BoxRec

Today sees the 90th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.

Apparently there are 23 British veterans still alive who fought in the conflict. Only four of them were strong enough to make it to the Cenotaph today to lay wreaths - the youngest being 103.

Three came in wheelchairs. The oldest survivor, William Allingham, 108, managed to stand from his wheelchair and lay a wreath. All read verses or prayers. William Stone, 103, stood proud as he read the exhortation, clear and loud as a bell.

A very emotional ceremony with some real heroes.

Lest we forget.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3532584.stm

From an age when conflict really was hell on earth, real heroes indeed.
Hope they know we'll never forget.

Here, here...never forget our veterans and the struggle they went through for this country.

The proud survivors of a whole generation of young men who were sacrificed to satisfy the ambitions of aristocratic empire building egomaniacs, sick.

Nice one Ian. Bless their hearts and those who died to give us a free life.

God bless those guys!!!!

The closest I have come to tears since i was at infant school was about 6 years ago when i was in Hyde Park and they had a huge parade of veterans, not only British but all the commonwealth countries who fought so bravely...

Those proud old boys wearing their medals with their old regiments.... really left a lump in the back of my throat........

The war to end all wars (or it should have). Lookouts - rather than peer over the top where their head was a target for the snipers, used to position themselves so their full upper body was showing. They had a better chance of surviving a chest shot than a head one.

I spend a large amount of time in France and i've got to say that the war grave sites over there are awe inspiring. It really brings home the tremendous sacrifices others made on our behalf. These veterans are real heroes to a man.

A short piece from the only surviving German veteran.

I urge the young of the world to become workers for peace, and not to make the mistakes of my generation. They must cultivate tolerance, courage, the love of one another. And not forget the soldiers so their deaths might not have been totally in vain.

Ian 'Mr' McNeilly wrote:Today sees the 90th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.

Apparently there are 23 British veterans still alive who fought in the conflict. Only four of them were strong enough to make it to the Cenotaph today to lay wreaths - the youngest being 103.

Three came in wheelchairs. The oldest survivor, William Allingham, 108, managed to stand from his wheelchair and lay a wreath. All read verses or prayers. William Stone, 103, stood proud as he read the exhortation, clear and loud as a bell.

A very emotional ceremony with some real heroes.

Lest we forget.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3532584.stm

respect

Another important lesson from the 2 World Wars: don't kick a man when he's down. That sort of mentality led directly to WWII. Someone like Hitler could have never risen to power in a nation that was not desperate.

For the soldiers, respect.

2 of the most emotional songs ive ever heard have been written about this subject. both were written by Eric Bogle, a scotsman who emigrated to Australia where he was moved by a display of ANZAC WW1 veterans. The first on is called Green Fields of France (No mans Land). A great version of which can be found on the album "night of a thousand candles" by the men they couldnt hang.

The second is called "the band played waltzing matilda" the best version of which can be found on rum, sodomy and the lash by the pogues.

I saw bogle perform these 2 songs a few years back in a small hall during an accoustic gig. there was not a dry eye in the house. one of the most moving things ive ever witnessed.

GREEN FIELDS OF FRANCE

Well how do you do, young Willie McBride, do you
mind if I sit here down by your graveside. And rest for a
while 'neath the warm summer sun. I've been working all day and
I'm nearly done. I see by your gravestone you were
only nineteen when you joined the dead heroes of nineteen-sixteen.
I hope you died well and I hope you died
clean. Or Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene.

Chorus:

Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the fife lowly,
did they sound the dead-march as they lowered you down.
And did the band play the Last post and chorus.
Did the pipes play the 'Flowers of the forest'.

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen
Or are you a stranger without even a name
Enclosed and forever behind the glass frame
In a old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And fade to yellow in a brown leather frame.

The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
>There's a warm summer breeze. it makes the red poppies dance
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there's no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned.

Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars
Well the sorrows, the suffering, the glory. the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain
For young Willie McBride it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again.

AND THE BAND PLAYED WALTZING MATILDA

Now when I was a young man I carried me pack
And I lived the free life of the rover.
From the Murray's green basin to the dusty outback,
Well, I waltzed my Matilda all over.
Then in 1915, my country said, "Son,
It's time you stop ramblin', there's work to be done."
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun,
And they marched me away to the war.

And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.

And how well I remember that terrible day,
How our blood stained the sand and the water;
And of how in that hell that they call Suvla Bay
We were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.
Johnny Turk, he was waitin', he primed himself well;
He showered us with bullets, and he rained us with shell --
And in five minutes flat, he'd blown us all to hell,
Nearly blew us right back to Australia.

But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
When we stopped to bury our slain,
Well, we buried ours, and the Turks buried theirs,
Then we started all over again.

And those that were left, well, we tried to survive
In that mad world of blood, death and fire.
And for ten weary weeks I kept myself alive
Though around me the corpses piled higher.
Then a big Turkish shell knocked me arse over head,
And when I woke up in me hospital bed
And saw what it had done, well, I wished I was dead --
Never knew there was worse things than dying.

For I'll go no more "Waltzing Matilda,"
All around the green bush far and free --
To hump tents and pegs, a man needs both legs,
No more "Waltzing Matilda" for me.

So they gathered the crippled, the wounded, the maimed,
And they shipped us back home to Australia.
The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane,
Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla.
And as our ship sailed into Circular Quay,
I looked at the place where me legs used to be,
And thanked Christ there was nobody waiting for me,
To grieve, to mourn and to pity.

But the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As they carried us down the gangway,
But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared,
Then they turned all their faces away.

And so now every April, I sit on my porch
And I watch the parade pass before me.
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march,
Reviving old dreams of past glory,
And the old men march slowly, all bones stiff and sore,
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask "What are they marching for?"
And I ask meself the same question.

But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.

Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda.
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard as they march by the billabong,
Who'll come a-Waltzing Matilda with me?

Neil - Thankyou for those song lyrics. I've sung and the Band played Walzing Matilda in a few local pubs - always goes down well.

They are ultimate heroes

on the first day of the battle of the somme there were 27,000 british and commonwealth casualties "before breakfast".
whilst our generals wondered why the tactics of walking across open ground strewn with barbed wire towards machine guns wasn`t paying the dividends they originally thought, a further 33,000 casualties occured that first day.
the battle of the somme lasted for three months.
the whole thing was a lash up, and the really sad thing was that these men were dying to protect a system in which they lived in abject poverty though living in the richest nation on earth. in fact living in the richest nation that had existed up to that point.
the establishment showed these men how grateful they were just eight years later in 1926 during the general strike when they starved the men into submission when the ungrateful beggars had the gall to ask for reasonable conditions and a livable wage.
though most of these men were lucky if they had one square meal a day even before the strike started it still went on for the best part of a year.
these poor people fought every day of their lives, not just between 1914 and 1918.

1.2 million soldiers were killed in the battle of the Somme and approx a third of all British men were killed in the first World War.

Religion also died. People didn't believe in God afterwards.
Author Robert Graves fought there and wrote THE book on the war afterwards, the one the man on the street bought.
"Goodbye to all That".

headhunter wrote:on the first day of the battle of the somme there were 27,000 british and commonwealth casualties "before breakfast".
whilst our generals wondered why the tactics of walking across open ground strewn with barbed wire towards machine guns wasn`t paying the dividends they originally thought, a further 33,000 casualties occured that first day.
the battle of the somme lasted for three months.
the whole thing was a lash up, and the really sad thing was that these men were dying to protect a system in which they lived in abject poverty though living in the richest nation on earth. in fact living in the richest nation that had existed up to that point.
the establishment showed these men how grateful they were just eight years later in 1926 during the general strike when they starved the men into submission when the ungrateful beggars had the gall to ask for reasonable conditions and a livable wage.
though most of these men were lucky if they had one square meal a day even before the strike started it still went on for the best part of a year.
these poor people fought every day of their lives, not just between 1914 and 1918.

Yes, Millions died to protect an empire which didn't give a fornicate about the average working man or woman.

The second world war was neccesary, otherwise millions of people were going to be slaughtered like cattle by a madman, however, had they treated germany with more respect after the 1st world war, it would never have happened.