Our most revered day of the year, 25th of April. Not a calibration of war or victory, but a day to pay thanks to all service men and women, for their contribution to the defense of the country and a time to pay homage to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
We Shall Remember Them.
I echo your thoughts.
I still get moist eyed when I think what my dad and millions of others endured.
Even more so when i see how my country has developed in the years since.Recently even our national flag has been mutilated.
Which flag is that, @gidders ? Not sure I know where you are from.
Thanks for that @star_down_under , sobering thoughts, why do politicians keep on making the wrong choices?
Not a single war, certainly in the last century, has been worth the fighting, at the time. We didnāt need to go in '14, nor again in '39, bluster and bravado on the parts of those who knew they wouldnāt have to go. It might have been needed later, but not at the time.
Vietnam I was closely involved with in a way. Taxi driving in Sydney I met many happy Yankee boys who wondered why they were there, and Aussie boys bitter and resentful. They had been dragged in by politicians who swallowed the American line about the spread of communism. They came home on leave to a population which was largely against the war and, as a result, were ready to vent their anger on anyone they percieved to be āon the other sideā. And that included Pommies because we were thankfully kept out by Harold Wilson, I had many sad, and sometimes threatening, encounters with such kids most of whom thankfully for my safety were p issed out of their brains.
But it is the first song which gets to me most. I was told that Aussies hated Churchill because it was him who advocated and initiated the assault at Gallipoli, but when he died in 1965 I was very surprised to see many shops in Sydney closed for his funeral with black displays in their windows. Not sure I was so forgiving.
And it was my Mathilda, which had travelled with me from London to Darwin and which I offered to give up to immigration because they had to test it for disease, but was met with the reply āno mate, youāre British and you have got a right to be here and without your Mathilda, where will you sleep.?ā So I waited, not long, and she was restored to me and was my sleeping companion for long time to come. 
Hi Spardo.
The flags to which I referred were for two recent sporting occasions where the powers to be could not simply fly our national flags(St.Georgeās Cross and Union flag) but found a way of mashing them up so much that they were barely recogniseable.
Itās strange that national pride is frowned upon in the Uk."They"always say that our flag represents the National Front or right wing politics.What a load of rubbish.2 weeks ago a resident of nottingham erected a flagpole and StāGeorgeās Cross in his garden and was warned by the council to take it down within hours.US citizens fly their flag everywhere.Even when i worked in Switzerland their national flag was flown all over every town.
I divide my time between Spain and England.Here in west Yorkshire itās getting more like the wild west every day.
Ah yes, I heard about the row, it was new England football colours wasnāt it? Never saw it because I have no interest in the game but I am surprised at the Nottingham decison. Way back before the last election that rather plump Labour woman sneered at an England flag hanging outside a house in Essex calling the occupants racist or something. There was an enormous row and she had to apologise, so I thought all that stuff was behind us now.
White dragon on red background is the true English flag.
1914 was the catastrophic mistake if not deliberate murder on the part of warmongers like Churchill and his French cohorts.
Needlessly attacking Germany in support of the Tsar.As shown in the docudrama 37 days we were the aggressors.The Kaiser actually aborted his first move West thinking that he had a deal with us and France but which we renaged on.A war on two fronts was the last thing he needed.
The rise of Hitlerās and Leninās regimeās were the predictable result.But ironically the resulting WW2 and Cold War against Communism were just and necessary.
The Vietnam adventure, like Korea, being a weird anomaly in that Cold War strategy. Needlessly sending boots on the ground into a needless meat grinder.When air power alone would have got the job done or at least a more advantageous outcome for South Vietnam for less casualties.
Ironically Commy Wilson made the right call on Vietnam but for the wrong reasons.
As for the song the Aussies were actually armed with the right arm of the free world FN commy killer not the toy gun M16.
Her name was Emily Thornberry who sneered at a working class ladās house and white van because of England flags that were displayed.The labour party that used to represent the working class after a fashion.she was forced to apologise.This type of stuff is definitely not behind us now.Quite the reverse.You can be overtly patriotic if you hail from Scotland,Wales,or either of the Irelands but England?Youāre joking.Apparently our kind of flag waving causes distress to ethnic minorities amongst us.
@spardo Each of those songs are poignant in their own way. The last one, Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel, has become somewhat of a de facto anthem.
I always find the Last Post moving, too.
The way the Diggers, returning from Vietnam, were treated was disgusting and a blight on the Australian psyche.
Returning soldiers were spat upon and castigated in other ways. Before these fellow were old enough to vote, they were conscripted and sent overseas, to fight someone elseās war. The conscripts loyaly served the country, regardless of their personal beliefs. Many were denied medals, as there was a medal quota in place. This was eventually rectified well after the war was over.
I salute every Serviceman and woman, they have signed a blank cheque, in service to the country.
Ironically the Union Flag and the English flag are an oxymoron.Bearing in mind the true English flag and England with it fell with Harold in 1066.Ironically people still rightly lay flowers for him and his slain comrades at the reputed site in Sussex.Sad day in Englandās history and for England.
Times change, the red cross has been the English Flag for 800 years, give or take a month or two.
Whichever, better than boring tricolours. I will be standing straight during the Marseillaise with the others on May the 8th however uneasy I feel about the inclusion of wars in Morocco and Algeria, but as you said re Vietnam and the Diggers, they were sent whatever the justification.
Currently working in Gove/Nhulunbuy , went to the dawn service before work yesterday & I am always humbled/blown away by the support, appreciation, respect & general gratitude for the men & women who have served this nation. Advance Australia Fair
Iāll bet your Dawn Service was warmer than mine, Jonesy.
A decidedly cold 13ā°C on The Downs.