Annoni_mouse Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 To be honest, I object to certain newspapers in particular calling the soldiers 'heroes'. I don't regard anyone who killed loads of innocent people as a hero, regardless of whether they were forced to do it or not. So every soldier kills loads of innocent people, eh? What a peculiar view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
04jessops Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 So every soldier kills loads of innocent people, eh? What a peculiar view. Well obviously not every soldier. I just think it's shocking how men were forced to fight in WWI (apart from the ones who were let off). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nosy nellie Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 Jingoistic Bad Poetry. Please do not be little the poetry of the ordinary people. They may not be as literate as the famous war poets,but they are just as sincere respectfull and relevant,and in some cases may have experienced more. A lot of ordinary servicemen wrote about their experiences. This may have been their only way to get through the horrors of the war. Their only councilling if you like. They were not all Owens and Sassoons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica23 Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 Jingoistic Bad Poetry. Please do not be little the poetry of the ordinary people. They may not be as literate as the famous war poets,but they are just as sincere respectfull and relevant,and in some cases may have experienced more. A lot of ordinary servicemen wrote about their experiences. This may have been their only way to get through the horrors of the war. Their only councilling if you like. They were not all Owens and Sassoons. I'm sorry if I've upset you, but I do think it's bad poetry. I'd much rather read the letters and diaries of 'ordinary servicemen' than I would their poetry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted November 8, 2008 Share Posted November 8, 2008 Shame I was hoping to post the final scene from Blackadder goes Forth in the spirit of general remembrance. When I first saw it I was reduced to tears, so poignant and unexpected. I am still going to post it...........here.........It's sad and mournful and I hope nobody feels offended or disrespected by it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squiggs Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 Can't be bothered sharing my opinions with a load of idiots looking to accuse people of bigotry, jingoism and militarism just for being against the notion of war. Except to say that the ones who START the war are not the ones who fight in them. The ones CONSCRIPTED into past wars, had no say whether to go to war. THe ones who fled through shell shock or understandable fear and were shot....they deserve our remembrance and respect. And I shall be at Barkers Pool tomorrow to pay my respects to all those who put their own lives on the line voluntarily or otherwise And the reasons for each war deserve remembrance in the (seemingly vain) hope that one day, we will learn our lessons, and will stop sending people to kill their peers from another land, because someone locked away safe wanted more power. There are millions of reasons to remember the dead. And we can at least afford the fallen the honour that they deserve. But to sum up my thoughts on war....well, they are summed up better in an old song sung in the military..and it's not an "official" "march to glory" rousing number... If you want to find the general I know where he is I know where he is I know where he is If you want to find the general I know where he is He's pinning another medal on his chest I saw him, I saw him Pinning another medal on his chest Pinning another medal on his chest If you want to find the colonel I know where he is I know where he is I know where he is If you want to find the colonel I know where he is He's sitting in comfort stuffing his bloody gut I saw him, I saw him Sitting in comfort stuffing his bloody gut If you want to find the seargent I know where he is I know where he is I know where he is If you want to find the seargent I know where he is He's drinking all the company rum I saw him, I saw him Drinking all the company rum Drinking all the company rum If you want to find the private I know where he is I know where he is I know where he is If you want to find the private I know where he is He's hanging on the old barbed wire I saw him, I saw him Hanging on the old barbed wire Hanging on the old barbed wire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrobbo Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 When I was about 11, my granddad came to live with my family. This necessitated my sharing a bedroom with him. He used to have a recurring nightmare which would wake him, and me, from our sleep. Granddad had faught in World War I, and his only son (Harry, who I wrote about in my poem in an earlier post) had been killed in World War II. Granddad eventually told me what his nightmare was about. He was in the trenches on the front line in France, and had been told to go back for supplies with a few of his comrades. A German bomb exploded near them, and he was blown into a water-logged crater. Somehow Granddad managed to pull himself out of the crater, only to find that he was the sole survivor. His comrades were all dead, blown into bits. The memory of that event haunted my granddad to his death. His comrades were not fighting in any glorious war. They were not heros and they were not the "glorious dead". They simply died doing their duty for our country. I have put money in various poppy sellers collecting buckets this week, but I do not myself wear a poppy. I do not need this outward show to remember my own family dead; namely my uncle Harry, who I never knew. My mother, born on November 11, is named Poppy. I have visited my mother this weekend, and her 91 yr. old sister Eva. In our own quiet way, we have remembered Harry, who is buried in a war grave in Belgium. I have not been disrespectful to the war dead in my earlier posts on this thread. I have just objected, as did Wilfred Owen (who was killed whilst on active duty only a week or so before the end of World War I), to the glorification of war. The legacy of two world world wars still affects my family to this day and at this poingnant time of year, two old ladies have once more shed their tears for a long lost brother. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 Well said redrobbo. My Grandad fought in WW2 and came back with a DCM (see avatar) plus a shrapnel riddled body and serious mental trauma. He went away a healthy young man and returned someone else. I keep his medal to remember him by, but not necessarily his actions that won him it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrobbo Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 Well said redrobbo. My Grandad fought in WW2 and came back with a DCM (see avatar) plus a shrapnel riddled body and serious mental trauma. He went away a healthy young man and returned someone else. I keep his medal to remember him by, but not necessarily his actions that won him it. I keep my Granddad's medals for the same reason taxman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squiggs Posted November 9, 2008 Share Posted November 9, 2008 What sums up for me the PEOPLE involved that we remember, are two individuals. My father, who fought in North Africa in WWII and a friend he made years later..name of Albert. Who settled in England long after the war, but during the war served with the Afrika Korps They happened to meet each other in the late 1970s and exchanged background and history. Theirs was a reserved friendship but one of a complete mutual respect. Both knew they were the same type of person, brought up in different countries, and circumstance at the time pitted them as enemies. As many soldiers came to realise, to borrow from John McCutcheon, "On each end of the rifle, we're the same" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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