General Chat

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/poppy-appeal
Each year the nation shows its support for our work through the Poppy Appeal.

Every poppy helps us to support the British Armed Forces past and present, and their families.

The 2013 Poppy Appeal launched nationally on Thursday 24 October.

Thinking of all our Relatives that fought such a brave fight to give us this freedom we now enjoy.

This year will be special for me as I am undertaking a project to find about all the young men who died in our local town ready for next years Centenary exhibition held by our Local History Society of which I am archivist. Such sad stories with parents losing sons and even more sad the poor Mother and Father who had 5 sons fighting and only one returned.

RIP. <3

My three uncles were all in the same regiment, all fighting on the beaches of Dunkirk.

One was taken prisoner of war at a later date.

One was discharged due to his injuries, then he signed up again!

The last went into the side of a mountain, and was not found for months.

Just one family who suffered, but there were thousands of others far worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e4jqTF6aks

This video includes a reading of the poem 'In Flanders Fields' by Lt. Col. John McCrae and the well known excerpt from the poem 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon.

LEST WE FORGET

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2491760/Harry-Drinkwaters-lost-diary-Great-War.html

"Harry Drinkwater joined a 'Pals Battalion' when the war began in 1914
He was sent to the front lines and suffered the grueling realities of war
His diary entries, never before published, tell of his hellish existence caked in mud, deprived of sleep and endlessly confronted by the deaths of his friends"

Copied frrom a thread from last year

"On a cold November Sunday morn, an old man sits a while
Looking though old photographs, he can’t help but smile
They’re all there, all the boys, with hair cut short and neat
Uniforms of khaki, strong black boots upon their feet.
They met as strangers but soon became like brothers to the end
Smiling at the camera, there could be no truer friends.
They all took the Queen’s shilling, went off to fight the hun,
Soon learnt the pain of loss once the fighting had begun.
So many never made it home, lost on foreign shores
Many more were injured and would be the same no more.
The old man’s eyes mist with tears as he remembers every face
Each of his fallen brothers and the killing which took place
He proudly dons his beret, his blazer and his tie
For today he will remember the ones who fell and died.
On his chest there is a poppy, a blaze of scarlet on the blue
He steps out into the cold, he has a duty he must do
Once at the cenotaph he stands amongst the ranks
Of those who marched to war and those who manned the tanks,
He bows his head in reverence, as the last post begins to play
And he wonders what will happen at the ending of his days
Will anyone remember? Will anybody care?
About the lads so far from home whose life was ended there?
I wish that I could tell him, that he should fear not
For this soldier and his brothers will NEVER be forgot
We owe a debt of gratitude that we can never pay
And this country WILL remember them, on each Remembrance day. "

Maria Cassee

Not just the fallen but those who were ill, tied to a pole who were shot dead and concidered cowards.(((((((

In grateful remembrance of (2nd cousin x1 removed) Flight Sergeant William John Tucker, Royal Australian Air Force. Born Adelaide, Australia 1917, died Munchen Gladbach 1943 whist piloting a Lancaster out of RAF Wickenby, Lincs.
Also, (1st cousin x1 removed) Private Harry Robert Blythe, born Landwade, Suffolk 1895, died Jerusalem, Palestine 1917. Commemorated on the Jerusalem Memorial, Panel 16.

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today"

http://www.burmastar.org.uk/epitaph.htm

Remembering my 1st cousin once removed, John Brace (1918~1944). Sapper, Royal Engineers, Attached to the Royal Army Medical Corps.

John was one of those lost in the sinking of LST-420 on 7/11/1944.

LST-420 left Dover on 7 November with a party of airmen, trucks and supplies for RAF personnel in Belgium. It was unable to enter the port of Ostend because of a severe storm and the captain decided to return to England. The ship was still within sight of Ostend when it hit a mine, split in two, and sank. Fourteen officers and 224 other ranks were lost. Only 31 were saved. It was the greatest loss of lives on a British landing craft during the war. Many of the casualties were buried at Ostend and at Blankenberge cemeteries in Belgium. Above the wreck today is a marker buoy "LST 420.

In memory of all that have suffered as a consequence of conflict.

Lest we forget

for my uncle Stephen taafe pictured left who was killed three weeks after marrying

sally w <3

Remembering all the members of our family who gave themselves for us. Also for all the soldiers that I am researching as part of a local WW1 Remembrance Project.

R I P brave men <3

To the memory of all those who sacrificed their lives and all those who still suffer as a result of the injuries, physical and mental, they received as a result of war and conflicts - along with other members of this site I salute you all <3

To those that made the sacrifice in the distant past, those that are suffering at present and those who will be there for us in the future.

I will remember
<3

My brief sweet life is over,
My eyes no longer see,
No summer walks, no Xmas trees,
No pretty girls for me,
I've got the chop, I've had it,
My nightly ops are done,
Yet in another hundred years,
I'll still be 21.

In memory of my father Flying Officer J.W.Lynes aged 28, and the rest of the crew of Lancaster ED347 who lost their lives over Holland in Dec 1942. RIP

Also my second cousin, Captain Michael Trelease, who died of wounds in March 1945 aged 26. RIP

our GR poppy's a bit late this year :-( :-( :-(

In grateful and everlasting memory of all who made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of freedom

http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.