British Army officer and the Argentine war dead of '82.

[tac]

British Army officer who never forgot fallen Argentinian soldiers

Needs reading.

tac

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[moose]

That is awesome. I hadn't been following the situation and it's good to see some are moving on.

post-combat discipline

That threw me at first about what it was going to be.

 

[Siglvr]

Hmm, was thinking of the over 30,000 Argentinean citizens that were killed by the Argentina Junta. Thought crime, it's coming to the US.

"Argentina Dirty War - 1976-1983
The Dirty War was a seven-year campaign by the Argentine government against suspected dissidents and subversives. Many people, both opponents of the government as well as innocent people, were "disappeared" in the middle of the night. They were taken to secret government detention centers where they were tortured and eventually killed. These people are known as "los desaparecidos" or "the disappeared."

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/argentina.htm

 

[rick49]

British Army officer who never forgot fallen Argentinian soldiers

Needs reading.

tac

Read and thanks for posting

 

[SA Shooter]

Thank you for posting that, @tac.

War is hell and what comes after war can be hellish.

 

[tac]

War is hell? Yes - on one fine Summer day in France - 1st July 1916, the first Day of the Somme Offensive - 19240 British and Commonwealth soldiers were killed in action.

34,493 were wounded to one degree or another, of which 21,690 never returned to duty.

And 3737 British and Commonwealth soldiers disappeared without a trace that they had ever existed.

tac

 

[moose]

July first, the day the Newfoundlanders took one on the chin.

Subjected to the full force of the [German] 119th (Reserve) Infantry Regiment, most of the Newfoundland Regiment who had started forward were dead, dying or wounded within 15 to 20 minutes of leaving St. John's Road trench. Most reached no further than the Danger Tree, a skeleton of a tree that lay in No Man's Land that was being utilized as a landmark. So far as can be ascertained, 22 officers and 758 other ranks were directly involved in the advance. Of these, all the officers and slightly under 658 other ranks became casualties. Of the 780 men who went forward only about 110 survived unscathed, of whom only 68 were available for roll call the following day. For all intents and purposes the Newfoundland Regiment had been wiped out, the unit as a whole having suffered a casualty rate of approximately 80%.

 

[tac]

Last time we went to Beaumont Hamel - where you still walk the actual trenches - was Canada Day 1999. There were thousands of us there, in a deadly hush. Most of us cried our eyes out.

You can see subsequent 'celebrations/commemorations' on Youtube, but will prolly hurt your eyes to watch.

BTW, Newfoundland wasn't even part of Canada back in 1915; it was declared a separate Dominion within the British Empire by King Edward VII in 1907, and finally joined the rest of Canada on March 31, 1949. Union with Canada has done little to reduce Newfoundlanders' self-image as a unique group. In 2003, 72% of residents responding identified first as Newfoundlanders, secondarily as Canadians.

tac

 

[moose]

I collect some odd coins, mainly got these from my dad. Each country made their own currency, these are both Canadian and Newfoundland (-ian?) silver.