Poppy?

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

Father did fight against fascism. As a student at Oxford he was editor of the college's Liberal newspaper and railed against Chamberlain and his weak response to Hitler. It's on record. As soon as war was declared he joined up - his elder brother joined the RAF and he applied for the army and after a spell as a private was sent to OTU to become an Artillery officer. He trained intensively, learning to shoot the guns and then to fly an AOP. When D-day came they were ready and flew their tiny Austers across the Channel from Portsmouth to Calvados. He was the only pilot to find the right airstrip and we still have the scrap of card on which he wrote the courses.  They saw action pretty soon and his flight operated on the front line from Normandy, through Belgium, Holland, across the Rhine into Germany. When Belsen was liberated he flew over it at low altitude, horrified.

After VE day the euphoria was short-lived as the realisation of what had happened, what they had witnessed caught up with them. There was also the prospect of being sent to BURMA.  BLA: British Liberating Army was changed to 'Burma Looms Ahead. In the meantime they lived in the midst of a shattered world surrounded by a defeated, obstructive population and thousands of displaced people, kidnapped to work for the Nazis and now trying to get home.

For the rest of his life he was an ardent supporter of a united Europe, united so such things could not happen again.

[Guy]

This whole idea of appropriating the symbol of the poppy to make political points is incredibly distasteful to those of us who actually put our lives on the line for you. Whether or not you appreciate that, please reframe your arguments and allow us to remember our fallen colleagues - and those of other nations, and the civilians that died because of those wars - without any implied or inferred meaning. If you find that difficult to understand, let me take you to the graves of people I knew that died in recent wars. You’ll have to go with me to parts of the world you might otherwise choose not to visit, but, hey, they didn’t get the choice either.

I've spent nearly 30 years working in the MOD and I honestly had no idea that conscription was still in force.

[L CC]

My Grandad was at Dunkirk, and active in the Dunkirk Veterans Society for the rest of his life.
He'd have given me a right scathing talking to if he'd known I didn't wear/buy a poppy.

But hey, he also asked my dad if he was a gypsy or a poofter for having his ear pierced, read the Daily Express and was less than thrilled about the skin colour of his bus drivers in Wolverhampton.

Like Flatus, not in my name, and no one is forcing you to.

I'll gladly give silence, I'll always give reflection.

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

My Grandad was at Dunkirk, and active in the Dunkirk Veterans Society for the rest of his life.
He'd have given me a right scathing talking to if he'd known I didn't wear/buy a poppy.

But hey, he also asked my dad if he was a gypsy or a poofter for having his ear pierced, read the Daily Express and was less than thrilled about the skin colour of his bus drivers in Wolverhampton.

Like Flatus, not in my name, and no one is forcing you to.

I'll gladly give silence, I'll always give reflection.

I'd guess that he must have been regular army then.  It seems there was a divide between the regulars and the citizen army of WW2.  The latter 'not proper soldiers'!  Dad's commander was at Dunkirk and his 'spit and polish' requirements on the front line didn't go down too well with his citizen officer colleagues who had better things to worry about.  A very brave man who felt he had to get his own back after Dunkirk.

[L CC]

Not regular army, and certainly not an officer. Lance Corporal R. B.

[ian]

Nobody (that I know) in my family participated in any wars. The Luftwaffe tried to bomb my gran though. She probably wrote to the council about that.

Wars aren't a good thing, and I doubt anyone starts one out of pure motives, but then not everything is solved through a nice discussion over tea and biscuits. I wouldn't accord wearing a poppy with blessing any of that, or approving of those wars, just a recognition that people died regardless, and ultimately if it comes down to guns, someone (hopefully not me) is willing to defend the freedoms we take for granted. Honestly, if you think wearing a poppy is somehow an approval for killing civilians or approval for dubious wars, I think you're wrong and that isn't why I wear one.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Quite a few of my family have done their time in various services over the years from the SAS to the regular Army, Navy and Air Force (not necessarily the British ones). My most famous relative was probably Damien Parer, a war photographer who preferred to film from in front of the advancing Allied forces in the Pacific, rather than from behind them. It makes for spectacular photos but a short life.

War and remembrance is a difficult topic e.g. the myth making around Gallipoli and 'Australian identity' is problematic. I prefer effective war avoidance measures like the European Union and societal understanding of why it was created.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Parer