Armistice Day
Nov. 11th, 2003 11:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nishatalithaHave chatted to Thurisaz this evening, which was really nice. I'm always glad to see her around.
Played around at http://www.reasonablyclever.com/ for a while. Made a lego character.
Haven't done much this evening. Called Raglan, since it's Grandad Bardsley's birthday this evening. Talked to him and Grandma for a bit.
Read some, ate dinner, eventually came online. I was at the library this afternoon, and I found the first volume of Ranma 1/2, so I decided to get it out and read it. It's funny. I may have to read the rest of them now. I've been looking at fanfic for it a bit. I think I'm going to have to find a better quality of fanfiction though. My first look at rec'd fics isn't working out that well - the recomender and I have different tastes it appears.
Armistice Day today. Someday I would like to go to a service. I think it's been 75 years since the end of WWI, which is something to be noted. The last WWI veteran died last year, I believe. There are no more stories to be told that have not been recorded already.
World War I is interesting, because it is the first war that was on such a large scale with such massive amounts of carnage. Admittedly, parts of the Crimean War and the Napoleanic wars were ghastly, but they didn't have the same mass, impersonal fighting that the Great War did. Until most of the war through WWI, there was the heroic ideal of a gallant soldier or officer, who keeps face before his men, laughs at the face of danger, and leaps into combat with the enemy for the sake of the mother country.
It seems such naivity now, and indeed, people were naive, innocent about what a war could do. Yes, Wellington's triumphs impacted on the British, but they didn't have the same effect that WWI did... WWI affected many nations, down to the grass roots level and caused a loss of innocence that previous wars didn't.
It was also the first war in which everyone who died in battle had their names recorded, inasmuch as possible. There are a few monuments to the Boar War scattered around, but scarcely on the scale of the First World War. There are some theories about this, that it was because of the massive loss and the fact that people couldn't bring the bodies of their dead home (except for the Americans) that may have triggered this need for monuments.
The first Cenotaph, the one in Whitehall, was originally supposed to be a temporary structure, an empty tomb for the public to focus their grief upon, and then let it go. But public outcry insisted on making it permanent. In some places in Britain, there was an unoffical competition between towns to get their memorial up first.
There was less of this in New Zealand, but still you'll find that just about every town in New Zealand has a monument to the First World War in it. Sometimes, as in Hamilton, the one to the Second World War or other later wars are tacked onto it, but they remain built in the style and language of the early twenties.
Many have say things like 'Lest We Forget' and 'To Our Glorious Dead' or other such sentiments. Most have names recorded on them. Only two in New Zealand were paid for by government subsidy. The public felt that it was important to remember.
Every year we commerate ANZAC Day. Initially started in 1915, it turned into a day when the public could focus and mourn together all those that had died so far, and the ones far away. Now, to me, ANZAC Day means more than the men and women who died from 1914 - 1918, but covers most of the wars New Zealand has been involved in. As VE Day only belongs to WWII, so Armistice Day only belongs to WWI.
The Armistice was signed, in France, at 11.11am on November 11, 1918, and thus the War to end all Wars was ended.
Played around at http://www.reasonablyclever.com/ for a while. Made a lego character.
Haven't done much this evening. Called Raglan, since it's Grandad Bardsley's birthday this evening. Talked to him and Grandma for a bit.
Read some, ate dinner, eventually came online. I was at the library this afternoon, and I found the first volume of Ranma 1/2, so I decided to get it out and read it. It's funny. I may have to read the rest of them now. I've been looking at fanfic for it a bit. I think I'm going to have to find a better quality of fanfiction though. My first look at rec'd fics isn't working out that well - the recomender and I have different tastes it appears.
Armistice Day today. Someday I would like to go to a service. I think it's been 75 years since the end of WWI, which is something to be noted. The last WWI veteran died last year, I believe. There are no more stories to be told that have not been recorded already.
World War I is interesting, because it is the first war that was on such a large scale with such massive amounts of carnage. Admittedly, parts of the Crimean War and the Napoleanic wars were ghastly, but they didn't have the same mass, impersonal fighting that the Great War did. Until most of the war through WWI, there was the heroic ideal of a gallant soldier or officer, who keeps face before his men, laughs at the face of danger, and leaps into combat with the enemy for the sake of the mother country.
It seems such naivity now, and indeed, people were naive, innocent about what a war could do. Yes, Wellington's triumphs impacted on the British, but they didn't have the same effect that WWI did... WWI affected many nations, down to the grass roots level and caused a loss of innocence that previous wars didn't.
It was also the first war in which everyone who died in battle had their names recorded, inasmuch as possible. There are a few monuments to the Boar War scattered around, but scarcely on the scale of the First World War. There are some theories about this, that it was because of the massive loss and the fact that people couldn't bring the bodies of their dead home (except for the Americans) that may have triggered this need for monuments.
The first Cenotaph, the one in Whitehall, was originally supposed to be a temporary structure, an empty tomb for the public to focus their grief upon, and then let it go. But public outcry insisted on making it permanent. In some places in Britain, there was an unoffical competition between towns to get their memorial up first.
There was less of this in New Zealand, but still you'll find that just about every town in New Zealand has a monument to the First World War in it. Sometimes, as in Hamilton, the one to the Second World War or other later wars are tacked onto it, but they remain built in the style and language of the early twenties.
Many have say things like 'Lest We Forget' and 'To Our Glorious Dead' or other such sentiments. Most have names recorded on them. Only two in New Zealand were paid for by government subsidy. The public felt that it was important to remember.
Every year we commerate ANZAC Day. Initially started in 1915, it turned into a day when the public could focus and mourn together all those that had died so far, and the ones far away. Now, to me, ANZAC Day means more than the men and women who died from 1914 - 1918, but covers most of the wars New Zealand has been involved in. As VE Day only belongs to WWII, so Armistice Day only belongs to WWI.
The Armistice was signed, in France, at 11.11am on November 11, 1918, and thus the War to end all Wars was ended.