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[Lizzie Zoom]

Yesterday, today and tomorrow I will remember with great sadness that 100 years ago my brave Great Uncle Private Walter Frank Edwards (Wally), 13369, 53 Coy., Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), aged just 37, was killed on 30th July 1917 at Ypres. He was wounded, went to a dressing station, but was lost to the putrid, flooded, stinking mud, with no known grave.  He is remembered on tablet 56 at the Menin Gate, Ypres.


Just 12 hours later the Third Battle of Ypres commenced, in an overall campaign we now know as PASSCHENDAELE; in Flanders Fields the bloody battle that lasted from 31st July to 10th November and cost the British 448,000 casualties, 150,000 of whom were killed  Re: British War Office; Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War (1922).

Thus these losses went towards the overall British loss that historians calculate are up to 772,000 dead.

Let us all remember them, as I remember my Great Uncle

In Flander fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields

John McCrae (Died of illness 28 January 1918, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France)

[Andy B]

Lest we forget .....   

[Bigron]

We all know the futility of war, yet we still do it.......

Ron.

IN MEMORIAM TO ALL LOST IN WAR: te salute

[Mister Rog]

I am always grateful for being possibly one of the first generations that has never had to personally fight or risk death or mutilating injury in a war. It is so hard to imagine having to go "over the top" often with such a poor chance of survival. 

[Lizzie Zoom]

I am always grateful for being possibly one of the first generations that has never had to personally fight or risk death or mutilating injury in a war. It is so hard to imagine having to go "over the top" often with such a poor chance of survival.

e

AT dawn the ridge emerges massed and dun
In the wild purple of the glow'ring sun,
Smouldering through spouts of drifting smoke that shroud
The menacing scarred slope; and, one by one,
Tanks creep and topple forward to the wire.
The barrage roars and lifts. Then, clumsily bowed
With bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear,
Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!
Siegfried Sassoon

 

[ronnyd]

In almost four months of battle how much ground was gained. Not much i would say. What a waste of young lives.

[Lizzie Zoom]

In almost four months of battle how much ground was gained. Not much i would say. What a waste of young lives.

Under 5 miles, which in Great War terms was more than usual!

The Battle of the Somme, which lasted 5 months from the 1st July to 18th November 2016, cost over a 420,000 British casualties, 19,000 killed on the first day alone, for a gain of just 7 miles.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Forward he cried, from the rear
And the front rank died.
The generals sat
While the lines on the map
Moved from side to side.

I imagine most people will recognise this. It had quite an impression on me when I first heard it as a 14 year old. Summed up the futility of many wars perfectly.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

A documentary on the Great war, presented by Paxo, is just starting on BBC2.

[Lizzie Zoom]

A documentary on the Great war, presented by Paxo, is just starting on BBC2.

I have seen so many of these documentaries ever since I saw the first in 1964 by the BBC; The Great War.  I have read many books, spoken to many of those who served in it when they were still relatively young, and studied the subject at university as I still do most days.

The message is still the same to me; still one of a huge waste of life as empires fought for their superiority in an age when the ruling classes felt they were above everyone else doing no wrong; the working class were expendable, and war was the only answer when you could not agree, even though 37 days of wasted diplomacy in June / July 1914 had failed to make leaders see sense.  It has taught me how this was the beginning of the end of that way of thinking; the reign of the empires were coming to an end; the people were going to gain a superior, but still imperfect, democracy.  On the way though, after 9 million had died in the Great War, and due to that fact, one further act had to be played out; 60 million dying in World War II.

Figures and facts are frequently re-jigged by historians and observers alike; new documentaries, books, and general discussion continue apace, but the harsh facts stay the same; the futility of war.

[ronnyd]

Us and Them, A great track from an album of great tracks Migv6

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Possibly the greatest album ever made. 

[ronnyd]

You are probably correct.