Type 'Thierville' into google and read the wiki entry
Yeah, they're French: they all surrendered ;D
Quote from: get2grips on 09 August 2013, 01:40:35 PM
Yeah, they're French: they all surrendered ;D
If you follow the "See also" link to the page on Thankful Villages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thankful_Villages), you'll see there are 51 civil parishes in England and Wales that lost no-one in WWI, and 14 that lost no-one in either WWI or WWII (including the ironically named "Upper Slaughter" in Gloucestershire).
Perhaps they all surrendered too?
No offence intended: I'm well aware of the sacrifices made these men. Apologies if my comment went awry :(
Quote from: get2grips on 09 August 2013, 02:10:18 PM
No offence intended: I'm well aware of the sacrifices made these men. Apologies if my comment went awry :(
Apology accepted, and for what it's worth, I'm sorry if I over-reacted. I can get very touchy about this sort of thing.
Hello
I wrote about this several days ago. Here we all know the History, and we may joke about it ;) But sometimes, in other places, it becomes.. "distressing" =)
I didn't knew about this villages.
And an old joke (and already known) so every one takes his part :D
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon,though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."
The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.
It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."
The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose."
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
Americans meanwhile - and as usual - are carrying out pre-emptive strikes on all of their allies 'just in case'.
Canada doesn't have any alert levels.
And in the southern hemisphere ...
New Zealand has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA". Due to continuing defence cutbacks (the airforce being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "I hope Australia will come and rescue us."
Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be al'right, mate". Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!', "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend" and "The barbie is cancelled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.
Very good
Derailing the thread even further :-[
I was reminded of this:
What is the difference between Heaven & Hell?
Heaven: the French are the Cooks, the Germans are the Mechanics, the British are the Police, the Italians are the Lovers and the Swiss are the Bankers.
Hell: the French are the Mechanics, the Germans are the Police, the British are the Cooks, the Italians are the Bankers and the Swiss are the Lovers.
One of the best tests of sanity is the ability to laugh at yourself. ;D ;D ;D
Can I laugh at you to check you are sane?
Me? I'm barking - always have been. 8-} 8-} 8-}
What a nice way to wake up to Sunday morning ;D. I think Northern Ireland's shenanigans this weekend may well have raised the level to 'a bit peeved.'
Its raised mine to completely f***ed off...Bunch of arseholes
I've loved that military preparedness gag since i first read it a few years ago. ;D
The poor old French do suffer from the failure of the Maginot Line eh? I guess after the horrors of WWI, the 'Allies' just desperately wanted to believe that a second war could be avoided.
I think perhaps the most amazing thing about Thierville, or the Thankful Villages, is that the number of communities that did not lose men killed can actually be counted with such small numbers.
On the other side of the spectrum, there's the monument in Khatyn, in Belarus.
The “Cemetery of Villages” commemorates 186 Belarussian villages that were destroyed during the war and never rebuilt. Each “grave” has the name of the village and an urn containing soil from the location in question.
Nearby, the “Trees of Life” name 433 Belarussian villages that were destroyed during the war years but that were later rebuilt. The loss of one-quarter of the Belarussian population during the war is represented by an eternal flame that is flanked by three birch trees.
(http://mamayevkurgan.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/belarus-291.jpg?w=800)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khatyn_massacre
To be honest, during the Battle of Verdun when the French engineers tasked with keeping the road open for supplies to the front were loosing a thousand men a day!
No French soldier was allowed to serve more than one rotation at Verdun, the conditions were so severe .
For the French, who lost over a million men fighting, to have villages where no one died really is miraculous.
Quote from: OldenBUA on 11 August 2013, 12:13:52 PM
On the other side of the spectrum, there's the monument in Khatyn, in Belarus.
The "Cemetery of Villages" commemorates 186 Belarussian villages that were destroyed during the war and never rebuilt. Each "grave" has the name of the village and an urn containing soil from the location in question.
Nearby, the "Trees of Life" name 433 Belarussian villages that were destroyed during the war years but that were later rebuilt. The loss of one-quarter of the Belarussian population during the war is represented by an eternal flame that is flanked by three birch trees.
That's very interesting, thanks for that.
At the risk of getting into a "my tragedy is worse than yours" contest, there's also the story of Lidice in Czechoslovakia. The Germans killed the inhabitants and destroyed the village, even taking away the rubble and landscaping the area so that there was no indication there had ever been a village there. Hitler had ordered that not only should Lidice die, it's memory should die. When news got out, people all over the world responded - towns and villages were renamed Lidice, people named their daughters Lidice, and in Stoke on Trent, a fund was organised - local miners (Lidice was a mining village) gave one days pay every week, and after the war, the fund was used to pay for the village to be rebuilt.
http://www.russellphillipsbooks.co.uk/lidice-and-the-unearthed-project/ (http://www.russellphillipsbooks.co.uk/lidice-and-the-unearthed-project/)