Armistice Day Remembrance Sunday Lest We Forget. Welsh Guards Chris Duggan Interviewed On PTSD From The Falklands War

Armistice Day. World War 1. The War that was supposed to end all wars.

On November 11th, Remembrance Sunday. We Remember The Dead.

The Armistice Day agreement, was supposed to mean the end of war, between the combatant nations.

The 11^th hour of the 11 Day of the 11^th Month. November is the day set aside each year to remember the dead of the first world war.

Subsequent wars right up to today’s Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts are now included in the remembrance .

The first world war was so bloody, and the carnage of humanity so high.

That it started to become clear, that the meat grinder that is trench warfare, was unwinnable.

The governments on both sides began to realise, that they were indeed at the 11^th hour.

A metaphor for the end of life as we know it.

The seeds of the second world war, were sown at the signing of the surrender agreement in the forest of Compiègne, France

Trench warfare is a static battle formation, with the heavy use of artillery.

It is a plan for mass slaughter and murder.

On the various front lines of the Somme, Ypres and Passiondale to name a few, on a daily basis, would see deaths and casualties running into 10's of 1000's.

These men were bombarded to their wits end and many, if they were lucky were diagnosed with shell shock.

Today it is known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Back in those days there was really little, or no treatment or understanding of what was happening to these men.

Many times they were shunned and abused as cowards.

In London 1919

The British government erected a temporary wooden monument. The memory of the war was still so raw, and so many people visited and left wreaths that, finance was made available to establish a permanent memorial.

'The Cenotaph' or the 'tomb of the unknown soldier' was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

It is situated in Whitehall near the Prime Minister office, at No 10 Downing Street.

To remind future Prime Ministers of the true costs of war.

Of the many men that have died in subsequent wars since the signing of the Armistice Day Treaty way back in that lonely forest in France.

I would like to show you, what has become just another footnote in history, that is still having repercussions today.

Footnote

The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas or Guerra del Atlántico Sur), also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom (UK) over the 'disputed' Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

The Falkland Islands consist of two large and many small islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, east of Argentina; their name and sovereignty over them is disputed by Argentina.

There have been British people living there intermittently since 1765. The islands have exchanged ownership several times, between several nations including Argentine.

Britain re-established her claim on the colony in 1833.

The 1982 Falklands War

The Falklands War started on Friday, 2 April 1982, with the Argentine invasion and occupation of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.

Britain launched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Argentine Air Force, and retake the islands by amphibious assault.

The conflict ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, and the islands remained under British control.

The war lasted 74 days. It resulted in the deaths of 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and the deaths of three civilian Falkland Islanders.

It is the most recent external conflict to be fought by the UK, without any allied states, and the only external Argentine war since the 1880s.

Source wikipedia.com/ falklands war

The Day That War Was Announced

I was with my wife visiting her sister, who lived on the Welsh Guards barracks in Brookwood, Surrey. With her husband Chris Duggan, Welsh Guards, British Army, Rank Corporal!

We always found it found it amusing the regimented nature of a soldiers life. So different to that of us civvies.

When the call to mobilse troops came through, she was matter of about it.

My wife's sister Lesley was quiet calm about the whole affair.

Her husband Chris Duggan (interview) at that time was a 17 year Welsh Guards Regiment veteran.

He had been in many hotpots before. This was just business as usual?

I have a vivid memory of saying goodbye to my brother-in-law Chris and his friends who were in the Welsh Guards Regiment.

They were loaded with huge packs of equipment, so much so, that they looked like ants carrying these massive inhuman loads.

I wondered how on earth they were going to be able to fight, carrying so much gear?

In the 5 a.m. misty half light of the morning, as they prepared to go to war, in a place none of them had heard of.

It was surreal

I was always arguing with Chris about the Army. It was our main topic of conversation.

He was British Army Barmy and I was wondering what made him tick.

That night I found out. I felt a dread that I never want to feel again. Those men and their training, kicked into high gear. They could not wait to get on with it.

It was silent as they boarded the trucks, that would take them down to the ships, that would put them in harms way.

They were happy to be finally going. I thought this is madness, but they were soldiers ready to do what they had been trained to do. Politics by other means.

If they were scared they did not show it.

Here are some of the men that didn't make it back from the Falklands War.

They were not unknown to me.

They deserve better than a footnote in time.

Armistice Day Remembrance Sunday

Lest We Forget

I hope that Chris can forgive me for being such an idiot way back then, when I was going on in my liberal ignorance.

Some things are just worth fighting for.

In this case, the Freedom of British Citizens to remain British way down in the Falklands.

My nephew Jamie is a Royal Marine, he is a serving member of the British Army.

He can be deployed anytime and I pray that he comes home intact.

The Old Soldiers Lie.

'Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori'

Above is a line from the Roman lyrical poet Horace's Odes (III.2.13). The line can be roughly translated into English as:

"It is right and fitting to die for one's country."

They serve to protect our freedoms, that we take for granted. It is by their sacrifice that we live.

Remember

The British government to their eternal shame, still to this day have not sufficiently helped the survivors of the carnage, that was the Falklands.

Armistice Day Remembrance Sunday

Lest We Forget