Quote:
Originally Posted by jambutty
I find your comments totally out of order blazey and a smack in the gob for any serviceman or woman. Maybe you get off with some perverse sort of pleasure in winding people up.
Like hundreds of thousands of others, when the call to arms came in 1914, my father volunteered to fight in the Great War (WWI to you) at the tender age of just 18. His ‘mucker’ was just 17 but lied about his age so that he could join up. Many kids did, some as young as 15.
He served at Gallipolis, Egypt and Europe, got wounded three times and gassed once yet after suitable hospitalisation he went back to the front. He even stayed in the army after the war ended to help sort the Russian problem. His reward – just a demob suit. 1 shirt, 3 collars, 1 tie, 1 pair of socks and shoes, 3 piece suit, overcoat, trilby hat and a railway warrant to go home and no job to go to. He like all the others was left to fend for himself.
Shortly after the outbreak of WWII he was captured and interned in a concentration camp for the duration of the war. My mother was left with two small boys (3 & 5) to bring up with no help from the government at all.
He died in 1948 at the age of just 52 (when I was eleven) as a result of his war experiences. The only help that my mother got to bring up two boys was from the British Legion and the miserable pittance called National Assistance.
In 1954 I joined the Royal Navy at the age of 16 years and 11 months and served all over the world for 13 years before being demobbed with £200 (about 12 weeks civilian wages) and a railway warrant to get me home. Not even a demob suit. I too was left to fend for myself and I had a wife and two children to support.
If the clock could be turned back, I have no doubt that my father would volunteer for Kitchener’s army, I would certainly join the Royal Navy and my brother would also do as he did and join the RAF. Why? Because we felt it was our duty to be ready to defend the country.
Bless 'em all, bless 'em all
The long and the short and the tall
Bless all the sergeants and W.O. Ones
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinking sons
For we're saying good-bye to them all
As back to the barracks we crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up my lads Bless 'em all.
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One day my generation might be looking after you lot in carehomes. Thats if the government bother funding them for you all.
I said they deserve recognition and didnt give an opinion on benefits. I dont think medals are necessary. I think thats simple enough.
The new generation of people in this country move to fast to stop and think about the old people in care homes or a past war. They have the future to think about.
If I deserve a smack in the gob so be it, it saves me going to bother remembering accy pals on november 11th in the rain just to be shouted at by the old codgers on accy web.