Lest we forget

[postie]

SILENT, BUT DEADLY.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a field far away from the bustle and noise, where bodies once lay scattered, like broken toys

The birds never sing and the trees will not grow, but the red poppy covers the ground like a carpet of snow

Tis said that the ground is made of soft mud, drenched through and through by dead soldiers blood.

Some were just mere boys barely sixteen, if they had survived, who's to say just what they might have been.

Husbands, sons, brothers, lovers or just friend, all caught up in a vicious circle that never appears to end.

The world it gets older but no Wiser, I'll warrant, men will still be led in to battle caused by some tin pot tyrant

And so it has been since the beginning of time, it just happened that way, there was never a reason or rhyme.

How in this world can there ever be peace, when one half the world has a famine, the other, a feast.

One day mother Earth will call a sudden halt, life as we know it will cease and it will all be mans fault

© jim pritchard

 

[oldMohawk]

Thinking of the anniversary of D-Day I saw the following in a paper and it sums up my thoughts exactly:

Here's to all those lads who never made it home. Buried in the cemeteries behind the Normandy beaches and in others on the way to Berlin and in the jungles and countries of the Far East. We live in a time when the word 'hero' is vastly, and usually inappropriately overused, describing anyone from pop singers to footballers. I am proud to say that I lived in a time when real heroes were created daily and I knew some of them: quiet and who thought little of their achievements but finished the job and hoped merely to get on with their lives.

Many did not make it.
Thinking of them.
oldmohawk

 

[lencops]

D-Day 65yrs on, the Dead RIP, the Wounded and the Survivors will not be Forgotten. Len.

 

[mike-g]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef7J_WcH6wA"]YouTube - "For The Fallen", Katherine Jenkins with Alexei Kalveks - Festival of Remembrance 2008[/ame]

 

[Wendy]

Certainly a day for us all to remember the brave souls of that terrible day who fought for us.
A lovely link Mike although I saw it when broadcast it so nice to see it again and it says it all!!

 

[OtherHalf]

some of the events leading up to D Day [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_qeCNg8fO0"]YouTube - D-Day, June 6th 1944[/ame]

 

[Dave M]

The D Day map, and it`s home, Southwick House

 

[Sleepybarb]

Having visited both Caen and surrounding area,we as a family realise the enormous debt we owe those who fought for our freedom.
Barb

 

[Di.Poppitt]

As a family we came through that war unscathed, two served in Belgium, one was taken prisoner. But all were alive on D Day and came home to their family a year later.

Remembering all those brave young men who fought for us, and died for us so that we might be free.

 

[Pomgolian]

I think It's only as we grew up and older we realised just what these people did for us... Lets hope the same is true of those who follow us...
D-Day 65yrs on, the Dead RIP, the Wounded and the Survivors will not be Forgotten...

Chris :angel:

 

[OtherHalf]

here is a link to a D Day memorial site https://www.ddaycasualties.com/casualties.htm people like them and us dont forget

 

[chucka]

My Father took part in the D Day landings, he was wouned a few weeks later but survived, thou be it with a nasty scar down the side of his face. I remember when the film "The Longest Day" was having it's first screening at our local cinema the manager invited my Father and other survivors of that day to attend as his guest, i remember my day saying "I have already been through that lot, I just want to forget it"
He told me little things here and there but was never comfortable with it. His medals were always in my mothers sewing machine draw, they never saw the light of day until he died, then i had them framed together with his cap badge, wound badge and dog tags.
God bless him.

Chucka

 

[OtherHalf]

It must be nice to have souvenirs of your fathers past the only thing my Father would ever say about the war .. was he spent most of it digging latrines and in the glasshouse other than that he wouldn't say a thing but I do know in later years seeing badges etc he was in Malta. Gibraltar . etc I don.t even know what regiment he was in ?other than he was a Royal Marine ?

 

[Sleepybarb]

There is an article in todays Express and Echo (Exeter) about Bill Millin the piper who played on the beach on D-day .He now lives in Devon and has just been reunited with the bagpipes he used.Not sure wether that and the story of aother veteran who is in Normandy today are on the This is Exeter website.
Remembering Thomas Taylor who died on HMS Indomiterble ,Malta Convoys.
Barb

 

[Ann B]

Chuka,

You must be proud to know your father took part in the D Day landings, and rightly proud to have his medals.
On Central T.V. last night, they showed some interviews with a few of the surviving men, who took part in the landings. I wished the interviews had been longer, because I could have listened for the whole programme to those Midland accents, recalling their memories and thoughts of those events, and for the respect they showed to the ones that didn't come back. God bless them all.

Ann

 

[G G Jean]

Chucka Pete's dad too took part in the landings and like your dad never wanted to talk about it. Part of the war when in the trenches he came in contact with mustard gas live to be 95 but was left with a permanent nervous twitch which is nothing compared with some of the poor lads. Jean.

 

[chucka]

My Dads medals.

Chucka

 

[paul stacey]

hi all
this short poem was written in a old cloth note book.

MY MATE

There lies a lad in no-mans land,
A special mate of mine,
And as I spot him lying there,
Thoughts shower in my mind,
The days at school, the swimming hole'
Where all of us would swim,
Now all such earthly matters,
Are no longer used by him,
His mother she will sigh and wail,
As I slowly tell the tale,
Of the boy of eighteen years,
Who fell at Paschendahle.
regards paul stacey

 

[Dave M]

Today is the day we remember
Mates no longer here;
For blokes we shared a laugh with
We now hold back a tear.
The men we stood alongside
In the early morning dew.
Today is the day we remember the likes
Of Harry, Tommo and Blue



We drank and drilled together.
We shared the same cramped mess
And after Divisions on Sunday,
Our sins we did confess.
Whatever the future held for us,
We neither cared nor knew.
But now they’ve stood their last parade
Have Tommo, Harry and Blue



Only gilded memories now
Of the life we once enjoyed
And empty chairs at reunions –
Of the old and the unemployed.
From OD’s to leading rates,
From boys to men we grew
So today is the day I’ll raise a glass:
To Harry, to Tommo and Blue.

 

[Dave M]

3rd November at the Hall of Memory

 

[Dave M]

​Last few pics

 

[norfolk brummie]

Great photos Dave, of a very moving ceremony. A hundred years of war. Remembering millions, of all races, creeds & colours. May they never fade away.

Eddie.

 

[Vivienne14]

Agree Eddie. Thanks for posting Dave. Viv.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[G G Jean]

'The Eleventh of the Eleventh'



By David Weaver [FONT=Symbol, serif][/FONT]



Last year I watched the soldiers march,

as the misty rain drifted down.

Old men and women proudly walked,

some for the last time, through the town.



Etched into their faces were of past battles won,

of death on the rails in Siam.

The burning of flesh in the hull of a tank,

scorching sand, and a cross for a man.



Echoes in my mind were the horses,

as they dragged heavy guns through the mud.

Wild eyed with terror, trembling of flank,

flared nostrils glistening with blood.



The nurses who struggled in a restless sea,

as the bayonets reddened the sand.

What were they thinking as they marched along,

of the pain, as they crouched holding hands?



A Spitfire flown by a boy in his teens,

eyes anxiously searching the sky.

He knows the enemy is close at hand,

is it he or the other to die?



It was then that I noticed something else,

for the future it lessened my fear.

The children, wearing the medals of the dead,

cherish memories of those they held dear.



This is the world we have handed to them,

let them forget not the tanks.

May they learn from the marchers on the 'Eleventh Day',

so let’s teach them all to say,

'THANKS'.

---------------

Lest We Forget

dkw

 

[paul stacey]

Its lovely to see the old hall of memory, and the old soldiers with there standards, thanks for posting.Paul

 

[farmerdave]

Thanks for the photos, Dave, at the Hall of Memory. I was in Birmingham yesterday and left the Library at 10.50 to see people assembling for the dedication of a Garden of Remembrance. I am in your first photo, a chap on the far left, leaning back, wearing a baseball cap, and taking a photo. I have added just one photo of the official dignitaries, otherwise I think you have the event well-covered. Were you wearing a blue cap with a red poppy on the left-side of the cap? I'm back in Surrey now. Dave.

 

[Dave M]

Thanks for the photos, Dave, at the Hall of Memory. I was in Birmingham yesterday and left the Library at 10.50 to see people assembling for the dedication of a Garden of Remembrance. I am in your first photo, a chap on the far left, leaning back, wearing a baseball cap, and taking a photo. I have added just one photo of the official dignitaries, otherwise I think you have the event well-covered. Were you wearing a blue cap with a red poppy on the left-side of the cap? I'm back in Surrey now. Dave.


Dave yes that was me, I do remember you Dave

 

[Dave M]

​Few pics for Dave

 

[postie]

They said it was the war to end all wars, but we all knew they lied
They said you'll come back as Heroes but most of my comrades have died
They said we would have the best of everything but we never did
They said they would be right there with us but the leaders ran and hid
They said it wouldn't last long: it would all be over in less than a year
They said they were suffering too, but I never saw one shed a tear
They said the Germans were the enemy, they called them Nazis or the Huns
They said they were animals, but they too were were Fathers, Husbands or Sons
They said We were winning and that what we did would be remembered forever
They said our appalling conditions would get better, but of course they never
They said lots of things which they believed were true, but they were lying
They said we were all brave, but you don't feel brave when your mates are dying
They said when this was over, war would never again raise its ugly head
They said we would all live in peace, it never happened, but its what They said

 

[mw0njm.]