Lest we do it again

 

Image: WallpaperAccess

My Dad is fourth from the left, back row,  in the above photo. He joined the 3rd tank battalion of the Scots Guards just before the outbreak of World War 2. It became part of the 6th Guards Armoured  Brigade . He was on the right flank as a radio operator of a Churchill tank for David Scott-Barrett, his commanding officer. 

My mother was in the ATS. Her family home , in London, was bombed and my grandfather moved the family to Gloucester. She was bombed at work in the ATS barracks at Shoebury and suffered back problems for the rest of her life as a result. Two of her nieces were evacuated to Wales for the duration of the war and they had two mothers they loved for the rest of their lives. 

My family had done their bit , as was expected, and then had to get on with life, no matter whom they had lost and what damage it had done to them personally. Neither spoke much about the war but occasionally there were stories. My Dad was clear. The people he was fighting were like him. They were fighting for leaders who had created a war. They were protecting their own as he was protecting his own. My Mum was clear about the awful damage , loss , personal grief and pain. Her mother's husband was missing presumed dead from the first world war. Mum was a child of the second marriage. My grandfather had lost his wife in the first world war. Dad said he had fought in the war so we would not have to. He had considered it to be a terrible waste of his young life, but like millions of others like him ,he had shown courage , strength and a capacity to endure. 

None of us will ever be able to say enough about people who have been involved in wars and suffered so much harm. Ukraine plays out before our eyes. Anzac Day reminds us not to forget. We don't forget those we lost on Anzac Day and this year, we are not forgetting those in our families who fought for us. We are not forgetting Ukraine which stands boldly and in so much pain against yet another aggressive onslaught. 

It is a waste of young life. We should not be doing this to ourselves. No amount of flowers will make it better. There is a shift in thinking this year. We really do want war to stop. We really don't want unwarranted aggression against others. We want the violence to stop. Maybe this year will be the year where we can work out our differences, as trite as that sounds. Maybe we shall just not do this ever again.