Rememberance Sunday

[Over The Hill]

I tried to tune into the two-minute silence on the radio today but could not find it.



Joking aside – went to my kids school on Friday to see them do an assembly on it. Pleased to see the subject is taught still. It is all so humbling. Always pleased to put some money in the tin as the Gov do not do enough even today.



I heard most moving story about troops on the Russian front.
When they sent men to attack the Germans they only gave a rife to the ones who went over the top first as they reasoned that the ones behind them could just take a rifle from a dead comrade.

 

[Night Train]

I have always observed the 2 minutes silence ever since I studied the world wars at school. It struck me that what was asked of the men who fought in the wars was something that I could never imagine myself being able to do.

I have been fortunate to have been able to talk to a surviving soldier from WW1 and a also a Spitfire pilot from WW2. They didn't need to say much for it to have been a moving experience for me. Just the realisation that the aging and frail man before me had seen and done things I couldn't and wouldn't want to imagine, was scared witless and yet still served bravely and without hesitation.
2 minutes of my time to remember and think about what had happened, the lives that were lost and the bravery that was shown is a small thing to ask.

 

[User482]

I agree that a period of silence is the least we can do. But I'm sick and tired of hearing all this guff about men "who gave their lives for us". Let's not forget that often, these people were frightened boys, conscripted into a horror they could not possibly have had any prior knowledge of.

 

[yello]

There's a good deal of truth in what you say User482 but ultimately these men did give there lives.

 

[Arch]

I'll be on a train tomorrow, on my own so I don't know if they'll do anything about it, and I'll be silent anyway, with no one to talk to.

I had the service on the telly yesterday, I was doing some laundry, but I did stop for the 2 minutes.

I was thinking actually, how long will Rememberance Sunday go on? I know there are always more people dying each year, and I'm afraid that won't stop, but it won't be long before WW1 is a hundred years ago and eventually passes out of living memory. Will we still commemorate it in 20 years? 50? 100? But then I heard the programme on R4 about the Menin Gate, and whether they would ever stop the practice of playing the last post every night and the mayor said no, because to play it once for every soldier commemoratd, they'd have to keep going until 2 thousand 6 hundred and something...

 

[User482]

There's a good deal of truth in what you say User482 but ultimately these men did give there lives.

I agree. However, discussions with my Granddad on the subject are illuminating. He saw things at the age of 18 that I hope I never see. He served on destroyers in the North Atlantic convoys and in the Far East. His ship was torpedoed twice, and he has a piece of shrapnel in his stomach to this day, suffered when diving off the side as his ship sank. He saw Changi jail, with his ship's officers putting bullets through the heads of the prisoners, to put them out of their misery.

He says simply that he was there because he had to be, and was fighting for himself, as was everyone else he knew.

 

[Globalti]

I have my Grandad's diary from when he was in HMS Southampton from 1915 to 1918. He didn't seem to see much action, just stooged around the North Atlantic a lot. There is an interesting account of a collision with a "Hun" submarine. Lots of interesting pictures though and several of his own accounts taken from The Times, as he was the correspondent with the North Atlantic Fleet.

Some photos here:

 

[Maz]

I'm all for Remembrance Sunday and 2 minutes silence as a mark of respect. I just wish that politicians nowadays would not be so eager to send our troops into unjust (unwinnable?) wars.

 

[Hilldodger]

Nice photos.

My Grandfarther was a Cavelryman in the First War who was the only one of four men to survive being blown up when a shell landed inbetween them. All their horses died, too.

He suffered from flashbacks for the rest of his life but his Grand kids were hardly allowed to talk with him and we didn't understand what was wrong.

Now we've found out we are immensely proud of him but deeply sad we weren't allowed to get to know him better.

 

[Hilldodger]

Something that bugs me is local media having to film the 2 minutes silence.

 

[bonj2]

What bugs me about it is why is it TWO minutes silence? Who has made the decision that most people won't have thought of those that died in the war quite enough after one minute?

Do they have 2 minutes silence on the radio?

 

[Maz]

Something that bugs me is local media having to film the 2 minutes silence.

Maybe the local papers could do something similar as well...2-minutes reading's worth of blank space.

Maybe not...

 

[Hilldodger]

Well that would certainly improve the quality of the Leicester Mercury which seems to be written by children these days.........

 

[Andy in Sig]

I'll be on a train tomorrow, on my own so I don't know if they'll do anything about it, and I'll be silent anyway, with no one to talk to.

I had the service on the telly yesterday, I was doing some laundry, but I did stop for the 2 minutes.

I was thinking actually, how long will Rememberance Sunday go on? I know there are always more people dying each year, and I'm afraid that won't stop, but it won't be long before WW1 is a hundred years ago and eventually passes out of living memory. Will we still commemorate it in 20 years? 50? 100? But then I heard the programme on R4 about the Menin Gate, and whether they would ever stop the practice of playing the last post every night and the mayor said no, because to play it once for every soldier commemoratd, they'd have to keep going until 2 thousand 6 hundred and something...

It probably should never be stopped as the continuation sort of keeps it alive and prevents it from just becoming history. When you walk down Whitehall and nearby areas and see all the statues to the famous generals back to Nelson and the various other memorials, it seems right to remember them (certainly the people who fought in those campaigns thought it right) and one can only hope that we do not have reason again to add to their ranks.

 

[Arch]

Something that bugs me is local media having to film the 2 minutes silence.

Apparently there is a microphone set up at the Centotaph permanently, since it would be too much bother to dismantle it each year. So that microphone sits there all year, in order to record two minutes of silence.

Bonj, yes, it's on the radio - well it's on R4, because they cover the whole ceremony, but I think it's on the other BBC stations at least. Usually they cover Big Ben striking 11, and the first gun, and then the gun for the end. As to why it's two, I'm not sure, I guess there is a historical reason. Maybe a minute was deemed the 'ordinary' amount of silence (like you'd get at a football match if a great player died), so the WW and all the rest were deemed more important?