Dad + Chums after battle at Pinwe, Burma 1945
Although never having experienced conflict first hand myself I feel I have come as close as you can second hand!
Dad aged 19 joining army to fight WWII
This is mainly due to my fathers 5 years in the 2nd World war fighting the Japanese in Burma eventually helping to liberate the POW camps, something that he was happy to talk about.
He also documented some of his experiences in photos which he had taken during the war.
Recently I discovered he had kept some of his campaign maps, which he had personalised by writing comments directly onto.
My Dad often talked of his colleagues in the army and stayed in touch with many of them throughout his life.
Bill, Ted and Dad (RHS) aged 78 Armistice day parade 2002 London year before he died
I meet some at re-unions that I attended with him. Most years he marched at the Remembrance parade in London with all the other old soldiers. I photographed this for him and would print and send the photos to his old squaddie mates.
Ridiculous, I know!!!! |But, the closest I have ever come to being involved in a battle is by taking stills on films like Atonement, Enemy at the Gates and The Somme. Not much of a comparison but there have been moments of clarity (with a lot of imagination) when for a fleeting moment I could feel what it might be like to be confronted by an enemy shooting live rounds at you and imagined genuine fear for my own life.
It was a beautiful summer’s day when we arrived at the enormous Poppy fields somewhere in Gloucestershire to film an evocative scene for the film Atonement of soldiers walking amongst the poppies I had it in mind that I wanted to capture some ethereal images, after all it has to be one of the most evocative suggestions of remembrance relating to war possible?
11 November 1918 signalled the end of The Great War; the Armistice between the Allies and Germany came into effect. Since 1921, the nation has come together to remember the sacrifices that hundreds of thousands of British and Commonwealth Service men and women made not just during the Great War, but World War II and all subsequent wars and conflicts including Iraq and Afghanistan.
To salute all these heroes and express gratitude this Remembrance Day, The Royal British Legion planted a ‘Flanders’ Field’ of Poppies beside the Menin Gate in Ypres in both 2008 (for the 90th anniversary of the First Armistice) and again in 2009.
I remember how disappointed and sick to the heart my Dad was when we (the Brits) invaded Iraq. All he could say was ‘We don’t start Wars; and I went to war to end wars’ Well, Dad has passed away now and he never did see the supposed end of the so called Iraq conflict, only us getting more and more involved in yet another so called conflict (The modern word for War)….. Afghanistan……. To which he could only Remark, ‘The Russians couldn’t beat them! What chance have we got??….. Why Doesn’t Tony Blair send his kids out there??? All we see now is one young precious live lost after another, not to mention all the terribly shattered bodies a result of IED’s.
The propaganda we are feed tells us that we are safer because of what is going on in Afghanistan safer so we can carry on eating Pizza and watching X Factor???….. And that this is where the war on terrorism is being fought. Are we safer? I have lived in a multicultural society all my life and never felt threatened until recently due to the tension being raised by our intervention with foreign conflicts in particular Afghanistan. I did experience first hand the terror spread by the IRA bombs in London when I was growing up in London in the 70’s + 80’s but that certainly felt a lot more like our problem. I really, really do hope the politicians have got it right, although it is hard to believe them when you discover there were no WMD’s and it does not help when they behave like crooks fiddling their expenses for years, How can we trust them? Personally I am sceptical and my main concern is that we look after these young men and women returning from these very foreign conflicts with terrible injuries. So in honour of my Father and Grandfather who fought at Gallipoli and the Somme and to help the wounded soldiers from current conflicts. I am selling Poppy prints in aid of the Poppy Appeal.
As a small gesture of my support and concern I am selling ninety nine: Signed, captioned and numbered Poppy Giclee prints on archival paper, example below. All profits to be shared equally between The Royal British Legion and The Help for Heros appeal.
The image is printed on A4 Epson archival matt paper, the image size is 12 x 18.5 cm with a key line and 4cm white border at a cost of £50.00 including worldwide post and packaging via my Gallery site http://www.clikpic.com/imagebarn
Remember:
”When you go Home tell them of us and say: For your tommorrow we gave our today”
I consider my self A political, basically not interested or more likely disillusioned by politics and politicians encouraged only to vote by obligation to my farther and the memory of those that fought and gave their lives for my Freedom some thing I take very seriously. I have to ask myself: How is it that a newly elected leader of a major political party whose predecessors made the decision to take us to war can and to the enthusiastic applause of his supporters and party members announce that it was the wrong thing to do. My heart sinks and bleeds for the sacrifices made for those who fought in Iraq and the poor innocent civilians killed and injured because of a wrong decision. A life is to precious for wrong decisions. Shame on you!
