PDA

View Full Version : Excuse me my British friends....

Daredevil
13 February 2001, 10:20
Is this for real? I think the newspaper it came from is a reputable source...

Scheduled for unveiling in May at Britain's National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, is a World War I commemorative statue to honor England's 306 combat deserters. According to the Arboretum's director, "(T)here has been a sea change in attitude, towards more understanding" of the plight of cowards and others who abandoned their comrades, especially for about 100 teen-agers whose principal sin was to run away after fearing they would be punished for lying about their ages in order to enlist. The director said some veterans' organizations support the memorial.
[Toronto Star-Canadian Press, 1-5-01]
Linus
13 February 2001, 21:08
I'm dumbfounded. It's simply amazing...

------------------
Honestas supra omnis
DFC5343
13 February 2001, 22:39
I think they are talking about canada...
FLTCREW1
13 February 2001, 23:32
Originally posted by DFC5343:
I think they are talking about canada...

Yep, I'm sure of it.


------------------
NSDQ
Daredevil
14 February 2001, 08:59
Sorry, my mistake
FNG
14 February 2001, 12:11
Not us daredevil... DFC and FLTCREW are just having too much fun with us canucks at the moment.
Weekend Warrior
15 February 2001, 12:28
Originally posted by Daredevil:
Is this for real? I think the newspaper it came from is a reputable source...

Scheduled for unveiling in May at Britain's National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, is a World War I commemorative statue to honor England's 306 combat deserters. According to the Arboretum's director, "(T)here has been a sea change in attitude, towards more understanding" of the plight of cowards and others who abandoned their comrades, especially for about 100 teen-agers whose principal sin was to run away after fearing they would be punished for lying about their ages in order to enlist. The director said some veterans' organizations support the memorial.
[Toronto Star-Canadian Press, 1-5-01]
Weekend Warrior
15 February 2001, 12:29
Whoops (above)
Weekend Warrior
15 February 2001, 12:36
Political correctness gone crazy.
I can see what they're getting at though, even if I don't agree that deserters and cowards should be "honoured". We know a lot more today about the psychological effects of warfare, such as Battle Stress, shell shock, etc. They are seen more and more as injuries in the same way as losing a leg. Although there was unequivocably genuine cowardice in a lot of cases, I think that a lot of occurrences of desertion could have been avoided with proper treatment and reassurance rather than the "stiff upper lip" attitude. This may sound poofterish to some people (USMC? ;-) ), but we now know that a softly-softly approach to battle stress is the way forward. Net result? One more weapon pointing at the enemy rather then a soldier taken out of action and executed. Views?
abprar
24 February 2001, 23:55
I read something like that in Australia but if I remember correctly it said that the court martial of "some" of these blokes were illegal and they were used as examples to keep troops in line.
I remember seeing a British documentary were the cases where looked at individually.There was one were 2 mates got pissed ,missed the truck back to their lines tried like hell to get back to their unit,missed the unit step off to the front and were shot as cowards.
Alot of blokes who were not cowards were shot as examples.
The flower of British Commonwealth manhood was wasted in that war by arrogant commanders.Lest we forget