The Somme

[THECORBYLOON]

To-day is the 90th Anniversary of the start of the Battle of The Somme. One 22-year old Lieutenant wrote to his Father the day before the battle

"Dear Father,

I am just writing you a short note which you will receive only if anything has happened to me during the next few days.
The Hun is going to get consummate hell just in this quarter & we are going over the parapet tomorrow, when I hope to spend a few merry hours in chasing the Bosch all over the place. I am absolutely certain that I shall get through all right, but in case the unexpected does happen I shall rest content with the knowledge that I have done my duty � and one can't do more.
Good Bye & wish the Best of Love to all

from

Percy "

He was killed within the Battle's first hour.

On the first day, more than 20,000 British and Empire soldiers died and more than 40,000 were injured. In the five months that followed, we suffered 420,000 casualties 125,000 of whom were killed.

On a day when many will be concentrating on a game of football, spare a thought for those brave men who fell for King and Country.........

[joko]

curiosity - yes of course we will forget and with time we will forget even more especially when there is no-one alive who can remember anyone who had any sort of connection - hence the reason for having these remembrance ceremonies - to ensure we will not forget.

of course there are loads of things that have been forgotten that really should be remembered - but it is up to us to make sure we are not the ones who let that happen

recent history will always mean more to the living than things that happened 100s of years ago - if we remembered every single battle etc that had happened over the last 1000 years we would probably have a ceremony almost daily!!

jake, my comment was just an observation, nothing more - though believe it or not actually relevant to me given that we are talking mere weeks before they both turned of age.

If your comments are more geared towards the 'powers that be' and politicians, why seem to be sneering at the general public who wish to acknowledge a great tragedy that many are old enough to have a connection to?

I agree 100% with remembering and honouring battles, and I agree that its about time that people understood and learn from these past mistakes - but you really can't expect the average person to get emotional about something that happened 300 years ago.
I would be nice if we were the sort of species/nation that did, but we are not.
it seems you are targetting the wrong people, we should be encouraging people to do more of this sort of thing not making their actions seem pointless.
your argument is a contradiction.

[brachiopod]

Have just been away this last week, and hence away from AB, but I did notice the front page of The Sportsman newspaper in the newsagent - with immaculate timing and awareness, it carried a big picture of Lord Kitchener, finger pointing, and the headline - YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS ROO!.
Ignoring the fact I was in Wales at the time, (MY country?), I was astounded by the tactlessness of this front-page on this, the very morning of commemorations marking the anniversary of such a slaughter.

[shammydodger]

Brachipod

Exactly. Talk about throwing Rooney's action into stark relief. The players stand there singing the National Anthem and then go out and act like infants.

[shammydodger]

Joko

I don't wish to take anything away from the serious of this discussion, but if you were referring to Henry Allingham as being the last survivor of the first battleof the Somme, then you are misguided. Henry, though old enough to have been at the Somme, didn't see action there. He is the only survivor of Jutland, and the last surviving founder member of the RAF.

A small matter, as Henry himself would probably agree.

God bless Henry and all his fellow combatants. And that includes the Boche. Rooney et al take note.

[joko]

shammy, all i meant is that there is only one person left alive who has any real connection to the battle - i wasn't talking about the ins and outs of his role.

my point was merely that there is barely any one left who was even alive then, let alone involved in the battle, so how can any of be expected to remember it literally

[shammydodger]

Joko

Agreed. Sorry for being too literal.

[anotheoldgit]

Makes no difference one life in 125,000 or just a single life lost in any war is such a waste. You would have thought that now we are in the 21st century we would have learned our lesson by now, but no our evil politicians still put the lives of our brave soldiers at risk by sending them out to fight other peoples conflics in countries that are of no risk whatsoever to the safety of our own people, they would be better employed patrolling own own streets, that is where the real risk is.

[jake-the-peg]

It would also be nice if we could stop using glamorising euphamisms like "brave men who fell for King and Country".

Perhaps we could cut out fields of poetic poppies too