Do you remember them?

Nobody can forget them.
Even if a few of them are still alive , we owe them so much

My grand-grand dad was badly wounded at “La bataille de la Marne”in Sept 1914 .He was evacuated holding his guts in a rag after he was wounded by a german bayonet.
Never forget ….

Remember them? How can I not? As I sit here at my PC faces from that distant war peer down at me. My Maternal Grandfather, one of that ‘Contemptible Little Army’ (1st South Staffs), was wounded on the 1st of July and ended his war in Italy. My paternal Grandfather was in the ASC and was badly wounded at Salonika, losing half his face but fought against being invalided out and was there when his best pal was killed by a sniper, shortly after 11 am on Armistice day. The other person I am proud to call Grandfather was shot throught the jaw and only prompt treatment by the Germans saved his life. There are other faces too, faces I will never be able to put names to. My local War Memorial lists the names of the 201 men and 1 woman of this Parish who died in that conflict. Amongst them are the names of five brothers, the youngest of whom was aged just 16.

So yes, I will remember them.

Regards,

kev35

Yes, I hope we will remember what happened. I, Mrs D and 13 year old daughter travelled to the Somme last summer for the 1st July commemoration at Thiepval and at the Ulster Tower (seeing as we’re from Northern Ireland it has particular significance for us as a permanent memorial to the folk from home, and especially the 36th Ulster Division who were mostly wiped out in the first few hours of the Battle of the Somme). We were surprised, but delighted, at how many young people of school age were there. They showed the respect due on such occasions, something we have instilled in our daughter. She recognises the sacrifices of those who died or were injured, and is all the better for it.

We paid a visit to the grave of my wife’s uncle who served with the Cameron Highlanders, and who died aged 27 in 1917. He is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery at Arneke near the Belgian border. It was deeply emotional for us all.

We intend returning again in 2006 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and hope to see just as many (if not more) there doing likewise.

Yes, I remember, and yes I think we should always remember.

My grandfathers two brothers joined the 16th Btn of the Royal Scots on the same day and had consecutive service numbers. They both died on the same day, Saturday 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of Somme. One has a grave in Gordon Dump Cemetery in Ovillers-La Boisselles, the other has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial.

Many families lost all their sons during this conflict. On the local war memorial in the small village I live near there are at least six families who lost more than one son during this conflict. Devastating.

Salamanca, Rorkes Drift, can’t be arsed to think of the other.

Surely the Nepoleonic Wars were too, and they were just as devastating to civilian and soldier alike (thinking of the Russian campaign which Hitler learned nothing from, for example): but we don’t remember it, it is hidden away in history books and museums, with the odd plaque, memento or plinth to confuse the curious.
We cannot help but forget these wars – they don’t affect us today.
Off the top of your head could you name (without looking anything up) any battle from Crimea other than Balaclava, any battle from the Nepoleonic Wars other than Waterloo or those involving Nelson, or any battle from the Boer Wars other than Ladysmith?
British troops have fought in a lot of places (abroad, I mean: garrison towns don’t count!) but we don’t remember a quarter of them. Korea was just over fifty years ago. The Kenyan Emergency was around fifty years ago. The Aden ‘disagreement’ started 40 years ago. What about Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Suez? All these are since WWII: we could go back further to Ireland, Iraq, India, Afghanistan, Africa (Rorkes Drift, anyone?) other places that we also don’t remember – regardless of right or wrong, do we not value the lives of the men who fought in these conflicts too?

Flood.™

Blimey Steve, calm down mate. Have a cup of tea.

yes, we should remember them. There’s was an important war in relation to current lives.

Do you remember them?

Yes.

But my question still stands: when these men have gone should the First World War be remembered? Just because we remember them won’t be much of a deciding factor with the generations to come – will the “We will remember them” in the annual poppy day service at memorials the country over become just such hollow words?

It’s not often I get serious down here in GD, but I’ll offer my thoughts if I may…

Yes, I firmly believe the First World War should be remembered. It should be remembered because it was the first time that warring nations fought such a large scale conflict, the first time that innocent civilians found themselves as much in the firing line as the soldiers. It was the death of innocence, the dawn of a new age of conflict, the end of the world as they knew it, and the start of the world as we do.

If we as a species had been really smart, this significance would have been grasped in the aftermath of ‘The War To End All Wars’. But we’re not. We’re actually quite stupid. Which is why Hitler was allowed to rise to power and start it all again twenty years later. And Franco, and Mussolini, Hirohito, Stalin, Kruschev, Gadaffi, Amin, Pinochet, Caeucescu, Milosevic, Hussein… You see, we’ve never truly understood how awful war is, and therefore how hard we must all work to ensure the peace. And if we don’t learn, we’ll make the same mistakes again, and again, and again…

I’m 35. I look at my life so far, and it’s been largely peaceful, productive, and comfortable. Yet during these 35 years, the armed forces of my country alone have been involved in shooting wars in the Falkland Islands, Kuwait and Iraq the first time, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq again. Not to mention the sometimes terrifying stand off between East and West during the Cold War, the policing operations in Northern Ireland, peacekeeping in Belize, and a myriad other places where intolerance greed and hatred required an armed presence to maintain order.

If you then ask, WILL we remember them? I think we will. Time moves ever onwards, and the day will come soon, when there are no men left alive who still carry the first hand images of the hell in the trenches inside their minds every day. Perhaps for them it will be a release from the nightmares that they still fight hard to supress? For those of us that are left, I’m sure we will remember THEM, although our knowledge of what they went through will be diluted over time. Which makes it even more important that we understand our veterans now, while they’re here with us. Regardless of what conflict they fought in, the message they have will be the same – war is not heroic, war is nothing but a pointless waste of human life, and we all have a duty to do our best to avoid it.

That’s their legacy to us, we just have to understand it.

Is there a count on how many WW2 veteran are around? all the more reason to record thier experiences as and when the oppurtunity arises

There are, apparently, 23 known survivors in Britain; the four I mentioned are the only ones fit enough to travel (and meet ‘Blood’n’Guts Prescott…).
But my question still stands: when these men have gone should the First World War be remembered? Just because we remember them won’t be much of a deciding factor with the generations to come – will the “We will remember them” in the annual poppy day service at memorials the country over become just such hollow words?

Flood.™

My great grandfather was a French soldier. He died from the consequences of a gas attack months after the end of the war, leaving behind two young girls. My grandmother worked in France for years before she could move to Belgium.

In Ieper (Ypres) there are thousands of graves of young British, ANZAC, Canadian soldiers. Each time I visit them it causes a strange feeling. Same for the German graves. Eventually these men didn’t chose too for this war, but sometimes, they don’t earn the respect they deserve.

I have my Great Grandfathers medals on the wall (Campaign medals rather than gallantry) alongside two photographs of him. One before he left, one during the battle of the Somme. The pose is the same but the difference is amazing.

Yes, the german troops invaded Belgium on august 3rd 1914 at 08h00. So yes, its on a day like today we should remember the many. Thanks to remind us Flood.

J.V.

My Grand Father served in the RA during WW1, he survived the war but died from TB in 1931, probably a result of being gassed.

I saw on the news last night the two gentlemen of 108 and 104 years young respectively, both will be at the Cenotaph today. As usual two modest old gentlemen, who don’t look their age, especially the chap who is 104. Just imagine how the world has change in their life time, from canvas and wire to Mach 3+ !!!!

At the going down of the sun ……….

I remember. Why? August 14th (thats ten days away) is the day on which my daughter was born. Thats the day on which he great grandfather was born. That was the very day that war broke out and hisfather sailed for Le Havre from the Currag as part of the BEF. Serjeant Frederick Charles Crame of the 16th Lancers.

Mons, Le Cateau, the retreats, an in September he was crippled with shrapnel in the leg which killed his horse at the start of the battle of the aisne. It probably saved his live.

One of many.