chelstongull
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Post by chelstongull on Jul 25, 2009 21:52:29 GMT
Just seen on the news that Harry Patch, the last surviving 'Tommy' who fought in the trenches died today aged 111). Having seen him on many WWI documentary's you had to love this old guy. Very sad indeed.
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merse
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Post by merse on Jul 26, 2009 7:56:15 GMT
 To give you some idea of what Harry endured, he was a veteran of Paschendale, a battle that raged for six months, saw four and a half million shells discharged by heavy artillery; three thousand guns used and saw half a million casualties _ dead, maimed and disabled ~ significant numbers of those drowning in the appalling mud and flooding caused through the endless bombardment and heaviest rainfall for thirty years....................oh and the advance? Just five miles. Henry Allingham aged 113, passed away just two weeks ago and he was the sole survival of the naval Battle of Jutland where eight and a half thousand lost their lives, around a thousand got injured and twenty eight ships went down. Both sides proclaimed a "victory" although the British lost twice as many men and ships, the Germans never again attempted to control the High Seas. It's fashionable and easy to decry all this slaughter as pointless, but the real truth is that with the exploitive and arrogant rule of the establishments on BOTH sides of the conflict, the working classes were coerced into supporting conflicts they knew little about and the disgraceful homecoming they all received and the deprivations, unemployment and destitution so many returned to only served to underline the very real FACT that the establishment care nothing of the ordinary man as long as they can use them to underpin their privileged and exploitive hold on society. Such deprivation in Edwardian times led to revolution in Russia and Europe and a huge swing to the left in politics in the UK. Did we put it to good use? Have we learned our lessons? Did all those millions die in vain? Where do we all stand now politically? Don't some of us decry the European Union that clearly prevents such wholesale conflict happening again? Could present day policies over fuel source and the clear imbalance this country in particular suffers in the case of supply and demand and reliance on other potentially "unfriendly" sources for future supply, lead to this type of mass conflict all over again? Ask yourself and look to the past before becoming too blase about the future.
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