World War One Remembered - Passchendaele

Missed this as the Engerkand women's team were on tv. I was reading but Mr I is a fan, any footi will do. Will catch up tomorrow, thanks for the nudge Maw

I also thought it was excellent. It started slowly and I almost switched it off but then it gripped me until the end.
Especial favourites were the Warhorse bit and the Wipers Times but it was all good, after a slow start.

An excellent programme , i have been on a 4 day trip to this area , stood in the Menin Gate while Last post played , something i will never forget , tonight was very poignant for me as a friends 3 sons who are serving in the army all took part tonight and will do tomorrow

I watched it too , and found it very moving . I'd also seen Dunkirk the night before as my granddaughter had to see it for school .I'm glad that I saw both, it was a shocking reminder of the futility and horror of war .

I lost an Uncle at Passchendale.

The real monument for me to this dreadful war and WWII is the European Union not those sad tablets of stone.

Nothing is more noble than the passion to prevent a repeat of those atrocities.

I might add that his brother, my other Uncle was a prisoner of war in Japan. That mother suffered so much.

My maternal grandmothers first husband died there. Some years ago I spent some time at a regemental museum talking to a historian , the widows of these men were treated badly

It was very moving. I sat and sobbed through most of it. My family didn't have anyone at Ypres, but my Dad was involved in the D-Day landings, being a Royal Marine. He was also standard bearer for the local branch of the Royal British Legion. Seeing the standards being marched through the Menin Gate brought back memories of the many Remembrance Day parades, standing in the rain and snow outside our local war memorial. I still cannot sing O Valiant Hearts without crying.

My fathers cousins name is on the Menin Gate, aged 19. My fathers grave (26 years later,) is in Holland, aged 28, I think we so need to remember the German dead, as they were young men too.

Dear stranger, pause as you go by,
For here lie young men sent to die.
The years have passed, the grass is green
the carnage no more can be seen.
But if you dig deep you will discover,
Exactly where these boys found cover.
So stranger pause upon your way
and whisper a prayer for them today.

'also,' not 'so'!

My Grandfather spent the whole of the war (First) fighting in France, and then lived in occupied Germany for a year afterwards.This was good for him, as he saw that German people were very similar to British ones.Actually, he never had a beef with German soldiers either, he saw it as just what happens when you fight for your country.
My Father ( his son) was in the second war, but that was so different in so many ways. A cause really worth fighting for.

Roses, the messages from one of my grandfathers, captured in April 1918 was he found the Germans 'just lads, like us, they had their Kaiser, we had Kitchener'. He said they were all hungry and shared any food the Germans got, or red x parcels.
As you say, the second war was different. I'm grateful that my parents always stressed what happened in Nazi Germany could happen anywhere so we. Yet all guard against extremists or narcissists

The first WW was about Germany land grabbing and the allies stopping them. Keeping out of the war wasn't an option because had France fallen which without our help and that of our then Empire they undoubtedly would, and the the Germans managed to control the channel ports then it would have been game over for all of us as either negotiating/ starving this country into submission would have been a natural consequence and cost us dearly. The Kaiser would to his joy have brought England to its knees. They had to be stopped awful as it was, and like WW2 they wouldn't surrender till they were beaten into the ground.

the first world war was basically a family feud by all of Victorias offspring...they USED their "subjects" to sort it out ...millions died needlessly

If you read history you will see that there was a lot more to WW1 than a family feud!! and yes, my grandfather joined up in 1914 aged 24, and yes he was as gassed and shell shocked. My second cousin was killed aged 19, my great uncle also fought from 1914-1918, luckily he survived. Germany invaded Belgium and France, should we have left them to it and sat on our hands and to hell with Johnny foreigner so long as it didn't affect us - which eventually it would!

Exactly so Iam64