Remembrance Day Memories and Thoughts...

I saw these messages on our Western Canadian chat forum www.agriville.com and thought it should be highlighted here for others to share their respect to our veterans.

Joe

I just watched the movie Passchendaele ... again. I highly recommend that everyone sees this. Every year at this time I go back into my family history research, and read over the war records of my great grandfather, and great uncles. If anyone here has had family involved in WWI, there is an incredible amount of information available online. You can search soldier's war records, and have copies mailed to you. You can read the diaries from the front kept by commanding officers. Reading the war diaries is a sobering thing to do, and they should be more widely read. They should be taught in schools, for that matter. It really puts things into perspective to read these.

Soldiers do not talk about what happened to them during war. We have found out so much about our family members many years later that no one knew. One of my Great Uncles was at the Battle of the Canal du Nord. The war diaries tell of how they started on day one with over 500 men, and by day three, when my great uncle was shot, they were down to about 100 men, and no officers. That's 400 dead in less than three days! He never spoke of it. This battle broke the Hindenberg Line, and started what became known as the Last Hundred Days, which was the winning of the war. He never spoke of it. He carried shrapnel in his shoulder for the rest of his life.

Today we can not imagine a war like this. We really have no idea of what sacrifice is, and how much we owe to those who give so much for us.

So take some time to remember all those soldiers past and present who put their lives on the line for us.

Kato

per posted Nov 11, 2009 12:37
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Here, Here, my wife's granddad came home from Vimy. Never ever talked about it and when asked became silent. They fought so we can have privileged lives. Thank you to our military.


wilagro posted Nov 11, 2009 14:42
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I have read some of the war diaries and they never fail to evoke a great feeling of sadness that mankind can be so stupid as to wage war and destroy so many lives.


gustgd posted Nov 11, 2009 22:24
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Kato
Where online can you find out war records or diaries
I have a interest in this and wonder about best practices?


per posted Nov 11, 2009 22:55
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gustgd, there is a thread on Ranchers.net in Political Bull by burnt that has a very good and sad WWII story from a diary of a POW in Germany. Worth the effort to look it up.

kato posted Nov 11, 2009 23:23
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There are all kinds of ways to find them. The archives of Canada has a super website.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-1000-e.html

Click on "search the databases" and it will lead you to a database of soldiers as well. If you have a regimental number, you can order a copy of their military records.

There is really good site called the Great Canadian War Project. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/firstworldwar/025005-1000-e.html


kato posted Nov 11, 2009 23:26
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That last link is wrong. My computer locked up and I couldn't change it. The proper link is http://www.canadiangreatwarproject.com/

There is all kinds of information to be found online. The thing is that one thing leads to another, and once you start researching, it's very hard to stop.


grassfarmer posted Nov 11, 2009 23:46
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I have a book written by an old guy that we used to rent pasture from in Scotland which gives a fascinating look at the war from the "other side". This guy was from a German farming family and was conscripted at the start of WW11. His father was the sole survivor of 5 brothers, the other 4 all killed in WW1. Anyway he joined up and spent some time on the eastern front before becoming a prisoner of war and being sent to Scotland to work on farms. He finished up marrying the farmer's daughter at the place he was billeted at after the war and continued farming there into the 90s when I knew him. Like his father's generation he was the sole survivor of 3 sons due to WW11.
It's quite a moving story and especially because I knew the guy quite well - he was the nicest old man too, genuinely a family that didn't want to go to war, just farmers caught up in events at that time.