Something to Remember.

As I sit here alone this Sunday, girlfriend gone to Aalborg (northern Jutland) for Mother's birthday, and wonder whether or not I should brave the foreboding skies and venture in to the centre of Copenhagen to take a look at what is going on the second day of the World Outgames, I can't help but think that this sentence is far too long already. There we go. Anyway, I decided not to go and look, but instead write a blog post or two.

I came across this article today on the BBC news website about how the last British survivor of World War 1 died today. I never knew him, in fact I'd never even heard of him until this morning, but it made me very sad nonetheless.

I'm a bit of a....how can I put this....'war geek'. Actually, I've written about war before in my blog, but not like this. I don't know all the dates and times, reasons and methods. I don't know the guns, the ammo, the machinery or the generals. I'm not even that sure of the who, the why, the where or the what, but I do find it fascinating. The thing is, I'm not entirely sure why. I've tried to pin down the reason before, but just ended up rambling on for sometime, which is probably precisely what I'll do now.

I think it has something to do with how it was then, and how it is now. How much it has changed. It was a world war - I know not every single country was involved, but a great many were, and it certainly changed the entire world. If you signed up, chances were you were going to die. And not very nicely - not that you die 'nicely' now, but hand-to-hand was more frequent, and guns, bombs, grenades - you name it - are significantly more advanced today, and more likely to kill you pretty damn quick (I'd like to make a quick disclaimer and point out the obvious that I do not know all there is to know about weaponry and war today...). I'm not going to go on here, but the war of today is vastly different than that of years gone by - no one can dispute that fact. The sheer number of people who signed up, despite the odds, and died. Millions - millions! I just can't understand it...when you hear of 1.5 million casualties in one battle alone - one battle. Can you imagine that? Really? The devastation, the death, the disease, depravity, despair, the crushing depression, the overwhelming senselessness of it all, the physical environment - it's all something that I can not, no matter how many films I see, no matter how many pictures I see, and no matter how many descriptions I read - I just can not conceive it. I don't think many can.

I respect those who fought in the war immensely. I wear my poppy and I will never forget. I don't know why it gets to me more than others - a difference in interest I suppose, and I don't mind that people don't find it as fascinating as me. It's just my thing. I don't often wonder where we'd be today if the war had turned out differently, it ended the way it did, positively, luckily for me, but at what cost?

I think today marks a huge change in history, albeit in a small way. The last British survivor has died. The very last. That's it, all gone. Now it's really up to 'us' to tell people, to teach, to show - to remember.

I'll keep going to war museums, I'll keep trying to pursade my friends to go with me, I'll take my children to them and show them how it was, what their great uncle fought in, and what he fought for - I'm not going to shove it down their throats and say 'we'd all be speaking German if it wasn't for them', but I just want them to understand what it was like - not to say 'see how good you've got it now', I just want them to be proud - not to hate Germans, but just so they might remember, respect, and see what terrible, terrible things we're capable of, just to try to make sure it never, ever happens again.