11th November

[Reg]

A bit late I know but appropriate never the less.

11th of November is also known as Rememberance Day, marking the end of hostilities in 1918.

Unlike the United States who bring their boys (and girls) home, the soldiers of the Commonweath nations are left where they have fallen, amongst their comrades, in a small piece of a foreign land that they have made their own.

Commonwealth War Graves Commision

Lest we forget.

[Goblin]

Reg,

I posted this on our (USA) Veteran's Day thread. I think it is appropriate to soldiers of any nationality. Its title, I believe, is CURRENCY.



Do not give medals for our death;

Where we are, we cannot know.

Do not raise flags and hold parades;

Where we are, flags don't go.

We ask but one thing of our land,

Of you who had us fight:

"Please be WORTH the blood we shed,

"Be worth the eternal night."

We are the currency you spend

For freedom, fear or oil;

Our blood, the coin you pay,

Dark on some foreign soil.





Goblin

[Knife]

I did a march on the Sunday before it as I am in the Army Cadets. My great uncle turned up and was there, the stories he tells of the Second World War send shivers down my spine at times.

He was part of operation overlord and went to the beaches of Normandy. He was buried alive for 2 days, the only way he survived was because there were some gaps for air and his arial for his radio was pointing out of the ground. When they were uncovering the dead they found the arial sticking up and managed to get him out.

Another thing that happened to him was in the battle of Monte Cassino where he fought. He has a coin of some kind (must have a been a big one) which he always kept in his top shirt pocket. A bullet hit him there and ricocheted off the coin. He still has the coin and I have seen the bullet mark in it. Without it there he would have died. Unfortunately, later on in the battle he was wounded and shot in the leg.

But he survived the war and came out with medals, must find out which ones...