Read up on some battles today and think about what it must have been like.

[Grimace]

April 22-24 1915. Ypres, Belgium.

 

The Battle of Ypres

 

First Canadian Division

 

The Germans held high ground

 

On April 22nd after an artillery bombardment the Germans did what had never been done. They unleashed 5700 cylinders of chlorine gas. It sank into trenches and forced the Canadians out onto the open field. It was a slaughter. Somehow the Canadians held on through the night and even advanced on the Germans only to lose that position. They held position until reinforcements arrived.

 

4 Canadian men won the Victoria Cross in that Battle.

 

Ed Bellew

Fred Fisher

Fred Hall

Francis Scrimger

 

It was in those trenches at the second battle of Ypres that John McCrae wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields".

 

REMEMBER.

 

Edited to add: 6035 Canadian casualties in 48 hours.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Grimace

[outllaw]

What our forefathers went thru was totally in-humane in ww1. then came ww2. sadly we seem to honour our countrys hero,s 1 day a year.

enjoy your freedoms.

they were paid for in blood.

[bigbuck]

What happened in WWI was brutal. The conditions those men saw day in and day out was unimagineable. I've been a student of history for years and I can't understand the arrogance at the top echelons of the armies involved. The British and French high command fought the war nice and comfy in Paris living the highlife in villas, they had no clue as to the conditions that the troops lived in. The war was pretty much a stalemeate and battle of attrition. None of our vets who survived that maelstrom are still with us. May they rest in peace.

WWII was a different story, that one really needed to be fought. Once again the brutality of war was faced by our troops who, once again did their duty with honour and distinction. War is a terrible thing and I thank my lucky stars that I have never been in one and I pray daily that my children will never have to fight one.

I watched a program on TVO a couple of nights ago about a platoon of Danish soldiers and their tour of duty in Afganistan. It was very enlightening to see what was going during their time there. They faced IED's, snipers, rocket attacks, hit and runs the whole time they were there trying to help the people. This was filmed by one of the soldiers with a camcorder and it documented their off time as well as while they patrolled. My hat goes off to anyone who wore a uniform who left home to go help someone else in their battle for freedom.

[mercman]

A Company

2 Lancs Fusiliers

B E Force

10/7/1916

 

Dear Brother,

 

Your ever welcome letter to hand and I am pleased to hear that you are doing fairly well and hope that you will continue to.

 

Your place will be the same as ours at Hull for Drafts, we are waiting for one, for we had over 400 casualties on the 1st July, in fact our Division was badly cut up, and there are all sorts of rumours going the rounds. Some say the Division is going home, but that can hardly be the case. Our chaps have been in the Trenches ever since the attack and it has been terrible up to the waist, raining all the time and no place to dry ourselves.

 

Our 1st Battalion lost 750, so you will quite understand that we have been in the thick of it, it will be a good job when it is all over.

 

Our chaps come out tonight and I am making tea etc for them at the camp. I should think they will give them a good rest while they get over it. We are expecting some fresh troops to relieve us, but when I cannot say.

 

Dear Jim this is the 11th July, I had to stop the letter yesterday, but I have a little more news.

 

The Battalion got to camp between 12 and 1am this morning after being relieved and you would have cried if you could have seen the poor chaps, the greatest majority of them could not walk and had to ride, I shall never forget the sights, this is the first rest since the 30th June so you will understand what they are like and how fed up they are.

 

I don't know that I have much more to say at present, so I will conclude wishing you and yours all that I wish myself.

 

I remain your loving Brother,

 

Jack.

 

I shall never forget the Battle of the Somme

.....................................................................................................

 

The greatest failing of Mankind, is to forget.

I shall not fail.

 

 

[fishindevil]

they are all heros !!!! the past & present soldiers ....

[kickingfrog]

At one of the retirement homes I work at a veteran has typed out his story of the Second World War. I read it this week.

 

He signed up in the spring of '44 and had been shot down over Germany by November. He spent 7 days hiding in rural Germany until he was caught and spent the rest of the war being shipped around to prisoner of war camps in eastern Europe. As a tail gunner in a Halifax bomber, he and the pilot were the only survivors, although he didn't know what had happened to the plane and crew until he saw the pilot at a prisoner of war camp. The pilot thought everyone else was dead because the bombers fuel tanks had exploded.

 

He became a doctor and is now retired, we usually talk about fishing but sometimes he'll mention a bit of his war experience.

[Grimace]

Wow. That is neat.

 

My grandfather was deep in France. He was a professional soccer player in Ireland before the war. They were guarding a fuel station they had taken from the Germans. He was in charge of the group. They had lost all communication for a very considerable amount of time, no machines came back for fuel. They figured the Germans had destroyed them. Instead of getting killed by the Germans and letting them have all that fuel, he decided they would blow it all up and die killing off as many Germans as they could. They blew it sky high. No Germans showed up. The war was over and nobody told them. They figured it out about half way back to the beach. He got back to England and met and married my Grandmother who was a member of the British military. Her job when the sirens would go off in London was to run out and release the balloons. The big balloons would go up with cables attached to the ground destroying German bombers.

 

My grandfather kept a journal of his experience in WW2. His story was told with the typical Irish flare. When my mother and aunts read it out loud to us, there is always laughter. I guess they didn't stay clear enough of the exploding fuel station and got singed up pretty badly.

 

That is a funny part. I should find out which aunt has the journal and go and read it with adult eyes and maybe appreciate the heartbreaking parts of the journal as well.

[bigugli]

What happened in WWI was brutal. The conditions those men saw day in and day out was unimagineable. I've been a student of history for years and I can't understand the arrogance at the top echelons of the armies involved. The British and French high command fought the war nice and comfy in Paris living the highlife in villas, they had no clue as to the conditions that the troops lived in. The war was pretty much a stalemeate and battle of attrition. None of our vets who survived that maelstrom are still with us. May they rest in peace.

WWII was a different story, that one really needed to be fought. Once again the brutality of war was faced by our troops who, once again did their duty with honour and distinction. War is a terrible thing and I thank my lucky stars that I have never been in one and I pray daily that my children will never have to fight one.

I watched a program on TVO a couple of nights ago about a platoon of Danish soldiers and their tour of duty in Afganistan. It was very enlightening to see what was going during their time there. They faced IED's, snipers, rocket attacks, hit and runs the whole time they were there trying to help the people. This was filmed by one of the soldiers with a camcorder and it documented their off time as well as while they patrolled. My hat goes off to anyone who wore a uniform who left home to go help someone else in their battle for freedom.

In that era, generals, then, just as now, were not placed near the battleground. They were "too" valuable. They would have done their time, and faced risk, while holding lesser rank. It was the norm for that time for regimental and battalion commanders to lead their troops. The ratio of officer casualties was quite high in British and Commonwealth forces, with jr. officers having a very low life expectancy.