Genealogy Forum UK

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someone owt to tell them were not celerbrating but remembering them that made great sacrafices

and we also have some goverment prats and the usual do gooders saying something along the same line

if winston was around he would be reversing his victory sign to them

I do not have a feeling of euphoric pride and sense of victory that my nation won the First Word War. Second yes I see that as a superb victory, but the First, no. This war was a horrible war, its not seen as a victory, how can it be?

I do not think many people do, especially once they start looking into it more. For myself I found out a number of my relations were killed in this war. I was driven to read up about the two brothers, Alexander and Allan HEATH who were in the civil service and joined the London Rifles. The Civil Service regiment was involved in a number of bloody and infamous actions, including the attack on High Wood and Butte de Warlencourt, where one of them was killed aged 20, his body never found. Reading the description of the attack he died in was heart breaking, one prong of attack was mowed down with only a couple of men surviving before they had gone a few yards. I wonder if Alexander was in that, or maybe he was in another group which made it to the first line of defences only to be blown to bits by grenades thrown on them.

The Germans are totally wrong if they think we are celebrating, commemorating our troops and remembering their heroic actions, but I dont see anyone jumping up and down waving flags. No doubt the Germans will also be remembering their soldiers and the heroic things they did as well, just as the New Zealanders, Australians, Americans, French and most other nations will.

AndrewA wrote:
The Germans are totally wrong if they think we are celebrating, commemorating our troops and remembering their heroic actions, but I dont see anyone jumping up and down waving flags. No doubt the Germans will also be remembering their soldiers and the heroic things they did as well, just as the New Zealanders, Australians, Americans, French and most other nations will.

Well said Andrew! Remembering being the operative word

This article is interesting http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 94103.html
The difficulty is also that for the Germans WWI can't be separated from WWII and all that happened then. Who can blame them if they want to focus on post-war unity? And lets remember that this is reported by the Telegraph and the Daily Mail who are likely to have picked on one iffy sentence in a whole conversation.
I have always supported the Poppy appeal but I find that I do so with mixed feelings now because it is so obviously being misused by politicians and others (not the money, obviously, but the publicity).
Low-key and local events for 2014 would be more suitable, I think, than hauling the Queen to Glasgow (now why would that be?) and involving other heads of state as seems to be the idea.

There are many noteworthy incidents from the war that should be remembered - the Christmas day football match for one. Individual courageous acts should also be remembered - because what the soldiers were really fighting for was their mates, and not really fighting the germans as such.

I'm also of the view that if we don't remember the past then we're doomed to repeat it.

gardener wrote:This article is interesting http://www.spiegel.de/international/eur ... 94103.html
The difficulty is also that for the Germans WWI can't be separated from WWII and all that happened then. Who can blame them if they want to focus on post-war unity? And lets remember that this is reported by the Telegraph and the Daily Mail who are likely to have picked on one iffy sentence in a whole conversation.
I have always supported the Poppy appeal but I find that I do so with mixed feelings now because it is so obviously being misused by politicians and others (not the money, obviously, but the publicity).
Low-key and local events for 2014 would be more suitable, I think, than hauling the Queen to Glasgow (now why would that be?) and involving other heads of state as seems to be the idea.

i think thats a total disgrace that a nation would rather bury its head than try to identify the remains of the solider that are buried and allow them to be interned with some dignity and respect, as the average soldier just follows orders ?

Its quite simple for me , we are not celebrating a war , we are morning for the ones that died.

dudleytaylor wrote:Its quite simple for me , we are not celebrating a war , we are morning for the ones that died.

and hoping we will never have to repeat the experience!