100 YEARS ON............LEST WE FORGET
 

An unlearned lesson..........how the death of one man can cause the deaths of 9 million more.
100 Years ago tomorrow (July 28th) the Great War, which became known as World War 1, started and 9 million combatants died.
The catalyst was the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at Sarajevo on the 28th June 1914.
LEST WE FORGET

Thank you Stu...How much has been forgotten....

LEST WE FORGET

they still find bombs, shrapnell ore other relics in and near flanders fields here daily, most of them are never reported

It seems inconceivable how events sometimes fall into place. It is shocking and incredibly sad that the death of one man, even a great one, could spark a conflict that would kill the equivelant population of a small European country. Even today, if one thinks about what might happen if a certain world leader were to fall, would we march right back into destruction? The chaos of those times were also the lit fuse, but we can see many comparisons today with world instability...

Remember the battle of La Lys (April 1918), the greatest Portuguese war catastrophe since Alcácer Kibir in 1578.

The Scots have good reason to remember a certain Anibal Milhais a Portuguese soldier and his heroism during the fighting at the Lys offensive.



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.

I'll be damned, Norman !!
You know about private Milhões. Yes, he had his name 'changed' from Milhais to Milhões as, after holding along the enemy's advance with his Lewis gun (called Luisa), he managed to rescue a Scottish Doctor from drowning in a swamp. When the Doctor reported his feats to the allies, the camp Comander said: you are Milhais, but you are worth Milhões (millions).

Hi Fernando,
My wife's grandfather was a captain in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 1916-18 and survived the war so I have done some reading about WW1 and remembered about a Portuguese soldier who gave covering fire to Portuguese and Scottish troops when they were pushed back by a much larger force during an enemy 'push' i.e. the Lys offensive. A quick search of course gave me his name as I couldn't quite remember that much detail. One of my grandfathers joined up twice! once in 1914 and once in 1916 both times he was escorted home by the Military Police as he was in what was called 'a reserved occupation' being a marine engineer he was involved in building submarines on the Clyde. The second time he actually got to the training camp before he was 'discovered'. I believe lots of men in these reserved occupations tried to join up during WW1 and it got to be quite a headache for the authorities.
My Regards,
Norman.

P.S. Interestingly I have a pigeon message holder complete with message that my wife's grandfather brought back. It was written by him, how it came back into his possession I don't know, in it he reports sighting enemy cavalry and gives their position.

In those days some guys got hold of all imaginary schemes to join the army ... and the war.
After i lost my forearm in South Africa (Railways) they sent me to a new job in the docks, where i met this old foreman. He had a blind eye since he was a kid (or even born so). When the war came (don't remember which) he wanted to join at any cost and, imagine his ability to pass the visual exams. They told him to cover one eye and read the little letters on the board ... which he easily did. Then they told him to cover the other and he raised the other arm but covered the same eye as before ... and 'managed' to read the letters again ... and passed through.

AUGUST 1 to AUGUST 4, 1914
 

The main combatants get serious...............
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhis...ndex-1914.html