Remembrance/Veterans Day...

[Gnomey]

As you all know tomorrow is Remembrance day. I would like everyone (as I am sure you will anyway) to take the time tomorrow to remember those that fought and died for their countries in the many wars this century (WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Falklands, Iraq etc) and in previous centuries.

Remember the Fallen. Celebrate the survivors. Never Forget.

[spidge]

Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn ,

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them.


The words are said every day however there are those that do wish to condemn 60 years hence. They fought, many died in body, many in mind, so we did not have to live under the veil of those despotic leaders who would have changed the freedom we enjoyed then, and our children enjoy today.

Lest we forget!

[sapper]

June. 1944/2004
What follows is dedicated to all those young men that never came home.

I am Brian, (Sapper) lately of 246 Field Company Royal Engineers. An Assaulting unit of the Third British Infantry Division; Monty’s Ironsides.

From the Fields of Normandy I bring back many memories.
Beneath them. I leave many friends,

For they are;
Les Fleurs de Normandie.

Les Fleurs de Normandie.

On Norman soil, they fought and died.
Now young men's graves in rows abound.
In Mother Earth's arms, now sanctified,
The fragrant flowers of our youth are found.

And yet, to rise again, as in a distant song.
Small voices that call, in dead of night.
Fleeting figures only in our dreams belong.
Alas, they fade, in dawn's bright light.

I see them yet, a sad, forgotten throng.
Shadowed, lost faces, marching on.
Over dusty roads, and high golden corn.
The call of long lost friends are borne.

We must not forget, the flowers of our days,
Lest they lay unquiet, in numbered graves.
For we lived, and loved, and life was sweet.
Still yet, for us, awaits our last retreat.

Flowers of our youth, now long since past.
Our sweet autumn days are fading fast.
We, who are left, flowered in our prime.
Enjoyed golden moments, on borrowed time.

Remember our friends, who passed this way.
For all our tomorrow's, they gave their today's,
On Utah and Omaha, Juno, Sword and Gold.
Oh! Dear Lord! See that they grow not old.

Sapper. 11-11-2005

[Gotthard Heinrici]

Here's an Irish Ballad about the Great War called "Green Fields of France"

I think the words are self explanatory


Well, how do you do, young Willie McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here dawn by your graveside,
And rest for a while heath the warm summer sun,
I've been worldng all day and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen,
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen,
I hope you died well and I hope you died clean,
Or young Willie McBride was it slow and obscene.
Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly, did they play the life lowly.
Did they sound the dead march as they lowered you down,
And did the band play the Last Post and chorus,
Did the pipes play the Flowers of the Forest.
2. And did you leave awife or a sweetheart behind,
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined.
Although you died back in nineteen sixteen,
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen.
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed and forever behind the glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and battered and stained
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.
Chorus:

3. The sun now it shines on the green fields of France
There's a warm summer breeze, it makes the red poppies dance.
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds
There's no gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard it's still no-man's-land.
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand,
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that were butchered and damned

4. Now young Willie McBride I can't help but wonder why
Do all those who lie here know why they died.
And did they believe when they answered the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars.
Well the sorrows, the suffering, the glory, the pain
The killing and dying was all done in vain.
For young Willie McBride it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

[colinhotham]

The Canadian WW2 Military Cemetery Agira Sicily.
The British and Commonwealth Cemeteries at Catania and Syracuse.

Here lie the dead of the Eighth Army who died during Operation Husky July/August 1943.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

[No.9]

<div align="center"><span style="color:#009900"><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%">The Commandos
1940-1945</span></span></div>
<div align="center"></div>
Adriatic - Alethangyaw - Aller - Anzio - Argenta Gap - Burma 1943/45 - Crete - Dieppe - Dives Crossing - Djebel Choucha – Flushing - Greece 1944/45 - Italy 1943/45 - Kangaw - Landing at Porto San Venere - Landing in Sicily - Leese - Litani – Madagascar - Middle East 1941,42,44 - Monte Ornito - Myebon - N. Africa 1941/43 - N.W. Europe 1942,44,45 - Normandy Landing - Norway 1941 - Pursuit to Messina - Rhine - Salerno - Sedjenane 1 - Sicily 1943 - St. Nazaire - Steamroller Farm - Syria 1941 - Termoli - Vaagso - Valli di Comacchio - Westkapelle.

<div align="center"><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:100%">For the 1'706</span>

"Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give without counting the cost;
to fight and not to heed the wounds;
to toil and not to seek for rest;
to labour and not to ask for reward,
except to know that I am doing your will."</div>

[jimbotosome]

Today is Veterans day in the US. We take this day to remember and thank our vets that are still with us.

Thanks Sapper. You'll do ole buddy. You'll do.

Thank Ham_and_Jam for me sapper. I don't think he shows up around here much because of me.

Thanks to any other vets here too. I don't know the list but I know there is a bunch. Could someone please append the list of known veterans that frequent this forum? Because of what they did we can come here and debate about it. Where would freedom be without those that step up when called on...

Also, hats off to those that never made it. We have to appreciate them in abstentia.

[wasman]

My thoughts are with the men and women who made it through as well as the ones that fell, always makes me angry to see the heads of our countries come out to remember, but the rest of the year they tend to forget the ones who survived but now need our help, God bless them all, its sites like this that helps us all remember.

[marek_pk]

(wasman @ Nov 11 2005, 10:45 PM) [post=41483]My thoughts are with the men and women who made it through as well as the ones that fell, always makes me angry to see the heads of our countries come out to remember, but the rest of the year they tend to forget the ones who survived but now need our help, God bless them all, its sites like this that helps us all remember.
[/b]

I agree with that. So many are left in poverty or hardship.

Marek

[Kiwiwriter]

Don't forget that we are getting new generations of veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, British, American, Australian, Polish, Ukrainian, even Mongolian. They deserve "Fit lands for heroes."