Lest We Forget: Remembering our Past

Lest we forget; how could we? In moral terms, you would imagine it to be impossible, though we continue our lives 364 days a year with a mere mention of the reason our great country is as it is today. Though every year, on the 11^th November at 11am, the country stands still, submerged in silence, drowned in appreciation of the millions of people, most yet to leave their teen years, that fought for our freedom 90 years ago.

Last year’s Armistice ceremony was lead by the three remaining World War 1 veterans, Harry Patch, Bill Stone and Henry Allingham; all of whom have passed away within the last 12 months. The ‘Last Tommy’ Harry Patch was the last to die when he passed away earlier this year. The 2008 ceremony will stand firmly in my memory as one of the most moving events I have ever seen. As the two minutes silence got underway, the three stared at the poppy covered pavement, their faces evidently torn by repressed memories that annually return to haunt them. As the bell rang, tears fell from their tortured eyes. It was all too much.

In a moving ceremony, the three heroes carried wreaths as they were escorted in their wheel chairs by current military servers. The eldest veteran, Henry Allingham was determined to stand as he laid his wreath, an action that appeared one battle too many for a body that has witnessed more than many of the attendees of the ceremony could imagine. Teenagers lost at such young ages, whom in the modern world would be beginning work, studying at college and enjoying a life in which danger is miniscule in comparison to the Great War.

As his body surrendered to the challenge, he began to cry. He appeared to feel guilty that he could not honour the soldiers that weren’t so lucky by standing to appreciate their sacrifice - those whom he grew up with, fought with and was prepared to die for. Mr. Allingham needed not to feel guilt, for he, along with every other soldier that has served our nation in any war, is a hero, never to be forgotten.

During a visit to Menin Gate weeks before (his first return to Belgium since the war itself), Harry Patch, the last remaining ‘Tommy’ or trench soldier spoke to a crowd of about 100. He said something very powerful and very important.

“Let us remember out brethren who fell, on both sides”

Many forget that it was not only the soldiers of Britain and its allies that fell, but Germany as well. The Germans were of equal reluctance as the British to fight in the war. In fact, men on both sides were merely puppets of their superiors, men with no control over the war, with simple orders to destroy people whom against they held no grudge.

Ludwig Baumann, a Nazi soldier during the Second World War is currently heading a campaign to pardon all soldiers that were shot for fleeing or rebelling against the Nazi movement. A war he described as well ‘criminal’ and ‘genocidal’. An accurate description and a worthy campaign, that will hopefully result in justice for innocent men who stood their ground against an evil regime.

Once again this year, at the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Western world fell silent. A silence full of memories and respect; A silence of wonder and confusion for those not old enough to understand; A silence that the world went without for many years during the Great War(s). Two minutes seems an inadequate length of time on terms of the thousands that died; but when the silence is broken, the world returns to its everyday happenings, until next year when we once again bow of heads and gaze down at our poppies to remember.

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