100 years ago today at 7.30am it was zero hour.
Tens of thousands of men lost their lives, were permanently maimed and if they survived they not only lost many of their friends who'd fought bravely by their sides but they'd witnessed a carnage that we can only imagine today. The sights, sounds and smells of that day and those that followed is something we're lucky enough never to experience.
Whenever the Great War is commemorated in any way, or when I research that terrible time, I can't help being moved by the thought of those young men and what they went through.
We will never forget these men.
My research has mainly been with the cavalry as my great-grandfather, Charles Wood, was in the Lancers during the Great War. He survived only to die in 1922 just before Christmas. He'd been in the forces since the turn of the century, so was used to a battle fought on horseback. He fought in the Boer War and India, where my grandmother was born. I don't have a picture of him because when he died my great-grandmother burned them all because he'd left her.
2 comments:
Such an emotive subject, Debs - as you say, quite impossible for us to imagine the horrors endured by all those very brave men. Heartbreaking. And how dreadfully sad that your grandmother disposed of your grandfather's photos. I treasure the pics I have of both my grandfathers - one was with the cavalry and the other a pilot, so they had very different wars. x
It certainly is, Nell. I've spent about 25 years trying to track down a photo of him but his name was Charles Matthew Wood and so not unusual. Such a shame as I want it mainly for my dad as he was told he looked very like his grandfather but has never seen him. x
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