Agree 37 days is excellent.

IanS

Well I watched it because it was advertised on the BBC. The force did not appear to be with the Emperor on this occasion.

Which one -there were 3 or 4 if you include Eddy, although in Europe he was only a King.

IanS

Quote from: ianrs54 on 09 March 2014, 04:18:59 PM
Which one -there were 3 or 4 if you include Eddy, although in Europe he was only a King.

IanS

Unfortunately, in Europe, as every else, in 1914 he was a corpse!   He died in 1910. Bearing in mind Hapsburg funeral rituals, there are no titles when you are dead.

Mollinary

Emperor Palpatine of course.

There was a prog on the other night -BBC4 I think- that was all about how war photography was viewed by the governments and military top brass of Britain and Germany during WW I. The Germans positively endorsed it all through whereas the Brits took the opposite view. No Press were allowed with the army and after the unofficial truce of Christmas 1914, they issued an order banning cameras from the front which was issued at the front so any newcomers didn't know about it. Then in 1916 they put out a blanket ban on all unofficial cameras. There were still cameras used though even though the subject matter became slightly more sensitive as if the photographer had become disillusioned with the whole thing. They concentrated on two collections -one from each side- and this trend was visible in both sets. The modern two met up somewhere on the Somme battlefield and it transpired the two original photographers were only two miles apart at one stage.
  In another part of the prog there was a man who worked on the bins back in the 70's and had a collection of medals, pictures, booklets and other paraphernalia people had thrown out that he had rescued just before it got crushed. It got my goat about the stupidity of some people.
It was bot fascinating and moving at the same time. Amazing.

All schoolchildren should learn about the effects of both WW I and II on society and ways to stop it ever happening again. Sometimes, when I read about any war, but especially the last two, I have a little tweak of conscience about how I balance my hobby with what I know about the effects of war.

Why don't politicians ever listen to the ones that fought, they are the only ones who know what it's like. If they did we might get somewhere. Unfortunately both memories and effects fade with each generation.

Okay, that's enough philosophical verbiage.

Quote from: Subedai on 16 March 2014, 11:01:34 AM
...
All schoolchildren should learn about the effects of both WW I and II on society and ways to stop it ever happening again. Sometimes, when I read about any war, but especially the last two, I have a little tweak of conscience about how I balance my hobby with what I know about the effects of war.
....

Wargaming with models, not computer games, is one of the best ways to teach the school children about war. Listerning to my son when he was about 13 talking to his mates about D-Day really made clear to me how little most know and how much he had learned through wargaming.

My father served in 2 Btn, East Yorkshire and landed on D-Day so we built up a force based on a company of his battalion supported by 13/18th Hussars and Centaurs. For the Germans we did a Panzergrenadier company from Hans von Lucks Regiment of 21st Panzer Div. He prefers to play the British which leads to the comment, "be careful with that infantry or you will kill your Grandfather", from me.

What a great idea, I'd become a History teacher tomorrow if that were the case.

In this instance, ignorance is most definitely not bliss. Makes you worry for the following generations and how enlightened they will be on the major historical issues.

Sorry, gone all maudlin again...and without alcahol. Hmmm, I wonder what Ma Subs is putting in the tea???

One of my most moving experiences was attending the 80th anniversary commemorations at Ypres on the 11th of November 1998. The whole day was very special, ending with the Last Post at the Menin Gate. A colleague and I had been given a day off school for the event as we were to spend the short afternoon after the ceremony laying wreaths and placing poppy-decorated crosses at all the graves of the school's fallen that we could find in the immediate area. It was a day of cold, bleak weather and we read out each old boy's entry from the roll of honour as we marked his grave. I'll never forget it.

What a memory that is, something to cherish.

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago. I used to be the go-to person for charity and community work for a big retail company and in that capacity I was invited to the Soldiers Ward at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Brum. The incredibly positive attitude of the servicemen who had lost a limb or limbs was such an eye-opening and humbling experience that it knocked the everyday, mundane problems that myself and the vast majority of people have right into touch.

On the other side of the coin, I was once on a bus in Brum and to honour the 2 minutes silence the driver pulled over just before 11 and stopped the bus. Even after he explained why he had done so some middle-aged tw*t wanted the driver to carry on. It was only because he got such a round of f**ks from everyone on the bus who basically told him to sit down, shut up and show some respect that he did, but he was still moaning and even threatened to report the driver.  

It's not just the young who need educating, there are a fair few ignorant older tossers who need re-educating as well.

I had the experience of being shown the cave on a Free State farm where my then in-laws' grandparents had taken refuge when the Brits came to burn the farmhouse and take the inhabitants to the camps. Even as a quarter Boer myself, I felt very self-conscious as an English speaker.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26654314

And the war is still killing people!