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That time of year again.

far-trader

far-trader

SOC-14 10K
Just want to offer a Happy Birthday Canada to all my countrymen and women on the boards. It's a bit early but I hit the road tomorrow for fun and such in the spirit of this weekend.

I'd also like to offer an early Happy Birthday USA to all our neighbours as well.

The thing this time of year always reminds me of is how close our countries are in so many ways.

So have a good one, a safe one, and reflect on what makes our countries deserving of celebration.

Peace all.
 
Happy Birthday, eh
 
Happy 1st Dan, & all of you from the land of Canada here on this board!

Thanks for the 4th July. I'll be working all next week, having used all my leave time up for the military schools & Annual Training. The Good news--I'll be stuck on day shift for a change and home before dark! The bad news-I go back to nights Saturday July 7th.

ah well. Safe travels all you who're vacationing, and watch out for those fireworks, huh? No blowin' yerselves up, hear?

As ever was,
Liam
 
Eh? What Birthday? That's tommorrow! When I plan to drink enough not to remember the next day and recover the next. Ah, the joys of stat. holidays...

States, Happy 4th, and all the best.
 
Make that:
Happy Canadian Birthday!
Happy United States of America's Birthday!

After all we are both part of North America. So Happy Birthday everybody!
 
The only sad thing :( here is that the cops have said they will arrest anyone setting off personal fireworks.

Actually, I am not too unhappy - we're so dry and windy right now, a single Black Cat could burn 50,000 acres in an hour.
 
Here, have a slice of imaginary, maple-leaf-shaped birthday cake!

It's also the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. 60,000 casualties in a single day kinda puts modern conflicts into perspective.

God, that's depressing. Better have some more cake...
 
Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
Here, have a slice of imaginary, maple-leaf-shaped birthday cake!

It's also the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. 60,000 casualties in a single day kinda puts modern conflicts into perspective.

God, that's depressing. Better have some more cake...
Click to expand...
What war was that from? 1916 Humm... WWI?
 
Originally posted by Andrew Boulton:
Here, have a slice of imaginary, maple-leaf-shaped birthday cake!

It's also the 90th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme. 60,000 casualties in a single day kinda puts modern conflicts into perspective.

God, that's depressing. Better have some more cake...
Click to expand...
Depressing indeed Andrew, and coincidently I was reading just the last night an even more depressing statistic of the same year. Apparently it was safer to be an American soldier fighting in the trenches in France in 1916 than to be born in the United States. Infant mortality at the time was 3 times that of the soldiers, 12% vs 4% for the soldiers. That's sad.

But enough of depressing statistics, back to the fireworks and party.
 
Originally posted by Andy Fralix:
What war was that from? 1916 Humm... WWI?
Click to expand...
I really hope you already knew that to start with, or I'd have to come round there and slap some decent history education into you.
file_28.gif


Course, with no more living vets from that battle left, I fear that more and more people are just going to end up forgetting all about it...
 
Well said Mal. Lest we forget.

There are still some Somme veterans alive. Henry Allingham attended a service at Thiepval, aged 110 years, although he was an aircraft engineer/navigator and did not serve in the trenches. It is also interesting to note that he also fought at Ypres and served as an airborne spotter at the Battle of Jutland. He served in the Royal Navy in WW2.

There may well be some German, Irish or Canadian veterans still alive though.

In my opinion though there is one part of the Somme that is somewhat unjust. The vilification of Field Marshall the Earl Haig has been a constant annoyance to me. Many historians blame him for the slaughter that first day, though in actual fact it was a not unreasonable plan that went awry. The main blame lies with his subordinates who refused to halt the plan when it became clear that the initial artillery barrage had not resulted in clearing the way.
 
There's been a lot of reevaluation of Haig et al over the last few years, and I think it's now accepted that their bad reputation is undeserved. Poor intelligence, slow communication, bad luck, and the fact that it was a totally new form of warfare all played a part.

A national memorial service is planned for when the last WWI veteran dies:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5120358.stm

Oh, and there is a (tragic) Canadian Somme connection:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newfoundland_Regiment#The_Somme
 
Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.
--Benjamin Franklin

Happy 4th of July
 
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