Remembrance Sunday

As we speak loved ones are being killed young men, women and children are being injured, people are being tortured , You would have hoped lessons would have been learnt and families wouldn't have to suffer any more
 
I am fortunate to be involved in Flixton ex servicemen's association at the John Alker memorial hall in Flixton, as you can imagine this weekend is a major event in our year. We will all be at the cenotaph at the Nagshead circle Urmston and then back to the club for a fantastic free brass band concert with a hot pot lunch and plenty of drink flowing.
This year we are also holding a charity auction with some fantastic lots to raise money to improve our kitchens.
The hall is used for multiple events and social gatherings throughout the year but perhaps my personal favourites are the breakfast club meetings we have for Trafford veterans. We have at least 3 old boys in their 90s who tell some very humbling stories.
There is a very famous photograph that maybe someone a bit cleverer than me will post, which shows a group of heavily bearded and rather scuffy looking guys sat in a jeep, guns ready to go into battle, these lads are SAS and are about to drive down a desert runway under heavy fire and destroy all the German aircraft. One of those blokes comes to our breakfast club and till you sit and talk to him he's just old Tommy who sits in the corner. Amazing ordinary people who had the courage to do extraordinary things.
Please feel free to come along.
 
alkerblue said:
I am fortunate to be involved in Flixton ex servicemen's association at the John Alker memorial hall in Flixton, as you can imagine this weekend is a major event in our year. We will all be at the cenotaph at the Nagshead circle Urmston and then back to the club for a fantastic free brass band concert with a hot pot lunch and plenty of drink flowing.
This year we are also holding a charity auction with some fantastic lots to raise money to improve our kitchens.
The hall is used for multiple events and social gatherings throughout the year but perhaps my personal favourites are the breakfast club meetings we have for Trafford veterans. We have at least 3 old boys in their 90s who tell some very humbling stories.
There is a very famous photograph that maybe someone a bit cleverer than me will post, which shows a group of heavily bearded and rather scuffy looking guys sat in a jeep, guns ready to go into battle, these lads are SAS and are about to drive down a desert runway under heavy fire and destroy all the German aircraft. One of those blokes comes to our breakfast club and till you sit and talk to him he's just old Tommy who sits in the corner. Amazing ordinary people who had the courage to do extraordinary things.
Please feel free to come along.
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This one??
 
RadcliffeRick said:


This one??
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If @alkerblue won't mind, that photo, I believe, is the very first incarnation of the SAS, featuring its founder, Major Sterling.
Formed by him, to create havoc behind German lines in North Africa, by attacking airfields and fuel dumps, bringing in supplies and
reinforcements, if one of these lads coming into his club, he is truly lucky, most of them are no longer with us.
 
That's the one thanks Radcliffe, and yes AC, you are also correct. Second from the left in that photo, Corporal Tommy Norfolk, busted down from Sargeant but thats another story. ; )
 
The final, edited version of our amateur trubute. 2 amateur blokes with a drone, phones and free editing software. Footage from The Somme last week. Their name liveth forever more. Incredible place, I'm drawn back to it time and time again.

Sound source essential...

 
s1ty m said:
The final, edited version of our amateur trubute. 2 amateur blokes with a drone, phones and free editing software. Footage from The Somme last week. Their name liveth forever more. Incredible place, I'm drawn back to it time and time again.

Sound source essential...

Click to expand...

Very moving, my great Uncle James who was KIA at the Somme on 1July 1916 is buried in the Connaghut Cemetery at Thiepval. We established he was buried three times, the first where he fell, then after a lull in the fighting his body was removed to a temporary gravesite and then he was dug up and moved to his final resting place. I dont honestly think we can fathom to horror of the those days and seeing the drone fly over the graves was very humbling. Stunning piece of work and congratulations to all involved.
 
tamworthblue said:
The Polish were outstanding in WW2. My grandfather was a newsagent and when he died (stomach cancer) we realised that no Polish customers had ever been charged a penny for newspapers (over many years). Just because he served with them.
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Poland lost around 6m of their population in WW2 which included a huge Civilian number murdered for being Jewish. Their services and resistance fighters were amongst the bravest of the conflict, big respect to all the fallen this weekend, including the conflicts that have happened since WW2.
 
s1ty m said:
The final, edited version of our amateur trubute. 2 amateur blokes with a drone, phones and free editing software. Footage from The Somme last week. Their name liveth forever more. Incredible place, I'm drawn back to it time and time again.

Sound source essential...

Click to expand...

Seeing row upon row of headstones does bring home the enormity of the loss of life and young men at that, very good tribute and well put together.
 
My Grandad fought from the start to the end of WW2 as a Royal Marine Commando. He was an anti-aircraft gunner in the Battle of Britain, fought in the desert in North Africa, and in Italy and France.

My Dad found out decades later that my Grandad’s best mate from the war who’d been with him everywhere they weren’t from 1939 right though to 1945 was killed early in 1945. That must have been soul destroying!

When my Dad was a kid he used to ask my Grandad things about the war and he never gave him any sort of answer, just used to ignore that he asked anything.
 
Psychedelic Casual said:
My Grandad fought from the start to the end of WW2 as a Royal Marine Commando. He was an anti-aircraft gunner in the Battle of Britain, fought in the desert in North Africa, and in Italy and France.

My Dad found out decades later that my Grandad’s best mate from the war who’d been with him everywhere they weren’t from 1939 right though to 1945 was killed early in 1945. That must have been soul destroying!

When my Dad was a kid he used to ask my Grandad things about the war and he never gave him any sort of answer, just used to ignore that he asked anything.
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My Grandad also went right through from 39-45 with the Lancashire Fusiliers and barely spoke to anyone afterwards about what he had witnessed. He also fought in France, North Africa and Italy.

It was only after his death that my Mum told me that he lost so many mates and that for the first few years post war was a shell of a man and that it drove him to try and commit suicide on several occasions that thankfully where not successful.

As a family we now have his medals proudly placed in presentation case and he is forever in our thoughts, as will my old man, John whose ashes are buried at the Fusiliers memorial garden in Bury.

RIP Grandad and Dad x.

Small video of us proudly laying my old man to rest.

 
O722uWF.jpg

This is my grandad in hospital blue in 1918 - after 3 years at the front he unfortunately shot the little finger off his left hand at Battle of Ypres and managed to spend the last few months of the war in blighty.
(Well fortunately for him and me really because if he'd stayed he probably wouldn't have made it back and I wouldn't be here.)

q4Caray.jpg

This is my Dad just before D Day
 
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blueinsa said:
My Grandad also went right through from 39-45 with the Lancashire Fusiliers and barely spoke to anyone afterwards about what he had witnessed. He also fought in France, North Africa and Italy.

It was only after his death that my Mum told me that he lost so many mates and that for the first few years post war was a shell of a man and that it drove him to try and commit suicide on several occasions that thankfully where not successful.

As a family we now have his medals proudly placed in presentation case and he is forever in our thoughts, as will my old man, John whose ashes are buried at the Fusiliers memorial garden in Bury.

RIP Grandad and Dad x.

Small video of us proudly laying my old man to rest.

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Very good that!

Yes, us too. We got the medals and documents of placement during the war.

I wasn’t born until 1982 but my Grandad was born in 1906 and died in the 1970s, so I never met him. My Dad does talk about him a lot and more so recently as my Dad is approaching the age when Grandad died now. I do wish I’d met him.
 
My great grandad was awarded the MC in WW1 when he was serving in the 1st Battalion Northampton Regiment attached 2nd Trench Mortar Battery.

The sad thing is I never really knew him, think we visited him once in Salford in the early 70's . He only had one leg due to injuries in the war. All I can remember is this run down area with derelict houses. My uncle tells me he use to ask for a few bob for heating and food etc. We didnt treat our heroes very well back than
 
Incidentally, my Dads mum, Nana Greta was German and she had 5 brothers who all fought for Germany in WW2 and her Mum received a medal off Hitler for the service and sacrifice her sons had made.

Its important to remember that those boys where just like ours, doing their duty and that they faced the same horrors and should rightly be remembered.
 
NI Blue said:
Very moving, my great Uncle James who was KIA at the Somme on 1July 1916 is buried in the Connaghut Cemetery at Thiepval. We established he was buried three times, the first where he fell, then after a lull in the fighting his body was removed to a temporary gravesite and then he was dug up and moved to his final resting place. I dont honestly think we can fathom to horror of the those days and seeing the drone fly over the graves was very humbling. Stunning piece of work and congratulations to all involved.
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Thanks.

Connaught Cemetery si right on Thiepval Ridge and I'm guessing from your user name he might have been in the Ulsters. They fought right there and were among the few successes on July 1st.

Re-burials were necessary due to the sheer numbers of dead and it must have been appalling. The end result is a staggering number of cemeteries, all beautifully maintained and presented. Many are concentration cemeteries where remains were brought from elsewhere on The Somme. Others are small and even more poignant and men were buried where they fell. Where stones are literally touching each other, it represents a mass burial. It's too awful for words. Serre No2 is the biggest in the area and chokes me every time I go. It's literally enormous, as per our drone footage. Gobsmacking.
 
There doesn't seem to be many people wearing poppies up to now which is a bit disappointing. We owe those who serve(d) so much, and a couple of quid for a poppy could help so many of the injured soldiers that are still with us today.
 
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