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  1. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by thegent
    Fiji is just another failing state teetering on the edge of corruption, racial discrimination and incompetence. That some of their men elect to fight as journeymen in the British forces and occasionally distinguish themselves is neither here nor there in the scheme of things. Just because one of them had the capacity for endurance and loaded a 22 pounder until death tells us nothing other than that he was prepared to fight beyond what many were capable of. So what? Do you still feel the same way about Macedonians simply because of Alexander the Great? The whole remembrance orgy is a working class thing and most folk with any nous realise it for the irrelevance it truly is. To the victor belongs the spoils and 'twas ever thus. Still, I can well understand why the lower end of British society, and others, do love all this military tosh. It gives hope to all those talentless, lumpen oiks with nothing to contribute in peace time that they do serve a higher purpose, even if it is simply as cannon fodder.
    You seem so well happy with life that i envy you... psss.

  2. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by thegent View Post

    The whole remembrance orgy is a working class thing
    Sorry old chap, but you couldnt be any more wrong.

  3. #28
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    Wars

    Having read some of the posts made I just wonder just where some of these people are coming from.
    War and the destruction and misery it causes to anyone involved is not romantic but utter sheer purgatory. No one is ever the real winner, it is not like the movies, as for the descenters about British and American intervention through out the centuries (I will admit mistakes were made) yes in many cases their present FREEDOM of speech and actions has evolved because of this intervention. I just fervently hope that these people, who seem to dismiss others sacrifices, never have to face the same situation.

    Services of remembrance such as this should never be abandoned as irrelevant they should remind all nations of the futility and misery of any war in the long run.
    Also the need for vigilance by every one to see that predatory maniacs can never prevail again.

  4. #29
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    Hundreds to attend funeral of war veteran who died alone

    Hundreds of people are to pay tribute to a war veteran they did not know on Armistice Day after he died without any close friends or family to attend his funeral
    War veteran Harold Jellicoe Percival


    Hundreds of people are expected to attend the funeral of a war veteran they never knew after it emerged he died with no close friends or relatives.

    Harold Jellicoe Percival, a distant relative of Spencer Perceval – the only British prime minister to be assassinated – worked as part of the ground crew for the Dambusters raids during the Second World War.

    He died last month aged 99 in a nursing home at the end of October. His funeral service is to be held at 11am on Armistice Day.

    Mr Percival, who served as ground crew with RAF Bomber Command, never married, had no children and has no close family members able to attend the service at the Lytham Park Crematorium, Lytham St Annes, in Lancashire.

    However, those involved in organising the funeral say they have been contacted by veterans' groups and other military supporters keen to acknowledge Mr Percival's career.


    Edmund Jacobs, of Roland L Whitehead and Daughter funeral directors, said: "We're hoping a few faces will turn up and show their support for a war hero.

    "It doesn't sit well with me that somebody who has served their country can be forgotten about, that his service can go unnoted.

    "I am sure he would have had a few stories to tell."

    Appeals for mourners to attend the funeral appeared on social media sites Twitter and Facebook after a short death notice appeared in a local paper.

    The notice appealed for service personnel to attend the funeral service.

    Mr Percival was one of four siblings but lived a "nomadic lifestyle" after leaving the RAF at the end of the war.

    His nephew, David Worsell, said: "He was a private man, he worked in Australia for a number of years as a decorator and would visit England for holidays.

    "He travelled around England with only his backpack.

    "He didn't have a postal address, he just used to get everything sent to my mother's address and would go through it when they met up."

    Relative Mr Worsell is unable to attend the service, but his son – Mr Percival's great nephew – will represent the family.

    Mr Worsell said: "My uncle would be very surprised at the attention this seems to have received and the number of people wanting to attend.

    "What with him being a very private person, forming long-term relationships didn't seem to be part of his make-up.

    "He didn't really speak about his military career but he perhaps wished he didn't leave the RAF at the end of the war.

    "But he was a free spirit."

    Mr Percival lived in Penge, south London, before joining the RAF.

    He was based in the north west of England and became part of the ground crew which helped with the Dambusters, the squadron which was initially formed to destroy dams in the Ruhr valley in Nazi Germany.

    After working in Australia, he later retired to England and lived at the Alistre Lodge Nursing and Care Home in Lytham St Annes.

    He was a distant relative of former British prime minister Spencer Perceval, who was shot dead by a bankrupt broker, John Bellingham, as he entered the House of Commons, in 1812.

    Matron Janet Wareing said: "Harold was a lovely character, very strong-willed and independent.

    "He was quite a private man, and he loved reading his Daily Telegraph every morning.
    "We have already been contacted by military veterans who are intending to come, even though they have never met him.

    "We've been told one group is looking to bring around 200 people to the service, which would be fantastic."

    Davis Boothman, secretary for the RAF Association Layland branch, said he would ring friends and colleagues in an effort to gain additional support.

    He said: "We normally do try and make a showing at these times.

    "It is important that we remember people like Harold – they are part of us."
    The service takes place at 11am on Monday, at Lytham Park Crematorium.

    it is right that men like this are remembered after their actions and honoured at their deaths.

    it is not so much glorifying war as realising the stupidity of both it and the pomposity and pride of the politicians and dictators who dragged countries into wars.

    it is a tragedy that those growing up dont realise how privileged they are to have grown up without being called up to fight and probably die.


    and most folk with any nous realise it for the irrelevance it truly is.
    it is far from an irrelevance.
    as they say, "lest we forget"
    history always repeats itself

    thats why it should be remembered

  5. #30
    Thailand Expat Boon Mee's Avatar
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    Happy Birthday USMC!



    May you survive Obama and celebrate many more!

  6. #31
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    #32 Very well put Brian ,you are to be applauded.
    #29 Shame on you.Why you call yourself ''thegent '' is anybody's guess ????
    You're not even fit to polish & bull my old parade boots.

  7. #32
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    A Homeless Veteran Receives A Timelapse Transformation.

    In honor of Veteran’s Day, Rob Bliss Creative produced this stirring transformation of Jim Wolf, U.S. Army Veteran. This marks a fresh start for Jim, like many other veterans in need. Take part in a charity this Veteran’s Day.


  8. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by thegent
    More Vietnamese were slaughtered by our American partners than all the British soldiery and civilian deaths since 1900.
    Utter nonsense.

    Quote Originally Posted by jamiejambos
    Shame on you.Why you call yourself ''thegent '' is anybody's guess ????
    You're not even fit to polish & bull my old parade boots.
    A pathetic old bastard he is.

  9. #34
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    ^^^^

    Sorry we missed the "other" marines regiment birthday 28 October 1664!

  10. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by pompeysbroke View Post
    Lest we forget, is it? Well, there is an entire generation growing up who haven't a clue about it and couldn't give a flying toss, not least because it has no relevance.

    It has relevance gents, as this post of yours would be written in German without it
    All the lovely myths are in this thread already. That it was about freedom. That you would be speaking German if he won. That Hitler was after world domination. What with? He had no fleet. He did nothing to try and control the French empire after France's defeat, he couldn't. You can comb his writings and speeches, and there is not a single time the desire to control the world mentioned. He didn't have issues with the Brits, and no desire to wage war on them. He had grievances with the Poles, and they were justified.

    To supply East Prussia seperated from the main body of Germany in particular with coal, the trains had to pass trough Poland. The Poles had cut the connection for years.

    The Poles conducted pogroms against the German minority in the lands that had fallen to them after WW1. About 5,000 were killed, 80,000 refugees lived in camps behind the German border.

    And they invaded another German enclave, the city of Danzig.

    The negotiation with Poland led nowhere, there was no option left but war. We have the benefit of hindsight knowing that Hitler ran Poland over and that was it. It looked differently for the contemporaries. Poland had waged war on every neighbour between WW1 and 2, and won them all. In size and population not much smaller than Germany, and it was them who had stopped the advance of the Red Army in 1923. They had a strong military and were confident, also hoped for a 2 front war against Germany with France and UK attacking from the West. They didn't. Instead, Poland was also invaded by the USSR, and curiously, neither France nor UK declared war on them.



    Hitler proposed peace to the UK and retreat from Poland more than 25 times, amongst them when he let the British corps escape at Dunkirk. Churchill wasn't interested. That's one of the guys who were more after world domination than Hitler. Stalin was another.

  11. #36
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    if he was such a peaceloving saint, then why did he organise the extermination of millions of people in death camps.

  12. #37
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    They all have corpses in the closet, the difference is which ones are talked about, and which aren't. For the last 70 years you could hear and read every other day that Mao killed off about 30 million. Maybe true, maybe propaganda, not my point. Do you even know that close to 100 million Chinese perished in wars, revolts, ethnic cleansings, colonialism, and epidemics in the last half of the 19th century, out of a considerably smaller population than under Mao? The victims of capitalism. Not mentioned anymore for agitation.

  13. #38
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    Remembrance Day is a memorial for the Great War...WW1

    WW2 has been considered as an extension of WW1....with the peace treaty being too severe and not ratified by US congress. It didn't help that the US meddled further by supplying money to Germany in order to pay war compensations.

    Too many people were killed; killed with weapons that were far too good at their job. Whole generations of folk were lost and they came from all classes, thegent appears to have forgotten that Officers paid for their commissions and were far from working class...too many famous people to mention were killed...

    As for Politicians, it appears to be also forgotten that Churchill resigned his post and did a spell on the Western Front himself. It was during this spell that he came up with the idea of the "tank". Many future PM's had served during WW1...Harold Macmillan (Grenadier Guards) comes immediately to mind due to his injuries on the Somme.

    One of the striking points that I noticed when researching my family in the Great War was the number of people with the same Christian name. Tradition in many families was to give the first, second and third children the same respective Christian names. So many of those dead included all three.....

  14. #39
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    Question Rainfall post # 39

    Rainfall I do not know where you originate from (you say expat) but you have just about rewritten the history regarding the second world war. Admittedly some of what you say is true but a lot is not.

    1) Hitler's peace with Britain
    The only reason he did not invade Britain was he did not have the where with all after the RAF had decimated Herman Guering's mighty Luftwaffa, this is not a criticism of German aircrews, they were just as courageous and skillful as our boys in blue, but of their management.
    Also his big mistake was that he did not follow through following Britain's retreat from France at Dunkirk as he was advised to do by his generals.
    Apparently, so history states, after consulting his Horoscope the stars were found not to be in alignment for a successful invasion of Britain.
    At this point Britain literally stood alone against the Naszi domination of Europe. (Some Nations simply capitulated to his whims and reign of terror). If he had crossed the channel we were virtually defenseless instead he chose to invade Russia (reneging on a peaceful non aggression pact he had with them) and opened a second front and this combined with the collapse of his allies in the south of Europe (Italy) was the real beginning of Hitler's eventual downfall. Not to mention the entering of the war by America and Canada and many of our Commonwealth Nations.

    Peace negotiations with Britain
    I refer you to Chaimberlin's visit to Berlin just prior to the out break of war - "PEACE IN OUR TIME" an agreement signed by Hitler on behalf of Germany knowing full well that if he invaded Poland Britain would come to it's aid. I think Hitler really thought we would renege on our commitments.

    Britains non aggression Pact with Poland
    Britain had a pact with Poland that if Poland were to be attacked, by anyone, we would go to her aid. Rightly or wrongly we did just that and declared war on Germany following it's invasion of Poland. That was the act which actually set the second world war in motion.

    Your final comments about France and Britain coming the aid of Poland by not declaring war on Russia over Poland is just muddying the waters. Russia was, believe it or not. part of the allied nations forces attempting to rid Poland and Europe of it's Naszi invaders (by doing so also protecting thir own southern boarders). What happened to Poland after the war will be debated far and long but basically it was the result of 'peace treaties' drawn up between the allied nations following the surrender of Naszi Germany.
    Last edited by Brown Sugar; 11-11-2013 at 05:46 PM.

  15. #40
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    Troy post # 42

    Troy. Well said and to the point.

  16. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton View Post
    Rainfall is German.
    Nothing wrong with the average German populace only members of the National Socialist Party of the 1930's and 1940's even a lot of them were gullible and very misguided and really did not realise just what they were letting lose on the world at large.

    A lot of them were poor both in finances and education and still paying very dearly for the first world war. Germany was broke and Hitler appeared to offer salvation.How wrong can one be!

  17. #42
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    11am. now UK time and Taxexile posted that now is when Mr, Percival going to be cremated.
    A lonely man, i wished i lived nearer Lytham St. Annes else i would have attended.
    Bless him and fuck all of you on this thread who have posted negativly.

  18. #43
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    The Cenotaph, London



    Some Greek fellow



    Of German descent







    Traitors Gate







    Peasants







    Afghanistan



    Bristol



    Fort William



    Malta


    We must always find time to honour brave men lost.

  19. #44
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    Great post mate, i watched it on tv. and nobody does it better than the Brits.
    No country who shed blood in the wars was omitted, just a shame that the Pakistani ambassador was allowed to lay a wreath. i'd sooner have seen Mallala represent that shit nation.

  20. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rural Surin
    Romancing war and militarism. How lovely.
    Quote Originally Posted by thegent
    Still, I can well understand why the lower end of British society, and others, do love all this military tosh.
    Not at all. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon are two of my favourite poets. They lived through the First World War and romanticised nothing. They told exactly how it was. Indeed Owen went back to the war, when he could have stayed in hospital. They were thought anti patriotic, because their poems did not romanticise the "glory" of war.

    If people can live through the likes of the situations told of in their poems, and, indeed go back to those situations and die in them, the least I can do is remember those horrors and respect those people.


  21. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by November Rain
    If people can live through the likes of the situations told of in their poems, and, indeed go back to those situations and die in them, the least I can do is remember those horrors and respect those people.
    Eric Bogle does exactly that with his sad songs of patriotism, yet sad of heroes past that shed blood for their comrades.

  22. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Lick
    We must always find time to honour brave men lost.
    What a shame we don't do the same for the ones that are alive who suffer day in day out from injuries caused by military service.

  23. #48
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    i'd sooner have seen Mallala represent that shit nation.
    her book has just been banned in pakistan schools.

  24. #49
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    Some more pics of Rememberance Sunday in London

  25. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile
    her book has just been banned in pakistan schools
    Brave girl, i'd love to see the whole shithole nation of Pakistan to be droned.
    The leadership is so wishy washy..., excuse me for off topic but i live amongst aload of muslim apologists.

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