Lest we forget......

[Buster Hyman]

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Thanks Pop.:ok:
#2703 Pvt. 12/6 Btn. 1455 days service.

[TheStormyPetrel]

We Australians are enjoying the freedom for which the ANZACs fought.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

[Sperm Bank]

Here, Here. Thank god there is one thing most ozzies can agree on.

[Hugh Jarse]

Spent quite a few hours last night with my dad going through (for the first time in many instances) the hundreds of photos he took in WW2 and afterwards in Japan. He has kept most of them hidden from us for many years.

Among those (many which were quite explicit and escaped the Censor) were of his service in PNG, Balikpapan, Moratai and the Middle East. Some were of his mates that did not come home....

The big eye-opener was seeing what was left of Hiroshima when he arrived with the B.C.O.F. and the futility of nuclear weapons...

After looking at his photos, I think I'm one step closer to understanding the problems a lot of Ex-Servicemen and Women face when they return from active service.

Thanks Dad.

Lest we forget....

[Felix Lighter]

H.A.M.F.F, #25496, AK Btn, NZEF, 31 Aug 1918. Aged 25.

Veteran of Messines, Polygon Wood, Broodseinde, Passchendale, Arras, Ancre & Albert.
Killed in Action on the 1st day of the 2nd Battle of Bapaume.

Your sacrifice in life and in death is remembered.

R.I.P

[kookabat]

AUS 412686 W/O R.W Purcell, Lancaster Navigator with 467 (Australian) Sqn, Waddington - KIA 10 May 1944 over Lile, France
The five other members of his crew who died with him
His pilot , S/Ldr DPS Smith, who survived and came home - passing away last year aged 86

**THEIR NAMES LIVETH FOR EVERMORE**

[belowMDA]

We New Zealanders are also enjoying the freedom for which the ANZACs fought.

It is a great shame that our politicians have not learnt the lesson of those wars despite our deputy leader having a Doctorate in History. This present government's politicians parade around the various memorials for their own public exposure but cripple the military by their decisions. Their hipocrisy sickens me.

We shall remember those who gave their lives for our freedom. We will never forget.

[Flight Detent]

Hey Kookabat,

What a coincidence, my father was also in 467 Sqn, and also a Navigator.

Fortunately, he returned to Oz (otherwise I wouldn't be here!), and lived 'til 72yo, died in the mid 90s.

Well, what do you know!!

Cheers

[Pinky the pilot]

Baum; Ronald Wilhelm. 39814 Sgt Pilot (Demobbed W/O1) 461 Sqn RAAF. Passed away 12 years ago.
He was my Dad, and I miss him.
Lest we forget.

You only live twice. Once when
you're born. Once when
you've looked death in the face.

[fermion]

I recall standing at the Menin Gate in the Belgian town of Ypres looking at the 55,000 names of soldiers who were never found following the WW1 battles around that town then walking thru one of the cemeteries at Paschendale where 28,000 men were killed to take two german bunkers. For the first time in my life I was completely lost for words. We must never forget the sacrifice these men made. Lest we forget...

[Buster Hyman]

A bit over 2 years ago, I was in LUX. I'd planned a trip to Ypres & other places my Pop had been, but my plans fell through.

Fermion. After reading your thoughts, I'm wondering if this will haunt me unless I rectify it soon.

[gaunty]

Dad hasn't talked about it much if at all, except today to say that the hardest thing he has ever had to do after the D Day landings when it was all over but the shouting and most bomber pilots thought it was all but over, was to sit with his Lancaster formation many miles away and watch another lot get done over by the last ditch efforts of the German night fighters over the channel.
Shortly after, his lot were all sent on leave as their job was finished.
Listening to the stats from the commentator on todays Anzac parade on how many, actually how few, out of each 100 bomber aircrew who signed up that actually made it out, makes me feel as I'm sure does Dad, very lucky to be here.
He now lives in a RAAFA housing estate with his peers from that time, they have a bond and deep fellowship that we can never really fathom.

Mum, childhood sweethearts still and who waited for him for four long years, can still tell you his "number" without a moments, nay even a nanoseconds hesitation.

I wish Dad or I had the same luck with the Lotto.

[Jet_A_Knight]

In a previous life/career, I was in a touring band and we were driving through the area of the Somme in the middle of the night.

We stopped at one of the ANZAC burial plots in the deep of the night under a full moon.

It was a pretty solemn and moving event when you stopped to think and put it into perspective. If I/we were born 60 or 70 years earlier, which is not really a huge time difference in the greater scheme of things, that would have been me/us, instead of them.

I am thankful for the immeasurable and incomprehensible (to us) sacrifices that men of that geneation - and subsequent generations - made; those that lost their lives on the battlefield, and those whose lives the battlefield changed for ever.

Lest we forget.