Last Living link to 14-18

[svandamme]

Last living link to 14-18

This is a translation of an article on the blog section from my home town


Last living link to 14-18

The 109 year old British Veteran, Harry Patch has visited the Last Post. Of 2 remaining veterans of the Great War, he's the only one that fought in the Ypres Salient. Wounded in the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendale








Harry Patch was visibly moved during the ceremony under the Menin Gate. He himself spoke out the "Exhortation.
And this was a personal salute to his comrades of 90 years ago.
An emotional moment, for this tough veteran, but also for the many hundreds of people who were at the ceremony






When Harry went to lay down ring of flowers(official memorial ring with poppies, don't know the English word), it was impressively quiet, As if everybody was living the moment with the last living link to the Great War


The Last post, which is visited by hundreds of people every day, remains an emotional salute to the many thousands who came here 90 years ago, to die.










wish i could have been there, because in all probability, this will be the last time in history that a WW1 Veteran is going to be at the Last Post. Only found out the same evening, and i was in Rotterdam , couldn't have possibly made it in time.

Looks like a tough old guy... 109 years old, still standing for his falling comrades. Probably still has bad dreams of what he saw in that war...even after all those years








i'm moving back to Belgium next tuesday, my new house is located, just outside the top left of that last picture... could very well be that Harry's trench would have been where i will live...He was stationed in Langemark.

448,000 killed and wounded for the Allies
260,000 killed and wounded for the Axis
the Allies had gained 5 miles, and lost 6 miles again 4 months later...

[livi]

Stijn,

Events like that makes you stop and think. By coincidence I read a vast article on that battle just recently. Horrendous is a grand understatement.

Are you finally moving? Will there be any pics of your new residence?

[svandamme]

sent you a mail

[svandamme]

article on the BBC about Harry Patch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/6921217.stm

""Too many died. War isn't worth one life," said Mr Patch.

He said war was the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings".

Mr Patch laid a wreath at the site of the trench, which now forms part of a German war cemetery.

War effort

"The Germans suffered the same as we did," he said. "


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/07/12/nosplit/ftharry112.xml


"The last survivor of Passchendaele, that three-month orgy of blood-letting in the mud of Flanders which began 90 years ago this month and commemorated by the Queen at Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium today. The last Tommy of the Great War.

When he is gone, the British experience of daily life on the Western Front will be no man's land. No living man's land."



"Mr Patch takes no pride in being the last of the millions who fought and died amid unmitigated horror. His improbable status sometimes overwhelms him, reducing him to silent contemplation.

"The poor bloody infantry. Dead right. That's what we were. For 1/6d a day."



"The afternoon is wearing on and Mr Patch is tired. He pauses to listen to the children playing. What does it feel like to be the last of those millions, that army of ghosts?

"I don't like it," he says and then adds: "I sit there and think. And some nights I dream - of that first battle. I can't forget it.

"I fell in a trench. There was a fella there. He must have been about our age. He was ripped shoulder to waist with shrapnel. I held his hand for the last 60 seconds of his life. He only said one word: 'Mother'. I didn't see her, but she was there. No doubt about it. He passed from this life into the next, and it felt as if I was in God's presence.

"I've never got over it. You never forget it. Never.""

[on2wheels52]

I've read a great deal of WW I history also, have never talked with a veteran who was there.
A brutal existance, men were tougher then.

[sjf911]

Read the book "All Quiet on the Western Front". It is chilling the conditions that these men lived and fought in. I have the unusual heritage to have one grandfather in the trenches on each side of the war in France (Western Front). Their description is truly horrifying.

[trap]

on2wheels52 - unfortunately, unless you are lucky, you probably never will. I was lucky a few months ago and met one as part of a story. He never saw combat, however, as the war ended shortly after he enlisted. He is one of four known WWI veterans left in the U.S.

At 108 years old, he is a gentleman to be admired - not simply because he signed up to serve in WWI, but rather because of how he lived and continues to live his life.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Incredible story - thanks for sharing.

Always been fascinated by WWI especially the early aviators and the St. Michael Offensive.

That war was a pivotal one for history because it was so brutal, yet marked the beginning of "technological" warfare in the modern sense (modern artillery, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc.)

The stories that man could tell would probably keep me spellbound for weeks.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Always been fascinated by WWI especially the early aviators

maybe you've heard of Georges Guynemer, the french top Ace (53 confirmed)

i'm moving to Langemark-Poelkapelle next week, where he was was shot down, there's a monument for him raised by Belgian pilots who had flown with him



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Guynemer

[Moneyguy1]

Lucky to be old enough to have met some WWI veterans when I was a kid. Some of the stories.....

[JCF]

Time marches on...

or does it really;


"The day I lost my pals, 22 Sept. 1917 - that is my Remembrance Day, not Armistice Day. I'm always very, very quiet on that day and I don't want anybody talking to me really. Nearly 90 years after and I always remember it. I shall never forget the three I lost."

"We lived hour by hour; we never knew the future. You saw the sun rise, hopefully you'd see it set. If you saw it set, you hoped to see it rise. Some men would, some would not. "

- Harry Patch quoted in Britain's Last Tommies by Richard Van Emden.

I remember talking with French Poilus under the Arch de Triumph after the Armistice parades in 1986 - 89.
I remember their smiles and the twinkles in their eyes - and the old uniforms and the medals they wore .

Anyone thinks of the French as cowards - shut up and read about what they did in that war.

John

[JCF]

I believe there is a U.S. (combat) veteran of WW1 still alive on Cape Cod .

[trap]

JCF - If I recall my research correctly, yes, there one vet on Cape Cod.

[tabs]

Anbody interested in the book...$10.00 plus $3.00 shipping..total $13.00

PM me..

[tabs]

Originally Posted by svandamme

maybe you've heard of Georges Guynemer, the french top Ace (53 confirmed)

i'm moving to Langemark-Poelkapelle next week, where he was was shot down, there's a monument for him raised by Belgian pilots who had flown with him



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Guynemer

I wonder what Rene Fonck would say to your claim that Georges Guynemer was the "Top French Ace" with 53 enemy planes shot down.

[JCF]

His name is Tony Pierro, and he lives in Swampscott, Mass.
Saw "bloody" action during the the Meuse and Argonne offensives.
110 last year.

[JCF]

Here he is:



And Tabs, I'll see your volume and raise you this ;

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by tabs

I wonder what Rene Fonck would say to your claim that Georges Guynemer was the "Top French Ace" with 53 enemy planes shot down.

that's a typo , meant to say, A top french ace
when Guynemer went down, at that time he was THE top french ace

[Hawktel]

When I was in grade school, back in.. 82 perhaps, I remember we had a vet of WWI who came to my school.

I remember because his Grandfather had fought in the Civil war was what he told us.

[svandamme]

bump for Birthday

Happy 111th Birthday mr Patch !