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Post by andrewholgate on Jul 1, 2016 7:59:06 GMT
Not AC related but something close to my heart. I'm ex Forces and have a family line that every generation has served as far back as we can tell (although think number 1 child will break that). My great-grandfather won the MC on the Somme by storming a machine gun nest which allowed for one of those marginal gains of 50m to take place. I can't imagine the horror of it. We think we live in difficult times but it is only 2-3 generations prior that men of my age would be on a battlefield through conscription.
Please take a moment and remember the sacrifices they made for us.
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skippyonspeed
Some people think I'm a little bit crazy, but I know my mind's not hazy
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Somme
Jul 1, 2016 9:29:42 GMT
Post by skippyonspeed on Jul 1, 2016 9:29:42 GMT
Much respect & thanks
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dermot
Member of DD Central
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Somme
Jul 1, 2016 13:08:50 GMT
Post by dermot on Jul 1, 2016 13:08:50 GMT
I was just reviewing some photographs and documents detailing my grandfather's time in the trenches.
Very sobering stuff. He was wounded and ended up in a POW camp - and was still there at Christmas 1918 as so much transport infrastructure was destroyed, that there was no easy way home until later.
One hopes that "The lamps are going out, all over Europe" will never happen again.
Did you happen to see or read "the Wipers Times"?
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registerme
Member of DD Central
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Somme
Jul 1, 2016 13:56:07 GMT
Post by registerme on Jul 1, 2016 13:56:07 GMT
I watched the whole of "Battle of the Somme 100 - Thiepval" this morning, and found it very moving. It's on iPlayer, so if you can find the time (over three hours) I would recommend it.
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Post by chielamangus on Jul 1, 2016 16:03:08 GMT
Yep, we should never forget. My grandfather was also taken prisoner at the Somme and spent a year or more in a camp where the guards would spit in the watery gruel before dishing it out to the PoWs. I learned this from him as a boy. He was in his forties, with five children, when called up, so that is a measure of how desperate the country was for soldiers. My other grandfather was luckier - claimed he was younger than he was, joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force, sent over to England and found not fit enough for the front, so worked in the pay corps in London (which lead to me eventually being born during the next war within a few miles of where he had lived in Surrey). One of my wife's two grandfathers avoided death on the Somme but was killed at Ypres (Wipers) nearly a year later. Was there a family in the country not affected by some tragedy?
I wonder whether Mons. Hollande, who stood next to British representatives at the Somme Commemoration, will even think of the British blood that has been spilt in France in two world wars repelling invaders, as he contemplates how to punish the British for daring to leave his club.
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romy
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Post by romy on Jul 2, 2016 10:27:24 GMT
A great uncle of mine was there with the Canadian forces all through. He always went back for annual reunions, but never spoke of what he'd seen to anyone but his comrades.
My oldest uncle on my fathers side ran away at 16 and lied about his age to join up in 1916, to my grandmothers fury. Although a Londoner he joined the Australian navy which meant at the end of the war he had to go to Australia to be demobbed and lived there until just past his 100th birthday.
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