Somme 100 Years On

[Anastasius]

Maybe I've missed a thread elsewhere but slightly bemused that this moving tribute has not been covered.

At many London stations this morning, were men dressed as soldiers en route to the trenches in WW 1. No advance information was given by the brilliant superb people that organised this. These men just stood there - as if waiting for their train to the front. Silently. Most commuters passed on by - oblivious. Some sadly just gawped and said 'Gee - are they making a film'.

A few. A very few went up to the soldiers, as they knew what this was all about, and tried to engage in conversation. The soldiers stayed silent and, instead, simply handed out a card with details of the name of a soldier who died today, one hundred years ago.



I found that very moving.

[richardfinegold]

Maybe I've missed a thread elsewhere but slightly bemused that this moving tribute has not been covered.

At many London stations this morning, were men dressed as soldiers en route to the trenches in WW 1. No advance information was given by the brilliant superb people that organised this. These men just stood there - as if waiting for their train to the front. Silently. Most commuters passed on by - oblivious. Some sadly just gawped and said 'Gee - are they making a film'.

A few. A very few went up to the soldiers, as they knew what this was all about, and tried to engage in conversation. The soldiers stayed silent and, instead, simply handed out a card with details of the name of a soldier who died today, one hundred years ago.



I found that very moving.

[Nick Armstrong]

Somme 100

As 1 July 2016 draws to a close, worth reflecting on some of the moving commemorations - especially at the Thiepval Memorial. Two of the most arresting moments involved the music of Butterworth - an unaccompanied performance of The Lads in their Hundreds by Samuel Boden last night, and this morning, the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo playing The Banks of Green Willow as the dignitaries inspected some of the graves...

Also today, I thought Charles Dance reading a Sassoon poem was magnificent:

"AFTERMATH" - Siegfried Sassoon

Have you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same,—and War's a bloody game....
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz,
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,—
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads, those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the Spring that you'll never forget.

[Serial_Apologist]

No remaining living veterans this time.

[richardfinegold]

It beggars belief that 1 million soldiers died on this battlefield. 20,000 English on the first day. I am listening to Vaughn Williams 3rd Symphony now

[Rue Dubac]

And the French took part, for the first time. It seems such a sad irony, in view of recent events.

[Rue Dubac]

It was, apparently, right across the country, in all sorts of places - bus stations, shopping malls. All still and silent - the discipline! - except when they sang,"We're her because we're here." All sorts of people, all volunteers, idea of Jeremy Deller and NT chap. Brilliant. Wish I had seen them.

[Conchis]

This year, I've decided that no-one gains anything from remembrance ceremonies like these. A lot of people like to wallow in them and they not so subtly reinforce the idea that European countries have naturally antagonistic feelings toward each other - as culminated in the catastrophic events of last week.

Personally, I'd dynamite every war memorial in the country, including that monstrous carbuncle in Whitehall.

[Mary Chambers]

I'm inclined to agree with Conchis that commemorations can turn into wallowing. I would like to see more anger as well as sadness. The fact that the Somme commemorations coincided with the referendum result was indeed a bitter irony. I find the one-sidedness of it all rather offensive. If we are going to remember war casualties, we should remember all of them, not just 'our side'.

[gurnemanz]

These big formal commemorations are not for me but do seem to help many people, as do hymns expressing belief in a supernatural force that can somehow console in death and tribulation. I can't forget as a fourteen-year-old being overwhelmed by Bob Dylan's God on our Side. This was 1963, the year after I was convinced we were all going to die horribly as a result of the Cuban missile crisis.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I would like to see more anger as well as sadness.

[mercia]

anger directed where, and expressed how ?

[BBMmk2]

AS Mary Chambers, also said fromm both sides as well. RIP To The Fallen.

[oddoneout]

No remaining living veterans this time.

Perhaps that, and the fact the centenary has been reached, should be the point to move into a different form of remembrance, one that takes forward the idea that war, and its needless casualties, is an abomination, something that should be regretted not celebrated. The modern approach to life which turns minor incidents into 'tragedies' and unremarkable people into 'heroes' does a disservice to commemoration, and what should be a time for quiet and personal reflection, and a resolve to work towards removing the 'need' for such occasions, risks becoming simply a public outpouring of emotion.

[Ferretfancy]

No remaining living veterans this time.

My father was a living veteran once. He died in 1964. Perhaps we should not just remember those who died, but those who survived, often with life changing injuries.
Dad was lucky, he remained in England helping to tend for the wounded, and did not cross the Channel until 1917, surviving unharmed.

I remember my mother saying how she burnt all his clothing when he came home to get rid of the lice.

Public commemorations trouble me. So much is about pomp and parade.