V-Flyer

When the guns fall silent, the battle with disability, trauma and bereavement begins for so many. Our duty to remember them!

Respect to all of our troops oo) oo) oo)

900,000 reasons

Petmadness wrote:Respect to all of our troops oo) oo) oo)

Ditto from me

buns

OK, I live in a neutral State but

oo) oo) oo) oo) oo) oo)

oo) Top post oo)

^) from me too xx
oo)

In Flanders fields, the poppies grow ........ greatest respect to all our troops through the ages ...... thank you guys.

International Hitman wrote:In Flanders fields, the poppies grow ........ greatest respect to all our troops through the ages ...... thank you guys.

x2 oo)
Great Picture too

They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.They went with songs to the battle, they were young. Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.

At Passchendaele through the gas and shells, we stumbled through the jaws of hell, how can a mother say your Father fell, in a town that she can't even spell ........

Just bringing this thread to the fore as its Remembrance week-end

just another like here ......

On September 7th 1920, in strictest secrecy four unidentified British bodies were exhumed from temporary battlefield cemeteries at Ypres, Arras, the Asine and the Somme. None of the soldiers involved were told why. The bodies were taken by field ambulance to GHQ at St-Pol-sur-Ternoise, where their bodies were draped with the Union Flag and sentries were posted. Brigadier-General Wyatt and a Colonel Gell selected one body at random and a French honour guard stood by the coffin overnight.
On the morning of the 8th the body was laid in a specially designed coffin made of oak from the grounds of Hampton Court. On top was placed a Crusaders Sword and a shield on which was inscribed 'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 For King and Country'.
On the 9th of November the Unknown Warrior was taken by horse drawn carriage through Guards of Honour, with the sound of tolling bells and bugle calls, to the Quayside. There it was saluted by Marechal Foche and loaded onto HMS Verdun bound for Dover. The coffin stood on the deck covered in wreaths and surrounded by the French Honour Guard.
On arrival at Dover the the Unknown Warrior was greeted with a 19 gun salute, normally only reserved for field marshals. He then traveled by special train to Victoria Station, London. He stayed there overnight and on the morning of the 11th of November was taken to Westminster Abbey.

The Idea of the Unknown Soldier was thought of by Padre, David Railton who had served at the front during the Great War and it was the Union Flag he had used as an altar cloth at the front, that had been draped over the coffin. The intention was that all relatives of the 517,773 combatants whose bodies had not been identified could believe that the Unknown Warrior could very well be their lost Husband, Father, Brother or Son.
On the morning of 11 November 1920, being the second anniversary of the armistice that ended World War One, the body of the Unknown Warrior was drawn in a procession to the Cenotaph. The new war memorial on Whitehall, designed by Edwin Lutyens, was then unveiled by George V.

At 11 o'clock there was a two-minute silence, and the body was then taken to Westminster Abbey where it was buried at the west end of the nave. To the surprise of the organisers, in the week after the burial an estimated 1,250,000 people visited the abbey, and the site is now one of the most visited war graves in the world.

The text inscribed on the tomb is taken from the bible (2 Chronicles 24:16):
'They buried him among the kings, because he had done good toward God and toward his house'.

Today whilst we remember those who have given their lives for Queen and Country, please also spare a thought for those whose battle never ends, those suffering from both lifelong mental and physical trauma.

Hounds for Heroes thanks all those who have given their life or part of their life so that we may be free.

"At the going down of the sun, and in the morning. We Will Remember Them..."

Brilliant summary, thanks Cloudscudder, first heard this song in a bar in Shanghai, think it sums up the carnage of WW1 really well, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0ZreQkoUBc

thank you for posting that CS. The tomb of the unknown warrior is indeed a very special place to be able to visit.

Sat and watched the ceremony as usual this morning, standing for the 2 minutes silence, tears running down my face as usual, now sitting here, lump in throat, trying not to cry at CS's post about the Unknown Warrior.
Collected loads of poppy seeds from my garden over the summer and took them up to the new roundabout at the top of our road first thing this morning and scattered them all over it, whilst thinking of all those who have lost their lives or limbs for my country, God Bless them all - fingers crossed for a good show of the poppies as a reminder, next year.

My father served in Burma, he was only 16, (he apparently lied about his age) but he also only had one eye from the age of 6. No-one in his family ever understood how he got through the medical, let alone accepted at that age and with only one eye. He would never talk about Burma, but I have always had the greatest admiration and respect for him and appreciate all he and his comrades gave for us.