The Wondering Brit

On the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month the guns fell silent over the fields of Europe in 1918.

This was the moment the Armistice came into being, having been signed by all sides only hours before.

The meaning of the word Armistice is ‘cease-fire’. It did not mean surrender or triumph and while it was called the war to end all wars, it was the reason for the Second World War.

Each generation that passes forgets the true horror of war, we feel as individuals and nations that under certain circumstances it is alright to wage such operations – until the cost has becomes too great to bear. This was the exact reason for the Armistice – the countries simply ran out of men and money to fight.

It’s so easy to pour scorn on modern conflicts and for the most part it is important to maintain an army, but the oldest book of warfare ‘The Art of War’ by Sun Tsu is the most coherent guide to such activities and is largely ignored. As such we, as a global people, will continue to suffer the, pain, anguish, thirst and hatred for war. The aftermath of which is so often the hardest part – and so greatly forgotten about.

In the Commonwealth we symbolize the massive loss of life and whom those, for our freedom, they paid the greatest price with the enduring flower that grew relentlessly in the fields of Flanders – the Poppy.

It is at this time of year when we start wearing them to remember not just WW1 & 2 but all those conflicts before and since. Certainly since the end of WW2 more than 60,000 British servicemen and women have died in operations around the world, this obviously does not even start to cover the numbers of other nations.

If people ever travel to Fr**nce or Belgium you will find over 980 cemetery’s of war dead from WW1. These silent towns and cities of men can range from and few hundred to many tens of thousands and a visit to trenches will leave you in tears. But it is worth the visit.

Please, try to ‘feel’ today – and remember that at 11 am, we stop everything.