[Jim]

"... Later on he told his sisters that the gunfire was unrelenting, there was nowhere to escape it. He said that bullets had come down like rain over them and everyone there that day died. Boys from home, boys he got to know on the way over his own age, everyone died.

He thought he was dead too. His left leg was severed, part of his left hand was gone, his back opened up with shrapnel. He awoke days later and thought he was in heaven as a woman dressed in white bent over him 'even her head was covered in a white veil'. When she spoke a foreign language, he realized he was wounded and in a hospital."

This is a true story as experienced by my Great-Grandfather at Vimy Ridge in WW1. It's a little piece of reality that I always keep close to me. It reminds me of how much, as a survivalist, I need to invest in my evasion skills. Gunfighting is horrible. It must be avoided. It must be a last resort; a plan F; the last thing between my group and our deaths.

You all already know these things. I'll be trying my hardest to never end up on a two-way firing range. I'll avoid such a situation until I have no other choice (I don't consider submitting to being brought to a concentration camp a choice).

All the best from a free citizen,
Jim

 

[Goethic]

That is a tremendous story, Jim. Thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Lately, the military channel has been playing a great many shows on "The Great War," World War 1. For those of you not too familiar, tune in. Even if you have read a lot about WW1, tune in anyway; there is always something to learn.

The sheer slaughter on all sides was incredible. Tens of thousands and more died daily with massive waves of soldiers trying to gain a football field or three of territory from one trenchline to another, amid massed machine gun fire.

I hope that the likes of this horror and bloodshed are something our children never witness firsthand...

 

[Sapper6]

Fantastic story. Excellent post.

Unless you've carried your dead and wounded, unless you've seen the enemy's wife and children scream out in anguish over his death; you can't know how horrible war can be.

We all love freedom. Many of us would fight and give our lives for it. However, there is no glory in that fight. We shouldn't welcome it so quickly.

 

[ExNav]

Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. ~Otto Von Bismark

 

[mgk]

Thanks for the intel Jim. Me I prefer to die on my feet rather then on my knees. And yes war is a very ugly but necessary thing.

 

[Jim]

Thanks for the intel Jim. Me I prefer to die on my feet rather then on my knees. And yes war is a very ugly but necessary thing.

You have to be free, this is true, but I'll always try to run and hide before I start digging rifle pits. I don't want to get shot. It's just as easy for someone to hit me as it is for me to hit a target. I don't like those odds, but I will not live on my knees. Freedom does demand that you pay her bills and sometimes your blood is the price. I'm willing to bleed for freedom. I hope it never comes to that.