11:00 - 11 - 11 - 2011

[Cal Price]

Lest we forget.

[slipperymongoose]

We will never forget.

[yamahonkawazuki]

the normandy cemetery Eh?, GOD bless em. brave souls evry one . most got a 1 way ticket to europe. had it not been for hte intentional news drop of a fake landing elsewhere. the casualties would have been FAR higher. if i recall correctly. the allies let it slip that wed be landing quite a ways further up the coastline. most of the germans fell for it. my great grandfather hans. was a civvy photographer during those times. i have vintage black and whites. and the negatives. i love running into those people. especially when they wish to talk about it. because you may have a fear of the unknown , these guys im sure as hell were terrified as well. in the landing craft approachign the beach/coast, seeing that crap up there. shooting back at them. nothign to take cover behind. and GOD bless em they were successful  no needs a big one

[Cal Price]

Yes Yama, this particular cemetery is the US one on the southern border of Normandy where it meets Brittany, technically just inside Brittany if my memory is correct. Very near the point where the US troops broke out from the notorious "bocage"
As you probably know I do one or two such pilgrimages every year, I usually go to Ypres/Passiondalle and at least one other. They are all very moving, those WW1 ones in Flanders just by virtue of sheer numbers. In the spring of 2011 in the "Ypres salient" we visited several such places including the graves of a 15 year-old English boy and a 14 year old German lad. Both graves are frequently visited by local schoolkids.
In early Autumn Maggie (my partner) and i visited her great uncle near the Somme where the Brits took 57,000 casualties on day one. Canadians, particularly Newfoundlanders are hugely represented pro-rata to population.

For the sheer horror and scale of it all the French and Germans between them lost almost half a million around Verdun for no significant gain. For me the most moving thing is looking at the little village memorials in that area, they often have the names of small children on them, in WW1 the French took 40,000 civilian casualties as a direct result of enemy action.

I have seen many such places and never fail to be deeply moved, whatever nationality, whatever cause most of them were ordinary blokes doing what they thought was right or just caught by the tide of history.

[scratch]

Thank you for posting this, Cal.

My father went into France in '43 with the 104th Infantry, the Timberwolves.  Thank God, he came back.

[mister]

I've been working with a Vietnam Vet all week and he made sure Everyone around us remembered 

Michael

[slipperymongoose]

We had our site hooter sound at 11:11.

[Cal Price]

We, in UK, mark the 11th "Armistice day" and also the following Sunday as "remembrance Sunday" - On these occasions we remember "The victims of all wars" we come at it slightly differently from the US who "celebrate" veterans days. I guess we get to the same place by slightly different routes. As a European  I see an irony in that in most of the combatant countries of WW1 the 11th is a holiday, pretty much everywhere except Britain and Germany.

One of these days I might get to Arlington to see some of the US "greats" and to visit General Orde Wingate, seeing as my father's medals include a Burma Star.

aussiegs, the first time I visited the Menin gate at Ypres (the gate has 50,000 names of soldiers without known graves) there was a large group of Aussie  youngsters there with a handful of WW2 veterans and a wonderful band who after the last Post ceremony gave a short performance of half a dozen pieces of music ending with Matilda doing her stuff. Very moving.

[yamahonkawazuki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQd2mTDW3xU 

[Toogoofy317]

Would love to get to Arlington myself. But, been to Boston many many times. Standing at Paul Revere's grave is just awe inspiring. The Revolutionary war sites are also truly amazing. I love that town.

Mary