Centennial Of Wwi Armistice

[Katie M]

Today marks a hundred years since the end of the war that was meant to end all wars.

I thought I'd share a poem written by a soldier named Wilfred Owen, who was killed in action a week before the armistice. It's a powerful antiwar statement.

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

 

[mightyboosh]

This is on UK TV tonight and it looks amazing.

 

[denice]

My grandfather was gassed during WWI. I barely remember him. We didn't live close to my grandparents, I probably only seen him a handful of times and I was only 7 when he died. He was only 63 when he died.

 

[mightyboosh]

My great uncle, Thomas Whitham won the VC in WW1. According to family legend and when he was returning home on the train, he saw a welcoming party at the station getting ready to greet him. He didn't like the fuss of it all so he jumped off the back of the train as it slowed approaching the station. He must have sneaked home when the fuss died down.
The sad thing is he had to pawn his VC at some point and he never retrieved it. The local council eventually bought it and it has been held by a local museum ever since along with this painting.
He died in poverty aged 36.

 

[DreamerRose]

My father was just a boy during WWI. He said he gathered peach pits from neighbors for the war effort. That puzzled me for years until I learned the pits contain cyanide, which I guess was used for making poison gases.

He went on to become an intelligence officer in WWII.

 

[Katie M]

My father was just a boy during WWI. He said he gathered peach pits from neighbors for the war effort. That puzzled me for years until I learned the pits contain cyanide, which I guess was used for making poison gases.

He went on to become an intelligence officer in WWII.

Was he aware of that at the time? I can't imagine telling a child that.

 

[Q2U]

Thank you Katie M .

Here’s a post from Ernie Pyle the legendary WW2 correspondent titled “The Death of Captain Waskow “ which never fails to bring pain to my heart...

Archive » The Death of Captain Waskow » Ernie Pyle

 

[DreamerRose]

Was he aware of that at the time? I can't imagine telling a child that.

I don't think he did because I didn't understand it either, and I am sure I asked about it (I was a child myself). It was a weird puzzle that took me a lifetime to figure out.

 

[Willowy]

Was he aware of that at the time? I can't imagine telling a child that.

Of course I don't know what he knew, individually, but during the wars they were pretty explicit with the kids, and managed to dehumanize the enemy enough that it probably wouldn't have bothered him much, if at all. My paternal grandmother (who was a lot younger than my maternal grandparents) was about 8-12 during WWII, and she said she kept an ax under her bed because if she ever saw a Nazi, she was going to hack him right into little pieces! The idea of it didn't seem to bother her at all even at that age.

It is also the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht. It's not a positive thing like an armistace but it is very important to remember.

 

[aliceneko]

My great-grandfather (on my grandfather's side of the family) fought in the Battle of Gallipoli but he was injured so he had to travel back home to London. Once he recovered he was re-stationed with an at home job in Woolwich Arsenal, where he met my great-grandmother who was one of the munitions workers.
WWII affected my grandmother's family more directly than WWI so I don't really know of their WWI history as my great-grandfather on her side was blown up during the Blitz and my grandmother and her siblings were then evacuated.
After the war, my grandfather went to Israel, the then British Mandate of Palestine as part of his conscripted service where he served for a year.
Currently; my second cousin served in the British navy for almost 20 years.