Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
next to Wilfred Owen.

wrote:
>
> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
> next to Wilfred Owen.
>

So, your gramps was killed during the last week of WW1?

It's a tough break, being so damn close to the end.

I think I read that the last person killed was on the morning of the
11th, just hours short of making it through alive.

On 2018-11-11 6:57 PM, wrote:
>
> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
> next to Wilfred Owen.
>

It was a damned shame that Allied forces ordered attacks on Nov. 11,
1918. The truce had been arranged and was to take effect at 11 am on
Nov.11. For some reason, despite the terms and the lines already being
agreed upon, they decided to inflict a crushing victory on the Germans,

My father in law was a Sergeant in the American army during WWI and used
to tell me interesting stories about his experiences. Most of them were
interesting anecdotes, but he used to get choked up telling about
someone on their line being killed just a few minutes before 11 am on
the 11th.

In 2001 my wife and I went on a trip through Europe and ended up on a
battle field trip that starred at the cemetery in Denmark where my
father was buried, down through Germany, Belgium and into France. We
went to the American War Cemetery in the Meuse-Argonne where FIL saw
action. My wife went one way and I went another and were about 200 yds
apart, then went to each other, and right where we met was the grave of
Oscar Sarney, killed Nov. 11, 1918. We could not help but wonder if
that was the guy whose death had had such an impact on her father.

On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:32:06 -0600, Hank Rogers >
wrote:

wrote:
>>
>> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
>> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
>> next to Wilfred Owen.
>>
>
>So, your gramps was killed during the last week of WW1?
>
>It's a tough break, being so damn close to the end.
>
>I think I read that the last person killed was on the morning of the
>11th, just hours short of making it through alive.
>
>
Yes, a man from Nova Scotia was killed by a German sniper just before
the bells rang for the Armistice, about two minutes before. There is
a new statue for him at Mons (he was the last Commonwealth soldier
killed) which is very lovely, looks like a giant tear drop or drip of
blood.

wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:32:06 -0600, Hank Rogers >
> wrote:
>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
>>> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
>>> next to Wilfred Owen.
>>>
>>
>> So, your gramps was killed during the last week of WW1?
>>
>> It's a tough break, being so damn close to the end.
>>
>> I think I read that the last person killed was on the morning of the
>> 11th, just hours short of making it through alive.
>>
>>
> Yes, a man from Nova Scotia was killed by a German sniper just before
> the bells rang for the Armistice, about two minutes before. There is
> a new statue for him at Mons (he was the last Commonwealth soldier
> killed) which is very lovely, looks like a giant tear drop or drip of
> blood.
>

A tear (or blood) drop is fitting.

I wish it really had been "The war to end all wars".

On 2018-11-11 4:57 p.m., wrote:
>
> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
> next to Wilfred Owen.
>
My paternal grandfather was wounded in the trenches and it must have
been serious as he was sent back to Lincolnshire to recover (where he
met a nurse who became my grandmother).
Which battle? He never spoke of his experiences and even my father had
no idea in which battle he had been wounded.

On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 19:23:15 -0600, Hank Rogers >
wrote:

wrote:
>> On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:32:06 -0600, Hank Rogers >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
>>>> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
>>>> next to Wilfred Owen.
>>>>
>>>
>>> So, your gramps was killed during the last week of WW1?
>>>
>>> It's a tough break, being so damn close to the end.
>>>
>>> I think I read that the last person killed was on the morning of the
>>> 11th, just hours short of making it through alive.
>>>
>>>
>> Yes, a man from Nova Scotia was killed by a German sniper just before
>> the bells rang for the Armistice, about two minutes before. There is
>> a new statue for him at Mons (he was the last Commonwealth soldier
>> killed) which is very lovely, looks like a giant tear drop or drip of
>> blood.
>>
>
>A tear (or blood) drop is fitting.
>
>I wish it really had been "The war to end all wars".

I suppose in a certain sense, WWI and WWII would never be fought again
like that. The nukes would come out and it would be quickly over for
everyone.

On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:54:10 -0700, graham > wrote:

>On 2018-11-11 4:57 p.m., wrote:
>>
>> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
>> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
>> next to Wilfred Owen.
>>
>My paternal grandfather was wounded in the trenches and it must have
>been serious as he was sent back to Lincolnshire to recover (where he
>met a nurse who became my grandmother).
>Which battle? He never spoke of his experiences and even my father had
>no idea in which battle he had been wounded.

Same thing with my father - I only found out all about his WWII career
when contacted by an author several years ago and subsequently the
publishing house. The nice thing about that is that the book
generated a wonderful web site, still maintained, and added to by many
who sailed and served together. Without the net that would never
have happened. I wish he had been alive to see all that.

On 2018-11-12 7:01 AM, wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:54:10 -0700, graham > wrote:

>> My paternal grandfather was wounded in the trenches and it must have
>> been serious as he was sent back to Lincolnshire to recover (where he
>> met a nurse who became my grandmother).
>> Which battle? He never spoke of his experiences and even my father had
>> no idea in which battle he had been wounded.
>
> Same thing with my father - I only found out all about his WWII career
> when contacted by an author several years ago and subsequently the
> publishing house. The nice thing about that is that the book
> generated a wonderful web site, still maintained, and added to by many
> who sailed and served together. Without the net that would never
> have happened. I wish he had been alive to see all that.

I knew that my father had been in the air force during the war, but was
under the impression that he had been on ground crew servicing Spitfire
and Hurricane aircraft. Then in 1968, after the 25 year secrecy thing
was up, a fellow from Denmark looked him up and came to interview him
about his war time experience. It turned out that he had re-mustered to
air crew and was in an elite squadron of Pathfinders, the guys who flew
ahead to mark the target. On his 19th operational flight the plane was
hit by flak, forcing them to abort.

On their way back to England they were losing altitude and dropped their
bomb load on an air base that turned out to be Pennemunde. Shortly after
that they were attacked by a night fighter. Dad was the only survivor.
Thanks to their being an extra crew member, a new pilot on an
orientation flight, there were enough bodies that the Germans never
bothered to look for him. He walked across the Danish Island of
Sjaelland to Copenhagen and connected with the Danish Resistance.

The Resistance smuggled him across the Belt to Malmo Sweden where he was
jailed for a few days for illegal entry and then given temporary asylum
and after a couple weeks he caught a flight back to the UK. He was sent
back to Canada for a while. Because of his experience with the
Resistance he was not allowed to fly operations anymore and was later
sent back to Canada for good and spent the last year of the war training
pilots in the B25.

On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 20:54:39 -0400, wrote:

>On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 18:32:06 -0600, Hank Rogers >
>wrote:
>
wrote:
>>>
>>> Sad 100th anniversary today - although it was 100 years ago last
>>> Sunday that my paternal grandfather was killed and buried in France
>>> next to Wilfred Owen.
>>>
>>
>>So, your gramps was killed during the last week of WW1?
>>
>>It's a tough break, being so damn close to the end.
>>
>>I think I read that the last person killed was on the morning of the
>>11th, just hours short of making it through alive.
>>
>>
>Yes, a man from Nova Scotia was killed by a German sniper just before
>the bells rang for the Armistice, about two minutes before. There is
>a new statue for him at Mons (he was the last Commonwealth soldier
>killed) which is very lovely, looks like a giant tear drop or drip of
>blood.

For the USAsians. Long article but an interesting read.

JB

On 2018-11-14 3:06 AM, JBurns wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Nov 2018 20:54:39 -0400, wrote:

>> Yes, a man from Nova Scotia was killed by a German sniper just before
>> the bells rang for the Armistice, about two minutes before. There is
>> a new statue for him at Mons (he was the last Commonwealth soldier
>> killed) which is very lovely, looks like a giant tear drop or drip of
>> blood.
>
> For the USAsians. Long article but an interesting read.

It was a bloody shame that soldiers were lost on the last day of the
war. Allied commanders wanted to really rub Germany's nose it it and
send them running so they would have to admit that they had been totally
defeated so they would not harp about how they should have kept things
going. It was a needless loss of life because they truce had been signed
and terms were set and hostilities were to end at 11 am. There was
nothing further to be gained by taking more land....and casualties.

A lot of American soldiers were lucky that some of their commanders had
refused to attack. My father in law was one of the lucky ones whose unit
did not attack that morning. However. someone on his line was killed
around 10 minutes to 11. He used to tell me all sorts of stories about
his experiences in WWI, but most of them were humorous, but that
incident really bothered him.