1 minute

[wheelinround]

It just takes 1 minute of silence To reflect on those who gave the greatest sacrifice.
Today if its all you do "Remember Them"

[rat52]

Every year I play "The Moods Of Ginger Mick" by C.J. Dennis and read a copy that was my great uncles in ww1 and reflect on the futility of war.

[Chesand]

Wheeling

You have put it very eloquently.

Lest we Forget

[Greg Ward]

We live in a world of politics, emotion and instant media coverage.
The past was different, many do not understand what a disaster of tactics and devastation of human beings the western front turned into.

I guess it is great we mourn and the loss of even a single soldier today, but our outpourings of grief are disproportionate to the realiities of the past.

Our understanding of war is poor, it is part of human behaviour, whether it can become only a feature of history I very much doubt, but in this war so many died unnecessarily and we should remember them.

Lest we Forget

Greg

[Chesand]

I agree with you Greg.

Having been to Dacau and Auschwitz and more recently Gallipoli, the futility of war becomes even more clear but I doubt that we will ever really learn.

[crowie]

The Ode which I have solemly said so many times is a lot more than I realised.
I found this website today.
The Ode

FOR THE FALLEN

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea,
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

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.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again,
They sit no more at familiar tables of home,
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime,
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires and hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the night.

As the stars shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are stary in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Thank you to both my grandfathers who fought & came home

[rrobor]

Can we learn that war is futile when we glorify the past stupidities?
Galipoli was one of the biggest cock ups war ever created , men were sent to be cannon fodder.
What in Gods name is the glory in that.
I can see the terror, I can feel the pity for the widows and orphans. I can even see heroism in the actions there, but glory? Get real, it was just some hideous nightmare. Why do we have to create something great out of something horrific.
The men who survived that needed something to glue them together
. But that is past now, even the folly of Vietnam has its victims nearing dotage. So lets not glorify war, all it is is an unhygienic slaughterhouse. And I believe a way nature has created for man to control population.

[Sturdee]

Of course war is stupid and futile, Gallipoli was a great disaster, the Vietnam war was a folly that was unwinnable and a disaster and so is Afghanistan.

But Remembrance day and Anzac day doesn't glorify war but remembers the sacrifices made to ensure and preserve our freedom.

Freedom is not free, we have to pay the price for that freedom and when our diggers give their lives for our freedom we ought to remember them. That is not glorifying war but acknowledging the sacrifice they paid for our freedom.

As someone that was born under the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during WW2 I appreciate their sacrifices so I could be free even more than those that haven't experienced such occupation. So whilst I was in my workshop today I stopped at 11.00 am and remembered.

Lest we forget.


Peter.

[Ashore]

Well said peter
Unfortunately some simply look back with todays eyes and have no idea of what the world or life was like.
Rememberance day and Anzac day don't glorify war they are days to remember those who served to maintain our freedoms.
I find those who look back and judge the actions of others 90 years ago as fools ,
I wasn't there then nor did I have an understanding of their mindset , however there are others here that make comments and judge history not on the fact that we are alive today and able to have the freedoms we have, but on their ability to use such freedoms to google the past and from there make judgements.

Lest we forget

[rrobor]

I think Ashore is a little unfair. I believe we should always remember history, but lets look at reality.
WW1 was faught by generals and the like unsuited for the position. Not my view, just the view of Winston Churchill. Thes guys were second sons of lords and the like and daddy paid for their commission. It was the likes of that that got it wrong and instesd of a flat beach, the Anzacs landed below cliffs. Remember the horror by all means, and learn from it. But take off the rose tinted glasses.
My Uncle Tom was wounded in the trenches in WW1. When he died he wanted to be cremated, Why ?
His answer was that the stench of death there never left him. He did not want his remains to stink like that.