A 100 years on ... a day to remember.

[merehazle]

 

1914 to 1918 the great war.  We owed them so much. Your thoughts and pictures please. We will be lighting a candle and putting it in our front window and turning out our lights between 10pm to 11pm as suggested by the papers.

750,000 Brits killed. And 17 millon on all sides. And the largely untold story of the Africans and Asians that fought alongside Europeans in the trenches. More than a million horses suffered horiffic deaths. And So many dogs were used often to pull guns. 

[merehazle]

Sorry, I forgot - Man. Horse. and Dog. At the war:

Yes, the dog is pulling a heavy gun.

[al**bear]

888,246 Poppies At Tower Of London Commemorate Each British And Colonial Casualty From WWI

[evoman3957]

I just wish we could remember them a little more ernestly, in the way we live our lives and the lessons we should have learned. Instead, 21 years later, we went to War again with the same Country and that lasted even longer. Today, in a World riven with Wars, I despair for mankind ,their ignorance and true lack of appreciation for the sacrifices made by others; so those left could be born Free. Words are cheap and I'm sure they would have hoped that their sacrifices would have been remembered in our deeds.

[saasher2012]

Well said !
Thank you!! RIP . X

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

Here is the best poem about war and its futility that I have ever read.  The poet, Charles Hamilton Sorley wrote it while on the Front Line.  He was killed a short while afterwards and it was returned in his possessions to his family.

When you see millions of the mouthless dead
Across your dreams in pale battalions go,
Say not soft things as other men have said,
That you’ll remember. For you need not so.
Give them not praise. For, deaf, how should they know
It is not curses heaped on each gashed head?
Nor tears. Their blind eyes see not your tears flow.
Nor honour. It is easy to be dead.
Say only this, “They are dead.” Then add thereto,
“yet many a better one has died before.”
Then, scanning all the overcrowded mass, should you
Perceive one face that you loved heretofore,
It is a spook. None wears the face you knew.
Great death has made all his for evermore.

[blackburn_stevie]

Reply to everyone

If only we could remember these thoughts of saddnes and sorrow about a week before any such troubles ever began again.

Maybe that way, we'll never need to have a Poppy day ever again.

Oh how I wish.

[right-then-petal]

[**bustysinclaire**]

Yes.......... One hundred years on........exiting times. xxxxxx

[saasher2012]

We normal people do, I'm afraid it's the ones in power that lead us into these conflicts but it's our Sons daughters husbands etc that pay the ultimate sacrifice& not always for the right reasons!!. If there is any?

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

---

@**bustysinclaire** wrote:
Yes.......... One hundred years on........exiting times. xxxxxx

---

I assume that contains a typo ...

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

---

@saasher2012 wrote:
We normal people do, I'm afraid it's the ones in power that lead us into these conflicts but it's our Sons daughters husbands etc that pay the ultimate sacrifice& not always for the right reasons!!. If there is any?

---

Politicians or leaders who declare war should be forced to live in the centre of the battle zone with all their family.  If they are willing for other people's families to die for the cause, they should be willing to sacrifice their own.

We might have a few less war zones around the world if this were compulsory.

[saasher2012]

Good idea! Or a At the very least be made to accompany the fallen home to their grieving families.

[wskneil]

“I would like to see every single soldier on every single side, just take off your helmet, unbuckle your kit, lay down your rifle, and set down at the side of some shady lane, and say, nope, I ain’t a gonna kill nobody. Plenty of rich folks wants to fight. Give them the guns."

Woodie Guthrie

[saasher2012]

That's never going to happen ,it is what they joined up & swore to defend their country for. But to fight for countries who don't give a damn about their own people let alone ours must Gall them.i fully respect & honour all service men & women past & present, they deserve all of that from us !.

[bankhaunter]

---

@blackburn_stevie wrote:

Reply to everyone

If only we could remember these thoughts of saddnes and sorrow about a week before any such troubles ever began again.

Maybe that way, we'll never need to have a Poppy day ever again.

Oh how I wish.

---

It would have taken a lot more than a week, the likelihood of war was already smouldering, it just needed a breeze to blow it into a flame.

There is a photograph of a German srtillery reserve unit with two cannons, on one is written 'To Paris' and on the other 'To London'.

The date was 1911.

[upthecreekyetagain]

Seems strange to be commemorating the start of a war - in 2103 will we be doing the same for the second Gulf war?

This comment may sound disrespectful but just think about it for one second - the loss of all those brave servicemen and women in Iraq was no less tragic than those who fought in WWI - as well as being far more recent and and still traumatic for living relatives but do we really want to commemorate the start of that particular war?

[**bustysinclaire**]

lol, caution....yes a typo hehe, only just noticed it when you pointed it out. LOL.

[merehazle]

---

@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

Seems strange to be commemorating the start of a war - in 2103 will we be doing the same for the second Gulf war?

This comment may sound disrespectful but just think about it for one second - the loss of all those brave servicemen and women in Iraq was no less tragic than those who fought in WWI - as well as being far more recent and and still traumatic for living relatives but do we really want to commemorate the start of that particular war?

---

Oh dear... we must think about it for one second? (alright done). Your comment does sound ''disrespectful'' and there's no may about it IMO.

No one has said the loss of all those brave servicemen and women in Iraq was no less tragic than those who fought in WW1.

You obviously don't really want to commemorate this particular war. And YOU said the ''start'' of that particular war? A convenient word from you, I wonder why? (not).

It's about praise for what they did over the ''whole war''.  Think about that for a second. And YOU come on to a thread like this show disrespect. How dare you?

If it had not been for them YOU  (if you were even alive)  would be speaking German now. Nothing like showing no praise for the Brits and all our allies is there?  But then there's a reason why you wont...heh.  And you have the nerve to say ''WE''.

Now someone else have (it) I wont.      I know the rest of the twist stuff.

[upthecreekyetagain]

I don't want to commemorate ANY war - WWI nor any other!

Commemorate those who died in wars, commemorate the end of wars, but to commemorate the start of one doesn't sit comfortably.

Look up what the word 'commemorate' means!