Nothing wrong with that TJ. It will be a sad day when we can't make time as a nation to remember the horrors and sacrifices of past generations. Keeping this day will also serve to remind newcomers to this country that we should never forget how this country has rebuilt itself in the last 70 years and that we're a country of proud traditions that we're determined to maintain. Apologies if that all sounds a bit trite.
Nah mate I agree we should have a day to honour them, I just don't like the way it's 'promoted'. You definitely read that wrong BM. I never for one second said it was wrong. I live my life grateful to those who were forced to fight for this country, I don't need to be told by anybody to show my humility, although I appreciate they deserve a day, especially for them.
As usual I went down to the cenotaph at Mowbray Park..It is always very moving to watch all the veterans marching passed proudly displaying their medals..
As usual I watched the service, bought my poppies and thought about my Dad, who served in the second war, and Great Uncle who died in the first. But part of my thoughts & prayers this year were for the much maligned members of the resistance fighters across Europe. As me and our lass like to walk we've come across very many pathetic home made roadside memorials during our time in Provence and on holiday in Italy, Sicily, Sardinia & Corsica. Sadly, many of the ages of those who's names are carved into them are 17, 18, 19 year old's and the dates are almost always 1944. They died as they laid the groundwork for the advance of the Allies and took on hard bitten German troops who were literally fighting for their lives. Many were on the very edges of the Resistance but executed by retreating army & Gestapo units, out of sheer spite, because they knew they were beaten. Because of this we bought a large book on the Resistance groups across the whole of occupied Europe to better understand what went on and why they had such a poor press. One of the things that stuck in my mind was a chapter on the groups who organised 'escape lines' for airmen etc, who'd been stranded. They were spirited away through Gibraltar, Spain, France, etc, under constant scrutiny by the Germans and French militia. Punishment, for anyone helping Allied servicemen, was torture & execution. Despite this they managed to repatriate 3,000 British and, as a result, over 3,000 were captured and killed. They gave a life for everyone they helped and never gave up. So when I hear anyone ridicule any of the groups who did their bit, under horrendous conditions, I feel obliged to out the other side. Sorry for rambling on, it's just something that's increasingly on my mind as the years go by.
I went through so many Remembrance Day services during my RAF time that it is almost second nature to take in the Sunday services with sorrow and pride but more lately my thoughts turned to my grandparents and what they had to cope with loved sons away. During WW2 between two sets or grandparents they had a total of seven sons who got their papers to join up and two teenage daughters working in factories making shells and aeroplane parts.. Between the worry of that, the wartime rationing and feeding big families, alongside air raids in the early years life must have taken toll on them but they just got on with it. Britain as a nation should be proud of the whole effort that everyone made. Acknowledge our fallen by all means but they all contributed to the victory. Just a shame that some did not make it back.
I wasn't here for Remembrance Sunday, but I will be paying my respects to those who gave their all at the service at the top of Church Street (appropriate) in Seaham at 11:00 tomorrow, like I am every year on the 11th
