Armistice Day

[Bucky OHare]

I had totally forgotten that its Armistice Day. Damn.

Still, my thoughts and prayers for all those who have died in all the wars Britain and allies have taken part in. May you rest in peace.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4001577.stm

[Loredoctor]

And we cannot forget that Wilfred Owen died on this day.

[Myste]

Today is Veterans' Day in the US. Heartfelt thanks to all the men and women who serve or have served, especially those whose service meant sacrifice.

[dlbpharmd]

Well said, Myste!

[duchess of malfi]

And let us not forget those currently serving, whether you support the current war or not.

In celebration of Veterans' Day, my coworkers and I put together gift boxes for a unit of soldiers on active duty in Iraq. We are hoping they will get them in time for Christmas! My contribution was yoyos and superballs and playing cards and other small, fun things.

[Naver Htrad]

We should remeber everyone. Soldiers fought for Britain and America, but lets think about the soldiers who fought in Russia and France. Also lets think about the soldiers of Germany, Italy and Japanese who did not have the option to say 'no' to the war because of what the Governments would have done to them. Remeber the Jews and everyone who dies in the Death Camps for no reason. Remember the people died in the Bombings in both Britain, Germany and in East Asia (especially the people in the cities of the A Bomb attacks). This is not just a day from Britain and America to remember but a day for the whole of Europe and East Asia to remember.

[duchess of malfi]

Yes, I would agree with that. All people who have served their governments (as long as they have not committed atrocities), and all of the innocent who have suffered as a result of warfare should be remembered. (bows head)

[matrixman]

In Canada, it is Remembrance Day.

For a nation of merely eight million people at the time, Canada's war effort was remarkable. A total of 619,636 men and women served in the Canadian forces in the First World War. Of them 66,655 gave their lives and another 172,950 were wounded. Nearly one of every ten Canadians who fought in the war did not return.

I like to watch programming about war stories, specifically ones about the two World Wars. More than just remembering the soldiers of that time, I like to learn about the world that they lived in. I want to know about the politics behind the decisions that were made. I want to hear about forgotten heroes.

I'm proud of the accomplishments of our soldiers in the two World Wars, and humbled by what they had to endure on the front lines. I can barely comprehend the conditions they operated in when I listen to stories like the brutal campaign to capture Vimy Ridge from the Germans in WWI, or the assault on Juno Beach in Normandy in WWII. I have less admiration for some of the generals (particularly of WWI), whose dubious decisions had disastrous consequences.

In WWI, the Canadian corps was the first army in history to suffer mustard gas attacks. But the corps endured; in fact it became arguably the toughest and most effective fighting force in the War. It was the Canadians who eventually broke through the supposedly "impregnable" Hindenburg line, demoralizing the German forces. It was the start of the collapse of the entire Western front for Germany. The Germans said it was the tenacity of the Canadians that won the war. So, a volunteer army of civilians from a peaceful country, that at first had been sneered at by Kaiser Wilhelm, had proved itself against an experienced, "superior" German army.

Of course, the German military machine wasn't actually destroyed, just falling back. The commander of the Canadian forces felt that with the Germans on the run, it was an opportunity to deliver a decisive blow to the enemy. So he did not share everyone else's enthusiasm for the armistice of 1918. He was haunted by misgivings that "we would have to go through all this again 15-20 years from now."

As it turned out, 15 years later arose Adolf Hitler into power...

[Avatar]

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD
(1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[dlbpharmd]

I love that poem, Avatar - thanks.

[matrixman]

With each passing year, the number of living links to the First World War diminishes. This year marks the first time that no WWI veterans are in attendance at our national war memorial service in Ottawa. I can only assume they are absent due to failing health. If I have my numbers correct, I think Canada now has only 5 surviving WWI veterans.

"Lest we forget..."

[dlbpharmd]

In response to MM's post:

www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/11/vanishing.vets.ap/index.html

[matrixman]

Thanks for the article, dlb! Some very good points made there.

"It's a war that's out of mind," says Sean Flynn, who teaches World War I history at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, South Dakota. "The U.S. entered it late and we have no real connection to it."

Unlike the wars that followed, World War I doesn't have the visual record so important to becoming part of American consciousness, Flynn says. Yet its impact can be linked to many problems facing the world today, including conflict in the Balkans and the rise of Arab nationalism that occurred after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

"We learn about war through television and through film," Flynn says. "There's just not a lot of moving-picture footage of World War I. There's no visual image there for the public to identify with."

Yes, it's too bad motion picture technology was still in its infancy at the time of WWI.

dlb, you're a Civil War aficionado, so I thought I'd ask: something like the American Civil War is still very much a part of your national consciousness, isn't it? I remember hearing that there is more interest and more books on the Civil War today than there ever was right after the war. I guess it's only natural that a war fought at home leaves a more indelible mark on a nation than a war fought on distant shores.

I also like Mr. Lloyd Brown's point:

"You can't celebrate World War I year after year after year, because there are other events taking place," says Brown, who watches the news each day to keep up with the world. "You have to honor them."

[dlbpharmd]

The American Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression, depending on where you live in relation to the Mason-Dixon Line) is very much a part of the American consciousness. More American soldiers were killed in the ACW than in all other US wars combined. The harsh years of Reconstruction caused many hard feelings towards the Northern victors, and much of that anger was taken out on former slaves.

The ACW is also associated with a certain romanticism which even I have to admit is appealing. On one hand is Lincoln, struggling to keep the nation together and spending young Northern lives to do so; on the other hand are the larger than life generals leading the Southern forces in their "glorious cause."

[sgt.null]

our prayers are with all soldiers, past and present.

[[Syl]]

And the sailors!

(ok, ok, marines and airmen, too)

[dlbpharmd]

One of Britain's Last WWI Vets Dies at 109
By JILL LAWLESS, AP

LONDON (Nov. 21) - Alfred Anderson, the last surviving soldier to have heard the guns fall silent along the Western Front during the spontaneous "Christmas Truce" of World War I, died Monday at age 109.

More than 80 years after the war, Anderson recalled the "eerie sound of silence" as shooting stopped and soldiers clambered from trenches to greet one another Dec. 25, 1914.

His parish priest, the Rev. Neil Gardner, said Anderson died in his sleep early Monday at a nursing home in Newtyle, Scotland. His death leaves fewer than 10 veterans of World War I alive in Britain.

Born June 25, 1896, Anderson was an 18-year-old soldier in the Black Watch regiment when British and German troops cautiously emerged from the trenches that Christmas Day in 1914. The enemies swapped cigarettes and tunic buttons, sang carols and even played soccer amid the mud, barbed wire and shell-holes of no man's land.

The informal truce spread along much of the 500-mile Western Front, in some cases lasting for days - alarming army commanders who feared fraternization would sap the troops' will to fight. The next year brought the start of vast battles of attrition that claimed 10 million lives, and the Christmas truce was never repeated.

"I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence," Anderson told The Observer newspaper last year.

"All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machine gun fire and distant German voices," said Anderson, who was billeted in a French farmhouse behind the front lines.

"But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted 'Merry Christmas,' even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war."

During the war, Anderson served briefly as batman - or valet - to Capt. Fergus Bowes-Lyon, brother of the Queen Mother Elizabeth. Bowes-Lyon was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915.

Anderson fought in France until 1916, when he was wounded by shrapnel from a shell. In 1998, he was awarded France's Legion of Honor for his war service.

Anderson was Scotland's oldest man. The country's First Minister, Jack McConnell, said he "represented the generation of young Scots who fought in the First World War, and endured unimaginable horrors."

"Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and we must never forget what they have given to us."

Lt. Col. Roddy Riddell, regimental secretary of the Black Watch, said Anderson's death marked "the end of the epoch."

"The entire regiment is in mourning and we are all the sadder for his passing," he said.

Gardner said Anderson "was quite philosophical about his wartime experiences." Anderson himself said he tried to put them out of his mind.

"I think about all my friends who never made it home," he said once. "But it's too sad to think too much about it. Far too sad."

In later years, Anderson spoke often of the guilt he felt over the loss of friends and comrades.

"I felt so guilty meeting the families of friends who were lost," he told The Times newspaper this month. "They looked at me as if I should have been left in the mud of France instead of their loved one. I couldn't blame them, they were grieving, and I still share their grief and bear that feeling of guilt."

Anderson is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Funeral details were not immediately available.

[Avatar]

The informal truce spread along much of the 500-mile Western Front, in some cases lasting for days - alarming army commanders who feared fraternization would sap the troops' will to fight.

Of course it alarmed them...what would the generals do if all ths soldiers suddenly stopped fighting? God forbid, they might have to risk getting killed themselves. Or worse...broker a peace. *sigh*

--A

[sgt.null]

generals used to run on the first ranks, maybe we need to get back to that.

[Avatar]

Not a bad idea.

--A