Love your videos keep them coming 😊, I'm a Royal British Legion Supporter also I support a Gurka family whose Husband Brother or Son has been killed in Action serving the British Army. All of my family were soldiers.
I`ve visited Ypres many many times, the Last post is always moving. This memorial is huge, just outside the city you can find very well preserved trenches. Visiting these can really bring home the horror of it all. Rudyard Kipling was mentioned, he lost his son in the battle of Loos 1915 just over the border in Northern France, I also lost my Great Grandfather in the same battle.
Have been here many times. My Great Uncle WT Ardin 4th Middlesex Regt KIA 15 Dec 1914 name is on the Gate. I served 25 years in the Army and 25 years as a Prison Officer. I am blessed with peaceful retirement. Not so these true heroes.
The Menin Gate is indeed "heavy" and very sobering. Last Post and then Reveille always gets to me. Have always been a Rudyard Kipling fan and his words mean a great deal, and I know that the death of his son affected him deeply. The Menin Gate, and Belgium people have really made it a most magnificent memorial to the fallen. An inescapable fact in any love of military history is indeed the cost, and what each of the lives signified. We will remember them.
Hi Mark. I totally concur, Vlogging Through History is a great cannel, he has mentioned you there too. My great uncles name is on the Menin Gate, his remains still lay somewhere in Flanders fields. The only time I ever saw may hard nosed grandmother cry was when she talked about her missing baby brother.
"Have you news of my boy Jack? Not this tide". "When d' you think he'll come back? Not with this wind blowing and that tide. "Has anyone else had word of him? Not this tide, for what is sunk will hardly swim, Not with this wind blowing and this tide. "Oh dear what comfort can i find? None this tide, nor any tide, Except he did not shame his kind-----Not even with that wind blowing and that tide. "Then hold your head up all the more, This tide and every tide, Because he was the son you bore, And gave to that wind blowing and that tide! Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem in memory of his son who was killed in WW1.
I have visited the Menin Gate because my grandfather fought at Ypres and fortunately he did survive but according to my Mum he was never the same again. He fought at Louvain in Belgium to liberate it from the Germans and on the day that happened my Mum was born so her middle name was Louvain. The Germans sacked a library that housed many medieval books in Louvain and destroyed them all with fire. I think its wonderful that a service is held every evening at 8 o'clock when the Last Post is played by firefighters from the local Ypres fire station. I can't imagine anyone having a dry eye at the end of this service.
One of my family members was first sent to fight in France in 1915 and then was sent to Belgium where he unfortunately was killed in 1917, he was with the Royal Berkshire regiment and is buried in the war cemetery, Lijssenthoek Belgium. He also has his name alongside others, on a memorial statue in the village he was from. Lest we forget 💐
Famous bereavement poem written by Mary Elizabeth Frye in the 1930s. It says that the people you love are all around you. "Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there, I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glint on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain. When you wake in the morning hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circling flight. I am the soft starlight at night. Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there, I do not sleep. (Do not stand at my grave and cry. I am not there, I did not die!)" Liveth For Evermore. 🌹
11/11/1944 my uncle's regiment, 23rd Hussars were in Ypres and they were at the Menin Gate to remember the fallen. They had no idea if they'd survive and end up as a name engraved on a column.
Years ago, there was a BBC television series called Tonight. It ran from 1957 to 1965 from 6pm to 7pm every week day. My father and I were avid watchers. Of course, the Last Post Ceremony had started up again in 1945 and had continued every evening since then, including the period when Tonight was broadcast. Tonight sent a reporter Alan Whicker, himself a veteran officer of the Rifle Brigade, to the Menin Gate sometime during the 1960s. The Last Post was played, then as now by a member of the Ypres Fire Brigade but on this occasion there was only one man and he was not wearing his dress uniform, he was in "civvies." He parked his 50cc Honda step thru, removed his bugle from the top box and walked out under the arches where he proceeded to play the Last Post. The weren't very many people there at the time and being summer, the bugler wasn't even wearing a tie. I have seen the Last Post Ceremony twice but always on a Saturday evening. It was a much more formal affair with four or five buglers in dress uniforms and deputations leaving wreaths and formal tributes. Recruits to the modern British Army are sent on a tour of the Western Front and a visit to the Menin Gate is part of the programme.
Have stood here in remembrance a few times. Once with my son a serving soldier. With my Daughter and Granddaughter Will do so again in December with my youngest son. It is the most poignant ceremony.Lest we forget.
I have visited The Menin gate but not the ceremony. There is a very good little museum there and one can totally find yourself totally immersed in it's history.
"Lions lead by donkeys" was the famous quote. Although the British Senior Staff reviewed their tactics after the Somme, introducing the "creeping Barrage" to cover the infantry as they advanced but they had used this in the Boer War so how the hell did they forget to use it again!?
I have been there a few times and our Male voice choir sang there a few times too. Ypres was flatterned and had to be rebuilt. They have done a great job,
There is damage to the Menin Gate Memorial from the fight to liberate Ieper in 1944 that evening The Last Post was played for the first time since 1940, the damage from 1944 will be repaired during the current refurbishment works. There are three cemeteries in Ieper The Ramparts Cemetery, The Reservoir Cemetery and Ieper Town Cemetery where a lot of aristocrats are buried, in the Ieper salient there are over 150 cemeteries. At certain times of the year a piper is present to sound a lament normally it is Flowers of The Forest which was played at the funeral of The Duke of Edinburgh. One November I was at the memorial there were 16 buglers and a piper.
A friend of mine told me his father won the military cross on the battle field and was promoted to Major on the Battle Field, he named his son Menin in honour of his rememberence of a very brave man and his conduct on the fateful battle
Been there and seen the ceremony.. Tear-jerker for sure. A Shame that the Indian troops memorialised there are not more recognised, especially by the Uk's Indian community, who seem to have forgotten them.
My husband and I visited Ypres in 2014 for a long weekend, we saw the ceremony whilst there, one of the most emotional and humbling things I've ever seen. Unfortunately i was ill with pleurisy whilst there so couldn't do as much as we wanted to do but would love to go back some day.
Just an FYI - Oldest continuous military ceremony would be the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.. middle ages, some say 14th Centaury (Yeoman Warders claim 900 years!) It is how they lock the Tower up at night. Lock up, march with escort, be challenged and respond, meet the main guard. Simple. Starts at exactly 9.53 pm - and ends at exactly 10pm as the clock chimes, followed by the Last Post. The ceremony has never been cancelled, but has been delayed only on a single occasion due to enemy action during the Second World War (near miss by a bomb!) 40 or so guests get to watch it.
There is a similar ceremony at the French Osuary at Verdun. The French losses were enormous, a whole generation, gone. Drive along the old front line the cemeteries are numerous. Our Commonwealth ones are the best. Every man regardless of religion and rank have the same headstone. If there was a body they had a headstone even those un identified. But every day more remains get discovered and more weapons, shells and artifacts get discovered. Frequently farmers will find craters from shells suddenly detonating, there are a number of major mines lost not yet exploded that are likely yet to explode as their explosives become more unstable. I found myself on the wrong side of a fence to minefields on Monte Cassino. A sobering experience. Also sites that received 'special' attention from the RAF, amazing the enormous blocks of reinforced concrete that have been picked up and destroyed, Tall Boy sites worst of all.
A great video and very moving. It is hard to imagine the numbers or the devastating effect of WW1 on our nation. I don't think there was a town or village that was untouched. You can travel through the UK and see little memorials in the smallest of villages with the names of the local men who were lost.
Rudyard Kipling's only son John was killed at the battle of Loos and had no known grave which greatly effected Rudyard and made him a leading exponent of honoring the missing. 2nd Lieutenant John Kipling's grave was identified in 1992. Here is a poem Kipling wrote after WW1 so unlike what he was writing before. The Children These were our children who died for our lands: they were dear in our sight. We have only the memory left of their home-treasured sayings and laughter. The price of our loss shall be paid to our hands, not another’s hereafter. Neither the Alien nor Priest shall decide on it. That is our right. But who shall return us the children? At the hour the Barbarian chose to disclose his pretences, And raged against Man, they engaged, on the breasts that they bared for us, The first felon-stroke of the sword he had long-time prepared for us- Their bodies were all our defence while we wrought our defences. They bought us anew with their blood, forbearing to blame us, Those hours which we had not made good when the Judgment o’ercame us. They believed us and perished for it. Our statecraft, our learning Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour- Nor since her birth has our Earth seen such worth loosed upon her. Nor was their agony brief, or once only imposed on them. The wounded, the war-spent, the sick received no exemption: Being cured they returned and endured and achieved our redemption, Hopeless themselves of relief, till Death, marveling, closed on them. That flesh we had nursed from the first in all cleanness was given To corruption unveiled and assailed by the malice of Heaven- By the heart-shaking jests of Decay where it lolled in the wires- To be blanched or gay-painted by fumes- to be cindered by fires- To be senselessly tossed and retossed in stale mutilation From crater to crater. For that we shall take expiation. But who shall return us our children?
hey mark my great uncle fought in world one his name was philemon he was the eldest of 6 children in 1917 he was in newport when a grenade was thrown he saved someone else's life by throwing away the grenade unfortunately he was too late he was taken to the british military hospital Zuydcoote (French Flanders) They tried to save his life, but it didn't work out, he had a letter written by the then Queen of Belgium (Elizabeth) He is buried at the British Military Cemetery in Zuydcoote he is the only Belgian buried there with honors he was 33 years old we will remember them greetings from Belgium
Mark,in your opening video,are those 2 Rugby teams the All Blacks playing the Wallibies, its over so quick, but looks very familiar to me here in New Zealand 🇳🇿
I have two great uncles that are known only to God. One died at Gallipoli and the other in Palestine. They were brothers and both had served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. We will remember them and all others.
My Grandfather fought through Belgium to Ypres and although he survived my mother said he was never the same again. I suppose PTSD was unknown back then. I visited the gate with my Husband and it was so moving I want to thank the people of Ypres for commemorating the war at 8 'O'clock each evening even on Christmas Day.
You have to remember that nothing that happened before WW1 prepared the commanders on either side for what this level of trench warfare and modern repeating weapons, especially the heavy machine guns would be like, they were making it up s they went along because most off their training and experience was obsolete almost over night. My grandmother's oldest brother's name will be on the Tyne Cot memorial as he was killed in action on 22 August 1917, one week after the cut off date for the Menin Gate. One really interesting fact about the memorial is if they identify someone whose name is on the gate (for example remains are found and idenified) then the name is removed from the gate - it is strictly for those without an identified grave. He was right, the name of the Unknown Warrior might be on the gate. The bodies that were exhumed were taken from unnamed graves on the four main battlefields, one of which was Ypres.
I tried to find my fathers as he told me when he was discharged from the army owing to the bad wounds he received, when reporting to Hounslow Barracks for his back pay they told him he had been killed in action, apparently his ID tags had been dropped near another dead soldier who had also lost his id tags so he had to get his mother with his birth certificate to prove he was the genuine person apparently this happened many times to others so somewhere there is a grave bearing his details, and to cap it all someone had to pay for the blanket the other chap was buried so my dads back pay was docked, my dad said that he had never seen anyone buried in a blanket, someone wanted to keep their books tidy, a stuff of nightmares.
So Poiniant, there is a cold reality that hits when I visit the war mamorial in my town and read the list of names of the men from my small town that perished on foriegn soil. Mark I recently watched this video, I think it wll be of much relevence to an American 'UK troops lay British soldier killed in US nearly 250 years ago to rest: It is posted by Forces News channel.
I've been to the Menen Gate Mark but haven't seen the ceremony , this was very moving . WW1 was a pointless war and a total waste of life .My grandfather fought there and was gassed , but fortunately survived although the cough it gave him eventually killed him .🇬🇧
We call it the Great War........there was nothing 'Great' about it, a whole generation of young men were lost. It scarred the consciousness of my country and we will remember them. Respectfully done Mark. I love your channel.
"One small part of a war ".......... just scratching the surface. In UK 1.9% of population killed....In France 4.6%. British TAOR about 250 miles. French TAOR 1000 miles. I hope Peronne and Verdun are on your list. TAOR.....Tactical area of responsibility
Has your Exprenditent haver come and showed Respect to the Fallen. No he did Not 1 .he has Zero Empathy for the people who actually made Western Society possible. 😕.
My last visit to the Menin gate was 8 years ago, no matter how many times you go you cannot fail to be moved by the whole experience, for me as a retired soldier i could hear those men laughing and joking but also crying and weeping.
Love your videos keep them coming 😊, I'm a Royal British Legion Supporter also I support a Gurka family whose Husband Brother or Son has been killed in Action serving the British Army. All of my family were soldiers.
I`ve visited Ypres many many times, the Last post is always moving. This memorial is huge, just outside the city you can find very well preserved trenches. Visiting these can really bring home the horror of it all. Rudyard Kipling was mentioned, he lost his son in the battle of Loos 1915 just over the border in Northern France, I also lost my Great Grandfather in the same battle.
Wow
Have been here many times. My Great Uncle WT Ardin 4th Middlesex Regt KIA 15 Dec 1914 name is on the Gate. I served 25 years in the Army and 25 years as a Prison Officer. I am blessed with peaceful retirement. Not so these true heroes.
I have been fortunate to attend this ceremony many times and it always brings tears.
The Menin Gate is indeed "heavy" and very sobering. Last Post and then Reveille always gets to me. Have always been a Rudyard Kipling fan and his words mean a great deal, and I know that the death of his son affected him deeply. The Menin Gate, and Belgium people have really made it a most magnificent memorial to the fallen. An inescapable fact in any love of military history is indeed the cost, and what each of the lives signified. We will remember them.
We WILL remember them
Hi Mark. I totally concur, Vlogging Through History is a great cannel, he has mentioned you there too.
My great uncles name is on the Menin Gate, his remains still lay somewhere in Flanders fields. The only time I ever saw may hard nosed grandmother cry was when she talked about her missing baby brother.
Really? Wow cool. Do you remember which one...I missed it.
@@MarkfromtheStates now you're asking, I think it was one of the videos he did on a copyright strike he had from another channel.
Thank you
"Have you news of my boy Jack? Not this tide". "When d' you think he'll come back? Not with this wind blowing and that tide. "Has anyone else had word of him? Not this tide, for what is sunk will hardly swim, Not with this wind blowing and this tide. "Oh dear what comfort can i find? None this tide, nor any tide, Except he did not shame his kind-----Not even with that wind blowing and that tide. "Then hold your head up all the more, This tide and every tide, Because he was the son you bore, And gave to that wind blowing and that tide! Rudyard Kipling wrote this poem in memory of his son who was killed in WW1.
I have visited the Menin Gate because my grandfather fought at Ypres and fortunately he did survive but according to my Mum he was never the same again. He fought at Louvain in Belgium to liberate it from the Germans and on the day that happened my Mum was born so her middle name was Louvain. The Germans sacked a library that housed many medieval books in Louvain and destroyed them all with fire. I think its wonderful that a service is held every evening at 8 o'clock when the Last Post is played by firefighters from the local Ypres fire station. I can't imagine anyone having a dry eye at the end of this service.
One of my family members was first sent to fight in France in 1915 and then was sent to Belgium where he unfortunately was killed in 1917, he was with the Royal Berkshire regiment and is buried in the war cemetery, Lijssenthoek Belgium. He also has his name alongside others, on a memorial statue in the village he was from.
Lest we forget 💐
RIP to your family member
Famous bereavement poem written by Mary Elizabeth Frye in the 1930s. It says that the people you love are all around you.
"Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.
Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
(Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!)"
Liveth For Evermore. 🌹
Very nice
11/11/1944 my uncle's regiment, 23rd Hussars were in Ypres and they were at the Menin Gate to remember the fallen. They had no idea if they'd survive and end up as a name engraved on a column.
Years ago, there was a BBC television series called Tonight. It ran from 1957 to 1965 from 6pm to 7pm every week day. My father and I were avid watchers. Of course, the Last Post Ceremony had started up again in 1945 and had continued every evening since then, including the period when Tonight was broadcast. Tonight sent a reporter Alan Whicker, himself a veteran officer of the Rifle Brigade, to the Menin Gate sometime during the 1960s. The Last Post was played, then as now by a member of the Ypres Fire Brigade but on this occasion there was only one man and he was not wearing his dress uniform, he was in "civvies." He parked his 50cc Honda step thru, removed his bugle from the top box and walked out under the arches where he proceeded to play the Last Post. The weren't very many people there at the time and being summer, the bugler wasn't even wearing a tie.
I have seen the Last Post Ceremony twice but always on a Saturday evening. It was a much more formal affair with four or five buglers in dress uniforms and deputations leaving wreaths and formal tributes.
Recruits to the modern British Army are sent on a tour of the Western Front and a visit to the Menin Gate is part of the programme.
Have stood here in remembrance a few times. Once with my son a serving soldier. With my Daughter and Granddaughter Will do so again in December with my youngest son. It is the most poignant ceremony.Lest we forget.
I have visited The Menin gate but not the ceremony. There is a very good little museum there and one can totally find yourself totally immersed in it's history.
"Lions lead by donkeys" was the famous quote. Although the British Senior Staff reviewed their tactics after the Somme, introducing the "creeping Barrage" to cover the infantry as they advanced but they had used this in the Boer War so how the hell did they forget to use it again!?
I have been there a few times and our Male voice choir sang there a few times too. Ypres was flatterned and had to be rebuilt. They have done a great job,
So moving...remembering my lost great uncles and my husband's grandfather ..rest in love😢
There is damage to the Menin Gate Memorial from the fight to liberate Ieper in 1944 that evening The Last Post was played for the first time since 1940, the damage from 1944 will be repaired during the current refurbishment works. There are three cemeteries in Ieper The Ramparts Cemetery, The Reservoir Cemetery and Ieper Town Cemetery where a lot of aristocrats are buried, in the Ieper salient there are over 150 cemeteries. At certain times of the year a piper is present to sound a lament normally it is Flowers of The Forest which was played at the funeral of The Duke of Edinburgh. One November I was at the memorial there were 16 buglers and a piper.
A friend of mine told me his father won the military cross on the battle field and was promoted to Major on the Battle Field, he named his son Menin in honour of his rememberence of a very brave man and his conduct on the fateful battle
Been there and seen the ceremony.. Tear-jerker for sure. A Shame that the Indian troops memorialised there are not more recognised, especially by the Uk's Indian community, who seem to have forgotten them.
My husband and I visited Ypres in 2014 for a long weekend, we saw the ceremony whilst there, one of the most emotional and humbling things I've ever seen. Unfortunately i was ill with pleurisy whilst there so couldn't do as much as we wanted to do but would love to go back some day.
Oh that's a bummer...hope all is good now
Just an FYI - Oldest continuous military ceremony would be the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London.. middle ages, some say 14th Centaury (Yeoman Warders claim 900 years!) It is how they lock the Tower up at night. Lock up, march with escort, be challenged and respond, meet the main guard. Simple. Starts at exactly 9.53 pm - and ends at exactly 10pm as the clock chimes, followed by the Last Post. The ceremony has never been cancelled, but has been delayed only on a single occasion due to enemy action during the Second World War (near miss by a bomb!) 40 or so guests get to watch it.
See the painting: 'The Menin Gate at Midnight'; where the ghosts of all the soldiers rise up.
There is a similar ceremony at the French Osuary at Verdun. The French losses were enormous, a whole generation, gone. Drive along the old front line the cemeteries are numerous. Our Commonwealth ones are the best. Every man regardless of religion and rank have the same headstone. If there was a body they had a headstone even those un identified. But every day more remains get discovered and more weapons, shells and artifacts get discovered. Frequently farmers will find craters from shells suddenly detonating, there are a number of major mines lost not yet exploded that are likely yet to explode as their explosives become more unstable. I found myself on the wrong side of a fence to minefields on Monte Cassino. A sobering experience. Also sites that received 'special' attention from the RAF, amazing the enormous blocks of reinforced concrete that have been picked up and destroyed, Tall Boy sites worst of all.
This is the most moving of places. I will never forget my visit.
A great video and very moving. It is hard to imagine the numbers or the devastating effect of WW1 on our nation. I don't think there was a town or village that was untouched. You can travel through the UK and see little memorials in the smallest of villages with the names of the local men who were lost.
Rudyard Kipling's only son John was killed at the battle of Loos and had no known grave which greatly effected Rudyard and made him a leading exponent of honoring the missing. 2nd Lieutenant John Kipling's grave was identified in 1992. Here is a poem Kipling wrote after WW1 so unlike what he was writing before.
The Children
These were our children who died for our lands: they were dear in our sight.
We have only the memory left of their home-treasured sayings and laughter.
The price of our loss shall be paid to our hands, not another’s hereafter.
Neither the Alien nor Priest shall decide on it. That is our right.
But who shall return us the children?
At the hour the Barbarian chose to disclose his pretences,
And raged against Man, they engaged, on the breasts that they bared for us,
The first felon-stroke of the sword he had long-time prepared for us-
Their bodies were all our defence while we wrought our defences.
They bought us anew with their blood, forbearing to blame us,
Those hours which we had not made good when the Judgment o’ercame us.
They believed us and perished for it. Our statecraft, our learning
Delivered them bound to the Pit and alive to the burning
Whither they mirthfully hastened as jostling for honour-
Nor since her birth has our Earth seen such worth loosed upon her.
Nor was their agony brief, or once only imposed on them.
The wounded, the war-spent, the sick received no exemption:
Being cured they returned and endured and achieved our redemption,
Hopeless themselves of relief, till Death, marveling, closed on them.
That flesh we had nursed from the first in all cleanness was given
To corruption unveiled and assailed by the malice of Heaven-
By the heart-shaking jests of Decay where it lolled in the wires-
To be blanched or gay-painted by fumes- to be cindered by fires-
To be senselessly tossed and retossed in stale mutilation
From crater to crater. For that we shall take expiation.
But who shall return us our children?
That's one hell of a poem!
His grief and pain in every line.
Jack has a grave now. I’ve visited it.
This guy is good. Easy to listen to. Excellent vid Mark. Very moving.
hey mark
my great uncle fought in world one
his name was philemon
he was the eldest of 6 children in 1917 he was in newport when a grenade was thrown he saved someone else's life by throwing away the grenade unfortunately he was too late he was taken to the british military hospital Zuydcoote
(French Flanders)
They tried to save his life, but it didn't work out, he had a letter written by the then Queen of Belgium (Elizabeth)
He is buried at the British Military Cemetery in Zuydcoote he is the only Belgian buried there with honors he was 33 years old
we will remember them
greetings from Belgium
Thank you for sharing this. Much respect to your Great Uncle and family.
Yes we will remember them.
Mark,in your opening video,are those 2 Rugby teams the All Blacks playing the Wallibies, its over so quick, but looks very familiar to me here in New Zealand 🇳🇿
probably...I'd have to go look but I started this channel to learn rugby during the pandemic.
I have two great uncles that are known only to God. One died at Gallipoli and the other in Palestine. They were brothers and both had served in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. We will remember them and all others.
Lest we forget.
My Grandfather fought through Belgium to Ypres and although he survived my mother said he was never the same again. I suppose PTSD was unknown back then. I visited the gate with my Husband and it was so moving I want to thank the people of Ypres for commemorating the war at 8 'O'clock each evening even on Christmas Day.
You have to remember that nothing that happened before WW1 prepared the commanders on either side for what this level of trench warfare and modern repeating weapons, especially the heavy machine guns would be like, they were making it up s they went along because most off their training and experience was obsolete almost over night. My grandmother's oldest brother's name will be on the Tyne Cot memorial as he was killed in action on 22 August 1917, one week after the cut off date for the Menin Gate. One really interesting fact about the memorial is if they identify someone whose name is on the gate (for example remains are found and idenified) then the name is removed from the gate - it is strictly for those without an identified grave. He was right, the name of the Unknown Warrior might be on the gate. The bodies that were exhumed were taken from unnamed graves on the four main battlefields, one of which was Ypres.
Personally been there with school and toured the battlefields of the first world war. Saw this ceronmey. It was very moving
I bet it was and is
I tried to find my fathers as he told me when he was discharged from the army owing to the bad wounds he received, when reporting to Hounslow Barracks for his back pay they told him he had been killed in action, apparently his ID tags had been dropped near another dead soldier who had also lost his id tags so he had to get his mother with his birth certificate to prove he was the genuine person apparently this happened many times to others so somewhere there is a grave bearing his details, and to cap it all someone had to pay for the blanket the other chap was buried so my dads back pay was docked, my dad said that he had never seen anyone buried in a blanket, someone wanted to keep their books tidy, a stuff of nightmares.
Oh my gosh
So Poiniant, there is a cold reality that hits when I visit the war mamorial in my town and read the list of names of the men from my small town that perished on foriegn soil. Mark I recently watched this video, I think it wll be of much relevence to an American 'UK troops lay British soldier killed in US nearly 250 years ago to rest: It is posted by Forces News channel.
I've been to the Menen Gate Mark but haven't seen the ceremony , this was very moving . WW1 was a pointless war and a total waste of life .My grandfather fought there and was gassed , but fortunately survived although the cough it gave him eventually killed him .🇬🇧
That must of been awful
We call it the Great War........there was nothing 'Great' about it, a whole generation of young men were lost. It scarred the consciousness of my country and we will remember them.
Respectfully done Mark. I love your channel.
I can't remember the WW1 cemetery, but there are markers with the inscription Tread lightly, a dream died here.
It's heartbreaking to think of those boys who died, it's so sad 😢
I have been at the Menin Gate twice to hear the Last Post, it’s difficult to explain what it does to you.
Some years ago I led the Parade through the Menin Gate
Awesome
My great Uncle's name is on the Menin Gate, i have a photo of it, we have the same initial, which is spooky
Yes
I'm here sir 😊
awesome
Fitz means "Bastard Son of "
"One small part of a war ".......... just scratching the surface. In UK 1.9% of population killed....In France 4.6%. British TAOR about 250 miles. French TAOR 1000 miles. I hope Peronne and Verdun are on your list.
TAOR.....Tactical area of responsibility
UBIQUE
I was a WRAC with the Royal Engineers. Still have my cap badge😊
Has your Exprenditent haver come and showed Respect to the Fallen. No he did Not 1 .he has Zero Empathy for the people who actually made Western Society possible. 😕.
The lost generation
It is so sad that your country is so corporate. So Disney.
Agreed
My last visit to the Menin gate was 8 years ago, no matter how many times you go you cannot fail to be moved by the whole experience, for me as a retired soldier i could hear those men laughing and joking but also crying and weeping.
Oh wow. Thank you for your service.
Private Thomas Glass Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry his names on the wall NEVER FORGOTTEN I've been several times
Awesome... Would love to visit