Lest We Forget

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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 12:31 am

I always get kinda Weepy this time of year thinking of the sacrifices that many have made serving their country. My Father served in the 1940's as a Submarine Hunter and although he was taught to be a man he was actually just a teenager who was fighting for King and Country:

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.

McCrae - 1915

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 6:25 am

Indeed.

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 9:42 am

Anthem For Doomed Youth

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Wilfred Owen

Suicide In The Trenches

I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum,
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

Siegfried Sassoon

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Find time on a rainy day to watch this video, it's fantastic. It's about ANZAC troops in 'Nam.

Battle of Long Tan Documentary narrated by Sam Worthington.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUSq7pxux4

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 3:20 pm

This belonged to one of my grandfathers who served in WWII. Unfortunately, he passed when I was very young and I don't know much about his service.

I discussed my other grandfather here. My brother has done some research on his time in the war.

He flew into France, near Ste Mere Eglise, during the D-Day Invasion in one of these plywood, cloth, and steel tubing gliders.

All my respect to veterans is way too little.