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Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring 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.
One Hundred Years Today. UNIMAGINABLE. RIP today of all days .
thoughts and prayers to all sides and the lost loved ones.
[Post edited 4 Aug 2014 9:16]
" I guess in four or five years, the new generation's music will be .. electronics, tapes. I can kind of envision .. maybe one person .. with a lot of machines, tapes, and electronics setups, singin or speaking .. and using machines " James Douglas Morrison | 1969
Recently read a book of poetry from WW1 combatants. Many were very moving. It was sad to know that some of these poems were the last things that some ever penned.
Both my grandads fought in that war. My old mans dad was a regular soldier and was one of the 'Old Contemptibles' who was in the army long before WW1 broke out. Story has it he ran away from home after 'an incident' with his father at work on a coal cart. He went to join the navy but changed his mind and joined the army instead. He fought in the the first campaign, the Battle of Mons. He saw action at Ypres, the Somme, Paschendale and Ireland. He was wounded twice and was a crack sniper. My mums dad was an army medic who fought on the Eastern Front and the desert against the Turks.
For those who have never visited the vast WW1 war graves in Belgium, they should do even if it is for just once in their life.They really make you reflect and think.
My Stepdaughter recently went on a School trip to Belguim to see the Graves it certainly opened her eyes to the sacrifice those brave lads gave very proud that she has embraced this subject so much that she wants to become a historian on the matter
Monahoop- great story re your granddads that's some feat to get through Ypes, the Somme & Passchendaele my GreatGrandad fought at the battle of Loos, I wouldn't like to think what he went through, god bless them all
And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
100 Years today, a few men with too much power started a disastrous chain of events that led to unimaginable horror and a mass loss of young lives.
There must be loads of us who can trace a relative back to the Great War. My Great Grandfather lost his life at the Somme aged 24 leaving behind a wife and 2 young children. My Dad went over a few years back to visit his grave. Said it was the most incredible site he’d ever witnessed for a number of reasons.
Lights out tonight at 22:00 to 23:00, I will be paying my respects those poor souls who were led like lambs to the slaughter by their so called leaders. We Will Remember Them.
Makes you laugh that our National football team were dubbed the "golden generation " well the Hundreds of thousands who lost their lives for our country in that war and the 2nd world war they were the Golden Generation a Generation that were Brave, Patriotic, & unselfish we will never see their like again
And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
I went to the battlefields on a school trip when I was 15. The most horrible thing for me - the German graveyards. They were as much victims of their leaders as the allied soldiers (see: Verdun) but their dead are treated disgracefully. Saw one graveyard where they weren't allowed to have upright headstones, just slabs on the ground and they were all mass graves with 10-15 and even up to 30 stuffed in them
The small villages of Rousdon and Combpyne will remember the names of the 13 men who gave their lives in that war. A service of remembrance around the monument on the green and various other events all day to raise money for The British Legion. Today, let us remember all nationalities who lost their lives in the Great War (1914-1918) Rest in Peace
Funnily enough my Stepdaughter said the exact same thing Robith Terrible & quite sad, makes you think of the thousands still out in those fields
And Bowles is onside, Swinburne has come rushing out of his goal , what can Bowles do here , onto the left foot no, on to the right foot
That’s there that’s two, and that’s Bowles
Brian Moore
there was a piece on the radio today about that very subject and how the german dead are remembered in a converse way to our soldiers, graves unattended etc etc. .
i had no idea.
" I guess in four or five years, the new generation's music will be .. electronics, tapes. I can kind of envision .. maybe one person .. with a lot of machines, tapes, and electronics setups, singin or speaking .. and using machines " James Douglas Morrison | 1969
There are people still being killed or injured on the old battle field sites through coming into contact with unexploded and unstable bombs from that time. And you're right, many old combatants were never found, but now and then remains of soldiers are unearthed and identities discovered. Frightening really after so many years.
One of my grandfathers was Irish and he was actually too old for WW1 which is, in the scheme of things, a bit weird in itself, as he'd be about 140 by now. Tripped over from Co Clare to volunteer and he was told 'too old mate' - so he became a PE instructor instead. Just as well really as I probably wouldn't be here otherwise! Dad's side were army boys but out in India mainly I think at that time, so probably kept out of it that way.
For an interesting football related WW1 story, try googling the Leyton Orient historian's account of how the Orient players all signed up and got cheered off in their last game as they left for war. A few years back, Orient fans organised a few coaches and visited the graves of the players who died in France.
The reason I know this is that I took my kids to my father's uncle's grave a few years back. They were very moved and, as someone said above, I think it is something that most children would benefit from.
One of the Orient players was in the same cemetery (a small cemetery as it happens because it was one from 1918 when the front had moved substantially - my father's uncle died in the very last week of the war) which is how I stumbled across the Orient story. If you can find the article it's a good read, it could apply to almost any football club of the time.
Most of those graves are of young lads who did not have kids and do not, therefore, have descendants. Consequently, many have never been visited by anyone as most people didn't have the resources to travel to France until modern times. My father tracked down his uncle's grave (whom he'd never met) in the 1980s and was the first relative to ever visit it.
Just outside Le Touquet in Etaples is a very large WW1 cemetery, one of the biggest in France. Buried there are not just soldiers from the UK but across the Commonwealth, Muslim and Sikh (although not buried, just their headstones to remember them) as well as Christian, and German as well as British. I've often wondered how it was that the cemeteries survived another war, and maybe that's one of the answers; the German soldiers stationed in Northern France saw the way the Allies had taken care of the German graves and respected that.
When you visit the graves and the battle sites, you realise how stupid the whole thing was - fighting over a few muddy fields. And, on Vimy Ridge, the trenches are closer than the distance from a halfway line to a goalmouth - which really shocked me
If you think they are close at Vimy (which they are of course), visit Chemin des Dames or the forts at Verdun.
At Chemin des Dames the front line was underground in tunnels and they built walls a few yards from each other, blocking the tunnels bar a space at the top to lob things over and shoot from. The tunnels were basically pre-war mines under a ridge (not deep) so needed to be defended so that neither side could get behind each other's lines.
Similarly, at one of the Verdun forts, the Germans partially took it and the two sides occupied part each with walls built in the corridor to shoot over.
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.
Cherish and enjoy life.... this ain't no dress rehearsal
That's such a well-known poem that it's hard to get back into the true meaning. I find it very profound; if you lose someone, you miss them all the time, from the morning when they don't wake up to the evening when they are not there with you; and they aways stay the same age while you get older. Especially bitter if they died at the start of their adult lives, at the height of their physical powers but never having gone on to achieve al that they could have.
I drove through Westminster tonight, strange seeing parliament in complete darkness. The beam of light was incredible, actually lit up the clouds above. I drove past where it was positioned, in the victoria tower gardens. It seemed to be about 50 or so lights all pointing upwards together to form one beam. Could be seen all over london.
One of the saddest things I've seen recently was when a couple of weeks ago I went over to visit a park near where I live in Hillingdon where they'd planted an area of poppies as a memorial to the First World War dead. I'd seen the splash of colour through the trees from the road and strolled over to Ickenham for a closer look. On arrival there I was shocked to find that about half the area of poppies that had been planted had been trampled down into the ground. I felt angered and saddened in equal measure and it left me with a feeling of bitterness towards those who could carry out such an act. It is re-assuring after that to read this thread and be made aware of the great respect which so many of my fellow posters have for those who sacrificed their lives 100 years ago.
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