Graves of warriors
I initiate this topic because it always appealed me, and I think it´s a suggestive topic. I´d like everybody pasted the grave´s warriors each one more likes. It´s more important the grave being nice and with an everlasting look than the importance of the soldier himself when he was alive, although if he achieved famous exploits it adds more value, of course, but it´s only needed the dead was a warrior. For famous soldier´s graves, it can be opened a different thread. And the more diverse the graves are the better: an indian chief, a prehistoric tribe man, a roman centurion, a german ace, a GI fallen in a SPacific island, a lost legionnaire, all ages and countries.
If the grave has a beauty epitaph, please post it. About epitaphs, well, all men have more or less beautiful words when they die, even if they don´t deserve it, but it happens that many epitaphs are repetitive and stereotyped, so please don´t copy this kind of epitaphs. And again, it´s more valid a nice epith, the one you´d like in your own tomb, that an anodyne epitaph. . Anyhow, feel free to past the photos and epitaphs you want. Ah! I love latin epitaphs!
____________________________________________________________
Sigüenza cathedral.
This soldier was don Martín Vázquez de Arce, better know as "El doncel de Sigüenza"(the page of Sigüenza). His grave is inside the Sigüenza cathedral, in Guadalajara, Castilla, between the graves of his parents, both beautiful too. He died in 1.486 in the last war against moors in Spain, the conquest of Granada kingdom, when he was ambushed by the moors. His father don Fernando was fighting in the same war although he wasn´t with him, and he was the one who recovered the body of his son. Martín de Arce was a knight of Orden de Santiago(Order of S.James), as it shows the shape of the red cross he wears in the chest. Martín is reading a book called "Libro de Horas", because the legend says Martín dedicated a last memory to his mother, doña Catalina de Sosa, when he was diying, remembering the mother´s willing of he being a man of science better than a warrior. The sculpture was ordered in 1.492(the same year war finished) by his brother D. Fernando, bishop in Canary Island. Anyway, the monument represents the end of Middle Age, a dark time, and the beggining of Renaissance, the mix of the pen and the sword, and actually Martín de Arce was a well lettered man, like other warriors of that time that did war and wrote poetry to their ladies. This grave has an epitaph, written in gothic letters and in old castillian, but it only says in a succinct way the circumstances of Martín´death, without any commentary for posteriority. And well, this grave really is an everlasting one, ah the good old times!
Recuerde al alma dormida,
avive el seso y despierte,
contemplando
cómo se pasa la vida,
cómo se viene la muerte
tan callando;
.
.
.
Nuestras vidas son los ríos
que van a dar en la mar,
qu´es el morir.
Allí van los señoríos
derechos a se acabar
e consumir.
I've never had the chance to visit
Omaha Beach and the Normandy cemetery but I would like to one day.
Abe Lincoln, 1864I pray that our Heavenly Father
may assuage the anguish of your bereavement,
and leave you only the cherished memory of the
loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours,
to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.
I have visited Arlington, on the other hand, many times...always sad
Silent professional
Thank you for showing your respect to the warriors from the past.
HERE RESTS IN
HONORED GLORY
AN AMERICAN
SOLDIER
KNOWN BUT TO GOD
Rather than post pictures of them, I urge you to [i]see[i] the WW1 Commonwealth war graves in France. Never have I been so awed by the sheer numbers of white crosses that occupy acres of land. All across Northern France lie anything from 4 or 5 graves in a small village to many many thousands lying in fields. I highly recommend Thiepval especially.
Great you pasted yet some photos while I was editing my post!!Originally Posted by PWRR
Well, it´s not incompatible visiting cemeteres with pasting photos of the graves. In fact, so you can see graves of countryman of you that perpahs you´ll never have the chance to visit. I could visit the graves of Normany, the american graves pasted above by TF160SOAR, and the germans too, since I can go to Normandy easily in a week end driving by the highway, but I know many americans will never have the chance to do it, since they are sor far, and really this place is part of their history, not mine, and I say that if possible everyone of you should have the chance of travel to Normandy, it is something that is worth it, and even Normandy itseld it´s a beatiful region. In the case of IWW cemeterys, I didn´t visit any of them, but all across France there are crosses or monuments remembering the fallen of every town, even the smallest village has some fallen, it´s impressive, I live at 40 minutes of France and I know it. Personally, I´m not a "war tourist", I´m simply a tourist when I travel, and I visit anything it´s interesting for me, being historical or not, but in the case of Normandy sites, well, it´s something you can´t evite.
Having lost 1,385,000 KIA during WWI and another 600,000 during WWII, plus 94,000 during Indochina and yet another 36,000 during Algeria, no wonder you see war cemeteries everywhere in Normandy and in the North and East of France as well as in every village and city.
Verdun especially was the mother of all battles; over 450,000 French and about 400,000 Germans killed in six months on a very small area. Visiting it today in the dead of winter in an experience nobody can forget.
For your information, over 10,000 French civilians were killed in 3 months in Normandy.
The Brits should visit the Somme area, the Canadians Vimy and Dieppe and the US Normandy and some areas in the east of France where they fought in 1918.
For pictures of Verdun, visit this link:
http://www.webmatters.net/france/ww1_verdun5.htm
Mamaev Kurgan
Verdun, Fort Douaumont (have been there twice, very impressive!)
Here is the Vimy Ridge memorial where the canadian corp suffered more than 20 000 casualties.
This is the tomb of the unknown soldier. A memorial for the 166 000 Canadians that made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of peace and freedom.
The books of Rememberance contain the name of all the Canadian soldiers that died in the wars up to Korea.
May they all rest in peace
The American cemetery at Belleau Wood.
Menin Gate in Ypres, its a large monument covered with the names of the missing soldiers.
By the way, Belleau wood is no loger Belleau wood; it's been renamed "Bois de la Brigade des Marines" (Marine Brigade wood) by the French government after WW1.
True, but any U.S. Marine you talk to about it will only ever refer to it as "Belleau Wood". The more uppity Marines (Like me) will sometimes call it "Bois de Belleau".
Behest e-Zahra, Iranian military cemetary. Many of Iranians killed in GW1 are burried here.
This link might interest somebody...
http://www.citizene.com/wo/CW.htm
Grave of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw, Poland
Helmets, rifles and jungle boots tell a grim tale of the action fought by the 1st Brigade, 101st airborne paratroopers in Operation Wheeler near Chu Lai. This battlefield memorial honors the soldiers killed during the offensive between September 11th and November 25th, 1967
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