A moment of silence for those who are not with us today...and for those of us who survived our service to a bunch of ungrateful democrat&republican politicians...Happy Veteran's Day.
Lebo Von Lo~Debar
Former/Always 82nd Airborne Infantryman, Disabled Veteran for Life, & Author of the book, "The Separation of Corporation and State" subtitled "Common Sense and the Two-Party Crisis" Available on Amazon.
It probably doesn't tell anyone who has a feel for the history of the period anything they didn't know. And it probably doesn't tell anyone who has seen the elephant anything they didn't know.
But it is well done and tells the tale well from the Tommy's POV.
And if nothing else, the colorized footage and lip read dialogue is magnificently done and worth it just for that.
This is first and foremost a Sea log, so I'll frame the response in the form of a salute to the RN and in particular to their Med CINC, Adm A B Cunningham. at the evacuation of Crete:
source WIKI
"After a week of heavy fighting, British commanders decided that the situation was hopeless and ordered a withdrawal from Sfakia. During the next four nights, 16,000 troops were evacuated to Egypt by ships (including HMS Ajax of Battle of the River Plate fame). A smaller number of ships were to withdraw troops on a separate mission from Heraklion, but these ships were attacked en route by Luftwaffe dive bombers. Without air cover, Cunningham's ships suffered serious losses. Cunningham was determined, though, that the "navy must not let the army down", and when army generals feared he would lose too many ships, Cunningham said,
It takes the Navy three years to build a ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition. The evacuation will continue.
The "never say die" attitude of Cunningham and the men under his command meant that of 22,000 men on Crete, 16,500 were rescued but at the loss of three cruisers and six destroyers. Fifteen other major warships were damaged.
I wish I could still buy Buddy Poppys. No one seems to even know what they are here in the US. But you’ll see British and Commonwealth leaders wearing them today.
Long ago, I attended a USMC birthday ball in Quantico with two guests of honor - a Boxer Rebellion Marine who served with Dan Daley and a Philippine American War squid. The great war veterans were young men in comparison. Wonderful men - we owe them more than can ever be paid.
China today is increasingly belligerent. The spirit of another Chinese Boxer Rebellion 2.0 is flashing red in East Asia and around the world.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remarked in the Japanese Diet parliament on the possibility of Japanese involvement if Taiwan is invaded or blockaded by the PRC.
In response, Xue Jian, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, fired back on the social media platform X in a now-deleted post, which read: "That filthy neck that barged in on its own—I've got no choice but to cut it off without a moment's hesitation. Are you prepared for that?"
From being a victim of WW2, China is drifting to being an aggressor instead and nursing grudges and vitriol that it generously unleashed on its neighbors like Japan, ROK, Taiwan, and the Philippines. And it's doing bites around the world.
Perhaps another international alliance might be needed to tame the PRC if Chinese boxers go amok.
A resurrection of the Boxer Rebellion Marine might be needed to evacuate foreigners and consular personnel if things got out of hand.
Strange as it may be, things do repeat themselves and rhyme historically.
Agree that the Brits continue to honor the day appropriately. When I grew up in Milwaukee it was a big deal with many WWI vets (even a couple Span-Am vets) parading. American Legion was always distributing poppies for a lapel pin. Don't think I've seen that for a long time.
Since I now live in Hawaii next door to Schofield Barracks/Wheeler Airfield and also enjoy history I have to point out that 11-11 didn't end the war for everyone. Wilson had directed the creation of two additional "American Expeditionary Forces", one of which was AEF Siberia. The politics/strategy behind this seems a bit vague but the upshot was that US Army infantry that had been fighting Muslim insurgency on Mindanao in the PI were sent to Vladivostok to take control of the Trans-Siberia railroad so the "Czech Legion" could use it to get out of Russia. But apparently keeping a large amount of US military supplies that had been sent to Russia out of the hands of the Red army was also a factor.
That deployment lasted until early 1920, ended in part as Americans couldn't see why troops were still deployed after the war had "ended". Aside from the railroad, there came to be significant friction with Japanese forces, sent as part of the "coalition of the willing" as it might be called. The Japanese didn't leave until October of 1922.
My grandfather served in the artillery in WW1. He had bitter memories of Armistice Day. The regulars knew at dawn that there was an armistice agreed for 11am ... and sent divisions over the top anyway. His gun fired in support to the very last second.
On November 11, 1918, Armistice Day, the American Expeditionary Forces in France suffered more than 3,500 casualties, although it had been known unofficially for two days that the fighting would end that day and known with absolute certainty as of 5 o’clock that morning that it would end at 11 a.m.
To question officers as to why men had been exposed to death at literally the eleventh hour, the Subcommittee held a hearing. Among the first witnesses called was Pershing’s chief of operations, Brig. Gen. Fox Conner. Congressman Oscar Bland, moved quickly to the heart of the matter in questioning General Conner.
‘How many generals did you lose on that day?’ Bland asked. ‘None,’ Conner replied. ‘How many colonels did you lose on that day?’ Conner: ‘I do not know how many were lost.’ ‘How many lieutenant colonels did you lose on that day?’ Conner: ‘I do not know the details of any of that.’ ‘I am convinced,’ Bland continued, ‘that on November 11 there was not any officer of very high rank taking any chance of losing his own life….’
We always did Remembrance Day at home as well as Veteran's Day. While my father was a US Marine, my step-Dad was British Army, and his father was Royal Navy, including at Gallipoli. On the other side my maternal grandfather was USN in WW2, and his father was with the Alpini fighting the Germans in the Alps for much of WW1 until captured. This perhaps made the Great War and the unimaginable European losses feel a bit closer.
It really is hard to imagine how three of Victoria's grandchildren found themselves, allowed themselves, to engage in this incredible folly that destroyed so much of the Europe that was, and set the stage for the experience of total war that followed 20 years later.
Both of my Grandfathers served in France in that war. I for one, don't count over 50,000 combat deaths as a mere "whiff".
Among the artifacts I have from my Paternal GrandDad is a trench knife; it's a vicious piece of gear. Even my Dad never knew him, so why the knife came home remains a mystery. Probably just as well.
Exactly. One of my more memorable college classes was “The Great War Catastrophe” taught by WWII (Saipan) and Korea (Chosin) Marine vet Dr Clifton Yearly. History elective for a young engineering student. Course was aptly named.
CDR Salamander, just as you grandfathers and your father served…
My son called me today… I said, you’re a “Veteran” too! He said, “All good Captains (USAF) study.”
Yes, we Veterans pick up our gear and we carry on!
Chin up CDR, the Brits aren’t the last words out of the box. Good you had a NATO last duty! At about 0900, I was asked today to sing my German songs to the Manager of our Volkswagon Service Department on Hudson Street, Annapolis, Maryland. Of course I sang loud and strong! Many smiles greeted me! For the next four hours at the dealership I used ChatGBT to understand the time-line, 2000 - 2023, A. Syed spent in prison required for Assignment 2, Criminal Law at AACC Arnold, Maryland. At the beginning of our service, we study the UCMJ. I highly recommend that all good Naval Officers and Enlisted study “Criminal Law” in the twilight of their “Retirement”. This is so we can better LEAD those who follow in our boot prints.
That YouTube you shared with us… I’ll take those soldiers and sit them down to Study Law… British Law, American Law, International Law! Keep busy, keep learning and put the beer down onto the table. We’ve got work to do! So let’s do it! Good night shipmates! God Bless America…and Nurse Jane!
Recently the National WWII museum hosted some vets from WWII. One who was 103 remembers as a Boy Scout in 1935 escorting Union Civil war veterans at a reunion for both sides in Wisconsin. The audience gasped at the breadth of history we had just heard.
Remembering Captain Verlyne Daniels and all the rest today.
http://www.veterantributes.org/TributeDetail.php?recordID=1758
A moment of silence for those who are not with us today...and for those of us who survived our service to a bunch of ungrateful democrat&republican politicians...Happy Veteran's Day.
Lebo Von Lo~Debar
Former/Always 82nd Airborne Infantryman, Disabled Veteran for Life, & Author of the book, "The Separation of Corporation and State" subtitled "Common Sense and the Two-Party Crisis" Available on Amazon.
Thank you.
The Anglosphere does Remembrance Day much better than we do.
Peter Jackson deserves a Knighthood for both LOTR and his WW1 film
if you missed it in 2014
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tower+of+london+poppies&form=HDRSC3&first=1
I still need to see They Shall Not Grow Old.
It is well worth the time.
It probably doesn't tell anyone who has a feel for the history of the period anything they didn't know. And it probably doesn't tell anyone who has seen the elephant anything they didn't know.
But it is well done and tells the tale well from the Tommy's POV.
And if nothing else, the colorized footage and lip read dialogue is magnificently done and worth it just for that.
"The Anglosphere does Remembrance Day much better than we do."
I agree. Then again, they have had more practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tCg596QSc
This is first and foremost a Sea log, so I'll frame the response in the form of a salute to the RN and in particular to their Med CINC, Adm A B Cunningham. at the evacuation of Crete:
source WIKI
"After a week of heavy fighting, British commanders decided that the situation was hopeless and ordered a withdrawal from Sfakia. During the next four nights, 16,000 troops were evacuated to Egypt by ships (including HMS Ajax of Battle of the River Plate fame). A smaller number of ships were to withdraw troops on a separate mission from Heraklion, but these ships were attacked en route by Luftwaffe dive bombers. Without air cover, Cunningham's ships suffered serious losses. Cunningham was determined, though, that the "navy must not let the army down", and when army generals feared he would lose too many ships, Cunningham said,
It takes the Navy three years to build a ship. It will take three hundred years to build a new tradition. The evacuation will continue.
The "never say die" attitude of Cunningham and the men under his command meant that of 22,000 men on Crete, 16,500 were rescued but at the loss of three cruisers and six destroyers. Fifteen other major warships were damaged.
I wish I could still buy Buddy Poppys. No one seems to even know what they are here in the US. But you’ll see British and Commonwealth leaders wearing them today.
Poppies here are usually Memorial Day
VFW usually does this some a checkout counters others will hand them out
I just got a tattoo with a poppy and Lest We Forget
You can get Poppies from the British Legion site.
https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/
The Royal Canadian Legion is closer: https://www.poppystore.ca
Long ago, I attended a USMC birthday ball in Quantico with two guests of honor - a Boxer Rebellion Marine who served with Dan Daley and a Philippine American War squid. The great war veterans were young men in comparison. Wonderful men - we owe them more than can ever be paid.
China today is increasingly belligerent. The spirit of another Chinese Boxer Rebellion 2.0 is flashing red in East Asia and around the world.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi remarked in the Japanese Diet parliament on the possibility of Japanese involvement if Taiwan is invaded or blockaded by the PRC.
In response, Xue Jian, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, fired back on the social media platform X in a now-deleted post, which read: "That filthy neck that barged in on its own—I've got no choice but to cut it off without a moment's hesitation. Are you prepared for that?"
From being a victim of WW2, China is drifting to being an aggressor instead and nursing grudges and vitriol that it generously unleashed on its neighbors like Japan, ROK, Taiwan, and the Philippines. And it's doing bites around the world.
Perhaps another international alliance might be needed to tame the PRC if Chinese boxers go amok.
A resurrection of the Boxer Rebellion Marine might be needed to evacuate foreigners and consular personnel if things got out of hand.
Strange as it may be, things do repeat themselves and rhyme historically.
Agree that the Brits continue to honor the day appropriately. When I grew up in Milwaukee it was a big deal with many WWI vets (even a couple Span-Am vets) parading. American Legion was always distributing poppies for a lapel pin. Don't think I've seen that for a long time.
Since I now live in Hawaii next door to Schofield Barracks/Wheeler Airfield and also enjoy history I have to point out that 11-11 didn't end the war for everyone. Wilson had directed the creation of two additional "American Expeditionary Forces", one of which was AEF Siberia. The politics/strategy behind this seems a bit vague but the upshot was that US Army infantry that had been fighting Muslim insurgency on Mindanao in the PI were sent to Vladivostok to take control of the Trans-Siberia railroad so the "Czech Legion" could use it to get out of Russia. But apparently keeping a large amount of US military supplies that had been sent to Russia out of the hands of the Red army was also a factor.
That deployment lasted until early 1920, ended in part as Americans couldn't see why troops were still deployed after the war had "ended". Aside from the railroad, there came to be significant friction with Japanese forces, sent as part of the "coalition of the willing" as it might be called. The Japanese didn't leave until October of 1922.
My grandfather served in the artillery in WW1. He had bitter memories of Armistice Day. The regulars knew at dawn that there was an armistice agreed for 11am ... and sent divisions over the top anyway. His gun fired in support to the very last second.
On November 11, 1918, Armistice Day, the American Expeditionary Forces in France suffered more than 3,500 casualties, although it had been known unofficially for two days that the fighting would end that day and known with absolute certainty as of 5 o’clock that morning that it would end at 11 a.m.
To question officers as to why men had been exposed to death at literally the eleventh hour, the Subcommittee held a hearing. Among the first witnesses called was Pershing’s chief of operations, Brig. Gen. Fox Conner. Congressman Oscar Bland, moved quickly to the heart of the matter in questioning General Conner.
‘How many generals did you lose on that day?’ Bland asked. ‘None,’ Conner replied. ‘How many colonels did you lose on that day?’ Conner: ‘I do not know how many were lost.’ ‘How many lieutenant colonels did you lose on that day?’ Conner: ‘I do not know the details of any of that.’ ‘I am convinced,’ Bland continued, ‘that on November 11 there was not any officer of very high rank taking any chance of losing his own life….’
I have enjoyed the Kelly Maguire series by Max Hennessy about the Royal Navy. Rollicking good tales, (and cleaner than Flashman).
I just received The Lion at Sea as a gift, on the near-next list.
Nice story. Sorry that is in French but that's why they invented Google translate.
https://www.meretmarine.com/fr/histoire-navale/11-novembre-1918-un-sous-marin-annonce-aux-parisiens-la-signature-de-l-armistice
interesting; thank you
W. S. Sims would not be allowed in today's Navy...
http://www.worldwar1.com/tgws/usnwwone.htm
We always did Remembrance Day at home as well as Veteran's Day. While my father was a US Marine, my step-Dad was British Army, and his father was Royal Navy, including at Gallipoli. On the other side my maternal grandfather was USN in WW2, and his father was with the Alpini fighting the Germans in the Alps for much of WW1 until captured. This perhaps made the Great War and the unimaginable European losses feel a bit closer.
It really is hard to imagine how three of Victoria's grandchildren found themselves, allowed themselves, to engage in this incredible folly that destroyed so much of the Europe that was, and set the stage for the experience of total war that followed 20 years later.
Both of my Grandfathers served in France in that war. I for one, don't count over 50,000 combat deaths as a mere "whiff".
Among the artifacts I have from my Paternal GrandDad is a trench knife; it's a vicious piece of gear. Even my Dad never knew him, so why the knife came home remains a mystery. Probably just as well.
Exactly. One of my more memorable college classes was “The Great War Catastrophe” taught by WWII (Saipan) and Korea (Chosin) Marine vet Dr Clifton Yearly. History elective for a young engineering student. Course was aptly named.
Excellent book on the subject:
https://www.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-2004-08-03/dp/B01JXV73EW/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=2XPNOFZ6EF6QC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ul3_tRG6cC_aR2ulzc683MRqz0H1FaExl2TjoQuJmtgj5czYlI2L9j3OyL63HOqGcEGxX-7o0QMM9LYrTxjh2pBypL2lB6rcvlXrFM3novLB_L2RgkZwMI1LKNKcCIw0rqD065AyKlOk5uzYeXwZvLgAAwceY-gWiIw9rgOYZcbh2_hadNKs4VKrI_raXeMASiOlVweuEa4Gf1iLLlvpQA.1gBUZahPGD23pDsf7ybFdAqm9xPp8PnWoxAQ7Hd2Z6E&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+guns+of+august+by+barbara+tuchman&qid=1763316561&sprefix=the+guns+of+%2Caps%2C132&sr=8-2
CDR Salamander, just as you grandfathers and your father served…
My son called me today… I said, you’re a “Veteran” too! He said, “All good Captains (USAF) study.”
Yes, we Veterans pick up our gear and we carry on!
Chin up CDR, the Brits aren’t the last words out of the box. Good you had a NATO last duty! At about 0900, I was asked today to sing my German songs to the Manager of our Volkswagon Service Department on Hudson Street, Annapolis, Maryland. Of course I sang loud and strong! Many smiles greeted me! For the next four hours at the dealership I used ChatGBT to understand the time-line, 2000 - 2023, A. Syed spent in prison required for Assignment 2, Criminal Law at AACC Arnold, Maryland. At the beginning of our service, we study the UCMJ. I highly recommend that all good Naval Officers and Enlisted study “Criminal Law” in the twilight of their “Retirement”. This is so we can better LEAD those who follow in our boot prints.
That YouTube you shared with us… I’ll take those soldiers and sit them down to Study Law… British Law, American Law, International Law! Keep busy, keep learning and put the beer down onto the table. We’ve got work to do! So let’s do it! Good night shipmates! God Bless America…and Nurse Jane!
Recently the National WWII museum hosted some vets from WWII. One who was 103 remembers as a Boy Scout in 1935 escorting Union Civil war veterans at a reunion for both sides in Wisconsin. The audience gasped at the breadth of history we had just heard.
My Dad was born in 1924 and remembered a parade in the late 1930s in Los Angeles with GAR veterans riding in an open car.