This time of the year sees me most nostalgic for my homeland. I am proud of the way it honors its history and remembers with dignity and respect those who in more mdern times have given their lives for all we hold dear. Poppy wearing is already in full swing in the UK and will culminate in events the weekend of November 11th abd 12th. Nobody does it better I think.

An unmemorable movie I watched the other night had a line that resonates with me: "You are not dead while the last person remembers your name."

With that very much in mind:

Pvt. Ronald Arthur Andrews, East Staffordshire Regiment, killed July 12, 1944, Normandy, France. My cousin with no immediate family members left. A most unlikely soldier who answered the call.

Pvt. George Thomas Chapman, King's Own Royal West Kent Regiment, killed at the Somme, France May 9, 1916. I wear a commemorative poppy pin in his honor as part of the Every Man Remembered project.

They are not dead while the last person remembers their name.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:23PM by Maude.

Agreed

My Uncle was killed on Guam, U.S. Marines, Medic. Died while saving the life of another soldier and holding off a Japanese charge with a pistol in hand. I carry the honor of his name as my middle name.

My father was assigned to a destroyer as ships doctor, U.S. Navy Lieutenant. Transferred to a cruiser he spent two years in Tokyo serving the needs of soldiers and citizens. He is now 6 months away from being 97.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:23PM by Maude.

Lance Corporal John Thomson, 8th Battalion Canadian Infantry. Killed August 31, 1918, age 30. My grandmother’s beloved older brother.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:24PM by Maude.

Thank you Kentish, I was just thinking a few minutes before I read your post that I must remember to wear my poppy today and every day for the next week or so.

There’s a beautiful British memorial service held in the Mesa Cemetery, here in Arizona, every Remembrance Sunday to remember and honour 23 Royal Air Force cadet pilots from the No. 4 British Flying Training School lost their lives while training from 1941-1945 at Mesa's Falcon Field.

I’ve attended for the last three years and it’s always a solemn and moving service. I cry buckets every time.

They have a band with bagpipes, a 21 gun salute, a flyover in the Missing Man Formation and both the US and UK national anthems are sung. Plus speeches and laying of wreaths in remembrance.

I didn’t know, until I moved here a few years ago, that some of our RAF cadet pilots travelled by ship from the UK to Arizona during WWII to train. More sunny flying training days here than in the UK.

I always remember Harry Dale, my grandmother’s first husband who went to war three weeks after they were married and was killed in action. I feel it’s up to me to remember him as he never had children (my family is descended from my grandfather, my grandmother’s second husband).

Lest we forget.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:24PM by Maude.

Thank you for that. I did not know about these WW2 deaths and I am pleased they are remembered. They are lost in history to most much like the tragedy of more than 900 American servicemen lost to the Germans in 1944 at Slapton Sands in the UK while practising for the D-Day landings. It was kept quiet until after the war.

They shall not grow old as we grow old:
Age shall not weary them nor years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon

These words will be spoken at virtully ever Remembrance service, followed by the refrain fromn those gathered "We will remember them."

I notice a typo in my title above. I am a poor two fingered typist and an old and sloppy proof reader.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:24PM by Maude.

I fixed it for you kentish because your main point is about their names.

Thanks

I remember the veterans selling poppies in my childhood. It's a lovely custom, but I haven't seen someone wearing a poppy in years. I would like to see that custom return.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:25PM by Maude.

Summer check out thethe wreath laying and the jerseys when you watch the premier league this weekend.

Thanks for the reminder, Kentish. I skipped watching the games on Saturday, but will check them out on Sunday.

There is a wonderful poem/tribute to the poppy tradition called In Flanders Field. I don't recall the author but a quick search brings it up. It is well worth the read, IMO. Great post, kentish :)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:25PM by Maude.

The plant that grew in abundance and mirrored the b!ood.

Found it://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47380/in-flanders-fields



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:25PM by Maude.

Maybe it was kinda slantwise related.

I am ashamed to admit that my mother hammered at the VA after my father died. She finally got his death classified as "service-related." And she got a pension from that.

It wasn't, so she wasn't entitled at all. The disease he died from was hereditary. I'm sure she knew that. She was an RN. I carry the gene (which nobody could explain to me when I was of child-bearing age) and have passed it to my son, who has been in dialysis for several years.

As much as I adore my son and my little granddaughters from him, if I had known before having him what I know now about the disease, I would NOT have had any children.

She has been dead for more than 30 years, but I can't forgive her for not being honest. She was a child of the Depression, very money-grubbing, and refused to give me an allowance, or let me do babysitting so I could have money that she didn't control.

I once stole a skate key from a five-and-dime store, because the one that came with my skates suddenly disappeared. I suspect she took it from me because she was tired of patching up scrapes I got from falling while skating. When I said, "I looked everywhere, but I can't find it," all she would say was "Look harder." She would not spend five cents to allow me to skate again.

I hope I will not run into her in the afterlife. She was a harsh, critical woman and there was never any love lost between us.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2023 09:25PM by Maude.

A Remembrance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG48Ftsr3OI

misplaced



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2023 06:24PM by Brother Of Jerry.

misplaced again. I'm on a roll.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2023 06:25PM by Brother Of Jerry.

A sobering and tragic event for all Australia. One correction from the video. The creator of the piece likely confused casualties with killed. It was not 50000 killed.

I'm sure that's exactly what happened. That's why it is handy to have a good editor on staff.

Hill 1308, a.k.a. FSB Argonne, later labeled "LZ Sitting Duck," serving with H&S Company of Delta Company, 1st Battalion 4th Marines. He gave his all on "Operation Purple Martin," which was quickly nicknamed "Operation Purple Heart."

Returning from a recon-in-force mission to locate and neutralize NVA mortars that were wrecking havoc on the firebase, an amalgamated platoon (miscellaneous from various units) of 30+ Marines ran into an NVA ambush hidden in bunkers mere meters below the firebase wire.

The point man came running back with three bullet wounds (two chest, one hip) and dove headfirst into a ravine. "Doc" Dave patched him up, then came the call "Corpsman up!" for the (machine) gunner with a head wound. "Doc" crawled up the ravine and pulled him out of harm's way. Rising to his knees to attend to the man's wound(s), his head rose above the top of the ravine, and he was KIA by NVA rifle fire.

Rest in peace, "Doc"

Quote from an essay I read today:
>I heard about a college history teacher who was asked by a student, “You talked about World War Two, does that mean there was a First?” This was not high school, this was c-o-l-l-i-t-c-h.
...

>But yes, there was a World War I, and it was a horror. Google "Battle of Verdun" sometime, and it will make you feel fortunate to have not known anything about it.

The UK's national Remembrance observance at the Cenotaph in London today is up on You Tube. Reverance, dignity and precision epitomized. Is there anything that matches the march past of 10,000 veterans paying their respects to the fallen. Cudoes to the Guards regimental bands that stayed to play them by. To all veterans everywhere. Respect.

No one does ceremony better than the British.

Kentish, you’re just so purely classy.

Why thank you Kathleen. As a very young boy at the end of WW2 the streets of London were filled with soldiers from many countries. Aside from those from Asian and African countries (who stood out for obvious reasons) the ones I remember most, apart from British soldiers, were the Aussies, Canadians and Americans. The Aussies because of the unusual slouch hats they wore, the Canadians because they looked just like British soldiers except they talked "funny", and the Americans because they wore fancy fabric uniforms and if you asked them "politely" they had gum to share. Treasure indeed for us candy deprived kids. I have paticipated in many a scrum for a handful of gum thrown into the air for us kids to fight over. Amidst it all, I was taught those in uniform were to be respected, and I do.

I thought of you, kentish, when I saw some articles about the restoration of a Lancaster bomber here in B.C. You might enjoy reading them, here:

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/b-c-aviation-museum-raising-funds-to-restore-avro-lancaster-bomber-1.6741007


https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/part-of-restored-lancaster-bomber-on-display-in-sidney-for-film-showing-8160059


I wish I had known about it in time - I may have travelled over to the island in time for the festivities. As it is, I've put this museum on my list of places to go and things to do.

I haven't read anything yet (or perhaps I missed it) about how the plane came to be in Canada.

It's always good to see people working hard to preserve history. There are a lot of lessons, for everyone, in knowing what has gone before.


Here's a page from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum about the Lancaster:

https://www.warplane.com/aircraft/collection/details.aspx?aircraftId=4



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2024 06:00PM by Nightingale.

Nightingale I just saw this. Hope they get it together. It was a great plane that did the heavy lifting in bombing over Germany in WW2. Saw many as a lad growing up. The RAF Memorial flight has one in service and together with a Spitfire and a Hurricane they are often seen in commemorative flypasts. Some wonderful film of them on YT, too. The Canadian Air Force flew them in WW2 also which might account for its presence in Canada. British aviation was quite brilliant in those times producing not only the planes I have mentioned but the incredible Mosquito, a twin engined fighter bomber made mostly of wood. An important factor during the war when materials were in short supply. It meant that pieces could be made in woodshops all over the place. Difficult targets for German bombers. Piano factories and such could also switch to making the wooden parts. It was very fast with two Merlin engines (the power of the Spitfire) and could carry a 2000 lb bomb weight.

Some were built in Canada:

https://www.bombercommandmuseum.ca/aircraft/the-lancaster-bomber/


"Of the total of 7,377 Lancasters built (430 of them in Canada), 3,932 were lost in action. During the war Lancasters flew a total of 156,308 sorties and dropped 608,612 tons of bombs, and placed over 12,000 mines in enemy waters.

"Some of the aircraft’s finest hours were in “non-offensive” operations as the war was about end and shortly after peace finally was in place. The first of these was during “Operation Manna.” Lancaster squadrons dispatched a total of 3,156 sorties to drop 6,684 tons of food supplies to the starving Dutch in May 1945. The second saw many of the Lancaster squadrons tasked to return Allied Prisoners of War from various locations throughout Europe back to England. In a period of 24 days a total of 2900 round trips were flown and 74,000 ex-POW’s were returned."

-----

It's too bad that machines of such beauty had to be used for warfare. I'm glad people care enough to restore and maintain them and preserve them for posterity.

My parents had a friend who was an artist and we had some of his paintings of the planes of WWII. I regret very much that somehow they have been lost in the shuffle of life. Or at least I haven't seen them for a long time and don't know where they've ended up. I hope someone is treating them lovingly with great appreciation. Even more I hope that someday I'll trip over them again because where on earth could they have gone I wonder. I spent happy hours in the artist's studio watching him create his master works. It's funny to be thinking of them again now, years later. I'd love to find them in the attic one day.

Re the planes - now from my reading I know why they're in Canada. I'll definitely plan a trip to the Island in the spring and pay them a visit.

They gave their lives for Rock and Roll.

After the devastation of WWII, singing was the thing that got everyone by. Singing everywhere, not unnoticed by the up and coming generation as told by Roger Daltrey himself.

The pain of the war became transformative to the British rock bands of the 1970s with their newfound platform. Their message of peace may have been ahead of its time, but it was not in vain.

bradley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The pain of the war became transformative to the
> British rock bands of the 1970s with their
> newfound platform.

> Their message of peace may have
> been ahead of its time, but it was not in vain.

Ahead of its time. But about time.

Some days and times in history since it seems like it indeed was in vain. Seems that warfare is built into humans. We sure keep doing it over and over and over.


https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=all+we+are+saying+is+give+peace+a+chance#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:7fcbb9e8,vid:C3_0GqPvr4U,st:0