REMEMBRANCE DAY
With Remembrance Day coming up in the UK the following is an extract from a diary left behind in the trenches by a Glasgow pall on the second day of The Battle of the Somme:-
“So many died yesterday, but they tell us that we are winning. They tell us that we will be victorious.
They tell us that every day.
God, I am so afraid!
This morning we, my palls and I, will go “over the top”. I am not stupid. I know we will die, either in no-man’s land under the machine guns and the shells, or on the wire that still holds strong before the German trenches.
I don’t want to go, but then neither do any of my palls, but we will go. We will go because we are told to go and because we cannot let our palls down.
Pray for me Mother. Pray for me father. Your son will not be coming back home.
Tell my sisters that I love them.
Tell pretty Mary at number 135 that on my next leave I would have asked her to be my wife. Tell her to find a good man, in a reserved occupation, and cling to him.
Goodbye my loved ones all.”
This diary was found stuffed behind part of the bracing of a deep trench by a fellow soldier on the fourth day of the battle. He kept it until 1920, when he managed to find someone who understood enough English to translate the details and the address scribbled inside the front cover.
This Belgian ex soldier then had a letter written in English, describing where and when he found the diary and why he had kept it so long and posted it to the address on the front cover.
The words are those of my great,great uncle. He died on the second day of the Somme, aged just 19.
Throughout time frightened soldiers have done their duty. Have gone “over the top” and died. This has happened on all sides. The common (are these people really so common or are they remarkable people?) soldier has never had a choice. Well led or badly led, they have done their best and many have died or, sometimes worse, come back maimed in body or mind.
At 1100 Hours on 11th November I, unlike most UK nationals, will stand to attention, silent for 2 minutes, in remembrance of all the lost of all the wars, regardless of what side they were on.
I like to think that if I was joined by a few more, perhaps the losses might be less in the future.
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I also lost a great great uncle on the Somme …I have his medals and his name.
He is not forgotten.
A lot of aussies stand to attention for one minutes silence at the 11th hour on November 11th. I too lost a great uncle on the Somme aged 21, I have his war records, he had been sick and insisted he was well enough to go to the front which he did. Two days he was killed, the same day his nephew, my father was born. Dad had his name, I will always remember.
Your relative must have realised that he, and others, were lambs to the slaughter. I don’t believe any of us can for one minute, imagine the sheer terror of knowing, not believing, but knowing, their life would soon be over. All wars are a sometimes necessary evil,but there is something so horrific about the Great War, in my opinion, that always makes me want to say sorry. Where did society start to go wrong after they sacrificed their lives and why did we let it. It is why I get my backside out of bed early and go rattling my poppy tin. It is the very least I can do. A beautiful and moving post Way.
The memory of those who died in that war or any war is truly honored by your monograph. It is fitting and heartfelt. Thank you for sharing your very personal thoughts with us here.
Very sad and thought provoking , thanks for sharing .
Very sad Way… thank you for that…ann
So very moving, with thanks to you for your blog, and in remembrance of those who died that we may live
We should never forget the dead of the ‘Great’ War-or of any other conflict in which young men, the flower of their nation, gave up their lives so that those who came after
could live in freedom and safety. I think you might find that a great many of us silently pay their tribute to our war dead….but thank you for reminding us of the debt we share, Way