War And Consequences

[Maggie/915]

My Grandfather was drafted into the army in 1916. Lots of people in the same street went at the same time. Harry Patch, the last Tommy said, 'War is licensed murder'

He came home suffering from the effects of mustard gas.

Maybe others have local stories of War and the consequences

[Maggie/915]

It was.my grandad who came home suffering not Harry Patch.

[Adam Hogg]

My great Grandad was an ambulance driver during the first world war, can't imagine what he saw (mustard gas victims, Gunshot wounds, Shrapnel wounds, missing body parts, etc). He never talked about it to anyone in the family.

[paul mann]

I remember my grannie on my dad's side saying she and other wives went down to the railway station in Ashington to meet their lads off the train during the First World War. They'd been given a few days' leave from the Front and they'd marched straight from the trenches to the railhead in Flanders, boarded, put on a cross channel steamer, then up home in the same rail cars. She said they arrived in a dreadful state still covered in mud and from the trenches and all of them lousy, exhausted and famished. They had a few days rest and some decent grub while the wives washed their claes and keks so the army saved some money on food and laundry. Then it was down to the railway station and back to the Front. My grandfather had a shiny piece of shrapnel that looked like a lizard. It buggered his leg when the shell went off and wounded him bad enough to be invalided back to Blighty for recuperation. He kept it a souvenir because it saved his life.

[Brian Cross]

My Grandad was killed 6 days before WW1 ended the bloody generals must have known the war was going to end.Why would they send more men to their death ? R.I.P Grandad Albert (Ginger)

[Adam Hogg]

Anyother one from me may grandma's uncle was on leave and fell down the stairs at his home and broke his leg and got told he would be exempt from active duty and would not have to return to the front, however he refused and returned to the front once his leg healed, he returned to the front and then he was killed after stepping on a landmine, his name is among the many on Ashington War Memorial.

[Malcolm Robinson]

My Grandad was killed 6 days before WW1 ended the bloody generals must have known the war was going to end.Why would they send more men to their death ? R.I.P Grandad Albert (Ginger)

I think the 'Generals' especailly in that War had a lot to answer for! I wouldn't have been shooting lads with Battle fatigue and handing out medals to people sitting in the warm 100's of miles behind the Front. Even now I would be stripping quite a few 'honours' away. The whole carnage and waste is testament to how cheap human life was considered then and a handful of clueless people playing soldiers with real men and women.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz0pGOESrBs

[Symptoms]

Whilst Blackadder IV was a satirical/comedy take on what went on, I still reckon it was a very accurate depiction of the uncaring command structure in place and the resignation of the poor sods stuck in the trenches. The British class system at its best.

My Grandad was a Corporal in the Northumberland Hussars* during that buns fight with Fritz and was awarded the Military Medal for a series of outstanding actions in Flanders ... there's a whole section on him in Howard Pease's History of the Northumberland Hussars. As my Grandad was in the Regiment as a volunteer part-time trooper before the War he was sent over to France at the beginning and was there for the whole four year duration and survived. I still have his spurs and his jack-knife (one of those knives with a blade and a marlin spike used for cleaning horse hooves); his medals and citations are at Durham Cathedral. My maternal Grandmother lost her first husband and three brothers (she later married the guy above); my paternal Grandmother lost two brothers. This wasn't unusual - thousands and thousands of families had multiple losses.

* Yeoman Cavalry - horse-mounted Territorials. I watched the film War Horse on the telly last year and got a bit of a flavour about what it might have been like.

[Maggie/915]

It really was a terrible war.

I do not think there is a good war, innocent people die. Even if the cause is good and necessary.

I was shocked at the numbers drafted from Millbank Crescent alone.

Truly the Pals War. United in War, Death and Injury. Then home to people only interested in the price of bread! So many many thoughts must have been difficult. Bedlington and security to carnage.

Long may we live in peace.

[Symptoms]

And home to the Spanish Flu. My maternal Grandma had her first daughter with my Grandad when he returned from France ... but she died of the flu when an infant.

[Maggie/915]

My Uncle George died in Burma on the 17th March 1944. His church magazine ran an article on him in June 1944 price two pence.

In the article they quote Rudyard Kipling:-

'When you're wounded and dying on Afghanistan plains

And the women come out to cut up what remains,

Just crawl to your carbine and blow out your brains,

And go to your God like a soldier.

Different times, different ideas.

We have never been involved in a war like this in our life times.

People used to talk about suicide pills if you were caught in a war.

We need to remember we have lived in a golden age and thanks to others sacrifice,(including Emily Wilding Davis who died 100 years ago in June) we live vote and have freedom.

[keith lockey]

A GOLDEN AGE?

World War I

Russian Civil War

Finnish Civil War

Cristero War

Spanish Civil War

Irish Civil War

World War II - Germany vs. Poland

World War II - Germany vs. France

World War II - Germany vs. Russia

World War II - Allies vs. Germany

World War II - Allies vs. Italy

World War II - Allies vs. Germany in Africa

World War II - Allies vs. Italy in Africa

World War II - Japan vs. Korea

World War II - Japan vs. China

World War II - Japan vs. Philippines

World War II - Allies vs. Japan

World War II - Japanese theatre

China Civil War

Greek Civil War

Costa Rican War

1948 War of Independence (Israel)

Sinai War (Israel)

Kasmir War (India/Pakistan)

Chinese Occupation of Tibet (whether this is a war is a contested subject)

Korean Civil War (involving Russian, China and the U.S., too)

Sino-Indian War

Indo-Pakistan War of 1965

Indo-Pakistan War of 1971

Vietnam Civil War (involving France and then the U.S., too)

Cambodian Civil War

Guatamalan Civil War

Six Day War (Israel/Many middle-east countries)

War of Attritian (Israel/Egypt)

Yom Kippur War (Israel/Egypt/Syria)

Nigerian Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

Algerian Civil War

First Sudanese Civil War

First Lebanon War (Israel)

East Timor (Indonesia/East Timor)

Russia-Afghanistan War

Salvador Civil War

Ethiopian Civil War

Falkan War (Britain/Argentina)

Iran-Iraq War

US-Iraq Kuwait Liberation War

Sierra Leone Civil War

Serbian War

Rwandan Civil War

Kargil War

Second Sudanese Civil War

US-Iraq Occupation War

Second Lebanon War (Israel)

US-Afghanistan War

Were Cameron - Clegg voted in?

[Maggie/915]

I personally have not been involved in any war but I appreciate the people who have!

They have allowed us to live a peaceful life.

We have food shelter and a life is safe!

If we are ill we can get help.

I do not think Bedlington is a war zone.