For the Fallen, 11/11/1918

[King Kareoke]

It's called the Menin Gates.

after the slovenia v Norway match in Arnhem in Euro 2000 me and my mates paid a visit to the war museum there. Fascinating stuff.

As we were pushed for time 3 of us had to leave to catch the ferry but the other 3of my mates were pushing onto amsterdam so they stayed to have a look around the cemetary.

I spoke with them when we all got together again after the torunament and they said that there was a special Jewish part of the cemetary that left them fighting back tears.

Arnhem was the scene of some ferocious and of course famous fighting and although I cant remmeber the whoel story the allies suffered a lot of casualties.

As I said on the first page my Great Uncle also died on HMS Hood. He is still very much in my family's thoughts even to this day. I believe they found Hood in the icy waters off Iceland.

I think fate dealt a hand in sealing the final resting place of The Bismarck. It nearly made it home...but not quite. The bismarck survivors said that they didnt realise the enormity of what they had done until they staretd to be huinted by what appeared to be half the Royal Navy.

elation at sinking Hood gave way to a sober thought that they might not make it home...and so it proved.

RIP.

Arnhem was one of the disasters - lost a hell of a lot of men when apparently intelligence had suggested there was a tiger division waiting. It was inferred that there was no tactical reason for it either.

Whilst inter railing in Austria/Germany we visited a concentration camp- I was staggered and I have never heard 6 people so quiet after that - very disturbing and shocking

 

[Texas]

My Dad's brother was killed over France in 1944.

He was 20 when he died and his entire "OPS" flying career lasted 14 days.

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That reminds me of a scene from The Dawn Patrol (itself a RFC version of Journey's End IIRC) when David Niven's eager kid brother shows up ready to fight the hun, with a grand total of 14 hours flying time.

My old man was a Lancaster pilot in WW2, as usual he never told any combat stories just all the mucking about with the lads. Since he died in 1982 I'll never get first hand from him the real story of fear and how they must have been counting the odds whenever they had the briefing before an operation, wondering how many of them wouldn't be back. They all just thought it was the right thing to do, throw themselves in the firing line to stop the Nazis from taking over. Kids these days should be pounded on the head with this history to remind them how lucky we all are to not have to go through that.

I've also been to the Menin Gate at Ypres, and the countless cemeteries all over Belgium, and I've visited Dachau too - we have to remember these atrocities were committed only a couple of generations ago, it wasn't Attilla The Hun or Genghis Khan, it was in my Mam's lifetime.

RIP to all who fell, hats off to all who served and survived.

 

[Kevin Arnott's half broth]

Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread - My kids came home today and told me they didn't have a two minute silence which I thought was disgusting. I've brought my two up in the knowledge that November 11 should be remembered every year and I hope that they do long after I'm gone.

If you ever get the chance, a visit to any of the war cemetarys in Northern France, especially the WW1 ones, is the most moving experience you'll ever have .

 

[Epping]

should you find yourself in Ypres then the Menin Gate is a must.

At 8pm every evening the local fire brigaed come to the menin gate and sound the last post. It is one of the most moving events you will ever experience

On special occasions such as Armistace day then generally the forces take over this role..

Ypres is a lovely town rebuilt in part aftert the Great War and has a lovely square surrounded by Bars.. the lace market dominates a lot of the square an upstairs is an excellent museum...

A you stroll around you will happen across Cemetries..some with only a handful of graves but all in Immaculate condition. although sounding Macabre it is enjoyable to walk around them and is very contemplative...

I haven't been to the area for a while but I'd advise it to anyone

 

[Bri]

2nd Battalion Irish Guards
27th November 1917 Bourlon Wood, Cambrai

They led of at 6:20 behind their own barrage, in two waves; No 1 Company on the right, and No 2 Company on the left, supported by No 3 Company and No 4. Everything was ready for them, and machine-guns opened on well-chosen and converging ranges. Almost at the outset they met a line of enemy posts held in strength, where many of the occupants had chosen to shelter themselves at the bottom of the trenches under oil-sheets, a protection hampering them equally in their efforts to fight or surrender. Here there was some quick killing and a dispatch of prisoners to the rear; but the Wood offered many chances of escape, and as our guards were necessarily few, for every rifle was needed, a number broke away and returned. Meantime, the Battalion took half-a-dozen machine-guns and lost more men at each blind step. In some respects Bourlon was like Villers-Cotterets on a large scale, with the added handcap of severe and well-placed shelling. A man once down in the coppice, or bogged down in a wood-pool, was as good as lost, and the in-and-out work through the trees and stumpage broke up the formations. Nor, when the affair was well launched, was there much help from "the office with the compass" who was supposed to direct the outer flank of each Company. The ground on the right of the Battalion's attack, which the Coldstream were handling, was thick with undestroyed houses and buildings of all sorts that gave perfect shelter to the machine guns; but it is questionable whether Bourlon Wood itself, in its lack of points to concentrate upon, and in the confusion of forest rides all exactly like each other, was not, after all, the worst. early in the advance, No 2 Company lost touch on the left, while the rest of the Battalion, which was still somehow keeping together, managed to get forward through the wood as far as its north-east corner, where they made touch with the 1st Coldstream. Not long after this, they tried to dig in among the wet tree-roots, just beyond the Wood's north edge. It seemed to them that the enemy had fallen back to the railway-line which skirted it, as well as to the north of La Fontaine village. Officially the objective was reached, but our attacking strength had been used up, and there were no reserves. A barrage of big stuff, supplemented by field-guns, was steadily thrashing out the centre and north of the Wood, and, somewhere to the rear of the Battalion, a nest of machine-guns broke out viciously and unexpectedly. Then the whole fabric of the fight appeared to crumble, as, through one or two of the many gaps between the Battalions, the enemy thrust in, and the 2nd Irish Guards, hanging on to their front line, realised him suddenly at their backs. What remained of them split up into little fighting groups; sometimes taking prisoners, sometimes themselves being taken and again breaking away from their captors, dodging, turning and ducking in dripping copices and over the slippery soil, while the shells impartially smote both parties. such as had kept their sense of direction headed back by twos and threes to their original starting-point; but at noon Battalion Headquarters had lost touch of the Battalion, and patrols that got forward to investigate reported that there was no sign of it.......

They came out of the Wood on the evening of the 27th one hundred and seventeen strong.......

The Irish Guards in the Great War
Rudyard Kipling

My grandfather was present on this day and happily survived, of course. His brother, my great-uncle Jack was killed, he has no known grave. He had been awarded an MM only three months previously.

All the Irish in the Great War were volunteers as there was no conscription in Ireland.

God bless their souls.

 

[Daithi]

Isnt it sad that The Irish Government never really commemorates the hundreds of thousands of Irishmen that died in both world wars, just coz they were fighting for England.