With Remembrance Day fast approaching, wouldn't it be good if the Australian government would declare that at 11 o'clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, everything stops for one minute, one minute's silence; to remember all those that have fought, died and suffered because of warfare. Not to glorify it in any way; just to remember.
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In Passchendaele, Belgium in October 1917, Australia had sustained 38,000 casualties in eight weeks. Thirty five Australians were killed for every metre of ground taken.
Just imagine 60,000 casualties of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
More than 70 million people fought in WWI, with estimates of the dead between nine and 13 million, many who have no known grave.
By the time the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 ending the fighting in ‘the war to end all wars’, over 60,000 members of the AIF had died and 156,000 had been wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.
Although news of the Armistice led to celebrations across Australia, the huge cost of the war in human terms meant that many families and communities were grieving.
The editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 November 1918 noted: ‘There will be many whom this news of victory will not save from personal grief. The sounds of rejoicing cannot but bring some reminder of their loss.’
The Australian government faced the challenge of bringing the troops home, a process that took more than a year from the Armistice.
Charles Bean noted that at the end of 1918 large numbers of the AIF remained in almost every theatre of operations — with 92,000 in France, 60,000 in England and 17,000 in Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
LEST WE FORGET
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In Passchendaele, Belgium in October 1917, Australia had sustained 38,000 casualties in eight weeks. Thirty five Australians were killed for every metre of ground taken.
In March 1918, the Germans took it all back in just three days.
Just imagine 60,000 casualties of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.
More than 70 million people fought in WWI, with estimates of the dead between nine and 13 million, many who have no known grave.
By the time the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 ending the fighting in ‘the war to end all wars’, over 60,000 members of the AIF had died and 156,000 had been wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.
Although news of the Armistice led to celebrations across Australia, the huge cost of the war in human terms meant that many families and communities were grieving.
The editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald on 12 November 1918 noted: ‘There will be many whom this news of victory will not save from personal grief. The sounds of rejoicing cannot but bring some reminder of their loss.’
The Australian government faced the challenge of bringing the troops home, a process that took more than a year from the Armistice.
Charles Bean noted that at the end of 1918 large numbers of the AIF remained in almost every theatre of operations — with 92,000 in France, 60,000 in England and 17,000 in Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
LEST WE FORGET
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