Canadian Memorial

 

The forest was utilized by all branches of the services during World War Two, if you look carefully you can still find the evidence here and there, as a consequence there's a number wartime memorials about. Aptly our walk this morning took us past one them, the Canadian Memorial in Bolderwood. A wooden cross was erected and services held here in the months and days prior to D-Day by men of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Div who during D-Day took terrible loses and casualties securing Juno beach. After the war it was decided to maintain the site as a memorial to the Canadians who'd worshipped here, and more broadly the Canadians who'd passed through the forest on their way to war. And so it remains today.

Remembering history

Maybe it was the same when I was a kid, though I really don't remember it being so, that remembering D-Day was such a politicized event. The act of remembering almost overshadowed by the rhetoric and jingoism of today’s political agendas, politicians and media commentators falling over themselves to lord the sacrifice of the Second World War generation, whilst conspiring to systematically dismantle and sell their legacy to the highest bidder. I despise it, it's an ugly spectacle. Even more so in our current political climate as we, and many more countries, flirt with the ideology that this wartime generation fought and died to thwart. I have deep respect for the elders of that generation, indeed my father was one of them (Burma), but little time for remembrance in its current weaponized form. Still, the gravity of the days history is not lost on me and I sought to recognize it, and them, through some ephemeral monuments left in the forest. The forest was heavily utilized throughout the war, and especially during the build up to D-Day, as a consequence over the years I've come across many examples of World War Two graffiti, with the majority of it being American graffiti...testament to the D-Day build up in the area. In Burley Old enclosure there are a cluster of pieces, there used to be more of them, although in recent years a couple have succumbed to time and the elements, whilst others I remember disappeared before I started to record them. I have no idea what units they represent nor how long they hung about, although one tree has 714th carved in it, and that was a American Tank Battalion... and parts of the enclosure show historic mauling by tracked vehicles. Anyway, that's all supposition. Today I visited a few of the remaining pieces to say hello and pay my respects, and one example in particular, carved in a veteran Beech beside a broad shallow ditched forestry track, it reads 'O.K.Reel, 1944, OC'. I've passed O.K.Reel frequently over the last 30 years and often wondered how he fared. I like to think Reel survived the war and went on to have a long a fulfilling life, maybe he's still going, I hope so. War looks shit.

Remember what they want you to forget.

If you think today is about remembrance, you're surely mistaken.
'Maybe', it once was, but now the day has been taken.

By politicians who'd send our friends and family to die.
In their endless wars for profit, all based on lies.

We shouldn't wear our poppies with pride.
Because behind their red faces the real truth hides.
That the poppy is now used to stifle public dissent.
For those endless wars on which politicians are hell bent.
That politicians need us to wear poppies to hide the fact.
That those same politicians have broken the military pact.
That 10,000 soldiers sleep cold in the streets.
Whilst our politicians bath in the glory of their heroic feats.
They fell for our freedom is what politicians will say.
As they cynically strip those rights and freedoms away.
Remember the war dead and why they all died?
They died for nothing, and they'll continue to die for lies.

Have we forgotten?

Have we forgotten? I think we have. No, I know we have. We've forgotten about their sacrifice and what was built on that sacrifice, we've forgotten the better fairer world and life for which people hoped, which people died for. All about us the edifices of that better world, built on sacrifice, are being torn down by the ideological ambitions of the establishment which still sends people to fight and die in their wars of commerce and conquest. After WW2 the establishment only conceded to the ambitions of the people through fear of the unity of the people forged in the war. The welfare state, social housing, education, the NHS, all the public services which make life in this country were built and are the living legacy of the fallen.  Sadly they too are being forgotten.

Remembrance of sacrifice has been replaced by jingoism, national obedience, a reduction in liberty and freedom and of course war, there's always war; what happened to 'lest we forget' and 'never again'. That better world bought in blood, where was was a thing of the past, where the vulnerable were to be supported, a job meant security, a secure affordable home was available to everyone who needed one, free education and free health for all is being sold to the detriment of the people, who are being thrown to the wolves.

Still we're supposed to wear our poppies with pride, and keep our mouths shut.

We see remembrance sponsored by arms manufacturers, children wearing 'future soldier' t shirts and remembrance used by the establishment and their media mouthpieces to solicit support for current and future conflicts. Is this what the fallen would want? To be used to propagate more war dead. I think not. Our public services are their monuments, 365 days a year they serve to remind us and we remember, not one day a year for the cameras at the cenotaph followed by a slap up VIP lunch. The hypocrisy and bullshit of it all stinks so high I'm surprised we've not all got pegs on our noses. Why do people still buy into this corrupted paradigm of peace, it symbolizes nothing of the sort; and if you challenge it, man, people have a mental and accuse you of disrespect.  Every one must wear a poppy, anyone on TV MUST wear a poppy or face pillory from the media, the extreme right use the poppy in memes to bolster their hate campaigns and rampant nationalism of the worst kind is encouraged.

Is that what the fallen would want? Is it fuck!

If we want to remember the fallen, remember them, by all means give money to support veterans charities (I certainly do), buy a homeless veteran a meal (remember, there's certainly enough of them at about 10,000), keep the war graves of the fallen tended, but most important of all don't let their sacrifice be for nothing, fight to protect their true legacy.  Remember them every day through that.