine young men would have had.

My OH gets a bit impatient with me because I never go past a war memorial and often stop the car to read them. Everyone should do it, so many names, it is truly sobering

Not just lest we forget, more like lest we fail to reflect, every name a son, a brother, a husband or a father    

Edited May 30, 2019 by Vince Green

[Pistol p]

“When you go home, tell them of us and say, For your tomorrow, We gave our today”.

 John Maxwell Edmunds 1916.

 You mate are an ungrateful twit. With an “a”.

[dabbers]

if remembrance stops,then denial creeps in ,its happening just now,,we cannot allow world wars or war to happen again,,and for respect for those who died and suffered ,we have to make sure each generation knows what happened,,one day as you say it will pass into history ,but not for some years ,its still fresh ,,