Remembrance Sunday

[flakyjakey]

Today the people of Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries mark the end of the First World War when millions of young men were killed in a particularly pointless conflict. Many wear poppies but I don’t need to, I simply remember my granddad.
He was a “Boy Soldier”, one of many who lied about their age in order to sign up. The legal age was eighteen – he was just fifteen. He was lucky. Taken prisoner-of-war in 1916 he spent the rest of the war in prison camp. I often asked him about his fighting experiences but he would never tell, except to relate funny camp stories about smoking dried out, used tea when there was no tobacco and, through the barbed wire, trading soap (from Red Cross parcels) for potatoes from local peasant women. He thought it hilarious that his fellow prisoners used to coat small blocks of wood with a thin layer of soap but that when they got the potatoes those in the bottom layer were often rotten! He never revealed the horrors of that war but even in his old age he would often wake at night, screaming.
This is one of the reasons my 1914 and 1916 Barlings are so precious to me. I don’t need to wear a poppy on one day of the year. I think of him whenever I smoke one; the warm, hard hand-feel of their ancient bowls remind me of his hand when he used to hold mine as we walked to the allotment where he kept his champion racing pigeons and grew prize-winning flowers and vegetables.
My WW1 Barlings are lined up; they will all be smoked today.

 

[papipeguy]

Nice post, flaky. We should always remember those who sacrificed, in so many ways, so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have today.

One kind of funny family story is that my grandfather was conscripted into the German army in WW I at 16. He came to the USA at 20 and married my grandmother and had 3 children. When WW II broke out he tried to enlist in the US Army and asked if his sons could stay home and get defense jobs. No dice, he was told. He had to get a defense job while my father went into the Marines and my uncle into the Navy.

It turns out that grandpa would have rather fought than work. He was a patriot but also enjoyed being bone idle.

 

[tbradsim1]

My wife's Uncle who was of German heritage, father and 8 brothers came off the boat from Germany, split up and never saw each other again, one of their sons my wife's uncle fought in France , was gassed, spent his recoup in England, family did not know thought he was dead showed up on their farm a year and a half after the war. He smoked a pipe and I called him uncle Dick, I would bring him Borkum Riff in a tub from Baton Rouge and tell him jokes, fine old man, never married and was close to my wife. The joke in the family is I would tell a joke and he being of Dutch and German heritage would savor it and laugh the next day. Thank you Flakey for makeing me remember .

 

[plateauguy]

Nice post, Flaky!
My grandpa (Dad's side) served in WWI. He was gassed and suffered with lung disease to the end of his days (the cigerettes propably didn't help). My other grampa tried to get him to smoke a pipe, but he was a "roll your own" kind of guy and wouldn't change. I miss them both.
+1 Duckfat

 

[ssjones]

The worlds oldest WWI Veteran lived in this area and had quite a storied life. Frank Buckles died at 110 years of age. He also joined the US Army at the age of 15. I met him once, briefly, I'll never meet another WWI vet.

http://pershingslastpatriot.com/frank/
We're honoring my 94 year old father today at dinner. He was in the US Army for 33 years, and fought in WWII, Korean and Vietnam.
1969, Vietnam, 26th Infantry Division, he was 50 years old.

 

[nachman]

Remembrance day used to be on 11 November, but I guess as people forgot it was easier to move it to Sunday so as not to use a bank holiday. The war to end all wars would have been worth it if it had really ended them.

 

[flakyjakey]

@nachman, Armistice day was indeed 11 November. The Treaty of Versailles (The Armistice) was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 (another momentous series of numbers). In memory of those fallen, Remembrance Day has succeeded it as the nearest Sunday, hence 'Remembrance Sunday' - today.

 

[nachman]

@nachman, Armistice day was indeed 11 November. The Treaty of Versailles (The Armistice) was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 (another momentous series of numbers). In memory of those fallen, Remembrance Day has succeeded it as the nearest Sunday, hence 'Remembrance Sunday' - today.

It was changed to Remembrance Day when I was just a wee lad but it was still on 11 November where we lived. I don't know exactly when it was changed to Sunday because I was living in the States by then.

 

[crazypipe]

 

[flakyjakey]

@Teddy, as you will know the Canadians played a huge, and latterly under-recognised. part in both world wars.

 

[pruss]

Remembrance Day is a day that I spend remembering the sacrifices of others. To remember those who served to honour ideals and freedoms.
Today, my thoughts are with my maternal grandfather, Ed. Ed was descended from Hessian stock; folk who came over to fight for the British as mercenaries during the War of Independence. After the war, his people settled in German speaking communities in Pennsylvania and interbred with the Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsche, but who's counting?). Ed, and his family, were Church of the Brethren; one of the traditional "Peace Churches".
During World War II Ed was conflicted; his beliefs would not let him take arms against another human, but he believed that he had a duty to help others. Ed took part in what are known as the Minnesota Starvation Experiments, through the Selective Service Program. He and 35 others subjected themselves to studies designed to assess and understand the impact of starvation on the human body in advance of the end of the war. By 1944 it was well known that there were millions of people at risk of starvation due to famine brought on by the war (not the least of which were those imprisoned in Concentration and Work Camps in Europe and in Asia). Ed and his colleagues helped doctors understand how starvation impacted humans, and how best to help those suffering from malnutrition and famine return to health.
Ed's service was different, and is one that I choose to remember.
"They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them."

-- Laurence Binyon
-- Pat

 

[forestman]

Let me add "Amen" to many of the great comments on Remembrance. I will be silent at the 11th hr of the 11th day of the 11th month, "Lest we forget".

 

[warren]

I shall sit and read "In Flanders Fields" at least once on the 11th day of the 11th month. If you have only heard it recited, you should really sit down and read it. A pipe and a cognac are the perfect accompaniment.
"The war to end all wars," my ass! As soon as WWI ended the politicians got started setting the stage for WWII. I guess every generation gets a war.

 

[rebornbriar]

I suppose this is an appropriate time to show a Barling pipe I had last year. It was a World War I pipe owned by a member of the Anzac. Being silver collared I imagine this was an army officer's pipe. It was engraved by the soldier during WWI .
The engravings tell the story of the soldier’s war campaign. The engravings are as follows.” A.J.S.” are the initials of the original owner. “12TH L H” stands for the Australian 12 Light Horse regiment who were deployed in North Africa during WW1. The star is for Australia the sword is the symbol of infantry officers and the heart and arrow is for his longing for his sweetheart back home. “DORSET” is the town in England where the soldiers were trained and from where they departed by sea for the front. This is most likely where the pipe was supplied as it bears the London silver hallmarks.“MOASCAR” was a deployment area in Egypt. “KANTARA” is a battle front in Egypt where 1511 soldiers were killed during WW1 235 of them from Australia.

In memory of all those who have fought and died in all senseless wars around the world, arranged by the men behind desks, but fought by the men in front of them.
I suppose there is no better poem that sums up both the horror and futility of war than that by Wilfred Owen:
DULCE ET DECORUM EST

BY WILFRED OWEN
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

 

[ssjones]

Thanks Alan, what an important pipe to preserve. I had not read that poem and in the wee morning hours, found it quite chilling. I was unfamiliar with that Latin phrase and had to look it up. Over the endless centuries of war, how many soldiers and families have heard those words and thought the same?
[/quote]Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes (III.2.13). The line can be roughly translated into English as: "It is sweet and right to die for your country."

 

[timely]

 

[stbruno70]

During the Great War my grandfather did convoy duty in the Navy and was one of the very few sailors who knew how to swim.
In the Second World War he was an intelligence officer very interested in the telephone systems of the Reich which deployed the world's most advanced communications technology.
On a separate note, here is an article on the Imperial War Graves Commission and a fascinating story about the Saint-Symphorien military cemetery at Mons. By the strangest of coincidences, the very first British soldier killed in the Great War, Private John Parr, and the very last British soldier killed in that same conflict, Private George Ellison, are buried there no more than a few yards apart.

 

[stbruno70]

I suppose this is an appropriate time to show a Barling pipe I had last year. It was a World War I pipe owned by a member of the Anzac. Being silver collared I imagine this was an army officer's pipe. It was engraved by the soldier during WWI .

That is a wonderful story. Thanks for posting it.
And yes, Owen's poetry is a fine counterbalance to the war-is-glorious school of thought.

 

[rebornbriar]

Thanks guys.

And yes, Owen's poetry is a fine counterbalance to the war-is-glorious school of thought.

Yes indeed. Most of the "war is glorious" cries come from those who have never been in combat. I tend to relate more to what Owen had to say as he was directly involved in, and died in conflict.