Thousands fall silent to remember the nation's war dead
Bonnie Malkin, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:55pm GMT 11/11/2006
We must remember them all
Britain came to standstill for two minutes today as millions paused to remember those killed fighting for their country.
The two-minute silence was observed by British troops across the world
In Trafalgar Square in central London, young and old attended The Royal British Legion’s Silence in the Square event where schoolgirl Rebecca Sullivan, 13, from Highlands School in north London, read her poem There Lie Forgotten Men.
Her efforts were met with rousing applause.
Rebecca said that she had been inspired to write the poem after learning about the world wars at school.
“Just how the people who went to war were really fighting for us, for our country, and the way they just got forgotten about because they weren’t brought home and they didn’t get a proper funeral,” she said.
advertisementAt 11am a lone bugler played The Last Post and the crowd descended into silence as hundreds of pigeons circled the square overhead.
Buses and taxis stopped and the only sound that could be heard was the ringing of church bells.
The end of the two minute silence was marked with the traditional Reveille by the bugler and a fly-past of four Typhoon jet aircraft by the RAF.
Cyril Blackburn, an 85-year-old veteran from Sheffield, said: “I’m really proud to be here at my age to come and show respect for the people who didn’t come back.
“I’m proud to be here with everyone showing respect, and that’s what it’s all about.”
Following the official proceedings the crowd placed thousands of poppy petals into one of the fountains, turning the water into a sea of red.
Later today, the Queen will be joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family for the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, which takes place at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
There she will dedicate a memorial for New Zealand’s war dead.
On Remembrance Sunday, she will lay the first wreath at the Cenotaph in London.
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We must remember them all
By Cassandra Jardine
Last Updated: 2:13am GMT 11/11/2006Page 1 of 8
Remembrance day is no longer the uncomplicated occasion that it once was. The two minutes' silence to contemplate those who gave their lives for their country used to be, for most people, a solemn interlude in which to allow a tear to well up at the thought of those who endured the hell of the trenches or the torture of building the Burma railway.
The fight goes on: British soldiers in modern warfare face a far more complex enemy than in World War I
But on this year's poppy day – as the conflicts in the Middle East become ever more politically and morally contentious – the thoughts going through most heads will be more troubling, less easily wiped away with a tissue.
Our soldiers are risking their lives to keep the peace in situations in which says General Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the British Army, they are making little or no headway – and may even be making the situation worse.
When President Bush sacked Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld this week he too acknowledged that the war in Iraq is "not going well enough, fast enough".
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, British troops are under such constant fire that Dannatt has questioned whether £1,150 a month is enough for serving in the hell of Helmand province. By now, many people know – or know of – someone who has been killed since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
advertisementWith the Royal British Legion clamouring for the public's generosity in order to cope with the physical and psychological wounds of past, present and future service people, the question arises of whether the experience of war now is vastly different from earlier conflicts.
With 210,000 young veterans out of work and 204,000 in debt, those who have served and are serving in the Armed Forces seem to be finding it difficult to adjust to civilian life. Is this because they are having experiences that would shatter even our toughest veterans?
Or is the current level of concern and soul-searching merely a symptom of a society in which complaints are rewarded more generously than stoicism?
A hundred years ago we were just emerging from the age of cavalry to the era of tanks and mustard gas. The conflict we are seeing now, with the constant bombardments and fears of chemical attacks would – if sand were swapped for mud – in some ways resemble the conditions of the First World War.
But in other ways warfare is very different – and not just technologically. These days the enemy is not the other side of no man's land but all around, creating havoc by random acts of terror that sap morale already lowered by concerns about motives and efficacy.
To examine how the experience of conflict has changed over the past century The Daily Telegraph is marking Remembrance Day by bringing together a unique panel of soldiers – officers and squaddies, volunteers and conscripts – who, between them, have experience of all the major conflicts of the past 65 years.
These men are the living embodiment of military history stretching back to the siege of Tobruk, which ended in June 1942 when North Africa's finest natural harbour was recaptured and 35,000 taken prisoner by Rommel's troops. Sadly, the five surviving veterans of the First World War, all well over 100 years old, were too frail to join us.
From the Second World War through Korea, Suez and Aden, British troops were busy in the 15 post-war years. There followed 20 years when action was more sporadic and largely confined to Northern Ireland.
"Eighty per cent of the time you were sitting on your bum," the soldiers of those days said. The Falklands War in 1982 involved the forces in their first pitched battles in 30 years. It was followed in the Nineties by involvement in Bosnia, Kosovo and, in 1991, by the first Gulf war.
But this century's engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen the longest-running and heaviest commitments of our forces. If the veterans of earlier conflicts were to be in action in the Middle East now, would they recognise the British soldier and his mission?
How, do they think, they would cope? Their responses showed them to be as divided in some ways as they were united in their distinctive military bearing.
Predictably, being trained to carry out orders, the men all arrived punctually, displaying smart blazers, straight backs and firm handshakes.
They brought albums containing pictures of themselves in their active service days – young and eager in berets and combat fatigues – and, from pockets and briefcases, they produced the rows of medals that they bring out for Remembrance Day.
Several of them have marked the day in previous years by marching to the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
advertisementIntroductions came easily. "Where did you serve? Which regiment?" they asked each other, nodding knowingly as they mentally placed each other by rank, skills and the ordeals they had experienced.
Respectfully, they each listened to each others' stories. Whether they had served on the front line or in support services, they were all fiercely proud of the Army and its traditions, even its eccentricities.
To a man they loved the discipline, the training, the food (so much better then and now than the meagre US rations) and the camaraderie of their Army years. "We were closer to the other men than we were to our wives," said former Fusilier Tony Flint, "because we depended on each other for our lives".
Before a battle they could admit to feelings of fear – though Major Andrew Greenwood watered that down to "apprehension" – but, once the fighting was upon them, they agreed that the years of training "kicked in" and you "just got on with it".
All conflicts were different, they agreed, but the mentality of the well-trained soldier was always the same; and the pay wasn't much better now.
To read the rest of this article, go here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/11/nremem11.xml&page=4
THE APPEAL OF THE POPPY
Hundreds of small wooden crosses have been planted in the ground at Westminster Abbey to form a field of remembrance in honour of Britain's war dead.
The stark symbols lie grouped in dozens of plots representing various regiments, ships and corps involved in conflicts from the First World War to Iraq and Afghanistan
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Each cross bears the name of a lost loved one, a scarlet poppy and a message of commemoration
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Poppies placed at the war memorial at East Bierley, near Bradford, which was re-dedicated to allow the addition of the name of Sgt Christian Hickey, who died in Iraq
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Singer Katherine Jenkins wears a dress made of 2,500 poppies as she joins forces with The Royal British Legion to officially launch the 2006 Poppy Appeal
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The British Legion has called for the public to donate substantial sums to the Poppy Appeal for at least two more decades in order to properly care for the veteran community
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A man raises money for the Poppy Appeal in London
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Where they are made: A man working at the Poppy Factory in Richmond, Surrey. Each year, the factory produces 32 million poppies and 8000 wreaths. A religious think-tank said on Thursday that red poppies have become "politically correct," with many people wearing them simply because they feel obliged
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Writing in The Church Times, Ekklesia director Jonathan Bartley urged people to honour war dead by wearing a white poppy, instead, to honour the Christian pacifist tradition
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People have worn artificial red poppies on their lapels in Britain for more than 80 years.
The tradition stems from a poem by a John McCrae, a Canadian doctor, describing how the poppy thrived in the battlefields of Flanders during the First World War
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The bodies of 150,000 Commonwealth servicemen lie buried across the scarred rural landscape that forms the Somme battlefields
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