Respect for the Fallen.

[PeteXXX]

I'm riding into Hamtun Town for the Remembrance Parade.
Fully waterproof as the forecast isn't the best! ☔

🏵️

 

[Time Waster]

Hacksaw Ridge was in TV again yesterday. Classic war film but about a brave man who would not kill. Bravery doesn't need a gun and we should honour those brave people who served without guns or killing as much as those who did the killing imho.

 

[ianrauk]

Hacksaw Ridge was in TV again yesterday. Classic war film but about a brave man who would not kill. Bravery doesn't need a gun and we should honour those brave people who served without guns or killing as much as those who did the killing imho.

Great film. Pretty gruesome in parts.

 

[matticus]

I found this story of the unknown soldier quite moving.

https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/blog/the-story-of-the-unknown-warrior/

Indeed. I read that a couple of weeks ago ; a real "things I've only recently learnt" moment!

 

[wiggydiggy]

My local parade was later in the afternoon and I was going out so missed it, I caught the tail end of the one in Leeds though as that was my ride today.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Taken at the town's war memorial garden area this afternoon. The council have spent a fair amount of money on doing up the paths around the memorial and placing a few new benches. I noticed this one today. I knew this lad. I was in the same secondary school year as his elder brother, who went on to have a long career in the Royal Marines, reaching the rank of sergeant. His younger brother Brian was 2 years younger than us, so he must've been 18 or 19 when he died. He died as a result of an accident when preparing for the return of a jet fighter. According to reports he was hit by a very big chain they use to slow the jet down as it lands on the aircraft carrier.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I went into the cemetery yesterday and noticed the R.B.L hadn't put poppy crosses on the graves of the fallen servicemen of both world wars. For the last few years they've put them on, on Remembrance Sunday which is equal to putting your Christmas decorations up on Boxing Day, seeing as after Remembrance Sunday it all ends, but this year nothing at all.

 

[PeteXXX]

Hamtun Town's parade, precipitating it down on my ride in, but the rain eased at about 10:55 so the 2 minute silence, observed by all but two people standing there having a chat. There was quite a decent turn out but not as many as previous years when the weather was better.

The actual parade was in the dry, which was good.

🏵️

 

[Drago]

I missed it Pete, didn't feel very well yesterday.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Back in 1941, even though the air-raid alarm had sounded my father and his father left home together, to go to work in Vickers (guns) on the night shift, the bombs started to fall, a land mine land exploded across the road from were they were waiting for a lull in the bombs, grandfather was killed instantly and my father went to hospital for stitches in his thigh and back. He was back at work the very next night. Both men made a sacrifice, as did many others out of uniform, for the country, yet the organisation I will not mention doesn’t seem to think them worthy of remembrance.* not even allowing civilian deaths to be recorded on war memorials.
That is why I won’t wear a red poppy, among other reasons like for instance perpetuating the “lions led by donkeys” myth and the glorifying war that seems to be creeping in more and more.
Want to argue? Take it up with the rack of medals I will be wearing, including the spray of oak leaves on the ribbon of one.

*Or didn’t at least until fairly recently, can’t bring myself to look at their website.

My Grandad was on the railways during the Birmingham blitzes; he didn't get recognition then either, in fact there were some people who thought he was getting it "easy", by travelling on ammunition trains and shunting in marshalling yards during air raids.

 

[Andy in Germany]

One grandfather was on the railways, the other served in an non-combatant role; as far as we know this was his way of balancing his pacifist beliefs with his understanding of how evil NS ideology was. I don't recall him ever attending a remembrance day parade.

I'm glad of that now, living in Germany with a Japanese wife; our family is a good example of what the allies were fighting for.

Right now, not repeating the mistakes of the time would seem to be the most respectful response

 

[Time Waster]

One grandad served on the trains running from Southampton port to London, a popular last choice / opportunistic target. The other served in the US army in reserve for D-day. D-day was his birthday and he was very lucky to be able to celebrate it in England before going over. He didn't say much but what he did made it sound like he didn't actually see much service.

As he was an honest and respected soldier he ended up military police. It sounds like he was controlling traffic rolling through. He did get close to one of the death camps and was in the area when it was found. He got to hear about it when panicked officers got them all to move away back to a fowards base or somewhere similar because they feared what seeing the camp inhabitants would do to the soldiers.

Out of the two, my train driver grandad was the one who had the held back emotion when talking about what he saw. Makes me think he saw more bad things than my army grandad. War has many forms, not all at home escaped the worst of it.

 

[Reynard]

My other grandad was in the Belgian resistance during WW2. By day, he was the accountant for the municipality of Bredene-aan-Zee, but out of hours, he was part of a cell that used to smuggle military intelligence from Ghent to England. Because you were only allowed to travel 5 kilometres from where you lived, he took serious risks in a) obtaining travel documents from the Germans and b) travelling to and from Ghent with documents sewn into the turn-ups of his trousers. He was a machine gunner in the Belgian army in WW1.

 

[Accy cyclist]

My war horse, purple poppy animals in war remembrance brooch arrived today.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I've just watched this. Very moving indeed. Why they haven't been granted posthumous pardons is beyond me. Most were volunteers and volunteered below the supposed allowed at the time fighting age of 18.