If any of you are over visiting in and around the areas mentioned above, take the time to visit the 'Flanders Fields' museum in Ypres. It's quite close to the Menim gates where the last post is played every day for the fallen. On the walls of the arch at the gate are inscribed the names of all the soldiers who are still 'missing'. When one turns up, through ploughing the fields or the like, they cross the name off of the arch. If you can come out of the exit door of the museum and you haven't fought back tears while you wre inside, you're a better man than me.
After reading the pages of absolute crap from the cyber warriors, Sky Sports Heroes, sicknote footballers and plain numpties which have despoiled these pages for too long, you just gave me a little hope that maybe there is a future for CL after all!
I often wonder how our club and players view the nonsense written on here and what a disgrace to the club and supporters it is - so thank you again for raising the tone.
If anyone needs a photo of there lost relatives gravestone in Northern France or Belguim, and ( hopefully) knows there reg /number, I am going to Tiepval in early spring, and will try and get some info on the whereabouts.
No charge, just whisper me,( any details you have regiment/number/name etc) I will do my best, with the help of my brother in law, who knows his way around these things.
My grandfather Sidney fought on the Somme and was decorated - but happily returned to the tell the tale and lived until 1983. He was with the Royal Warwickshires and was goalkeeper in the regimental football team.
His tales of trench warfare can be read, too. He kept a day-by-day diary and I gfited several volumes of them to the Imperial War Museum about 20 years ago. The diaries are in the musuem library/archive and can be read on application.
He became an ARP warden in Chingford during the blitz, and I remember as a boy him telling me that he had found pulling bodies out of bombed buildings in WW2 more harrowing than what he went through in WW1. He was older and wiser, I suppose, so it affected him more. He was only a 21 year old in 1916. I've got his regimental photo - in a hammered-metal frame he beat out himself during the long hours and days and weeks in the trenches, made from scraps of shell from the Somme - and he looks like an innocent little boy.
Living in Luxemburg, as we do, we are just 25 minutes away from Verdun, which was also the scene of unbelievable battles in WW1. It is always very moving going there.
Everytime we go there is always something new to remind you about the brutality and futility of war.
Sounds like my grandfather incorruptible, or should I say that generation, they felt a debt of honour, which I think is missing, or lacking these days.
I am sure the troops fighting in the wars these days are just as brave, the difference being that they are professionals. There was no choice in the two world wars, and the poor bastards that were shot,( 306) because of cowardice, and court martialshed because of shell shock is a stain on british justice to this day! http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/shot_at_dawn_01.shtml
God knows how many more were mentally affected, When you go around the first world war graves in Northern France you see lads of 16 in Pals regiments 'mowed down'. Some were even younger having lied about there age !
[cite]Posted By: incorruptible addick[/cite]My grandfather Sidney fought on the Somme and was decorated - but happily returned to the tell the tale and lived until 1983. He was with the Royal Warwickshires and was goalkeeper in the regimental football team.
His tales of trench warfare can be read, too. He kept a day-by-day diary and I gfited several volumes of them to the Imperial War Museum about 20 years ago. The diaries are in the musuem library/archive and can be read on application.
He became an ARP warden in Chingford during the blitz, and I remember as a boy him telling me that he had found pulling bodies out of bombed buildings in WW2 more harrowing than what he went through in WW1. He was older and wiser, I suppose, so it affected him more. He was only a 21 year old in 1916. I've got his regimental photo - in a hammered-metal frame he beat out himself during the long hours and days and weeks in the trenches, made from scraps of shell from the Somme - and he looks like an innocent little boy.
My daughter, 6 years old this coming Monday brought home a book from school yesterday on Vimy Ridge - it is the class reading book for the next few days.
They are deeply immersed in the whole Remembrance Day thing over here, it is a public holiday in most provinces & every town will have a parade/remembrance service.
The battle for Vimy Ridge is an incredible story & a pivotal moment in Canadian history - the memorial itself is instantly recognizable to those who care about their history.
Comments
If you can come out of the exit door of the museum and you haven't fought back tears while you wre inside, you're a better man than me.
After reading the pages of absolute crap from the cyber warriors, Sky Sports Heroes, sicknote footballers and plain numpties which have despoiled these pages for too long, you just gave me a little hope that maybe there is a future for CL after all!
I often wonder how our club and players view the nonsense written on here and what a disgrace to the club and supporters it is - so thank you again for raising the tone.
Maybe this a step in the right direction!
No charge, just whisper me,( any details you have regiment/number/name etc) I will do my best, with the help of my brother in law, who knows his way around these things.
His tales of trench warfare can be read, too. He kept a day-by-day diary and I gfited several volumes of them to the Imperial War Museum about 20 years ago. The diaries are in the musuem library/archive and can be read on application.
He became an ARP warden in Chingford during the blitz, and I remember as a boy him telling me that he had found pulling bodies out of bombed buildings in WW2 more harrowing than what he went through in WW1. He was older and wiser, I suppose, so it affected him more. He was only a 21 year old in 1916. I've got his regimental photo - in a hammered-metal frame he beat out himself during the long hours and days and weeks in the trenches, made from scraps of shell from the Somme - and he looks like an innocent little boy.
Everytime we go there is always something new to remind you about the brutality and futility of war.
I am sure the troops fighting in the wars these days are just as brave, the difference being that they are professionals. There was no choice in the two world wars, and the poor bastards that were shot,( 306) because of cowardice, and court martialshed because of shell shock is a stain on british justice to this day! http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/shot_at_dawn_01.shtml
God knows how many more were mentally affected, When you go around the first world war graves in Northern France you see lads of 16 in Pals regiments 'mowed down'. Some were even younger having lied about there age !
One of the Paras who died in the falklands War was 17.
My daughter, 6 years old this coming Monday brought home a book from school yesterday on Vimy Ridge - it is the class reading book for the next few days.
They are deeply immersed in the whole Remembrance Day thing over here, it is a public holiday in most provinces & every town will have a parade/remembrance service.
The battle for Vimy Ridge is an incredible story & a pivotal moment in Canadian history - the memorial itself is instantly recognizable to those who care about their history.
The Battle of Vimy Ridge
The Memorial