Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Great War => Topic started by: Paleskin on 11 November 2012, 09:41:42 AM
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11am today,never ever forget :'(
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was still asleep at that time. Did I miss anything?
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Compiègne 11th of November 1918
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Veteransday or Armistice day; end of WWI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day
DJ
(I had to google this one :()
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Remembrance Day in Canada. Both of my grandfathers and numerous uncles served. It's very important to me to remember the sacrifices they and thousands of others made, and still make today.
Our family was lucky, everyone came home and lived long happy lives. Not everyone was so fortunate.
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Today just after 1100, our grandson laid a poppy on behalf of his nursery. He was cold but stood on parade with the rest of us without a sound.
(http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/76231_10151095920622610_1759106916_n.jpg)
We will remember them.
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I went down to our main cenotaph today; it's both Victoria's city memorial and to some extent the provincial memorial, as we're the provincial capital. The city is also one of two major naval bases in the country, so we get a huge RCN contingent. Our local infantry reserve battalion is the Canadian Scottish (Princess Mary's), so not only to we get the Navy's band, we get the CanScot's pipe & drum band during the march-off after the ceremony.
The rain even stopped for a couple of hours, and we had a good turnout. Lots of kids there, they often have the best view up on someone's shoulders!
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Excellent photo
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I remembered:
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Great photos. Well done chaps
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On Sunday I was travelling to Devon to watch my lad play rugby for Glous.
Me and my mate stopped at a Costa Coffee on the A361; they had a telly on.
At 11.00 the cafe hushed and stood to a man; all serving stopped; all machines were turned off and this bunch of total strangers came together to respect the memory of our fallen.
Sad but proud event.
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In 2004 I visited London on the 14th of November. I was so impressed to see all those red wreaths - maybe one of you can explain a german the meaning of it - at the memorials. Really great tradition.
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Koppi -
It dates back to the armistice to end the Great War, 11 am 11th November.
The red poppies probably came about because of a poem:
"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."
Originally the paper poppies were made in factories by ex-servicemen, and they get sold to raise funds for the British Legion (a services charity).
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You will find footage of the memorial service on the BBC:
tv footage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01ny2z1
radio coverage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nszsw
and of course there's Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Sunday
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Not just London.
Nearly every town and village in the UK has a memorial - in some towns it's a large stone obelisk or statue, on others it's a memorial hall or a memorial hospital. Depends on what the locals raised funds for.
We are in a small-ish provincial town on the coast of North Yorkshire, and have a large stone obelisk above the town (on the tallest local hill).
We have two services, one on the hilltop and a second one in the harbour around the lifeboat station.
Alasdair's old school has a service on the nearest schoolday before 11th November:
http://www.scarboroughcollege.co.uk/2012/11/remembrance-day-assembly-2012/
As an IB school there are quite a few German students now, I will ask one about their views on the day.
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A good friend of mine is German - we met when he was over here doing a Bachelor's degree as a foreign student and we're still close more than a decade later - and I took him to our local Remembrance Day ceremony one Nov. 11th when he was here.
We had several long discussions after about the nature of remembrance and the public outlook on the World Wars here (Canada) and in Germany. Obviously quite a different thing for them, even the Great War. He was in the (West then unified) German military for a few years just after high school, and he said the nearest thing extant in Germany is private services at various times for certain regiments that trace their regimental history/heritage back to units that fought in either of the World Wars, but those are not public occasions, just regimental observances conducted in private, at historic barracks or similar.
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8204/8177823885_f63c79c300_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/8177823885/)
Remembrance Day 2012 V: Cenotaph & Flag (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wirelizard/8177823885/) by WireLizard (http://www.flickr.com/people/wirelizard/), on Flickr
Our local cenotaph above, effectively the main cenotaph for the city, although each municipal area usually has it's own as well. This one also happens to be on the lawn of the provincial Legislature, so it's effectively the provincial cenotaph as well. The Canadian Navy has their own memorial on the naval base just west of town, but they always have a strong presence at this ceremony too - we get the band and the ass't commander of RCN Pacific Command.
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We had a memorial in the suburb of Sydney where I grew up. It is sandstone and has a canon on the top, as a boy I thought it was an ice cream cone that had fallen over. Each town in Australia has a memorial to the men who served.
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I live in a tiny village in Gloucestershire.
Just behind our cottage on a small triangle of ground is the village war memorial with 12 names on it.
There are surnames on this memorial of families that have lived in this village and area for over 400 years and who gave their men in WW1 and WW2 for their country.
Last Sunday my wife told me that the village gathered at the memorial and the bugler played the last post.
We will never forget.
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I was at Magdelen College, Oxford a month ago.
On the memorial stone, and in the memorial book, are the names of all from the college that had fallen.
These names included all that had studied there; our German friends may like to know that every fallen German student is listed and honoured.
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I'm not sure where my WW1 ancestors are marked on memorials around here. My great-great-uncle on my father's side is named on the Thiepval Memorial as he died of wounds on the Somme and he's somewhere amongst the "unknown" graves when his remains were moved post-war. On my mother's side, her uncle deserted as he was in Ireland and didn't like what they were being told to do, re-enlisted under an assumed name and died right at the end of the war after an infection set in following a fairly routine operation. I think he's listed (under the assumed) name in the village he claimed to be from rather than his home village of Chedworth. I've seen a memorial plaque that listed his real name and "served as" when we cleared my grandmother's house, but I think that got passed to my Mum's cousin as he's the repository for Juggins family history these days.
From WW2 my Dad's half-uncle is in Ranville cemetery, but where his name is in Bristol I don't know.
Normally, it's the village memorial for me, although we don't have connections beyond my parents moving here in the 1950s, I do feel that I'm nearly there with the "old village" folks. All I've got to do is get the family name on a street here (like many others, long gone, that I used to know).
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WWI & WWII are not the only ones commemmorated - Hull has a memorial to the fallen from the Boer Wars.
Then there are the "thankful villages" - the few places that didn't need a memorial:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15671943
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Thanks a lot guys for the explanations: "The red poppies probably came about because of a poem."
I have to told this to my wife; we both were wondering about that.
@ Smirnoff
" .....
I was at Magdelen College, Oxford a month ago.
On the memorial stone, and in the memorial book, are the names of all from the college that had fallen.
These names included all that had studied there; our German friends may like to know that every fallen German student is listed and honoured ...."
That's great. Reconciliation across borders.
Here in Germany we called the day Volkstrauertag (day of mourning) - and I thinks it's good so, because of our very special history. But it's a day - and it is today the 18.11.- , that is not present in the memory of most of the people of Germany.
The origin of this memorial day is also connected with the First World War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkstrauertag