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Post by questa on Jun 17, 2014 6:08:26 GMT
Patrick, a fine idea so I have started this thread. This statue is in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Around it are pylons like leaves with each year, battle front and names of the fallen on them. I could make out Hungary, Afghanistan and Chechnya in the script. This soldier says it all in his weariness and despair. His boots are broken and clothes torn and he looks muddy and unkempt. A far cry from memorials of proud, upright soldiers on plinths around the world.
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Post by mossie on Jun 17, 2014 13:40:04 GMT
This man does not look quite so weary. But he sits just above the English Channel waiting and watching for comrades who will not come home. Battle of Britain Memorial at Capel near Dover
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 17, 2014 13:58:56 GMT
This is an example of the "standard" Commonwealth War Graves cemetery, in this case the one in northern France where a cousin of my father's is buried (his older brother, who died as a prisoner of war in Turkey in 1918, is buried in one on Baghdad, but heaven knows what that looks like now). I think, but am not sure, that the rows of crosses are for French or German casualties (the area was surrounded by casualty clearing stations that looked after anyone brought in from the battlefields). The British casualties are marked by the flat headstones in the distance. Although it seems entirely fitting now that they should be still close to where they died, and all commemorated in much the same way, at the time there was some opposition to the idea that they should not be brought home, and that people should not be offered much if any in the way of individual input into the design for their loved one's headstone: some denounced it as pure Bolshevism. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2014 14:24:58 GMT
just the last such statue that I saw, in Limoges on Sunday
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 18, 2014 16:44:55 GMT
As it happens, I'm in the Tirol, and passing through the town of Schwaz, this tortured Saint Sebastian in the parish church caught my eye. Set alongside it is the list of local men lost in the war, at least 100 or so. Some are listed under 1918 as "missing since 1914". It may explain a lot about the frame of mind in Austria in the aftermath of that war. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by questa on Jun 19, 2014 0:06:09 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2014 8:40:08 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Jun 24, 2014 12:46:57 GMT
Here's another from Austria - an interesting variation, in that it is a private memorial plaque erected by the owner of a mountain inn, and commemorates a heroic act by the enemy, achieving a (relatively) happy outcome. There's rather more detail and a translation HEREMy blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2014 11:29:16 GMT
not only remembering but ready to start again with cannon and saber!
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Post by questa on Jun 26, 2014 2:27:02 GMT
Where was this taken and who is represented? It looks like there is a story to this one.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2014 5:17:57 GMT
That is in Paris at Place de Clichy. It represents the defence of Paris against the Russian troops in 1814. The man would be Marshall of the Empire Moncey and of course the big woman is always the personification of France.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2014 13:09:48 GMT
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Post by amboseli on Jul 13, 2014 13:08:52 GMT
Sorry for the bad quality, but these are pre-digital camera pics. Tyne Cot Cemetery, Ieper (Ypres) Menin Gate, Ieper (Ypres) - Last Post ceremony [/url][/a] In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row. That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly. Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch, be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields.
(Poem by John McCrae)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2014 19:00:23 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Jul 23, 2014 20:09:39 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2014 22:59:50 GMT
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Post by htmb on Aug 4, 2014 23:40:29 GMT
Oh, that's really impressive.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 20, 2014 14:09:43 GMT
Parisian tribute to Russian soldiers
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Post by patricklondon on Aug 21, 2014 15:48:59 GMT
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Post by mossie on Aug 23, 2014 13:55:03 GMT
Remains of the aircraft were found during dredging for a dock improvement.
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Post by mossie on Aug 25, 2014 14:08:22 GMT
Arc de Triomphe Armistice Day
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Post by Deleted on Nov 6, 2014 16:38:52 GMT
They don't commemorate Remembrance Day here in Seattle, and coming from an Armed Forces family, I have always attended the ceremonies and worn my poppy. No poppies here, so I visited the craft store.
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Post by patricklondon on Nov 7, 2014 18:00:11 GMT
Goodness, we(I) haven't posted anything here about the great talking-point of the day, the installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London - 888,246 ceramic poppies planted in the Tower's moat, each poppy representing a British military fatality during the war. I took this earlier this summer as it was being installed: And here are the BBC's pictures of the finished installation - so many people have been trying to see it that the tube station has had to be closed from time to time to allow the crowds to clear: www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-29935592My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by patricklondon on Nov 7, 2014 18:11:42 GMT
PS: lizzy, the British Legion has an online poppy shop - or maybe you could get a Canadian one. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2014 18:39:39 GMT
Patrick, I hadn't thought of that, thanks, but I didn't have any lead time, and the materials cost me 75 cents, and I have enough let over to make twenty more.
Yes, I've been watching the progress of the installation, and all the arguments pro and con for it. Some people say it's bad art, glorifying violence, blah blah blah, but it's very moving and an inventive idea. And because it includes Commonwealth soldiers, I love it. Most people don't realise what a great sacrifice Canadians (including Newfoundland, which was not part of Canada yet), Australians, New Zealanders, Indians and South Africans made as well.
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Post by mossie on Nov 8, 2014 20:25:44 GMT
I think that it is a great idea, and a great tribute to those men and women represented by those poppies.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2015 6:35:20 GMT
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Post by deyana on Mar 18, 2015 17:38:38 GMT
Fascinating.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 30, 2015 16:11:06 GMT
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Post by rikita on Oct 1, 2015 22:17:58 GMT
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