The Great War

Today we celebrate exactly a century since the day the armistice was signed in France to mark the end of The Great war, also known as The War to End All Wars, or World War I. The war began in 1914 when the rebellious assassination of a major politician set off a chain reaction of war declarations throughout Europe. The Great War had begun.

It was fought on land, in the sea, and in the air. New equipment and experimental weapons resulted in massive casualties. The war did ‘great‘ things for the military technology world, including introducing the world to the armored tank, aerial warfare, machine guns, and submarines. These new weapons were efficient killing machines. Some units, such as the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, were nearly completely wiped off the face of the earth.

Finally, after four years of brutal fighting, peace propositions began to get underway, until the armistice was signed. The war was agreed to be over on November 11, 1918, at 11:00 am. Right up to that point and even after peace was settled that morning, people continued to take each others lives. In fact, throughout the entire ordeal an estimated 17 Million lives were lost, and countless more lives scarred forever, both physically and mentally, making it the largest conflict in human history (until WWII), and the largest loss of military personnel in any war to date.

One single death is a tragedy. The amount of people killed in this four year span of time is something the mind could never begin to comprehend.

These men gave and were prepared to give their lives for what they believed in. I believe they are true heroes, even if they didn’t fully understand what it was they were fighting for or against.

They will NEVER be forgotten. It is up to people like you and me, discovering and sharing what we know, to continue to preserve the stories of their bravery and sacrifice. Please take a moment today to take off your hat and remember what was done in the name of freedom, in this and every historic conflict, and even at present.

 

Lest we forget.

 

Note: the featured photograph is of my Great Great Grandfather, a Sergeant in the Dutch Army′s Bicycle Brigade during WWI.

Liberation Day

Yesterday, May 5, was Liberation Day in Holland. This holiday celebrates the liberation of The Netherlands from the NAZI regime over 70 years ago.

My great grandfather was in Holland for the original liberation celebration. For he was one of the liberators!

His name was Lloyd Victor Rains, and indeed he was a victor. He had signed up for the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry two years previous, and had spent the last one and a half years on the fighting front, going through experiences no one should have had to endure. He was a private, and he carried a rifle and a shovel. The shovel was used for quickly burrowing into a ‘slit trench’ when under fire, and we all know what the rifle was for.

After months of brutal combat to liberate Sicily and Italy, Lloyd’s regiment was moved around up to France, where the liberation of Continental Europe was in full swing (following the famous invasion of D-Day). Lloyd was then moved on to Holland, where the fighting continued until the end of the war. Lloyd’s was the first regiment to enter Amsterdam directly following the war’s end.

In the following months Lloyd met and married my Great Grandmother, Olga, one of the many dutch girls who came back to Canada as a War Bride.

Lloyd joined up as a teenager hoping for adventure. What he saw was not so glamorous. He hardly spoke of his experiences to anyone. I have always been fascinated by WWII, the way the entire world clashed together in arguably the most all-embracing worldwide conflict in history. It was so terrible in so many ways, what lessons can we now learn so that we never have to do something similar again?

Thank you Opa

Lost on a Mountain in Maine

Here are a couple reflections on the book Lost on a Mountain in Main.

Twelve year old Donn Fendler becomes lost on Maine’s highest peak, Mount Kathadin. Donn spends the next nine days trapped alone in a deadly, miserable wilderness with an abundance of cold, rain, bugs, sharp rocks, and lethal precipices.

Throughout the adventure, despite great pain, fatigue, fear, and hunger, Donn shows extraordinary courage and a will to live.

The reader joins Donn in his fight to survive the brutal wilderness as he spends more than a week alone, with no more than the clothes on his back.

Here is an excerpt from the book, which you can buy here:

“… I had come back to the same sign. For a second I was stunned. I just stood there looking at it. I knew now, for sure, that I was lost. I was running in a circle. I didn’t know what to do, so I stumbled around looking for other marks, on that same trail. I guess I went a long way over rocks and over pucker bush and sometimes under it too, searching and hunting for another trail marker. I didn’t find any, but I kept going down. I remember that. After a while, I came to a place where there was a lot of gravel, and boy, was it slippery! That place was dangerous, for a slip might mean a bad fall – maybe a hundred feet or more. I slowed down. I could imagine myself lying there, in the cold and dark, with a sprained ankle. Meanwhile the rocks were getting bigger and bigger…”

Rescue the Captors

The book, Rescue the Captors, is an amazing autobiography by a 28 year old bush pilot who flies dangerous mission flights in Columbia.  It is a true story, written from within a Marxist guerrilla camp, of how a young pilot named Russell is captured by soldiers who mistake him for the son of a wealthy American, but he is actually just from a small missionary family.

Here is a section, describing his kidnappers:

Unknown to those on the outside, Russell had sized up the situation and decided that most of his captors where really captives – of a negative, violent mentality inconsistent with even their own ideals.  He decided that instead of viewing his kidnapping as a terrible disaster, he would look at it as an opportunity to Rescue the Captors.

Rescue the Captors is a powerful story; filled with interesting discussions, adventure, and high-flying fun, including gunfights, fighter plane battles, and drug-busting adventures!  This book is not your average missionary story, and is a great read for anyone, young or old.

It has the perfect mix of adventure, history, politics, and much more, all woven into one spectacular story.  When Russell is captured, he decides not to just sit and mope, but instead uses it as an opportunity to share the good news of God’s love to his captors.  It is really quite a fascinating story, and I recommend it to each and every one of you.

Here is a small section to give you a taste of the book, from an early scene where the main character is trying to escape:

About twenty yards away, he threw his German assault rifle to his shoulder.  With a terrible look of hatred on his face, he pulled the trigger.  His gun went “click.”  It had misfired.  Quickly raising my revolver I sighted for his chest and pulled the trigger.  The hammer fell on an empty cartridge – I was out of bullets!  Giovani, seeing my gun, hit the dirt, falling behind a tree.  I could hear him trying to chamber a new round, but he seemed to be having trouble with his gun.  I frantically tried to break the nylon cord, dragging Manuel a few yards in the process.  I threw myself down on the ground, behind the only cover I could find – a clump of banana trees.  The rope was tight around my right arm and neck, choking me.  I clawed frantically in my pocket hoping to find more cartridges and reload my revolver.  I new the bananas wouldn’t stop the bullets the guerrillas would soon be shooting at me.

As I lay there, literally at the end of my rope, I wondered what it would feel like to die.  It appeared to me that my life would end in just a few seconds.  I was powerless to do anything about it, so I lowered my head and waited for the end to come…

 

It really inspired me to realize that the circumstances that seem so terrible to us, can really be made into opportunities to share God’s love.

 

Rascal

Written in 1963, the book Rascal, by Sterling North, is set in 1918, during the First World War (also called the Great War).  It is one of Sterling North’s autobiographies.  The first time I read it, it instantly moved up near the top of my favorite books “list”.

It is about an eleven year old boy (Sterling) who does all the things every kid might wish to do, that aren’t possible in most cases.  He starts building a canoe in the living room, keeps pets of all different kinds, and can do pretty much whatever he wants during the day.

Rascal, his pet raccoon (the one the book is named after) is always getting himself into trouble of one kind or another.  Somehow though, Sterling usually finds a way to evade the threats from angry or startled neighbors.

This book is a great read for anyone, young or old.  I highly recommend it to all you scouters!

Here is the first paragraph of the book:

“It was May, 1918, that a new friend and companion came into my life: a character, a personality, and a ring-tailed wonder.  He weighed less than one pound when I discovered him, a furry ball of utter dependence, and awakening curiosity, unweaned and defenseless.  Wowser and I where immediately protective.  We would have fought any boy or dog in town who sought to harm him.”

Out of five stars I would give it five.