If you have a moment

[PAWS]

Just a second of your time especially between now and 7.30 tomorrow -Can you just spare a thought for those who were waiting to go over the top on the first day of the Somme offensive 100 years ago.
They were young men just like your brothers, husbands. Fathers and sons. One of them lived in the house I live in. He touched the same door knob I touch every day as he said goodbye to his siblings and parents for the last time.
They suffered because of the ignorance and megalomania of leaders. Please, if you are religious say a quick prayer but if not just say ‘I remember you’.
Thank you.
Pxxx

[Snoopy1948]

Re: If you have a moment

Good call ..... I've never been one to involve myself in history but as there was so much media coverage of this, I thought I'd Google this and bring myself up to speed on what this was all about.

I didn't get much past the fact that over a million men perished from both sides of the offensive.

In excess of a million men.

I suspect that if that happened today. those ignorant and megalomaniacal leaders would be facing war crimes. But then it made me think further .... what exactly has man learnt in the hundred years since this slaughter? Probably not a lot, methinks ....

[enaid]

Re: If you have a moment




http://www.historyextra.com/article/...irst-world-war

[PAWS]

Re: If you have a moment

Good call ..... I've never been one to involve myself in history but as there was so much media coverage of this, I thought I'd Google this and bring myself up to speed on what this was all about.

I didn't get much past the fact that over a million men perished from both sides of the offensive.

In excess of a million men.

I suspect that if that happened today. those ignorant and megalomaniacal leaders would be facing war crimes. But then it made me think further .... what exactly has man learnt in the hundred years since this slaughter? Probably not a lot, methinks ....

Like you Snoopy, I was once totally uninterested in this. I was subject to the usual sanitised and condensed version in school history lessons but merely glanced at the jaundiced images, sniggered at the moustaches and went back to day dreaming about half the 6^th years at the Salesian boy's school. Then one of my projects at college involved ‘Interviewing’ a very old man.
With little enthusiasm I rolled up and within minutes I was captivated. Over cups of tea the colour of teak I discovered he was one of the few remaining survivors of the first world war. I remember everything. Every last detail. He told me a story of courage and slaughter without bitterness or a shred of self pity.
I was hooked. My husband’s male ancestors were almost all military men. I have researched their careers and possess copies of their military records along with a few medals. I discovered an uncle who died in a German POW camp another who was one of the RFC ‘flyers’. I also researched the boy who used to live at my present home. He died at the Somme. Today actually.
So many forgotten heroes who just went back to being ordinary men in either life or memory. We may say the world is a terrible place now but at least we can name our dead on the News bulletins -the list is not a mile long.
Now when I take instruction from C list celebrities who can barely string a sentence together I think of these men. It is hard to listen to their struggle overcoming the trauma of not having a play station. It is hard to listen to them bragging about who they have slept without thinking ‘Get a bloody life’.
Prostitution is not the only profession where one has to grit one’s teeth and think of the money!

[enaid]

Re: If you have a moment

Don't know the last time I was so shocked and upset tbh, shocked at the pride of the men and woman and the readiness to fight. Upset as to how they were so badly let down.
Doubt I will ever hear a whistle again and my thoughts not go back to this day 100 yrs ago.
Some amazing and heartbreaking stories on tv and FB etc, brings you down to earth with a bang and count our blessings if only for a moment.
Bless 'em all for doing that for their country and us their future xx

[enaid]

Re: If you have a moment

Being me I can't forget the animals too.



Blue Cross Here's some more information about the role of animals and Blue Cross in the First World War:
https://www.bluecross.org.uk/story/r...irst-world-war