PAUL1405...

It's amazing to think that both the Germans and the allies threw every conceivable piece of ordnance at each other, and yet due to some unbelievable lull in the battle, both sides emerged battered and bruised from their respective trenches. Whereupon some played a game of football, and others shared a smoke, or a meagre piece of food, and others some convivial fellowship ? A brief lull in the fray, amid the dead and dying, before again resuming to once more engage in another pitched battle !

As I mentioned earlier, my maternal grandfather served on the Western Front. Like so many of his era and being under age, and quite tall, and apparently relatively plausible, he managed to falsify his DOB, and deceive his way into the Army (30th Bn. 1st AIF). He actually had his seventeenth birthday while he and his company saw heavy action somewhere in France ? Ultimately, he ended up being bombed, buried in mud, and gassed. He was determined a TPI, and died in 1967. He spoke very little of his experiences, much like your great uncle I suspect PAUL1405 ?

Curious was your statement '...the British won the war, the Germans, the football match...'? A moment of levity and I agree, however concerning WW1 while it's true the allied forces did overcome Germany and her allies, judging from the few old men who I knew, who fought in the Great War. As you quite rightly say, none of them ever looked or acted Victorious upon their return ? Most were absolutely spent, shattered, and emotionally burnt out. Consider if you will - Germany has twice, lost to the allied forces in two major conflicts. Yet today this twice vanquished nation, still manages to be an economic powerhouse, dictating the economic terms of the EEU ? Go figure ?

And so do I FOXY, so do I, hope that your can 'stick around' for a long, long time yet ! Your responses, and the language you employ in those responses, are as good as you can get anywhere on either OLO or the Forum itself. It's you that sets the standard, it's up to the others, if they wish to emulate that standard !

'night FOXY.

Some housekeeping if I may.

Earlier Albie Manton in Darwin posted part of a letter written by a US Iraqi war veteran who took his own life. It is an important message as we prepare to send more after him.

I'm posting the final section;

Quote;

The last thought that has occurred to me is one of some kind of final mission. It is true that I have found that I am capable of finding some kind of reprieve by doing things that are worthwhile on the scale of life and death. While it is a nice thought to consider doing some good with my skills, experience, and killer instinct, the truth is that it isn’t realistic. First, there are the logistics of financing and equipping my own operation, then there is the near certainty of a grisly death, international incidents, and being branded a terrorist in the media that would follow. What is really stopping me, though, is that I simply am too sick to be effective in the field anymore. That, too, has been taken from me.

Thus, I am left with basically nothing. Too trapped in a war to be at peace, too damaged to be at war. Abandoned by those who would take the easy route, and a liability to those who stick it out—and thus deserve better. So you see, not only am I better off dead, but the world is better without me in it.

This is what brought me to my actual final mission. Not suicide, but a mercy killing. I know how to kill, and I know how to do it so that there is no pain whatsoever. It was quick, and I did not suffer. And above all, now I am free. I feel no more pain. I have no more nightmares or flashbacks or hallucinations. I am no longer constantly depressed or afraid or worried.

I am free.

I ask that you be happy for me for that. It is perhaps the best break I could have hoped for. Please accept this and be glad for me.

Daniel Somers

http://gawker.com/i-am-sorry-that-it-has-come-to-this-a-soldiers-last-534538357

A sad loss.

To those who are in pain and feel isolated, be aware you are not alone. There are many who care, pick up the phone and call someone, what about Beyond Blue?

1300 22 4636
Call 24 hours a day,
7 days a week

http://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/get-immediate-support