11/11/11 and 100 years on to 11/11/11

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Rob2

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At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918 the guns were silenced , the guns of “a war to end all wars” .

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 2018 we will be silent .

I have no words .


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.

By Maria Cassee
 
It’s not forgotten in Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and in many other countries where it forms a central part of the national collective memory.

The Second World War has never eclipsed its importance in these parts of the world. Indeed WW1 is considerably more important to Turks, Middle Eastern people (because of Sykes-Picot), French, New Zealanders and Australians than WW2, in many ways. For Germans, its obviously particularly poignant because it precipitated the rise of Nazism (i.e. with the Treaty of Versailles).

Only in the U.S, really, and Russia (because the 1917 Revolution overshadowed it) has it been neglected. Ireland perhaps too (but WW2 is even less remembered in Ireland, since they fought in WW1 as part of the British Empire but not in ww2).

But your right, in the field global history it proved to be the most consequential of all conflicts. No other war has changed the map of the world so completely and indelibly.

A planet that had been controlled by huge, multiethnic empires since the Bronze Age was almost overnight transformed into one dominated by a preponderance of nation-states; Christian civilisation reached a nadir from which it has never recovered (what Pope Benedict XV called in 1914 the “suicide of civilised Europe”) and millions of people were either killed, maimed or left with permanent trauma. Practically every problem in the Middle East today, involving border disputes, can be traced back to decisions made after Franco-British victory in the Middle Eastern Front of WW1.

And, of course, we’d never have had Hitler or WW2 if the Great War hadn’t broke out. WW2 was really just a continuation of WW1, at least in the European theatre, with a 20 year armistice in between.

Quite simply, the world of 1918 was not the same that had entered the war in 1914. It certainly killed all innocence and naivety, the great utopian dreams of the 19th century.
 
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This morning at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month much of the UK became silent .

At 11o’clock our priest rang the bell as a signal for us to stand in silence in union with the nation before Mass began .

The processional hymn was Abide With Me .


In London, the Queen led the tributes , thankfully joined by the President of Germany , President Frank-Walter Steinmeier .

 
Very moving. May we never forget the lives lost, and may we never repeat.
 
After 23 years of service and 4 in combat, Happy Veteran’s day to all/
 
As it turned out, our Music Director (who is a retired Marine MSgt and former 1st trumpet in the President’s Own (Marine Band) played a lovely “Taps” just before the processional, and we had our moment of silence then.

D
 
That is beautiful. We are in a military chapel. We sang America the Beautiful.
 
13pollitos said:
That is beautiful. We are in a military chapel. We sang America the Beautiful.
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The downside was that the MD picked the National Anthem for the Processional. Really? 😮

(I was on Mary’s Side, where the American flag is, and I think I was the only one rendering honors.)

D
 
My grandfather fought in WWI and was severely injured during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. I grew up listening to his stories.

He lived long enough to receive the Legion of Honor medal when France awarded it to all living Allied soldiers at the 80th anniversary of the war.

I have that medal, his Purple Heart (awarded retroactively because it was not awarded during WWI), and a compass he took as a souvenir from the first German soldier he killed with his bayonet.

He hated war and thought that anyone who voluntarily goes to fight was nuts.
 
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At sunset in my city they rang the Cathedral bells. I went outside and prayed a rosary for the dead.
 
Yes, let’s not forget to pray for the repose of their souls, as well as those souls who may still be in Purgatory.
 
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