One hundred years ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns fell silent in No Man’s Land – the end of the “war to end all wars.”
On October 31, 1917, during the Second Battle of Passchendaele, my great-uncle Earle went missing, presumed dead. His body was never found. His brother, Grover, survived the war, returning home in 1918. On a foggy night, eight years later, he and my great-grandfather died when their wooden schooner was sliced in two by a metal-hulled steamer. A family grave marker commemorates both events.
Wooden sailing ships and metal steamers meeting in the fog: an adept analogy for World War One?
Sites I’ve been visiting lately regarding World War One:
the world remembers (a multi-year project to display the names of the dead on buildings through the world)
all is calm (play about the “unofficial” Christmas Day Truce in 1914)
Chinese Labor Corps (WW1)
Over The Top (interactive video game based on experiences of Canadian troops in WW1 from the Canadian War Museum site)
Another of my Remembrance/Veteran’s Day posts on World War One: Why Canadians Wear Poppies
A story I’ve yet to write: the “what if” part of me who has always speculated that as Great-Uncle Earle’s body (common occurrence in the mud and trenches) was never found, perhaps he DID survive the war and . . .
Take a moment, today, at 11 o’clock to reflect on this hundredth anniversary, and to hope some day there will be an end to war everywhere. As John Lennon sang: “give peace a chance.”
Image: Mud from the Canadian Archives via Wikipedia
November 11, 2018 at 11:37 am
always the unanswered questions, the possibilities, however unlikely for it — that stir the imagination, perhaps even more so, so strongly, when the circumstances are in the horrific, the deplorable, the immense casualties, sufferings and sorrows of war ….
this is a wonderfully rich, if not very sad story – but I think you’ve expressed it and paid tribute to those in your family, who served, so that others, could be free – paying, whether a survivor, or one of the fallen, an ultimate price —
and maybe one day, we no longer will have to honour people in this fashion, other than to simply remember – as something of a distant distant past –
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November 11, 2018 at 1:10 pm
I know Remembrance Day has been on your mind; for me it’s the 100 years — what have we learned. FA. (Not you and me personally, of course! smile and wink).
The list just gets longer and longer — and then there are the civilians, trapped in something they can’t control.
My therapist suggested my deepening melancholia could be me absorbing all the things out there that make me angry and sad without realizing how strongly they are affecting my mood. Adding to the cloak, the heavy knapsack, the shades in the shadows. Sigh. I just found a draft of an email to you I started about four days ago. Good thing I found it — could have sworn I’d finished it sometime and sent it. Losing my sanity, and my gripe or is it grip on reality. Maybe that’s for the best . . .
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November 11, 2018 at 5:47 pm
I can appreciate it – the feelings, the deepening …. that reminds me, when I stop extreme “crunching” — I will try to find a few moments of energy to email you — if I recall, you’ve recently had an “un” day … and yes, what have we learned etc. etc.? I feel it this year, looking out at the world, and I want to “pull a rant” …. *sigh*
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November 11, 2018 at 3:37 am
What an amazing tribute yiu give to to your Great Uncles and their father by carrying on their stories so many years after their deaths.
I need to visit the links you shared.
Thank you for this remembrance.
Peace
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November 11, 2018 at 2:16 pm
Most welcome. I just wish I knew of the family lore.
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November 11, 2018 at 2:31 am
Such a sad story. As you say let’s give peace a chance. I doubt we will ever see real peace.
Thank you for your beautiful post 💜
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November 11, 2018 at 2:16 pm
Most welcome. Yes, peace is one of those impossible possibilities!
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November 11, 2018 at 2:50 pm
You are right 💜
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