Club Arnage

I thought I would just add a note in here to mark the 90th anniversary of that horrific event and everyone will hopefully take a moment to think about the sacrifice of ALL who fell on that fateful day.
We always visit the graves on our way home from Le Mans just to remind ourselves how lucky we are to be living in a free and democratic world and to respect all of those on all sides who fell in battle before they had experienced any life, it is a very humbling experience. Those that have never taken the time to visit the war graves in the Somme or in Normandy should do so, you'll never regret it and you'll never forget it.

I bow my head in respect. We truly are not worthy.

Rusty


One for Canada Phil

Second that, Used to go down via Normandy from Caen and stop off at places on the way , Very humbling what the older generation done for us , I for one will never forget.....

Agree 100%. We have stopped off at a few war cemetaries on the way back over the years and it is like you say a very humbling experience. Those guys were of no age and yet they paid the ultimate sacrifice and thanks to them we can come and go throughout europe without a second thought.
As Rusty says make time for a visit, it's not much of a detour, we owe a lot to those brave men.

Rusty,
A very worthy and timely post.
I saw on the TV this week a feature about one of only 3 allied surviors of this battle. The gentleman is 110 years old.
It made me feel extremely humble.

I too have visited some of these graves. It makes me feel totaly insignificant when I am there.

Bowing my head in rememberance and with respect.

ND

I posted the Vimy picture as out all of all the memorials this as far as I am concerned is the most hard hitting. All the land around it was given in perpetuity to the Canadians, it is Canada, I no of no other nation that has taken such a battering in both wars and particularly at Falais where the Black Watch were decimated and had 6 VC's awarded.

Vimy Ridge made me cry.

Thanks Rusty,
                      Very thoughtful words. 1 July is Canada Day
One day I will make it to Vimy and surounding area.
Canada Phil

Nice to know on the news this morning that since real history has been put back on the curriculum and the increase in people tracing there family trees, there are more people than ever visiting these sites.

Just like to add my agreement to all the comments before. I was able to drive from home (Oxford) to London on Saturday morning to attend a small but non the less moving service at Westminster Cathedral that was timed to coincide with 'zero hour' (7.30) am. A whistle was blown to mark the moment 90 years before when the first wave crossed the parapet. Humbling and incredibly moving. My son (who was with me) and I left and the cathedral and made our way in the stunningly warm sunny morning (just as it had been in 1916) to the Cenotaph where we stood at the feet of the unknown soldier for a few moments and collected our thoughts while the traffic thundered by.

'Never forgotten.'

Simon.

Amen.
My Grandfather received shrapnell wounds in the Somme, came back to recover and then came back with shell shock secound time around. Brave men one and all.

There is not one person amongst us all who could be as free to enjoy our lives (and this site is proof positive) without the heroism of the previous generation. There is no end to the respect I have for all of those who gave everything for us and any opportunity to pay our respects/honour our heroes should be embraced wholeheartedly.

May we never forget!

Rusty, a fine and thought provoking memory.

Thanks for the timely reminder.

That's a reminder to the dark side of European history, let the bright side be alive for eternity. R.I.P. hate and ignorance.

Of course, all loyal men at the front on both sides, not questioning the sense or  logic of the guys behind giving the orders (who were feed by further a feild meglomaniacs) we should never forget.

stopped off at Point du hoc on way back from L/M to show the young fella who came with me the d-day beaches ...those craters must have been horific....and all such a waste, just because a few nutters think its a good idea to have a war !!!! shame they dont personally have to get their hands dirty. We all owe a lot to the brave lads who had no idea of the minceing machine they were jumping into !!!!! thats why we wear those poppys to remember all who made the sacrifice !!

I've just come back from a course, at the Edware Road Metropol.  It was cancelled last year because of the bombing.  A rare event because these men gladly did what they thought was right, and we've been able to live in peace for a long time as a result.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.

Likewise, I have visited Vimy and Rusty has it right - it is a startling, scary and very sad place - but also pride-filled and now very dignified and proud. What stunned me was how close the opposing trench-lines were to each other - and for how long the slaughter went on there.
I also visited Beaumont Hamel, Thiepval (overwhelming) and St Quentin, killing fields all.
I feel the real criminal was the guy immortalised in bronze in Whitehall (?) - Sir Douglas Haig - I often wonder why we celebrate this total lunatic. He should have been court-marshalled and executed for what he did to a whole generation of brave young men under his charge.
Edmund Blackadder put it fairly succinctly (and blackly comically) when he said that 20,000 would get chopped to pieces by machine-gun fire so that Field Marshall Haig could move his drinks cabinet ten feet closer to Berlin.
It's now hard to imagine that those beautiful rolling fields resembled th surface of the moon 90 years ago.....
 

My post has been removed by self, sorrry I strayed from the original thread, I noticed that some others had deviated slightly from the Somme context and decided to put my two cents in. Its Independence Day over here so felt like putting a word in for my great nation.  Sorry if it offended some
Fax


Thanks Fax, good self moderation - it was in danger of pulling this too far off topic which works in other threads but was not appropriate here. I've also deleted responses to Fax's post, which became out of context. smokie

Reading this thread - especially the things about Vimy - inspired me to visit Vimy Ridge yesterday whilst on my way home from the Classic.  It is truly a sobering experience to see the tunnels and trenches and realise that you are, in essence, standing in a graveyard.  So hard also to imagine what it must have been like 89 years ago when yesterday the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and there were sheep grazing in the field next to the trenches.

I think its been said before but its worth repeating, in todays age of knowledge and information very few of us would go over the top on the order order of an upper class twit 3 miles behind the line to be cut to pieces. But blieving we have that choice and enjoying a summers day in France is their legacy.

Well said, Ian

I know that this is about WW1 but last year we took the week off to spend the time in Normandy during the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of D Day.
To say it was moving is an understatement.  There was a lot of pomp and ceremony but the simple bits were the best.  We took a wreath to lay at a cemetary and agreed on Hermanville (for no particular reason).  We arrived at the beginning of the commemoration service and, after the formal bit was finished, we laid our own little wreath.  A veteran, with a chestful of medals, came up and said "what is this one for" at which point I blurted out "It's from a greatful generation' and beat a hasty retreat before I broke down completely.  A humbling and moving experience I wouldn't have missed for the world.
"The Old Git Newbie"

I have also done the d day beaches.. 45,50 & 55 aniversarys, and to see all these famous places in the 'flesh' is a humbling experience. I have seen old german and british servicemen meet at german and british cemetaries and shake hands and then sit and talk for hours.. met ranger veterans at pointe du hoq, drank with para vets at pegasus bridge and met John Steele at his bar in ste mare eglise (he was the guy hanging from the steeple in the film 'the longest day'. in fact everywhere you meet vets (in less numbers each year) and they will always talk about their experiences... those visits changed my outlook on life from being a teenager with attitude...

Partly inspired by this thread my son (18) and I took a day out of a holiday on the Normandy coast to visit the Somme a couple of weeks ago. We spent the day there making our way from the crater at La Boiselle to the point where it all ground to a halt Butte de Warlencourt a few months and many tens if not hundreds of thousands of French, German Irish and British, Canadian and Newfoundlanders lives later. (Sorry if I missed any no offence meant) We visited the Newfoundland Park and I was amazed how tiny it was, the concentration of the battle there on 1/07/16 remains unimaginable very moving. But more so was a visit to the Cemeteries at Serre. You cross a field, and walk perhaps three quarters of a mile from the main road and there are three cemeteries there. One I felt to be particularly moving. It’s one of the 'Pals memorials' and called 'Railway hollow' I went through the gate and looked down the hill into a sparse woodland. The craters made from exploding shells were clearly visible among the trees. When I looked to my right and left I realised I was standing in the remains of the front line trench. It was not pristine like so many of the areas but real. And being so far from any road and given my son and I were the only people there the quiet was extraordinary. I have never felt anything like it, even thinking of it now three full weeks later sends a shiver down my spine.

With the setting of the sun……………….
 

I don't really have much to add to this thread.  The sentiments expressed and the accounts of visits to the various war cemeteries and battlefields have been poignant and moving.

All I will ask is that those of us with kids who travel through northern Frane each year en route to Le Mans make a small detour at some time - doesn't have to be every year - to show our children these moving sites and remind them of the collective debt we all owe to the war generations.

When I first started coming to Le Mans with my father he and I made a number of visits to the D-Day beaches and the memory will stay with me for ever.

Welll done Monkey, and all the others of you have made similar pilgrmages, for taking the time out to show your son the scale of sacrafice that was made on our behalf by our recent forebears.  Shortly before his first Le Mans visit this year my 10 year old son was fortunate enough to have a school trip to Normandy principally to learn about the D-Day landings.  It won't stop he and I paying our respects again in the future though.

We must help to keep the memories alive...