Remembrance/Armistice Day

[Jason James Gairn]

Well said

 

well said

[Andy Collins]

Aside from all the politics of war, RIP Harry Patch, the Last Tommｙ

[PeteB]

I listened to a programme about Harry Patch on Radio 4 the other day. I agree with Andy. Rest in Peace Harry, you've earnt it.

[penfold]

apparently radiohead have written a tribute song to Harry Patch which nicely links the generations i think and shows that there are people who do appreciate what Harry and his generation actually did for us.

[John Barleycorn]

My Grandfather was an ambulance driver at Gallipoli and a relative of my Mum's also fought there.

As a kid we visited him at the Chelsea Pensioners Hospital.

Dressed in his red coat & three pointed hat he only told us of the wild tortoises that they recruited, assigned ranks and that wandered around the tents with stripes painted on them. Also of being kept awake by the incessant croaking of the frogs in the marshes, driving men to fire into the ponds, which would cause them to stop for a minute.

 

He spared us any account of the true horrors of that disastrous campaign.

[PeteB]

My Mum's dad was a sniper at Ypres and Passchendale but would not talk about his experiences, neither would his wife who was a nurse. My Dad's dad was injured in a tank accident in the Italian campaign and he is the same - doen't want to talk about it. My Dad was a pilot in the RAF for some 35 years and even now we get to find out some of the "different" stuff he was involved in and he admitted that it grates somewhat to be involved in all of that to see the sponging element of society with no morals or scruples who couldn't give a toss what others have been through to allow them those privelidges!