Remembrance Day At The Corner Café
Remembrance Day, the 11th November, also called Poppy Day - or Veterans Day in the United States - is a memorial day in many countries across the world to remember those members of the armed forces who have fallen in the line of duty in all conflicts.
It originated from the original Armistice Day, which occurred at Buckingham Palace on the 11th November 1919, when King George V held a banquet in honour of the French President to remember all of those who fell in the First World War. As that conflict ended at 11:00 on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, that date and time was chosen for the annual commemoration.
Conditions were atrocious in the trenches of World War I. Soldiers had to cope with the constant wet, which rotted their boots and then started on their feet - trench rot - as well as the constant threat of bombardment or gassing or being picked off by a sharp-eyed sniper.
Those who couldn’t cope were frequently shot for desertion - no one understood post traumatic stress disorder back then and often examples were made of those who were really suffering from shell shock or other nervous disorders.
Many had been lured to sign up with the claim that they would all be home by that first Christmas in 1914, not have over four years of senseless slaughter where only a few miles of territory ever changed hands.
At small memorials in town and villages, where the names of those who lived there and who had died in both World Wars are listed, poppy wreaths are laid.
On the nearest Sunday to Remembrance Day, known as Remembrance Sunday, larger civic ceremonies are carried out at places like the Cenotaph in London.
Of course, a great many animals have served and died in human conflicts down through the centuries: horses, elephants, camels, mules, donkeys, pigeons, dogs and cats.
The beasts of burden and cavalry horses in World War I had a very tough life alongside the serving soldiers, toiling in the mud and being gassed or shelled. And many were just abandoned to their fate once hostilities ceased and the human soldiers returned home.
Carrier pigeons ran the risk of being shot while carrying messages, as did some dogs who ran the lines carrying out the same duties. Dogs also acted as guards in the trenches, warning of sneak attacks.
It is estimated that half a million cats were drafted into World War I, where they helped to control rats and mice in the trenches and on ships, as well as being used as involuntary gas detectors.
And it is only fitting that the animals who gave so much and asked for so little are also remembered at this time and have their own memorials.
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