Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Thursday 12 July 2007

The Queen at Passchendaele

Soldiers from Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth countries killed 90 years ago in one of the Great War's bloodiest battles were honoured today by the Queen. They called it Passchendaele; an unspeakable place so hellish, you wished you were in the slaughterhouse on the Somme or at Verdun. The enemy's bullets, shrapnel and shells in those place would have been a welcome respite from the mud pits of Passchendaele where the "most awful, the most bloody... the most hellish heavy rains fell, and made one great bog in which every crater was a deep pool...they were like lakes in some places, filled with slimy water and dead bodies."

The battles at Passchendaele were fought by the British Empire, which lost tens of thousands of soldiers between July and November 1917, many of whom simply drowned in the mud. It was the Canadian Corps and General Sir Arthur Currie who secured victory in the end at the cost of 16,000 Canadians.

2 comments:

Aeneas the Younger said...

Where was the Canadian G-G?

Anonymous said...

Currie is one of faovrite canadian heroes of all time. He is buried in Montreal.