11.11.11

[safercigs]

On the 11th of November, please take 2 mins to remember, our servicemen and women who went to war, those who fell and those who were sent back for more! Lest we forget the reasons why, these couragous people put their life on the line. It was simply to make the world a better place and let you grow old with a smile on your face! If you have a poppy, wear it with pride, to show your respect for the people who died!

[jerryrm]

Absolutely, Daz, it's a holiday here, we call it "Veterans' Day".

[Gordy]

it would be nice to make it a holiday here too ...not because i want an extra day off work but to give it greater recognition

[jerryrm]

It's not a full holiday, Gordy, just government employees have the day off. It's mostly a holiday in recognition of the veterans.

[Scylla]

My brother has been researching our family tree (no aristocracy to be found, he can't be trying very hard ) and trying to find my great uncle Gilbert's WWI record - he was invalided out on the Western Front and was left with a dreadful limp and very bad chest all his life. It didn't stop him smoking his rollies though, and being the most good-natured man you could meet. Anyway, bro can't find another thing about where he was or what happened to him.

My maternal grandad, who died before I was born, was recruited on the strength of his tin mining history to dig the tunnels that explosives were put in to blow up the hun from underneath

(I don't know if WWI Germans were called "hun", never mind )

scylla

[nicky]

I always feel very sad today, come 11.11am i will be in work which is right by our town hall so i can see the ceremonies taking place and it always brings a tear to my eye.

[Sandra (aka Chillax)]

Nov 11, 2011 0:38:03 GMT safercigs said:

On the 11th of November, please take 2 mins to remember, our servicemen and women who went to war, those who fell and those who were sent back for more! Lest we forget the reasons why, these couragous people put their life on the line. It was simply to make the world a better place and let you grow old with a smile on your face! If you have a poppy, wear it with pride, to show your respect for the people who died!

Couldn't agree more.

[Pinhead]

Many will have never seen or heard this in it's full form:

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 a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, 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 day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

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

(Robert Laurence Binyon)

--------------------------------------------

When you go home, tell them of us and say - for their tomorrow, we gave our today.

(attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds

We will remember...

Sean

[bel]

I will be remembering

[Perpetua]

Same here Bel, I always find the Armistice & Rembrance day services incredibly moving, to think of the sacrifices made by so many brave men and women . . . also not forgetting many animals, who also gave their lives in battles that they had no comprehension of.

My Uncle Sid, who I never met, died in WW2 . . . my Uncle Eric, was in a Japanese POW camp for 4 years . . . returned home a broken and sick man . . . my Grandmother didn't recognise him when she went to met him at the train station.

His health was severely compromised as a result of the deprivations he suffered and he passed away at a young age.

[jerryrm]

The Japanese were very cruel to prisoners. They believed that it was a soldier's duty to die, rather than surrender and they had no respect for those who surrendered. War is savage, but the WWII Japanese military, took the savagery to a whole new level.

My Dad served in the CBI (China, Burma, India) theater of war, his brother was in the European theater.

[Jemima]

Thank you to each and every person who has lost life or limb defending the people of this world.

The world will never forget your sacrafice for us!